RCA Type 44-BX

Mix engineer Tommaso Colliva on recording Drones : "We had a few mono room mics, like the Neumann U47, an amazing RCA 44, and a couple of PZMs that we moved around."

In this picture Presley is using a RCA Type 44-BX.

Used on as a room mic for some of *Only by the Night*, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in [this December 2008 *Sound on Sound* interview](https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/inside-track-kings-leon-sex-fire). > "The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on. > "The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer. > "The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal. > "I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670." [The ribbon microphone list for Blackbird Studios](https://www.blackbirdaudiorentals.com/ribbon-mics), where *Only by the Night* was recorded, specifies a 44-BX.

Used for "Brown Sugar", as stated by mix engineer Jimmy Johnson in this September 21, 2018 ProSoundWeb interview. > (...) **Did you have a mic on the bass amp?** > Yes, the bass guitar mic was an RCA 44. We didn’t have direct back in those days.

Visible in this photo of Sinatra.

Used on *No Better Than This*, as stated in this August 17, 2010 Music Angle (now Analog Planet) article archived on Mellencamp's official website. > Equipped with John Mellencamp's then recently acquired vintage 1/4" reel-to-reel 1955 Ampex 601 mono tape recorder and a pair of iconic 50's era RCA ribbon microphones ( a 77 DX and 44 used singly) presumably supplied by producer T-Bone Burnett, the duo, accompanied by Mellencamp's wife Elaine, who shot the album's cover photo, hit the road during a break in last summer's Bob Dylan-John Mellencamp-Willie Nelson tour to record thirteen freshly penned songs Mr. Mellencamp had written over thirteen prolific days.

In this Instagram post Yorn shows off his RCA Type 44-BX. He calls this one of his favorite mics.

RCA Type 44 BX - Frank Sinatra's Microphone

Visible in this photo of Smith.

Visible in this photo of Cole. Audio engineer John Palladino of Capitol Records mentioned his use of the 44-BX on Cole in [this December 2012 *Sound on Sound* interview](https://www.soundonsound.com/people/classic-tracks-frank-sinatra-ive-got-you-under-my-skin) while discussing the Telefunken U47. > "Beforehand, when I'd worked at Radio Recorders, the art of applying equalisation was something we always wanted but couldn't achieve very well,” Palladino recalls. "Whenever something we were recording didn't sound right to us, we'd have to scrounge around for another mic that had the characteristic we were looking for. Then, as soon as we got the equalisers, we were able to get over that hurdle. The microphone we used the most back then — and which was excellent — was the [RCA] 44 [ribbon mic]. I used it for Nat Cole's vocals and all of the early Capitol stuff, but it had a mellow character and we couldn't get the brightest high end out of it."

Used during Hood's days as a session musician for FAME Studios, as mentioned in this May 17, 2013 *Bass Player* interview. > Hits by local favorites Sledge, Arthur Alexander, Clarence Carter, and others started to catch the attention of the national music industry, most notably Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler. Hood played trombone—not bass—on Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man,” but he played bass on sessions for such R&B stalwarts as Wilson Pickett, Johnnie Taylor, and Etta James. He later played bass on Franklin’s “Call Me” and several other tracks. > “FAME had an old [Fender] Bassman amp that had only one speaker in it. We would record it with one of those old RCA 44 mics. When they learned about going direct, they started running me direct and miking me. Inevitably, they’d run out of tracks, so they would lose one of those. Usually the one they would keep was the direct track, so nowadays, I go direct. If I can, I like to have an amp, and they can mic it if they want.”