Alanis Morissette

In this photo, we can see Morissette playing a Taylor 214ce.

"'Alanis really helped pave the way for a new generation of female vocalists, and her OM5 has been there right from the beginning. If you love good sound, you'll love Audix mics' says Scott Welch, Morissette's manager. Alanis uses the Audix OM5, her signature microphone since 1995."

Used for Morisette's "world premiere performance" of "Guardian" on Dancing with the Stars, among other performances.

In this photo, one can see Alanis Morissette playing a Ampeg Dan Armstrong Dan Armstrong Plexi Electric Guitar.

"Alanis sings and plays harmonica into an Audix VX10."

"But [songwriter and producer Glen] Ballard’s latest project, an acoustic re-recording of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill required techniques a bit more delicate. Ballard’s collaboration with Ms. Ironic on the original was both artists’ biggest commercial success, and they commemorated the albums’ 10th anniversary by revisiting the songs unplugged.

The acoustic instruments were captured at Westlake Audio Studios (where Ballard once jammed on the synth of Michael Jackson’s Bad) with his cherished standbys — a vintage [AKG] D12, and a trio of Neumann mics — a 49, 47, and 67. These went through outboard Neve 1073 preamp, a classic Neve BCM-10 'sidecar' console."

"I use six dbx 160A compressors for the bass and acoustic guitars, then two dbx 160XT for the kicks and snares, coupled with four Drawmer DS201s stereo gates so you have a gate/compressor setup there, where the signal goes into the Drawmers then into the 160XTs. I also have a Drawmer 1960 tube compressor that I use on the guitars. I also use a dbx 1046 compressor; I use two lines for the keys and two for the stereo Leslie inputs."

— Terry Pearson, Morissette's FOH engineer for Under Rug Swept's promotional tour

"But [songwriter and producer Glen] Ballard’s latest project, an acoustic re-recording of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill required techniques a bit more delicate. Ballard’s collaboration with Ms. Ironic on the original was both artists’ biggest commercial success, and they commemorated the albums’ 10th anniversary by revisiting the songs unplugged.

The acoustic instruments were captured at Westlake Audio Studios (where Ballard once jammed on the synth of Michael Jackson’s Bad) with his cherished standbys — a vintage [AKG] D12, and a trio of Neumann mics — a 49, 47, and 67. These went through outboard Neve 1073 preamp, a classic Neve BCM-10 'sidecar' console."

"For this tour, Pearson is using a Midas XL4 console. 'I prefer Midas consoles,' he says. 'The last couple of tours I worked on, I took a Heritage 3000 out, but for this one, I think the XL4 is a little more precise and has more features. It has lowpass as well as a highpass filters. The automated features let me turn off gates, auxes and mutes for each song, allowing for a less-tactile approach with the console. The automation also gives you a VCA gain reference for each song. Alanis is varying the set list for each show from a list of about 30 songs, and I have programmed scenes for each of them. The VCAs allow me to use one fader to push the band up and one to push up Alanis. I'm using a total of 34 inputs on the console.'

Though Pearson uses the XL4 mic pre's for most of the microphones onstage, for Alanis' vocal channel, he uses an Avalon VT737SP tube compressor/mic pre for more accuracy."

"Though Pearson uses the XL4 mic pre's for most of the microphones onstage, for Alanis' vocal channel, he uses an Avalon VT737SP tube compressor/mic pre for more accuracy. 'I route that into a BSS DPR-901 II selectable-frequency compressor. Then I have a Klark-Teknik DN410 Parametric EQ that I assign to the vocal group on the Midas, so I can EQ specifically for her voice. Alanis writes all of her lyrics, and I think people come to the show to hear those lyrics, so I try to mix so that [the lyrics] are on top and out front and intelligible. She is a wonderful singer and really carries the show with her voice. However, she doesn't sing very loudly, and because of that, her vocal mic has a lot of gain, and she moves all over the stage, so you pick up stage volume through the vocal mic, which is the biggest challenge in mixing the show.'"

"For effects, Pearson uses a variety of multi-effects units to help create different sonic textures. 'I have a TC M5000 multi-effects unit, a Lexicon 480L reverb, a [Yamaha] SPX-990 multi-effects, a PCM 42 delay and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer. On Alanis' CDs, she overdubs her voice a lot to create harmonies and textures, so I use a variety of delays and the harmonizer to create different textures between the verses and the chorus. But [I] keep it sounding natural to imply the effect that she uses on the CDs."

"Despite current trends, Alanis' band still prefers to play through amplifiers onstage instead of using isolated cabinets offstage or DIs. Pearson uses a variety of different microphones to get everything through the P.A. 'Each of the guitar cabinets is miked with a Sennheiner 409. On stage right, there is one Marshall 4×12 cabinet and a Fender 1×12, which is used for effects and loops. Alanis uses a Fender 4×10. On stage left, there is a Divided by 13 and a Matchless amp, which are both 2×12s.'"

