The gear they used included an Apple Mac G5 running Digidesign Pro Tools; a bevy of period keyboards including an ARP Solina, Korg MS20, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Wurlitzer, Memorymoog, Moog Source and Minimoog; a classic Roland TR-808 drum machine; and some modern synths such as an Elektron Monomachine and a Manikin Memotron. They patched and mixed everything through a 24-channel Trident Series 65 console, and also employed a '70s-era Rogers drum set, various MoogerFooger processors and three Neumann U47 mics.

Used for lead vocals on Raising Sand, as stated by engineer Mike Piersante in this December 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

As for the all-important vocal mics, Piersante says, “I actually bought a mic, as I'll sometimes do, just for this project. I had Allison singing through a Blue Cactus, which is sort of their retro mic that's like an old [Neumann] M49 or something. Blue got it right with this — it has a real thick quality to it and it's not too bright. Alison can be a fairly bright singer and I wanted something to complement that and not accentuate it. So I chose this mic to try on her and it ended up sounding very good; very old tube-sounding. I probably had her through an LA2, as well. Robert sang on one of T Bone's [Neumann] U47s, and I probably had an LA2 or LA3 limiter on him.

Used on the vocals for "You Gotta Move", "Wild Horses" and "Brown Sugar", as stated by mix engineer Jimmy Johnson in this September 21, 2018 ProSoundWeb interview.

On the piano I was using only one mic, not two, so I had to move it around to find the hot spot. I’m going to have to think on that one. I think it was a U47, that was the other one, because three was all we had. And we used them all on every session. Jagger sang on a U47.

So the U47 on Jagger, that was a live vocal track? Or was it overdubbed?

I don’t think so, not unless he had to fix something in London. The only overdub I remember was the percussion that he did. He had mono earphones of course, and they were hearing what the board was hearing, they couldn’t get a separate mix.

In an August 2020 article with "Sound On Sound" Gaga's mix Engineers Benjamin Rice and Tom Norris Confirm her vocal chain used consistently in her music: "I have been using the same chain on LG for years, which starts with her personal, vintage Neumann U47. The desirability is based primarily on the synergy of the microphones three sound-shaping components: capsule, tube, transformer. The condenser microphone capable of transporting both female and male vocal pitch, silently over low noise controlled voltage, was used by Frank Sinatra, who owned his own U 47. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett and the Beatles also used the German made microphone to broadcast"

Used in conjunction with a Western Electric/Altec 639A, as is visible in a couple of photos (the other being this one) from a July 22, 1956 recording session at Bradley's Barn. An uncropped version of the featured photo can be found here.

In this Tape Notes podcast, Wayne Sermon mentions the use of the Neumann U47.

Used on "Did My Time", as stated by Davis in this transcribed March 2005 interview.

KORN

"I Did My Time"

Producer: Jonathan Davis of Korn

Engineer: Frank Filipetti

"It's about clarity," says Korn frontman/producer Jonathan Davis, "especially with my stuff cause there's so much low-end and sh-t going on. A lot of mixes can come out not really that clear, and that's one of the reasons I love Frank, because he records great vocals. So any vocals that I do or produce, it has to be about clarity. I have a couple mics that I really like to use; the Sanken is one of my main ones. It's all about not f--kin' with it - just a little bit of compression, that's it."

Signal Path: Tracking

"I was out on the road at the time writing the lyrics," says Jonathan. "I sang a verse in New Orleans and shipped it off to Frank on Pro Tools, so actually we used two different mics when I recorded that. The first was a [Neumann] U 47 with my chain, my preamp [Tube-Tech MP 1A], and the stuff I did at the house [ElemenTree Studios] with Frank was a different process. We used the Sanken [CMU-44]. But with Frank, he totally knows. I listen to it and I really don't have to say anything, 'cause Frank knows me."

"The vocal signal path I used for Jonathan is a Sanken CMU-44, into a TUBE-TECH MP-1A mic pre," adds Filipetti. "From there it went to a Neve 1073, then into the [Universal Audio] 1176, and from there to a GML EQ. Then I brought it into the tape monitor on the SSL 6000, then to the Euphonix R-1. We also used the DBX 160SL on the return on playback to vary the levels slightly, but we didn't record with it. That was part of the chain as well. It's about 85% of what we came up with on the last record with some slight modifications. It's a different console to begin with and a different microphone. The mic we used the last time was an M 49. We chose the Sanken because it just has the best overall combination of lows and highs.

"Jonathan has a very powerful voice," he continues, "especially when he starts to get into it. Some mics pick up the low level detail very well and some mics can hold themselves with screaming really well, but this seemed to have a good combination of both. We were able to get a nice quality between Jonathan singing softly and Jonathan screaming out full-bore. After comparing a lot of other mics, we ended up with the Sanken. In fact the top two mics were the Sanken and the [Audio-Technica] AT4060."

As for the other key components in the chain, Filipetti explains: "The Tube-Tech provides the presence. It has more presence than any other mic pre that I've used and it has an incredible midrange. The 1073 was there just to add a little bit of that Neve crunch - we ran it pretty hot. And I also used a tiny bit of the low frequency and the high frequency EQ. Then I went to the 1176; after trying out a bunch of compressors on Jonathan's voice, the 1176 worked out best. It just seemed to hit him properly. We used that real high-end stuff on the GML, which added that over-end air, which it does incredibly well, and then brought it into the console. On some tracks at the end of the chain we added a DBX 160SL. On a couple tracks that just added a punch that worked out really nicely."

Vocal Philosophy

"My objective with Jonathan is what it is with everybody," says Filipetti. "Basically, the song lives and dies with the vocal. I tend to gravitate toward and work with singers who have real personality. I'm not looking for dancers who are singers. My approach is to make sure that all of that personality comes out; I don't want anything to get lost. I'm looking for all the little quirks and the harmonic things in their voice that make them special, and I look to bring that out. Sometimes it's a matter of just putting the proper mic in front of them. Sometimes it's a matter of adding more things in the chain, but basically, like I do with everyone, I always listen in the room to the singer and then try to capture as much of that as I can through the vocal chain."

This article, describing Lanois' studio setup. "For microphones, he’s fairly set in his ways: He says he hasn’t seen any improvement in the technology over the years. He listed these time-tested models as favorites: Sony C37A, Neumann U47 and U48, RCA 77 and 44 ribbons, and the more modern Sony 800-T. He also likes dynamic mics such as the Shure Beta 57 and 58, and the Sennheiser 409 and 421"

Used on the bass drum for John Mayer's Continuum, as stated by recording engineer Chad Franscoviak in this October 1, 2006 Mix Online interview.

Jordan's assortment of drums — which seemed to be endless, Franscoviak says with a laugh — were miked fairly conventionally: an AKG D 112, an RE20, a 421 or a Beyer M88 on the kick; snares got 57s on top and bottom; M88s on the toms; an AKG 451 on hi-hats; and on overheads, he either used a U67 or U87.

The only trick that Franscoviak used, which he fully admits stealing from Joe Ferla, was putting a Coles 4038 ribbon mic directly over the center of the kit, parallel to the ground and as close in as possible without impeding Jordan's playing. “I generally compressed the snot out of that and I would run it through a Fairchild,” he says. “That's a really interesting trick because you have all of your tight sounds, but you add that 4038 and it makes everything more exciting.”

He also put a U47 about 18 inches off the ground and four to seven feet in front of the kick drum for a very specific sound. “At some point, we were going to hit that low-end waveform just right and it was going to fill that kick drum out,” Franscoviak explains. “I would compress it a lot with an 1176, a lot harder than the overhead, because I wanted that low end to be there for every hit.”

Used for the bass drum on Icky Thump, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

“The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10."

This is restated by Chiccarelli in this October 1, 2007 Mix Online interview, which adds that the microphone was also used for the snare as an overhead.

As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

The microphone that was used most often to record Amy Winehouse was the U47.

"[Producer Rudy] Van Gelder was one of the first Americans, let alone engineers, to acquire the German Neumann U-47 condenser microphone when it became available in 1949. Van Gelder sought to bring a more intimate sound to small jazz groups. This required placing a microphone closer to the instrument in order to capture the subtleties that traditional recording techniques missed. When Van Gelder initially used the U-47 microphone, he found the sound was easily distorted and unusable. However, a friend of Van Gelder’s, Rein Narma, was able to reconfigure the circuitry of the U-47, making it ideal for close range recording. The result was a detailed, warm sound that many would imitate but few would master. The difference in sound is quite clear when comparing albums Davis recorded with and without Van Gelder.

"Half Nelson" from Davis’ “Miles Davis All Stars” was recorded in 1947 at Harry Smith Studios in New York City. Davis’ talent is undeniable, his vocabulary is progressive, his temperament is wholly his own but—he sounds far away. Davis’ voice exists in the mid range of the mix, and is overshadowed by the shimmer of Max Roach’s ride cymbal and the high end of John Lewis’ piano overtones.

The sound heard on "Solar" from Davis’ album “Walkin’,” recorded in 1955 with Van Gelder, is markedly different: his voice is at the front of the mix, his subtle inflections are captured perfectly. The once intangible details of his playing style are captured, thanks in no small part to a modified U-47 and of course, Van Gelder’s mastery."