"I use six dbx 160A compressors for the bass and acoustic guitars, then two dbx 160XT for the kicks and snares, coupled with four Drawmer DS201s stereo gates so you have a gate/compressor setup there, where the signal goes into the Drawmers then into the 160XTs. I also have a Drawmer 1960 tube compressor that I use on the guitars. I also use a dbx 1046 compressor; I use two lines for the keys and two for the stereo Leslie inputs."

— Terry Pearson, Morissette's FOH engineer for Under Rug Swept's promotional tour

"While everyone in the band uses wedges, Alanis prefers in-ear monitors (IEMs). 'She uses Ultimate Ears UE-5s,' says [monitor engineer Glen] Collett. 'Alanis only has her vocals in her mix. She sings very quietly. She likes the band very close to her so a lot of the stage volume bleeds into the mic, so you can't put anything else in there without it getting very messy.'"

"I've got an AKG C12 from the '50s, which I used for Alanis, and I've also got some of the gold reissue ones, which are remarkable and best for female vocals. While the original C12 I have can't be touched in terms of sound when it's in peak condition, it's very delicate — I'm constantly getting it worked on — and the reissues are quite comparable."

— Glen Ballard, songwriter and producer for Morisette's debut album Jagged Little Pill

"But [songwriter and producer Glen] Ballard’s latest project, an acoustic re-recording of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill required techniques a bit more delicate. Ballard’s collaboration with Ms. Ironic on the original was both artists’ biggest commercial success, and they commemorated the albums’ 10th anniversary by revisiting the songs unplugged.

The acoustic instruments were captured at Westlake Audio Studios (where Ballard once jammed on the synth of Michael Jackson’s Bad) with his cherished standbys — a vintage [AKG] D12, and a trio of Neumann mics — a 49, 47, and 67. These went through outboard Neve 1073 preamp, a classic Neve BCM-10 'sidecar' console."

In this video at 0:45 Alanis name is listing for rapture users.

"Though Pearson uses the XL4 mic pre's for most of the microphones onstage, for Alanis' vocal channel, he uses an Avalon VT737SP tube compressor/mic pre for more accuracy. 'I route that into a BSS DPR-901 II selectable-frequency compressor. Then I have a Klark-Teknik DN410 Parametric EQ that I assign to the vocal group on the Midas, so I can EQ specifically for her voice. Alanis writes all of her lyrics, and I think people come to the show to hear those lyrics, so I try to mix so that [the lyrics] are on top and out front and intelligible. She is a wonderful singer and really carries the show with her voice. However, she doesn't sing very loudly, and because of that, her vocal mic has a lot of gain, and she moves all over the stage, so you pick up stage volume through the vocal mic, which is the biggest challenge in mixing the show.'"

"Though Pearson uses the XL4 mic pre's for most of the microphones onstage, for Alanis' vocal channel, he uses an Avalon VT737SP tube compressor/mic pre for more accuracy. 'I route that into a BSS DPR-901 II selectable-frequency compressor. Then I have a Klark-Teknik DN410 Parametric EQ that I assign to the vocal group on the Midas, so I can EQ specifically for her voice. Alanis writes all of her lyrics, and I think people come to the show to hear those lyrics, so I try to mix so that [the lyrics] are on top and out front and intelligible. She is a wonderful singer and really carries the show with her voice. However, she doesn't sing very loudly, and because of that, her vocal mic has a lot of gain, and she moves all over the stage, so you pick up stage volume through the vocal mic, which is the biggest challenge in mixing the show.'"

"For effects, Pearson uses a variety of multi-effects units to help create different sonic textures. 'I have a TC M5000 multi-effects unit, a Lexicon 480L reverb, a [Yamaha] SPX-990 multi-effects, a PCM 42 delay and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer. On Alanis' CDs, she overdubs her voice a lot to create harmonies and textures, so I use a variety of delays and the harmonizer to create different textures between the verses and the chorus. But [I] keep it sounding natural to imply the effect that she uses on the CDs."

"For effects, Pearson uses a variety of multi-effects units to help create different sonic textures. 'I have a TC M5000 multi-effects unit, a Lexicon 480L reverb, a [Yamaha] SPX-990 multi-effects, a PCM 42 delay and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer. On Alanis' CDs, she overdubs her voice a lot to create harmonies and textures, so I use a variety of delays and the harmonizer to create different textures between the verses and the chorus. But [I] keep it sounding natural to imply the effect that she uses on the CDs."

"For effects, Pearson uses a variety of multi-effects units to help create different sonic textures. 'I have a TC M5000 multi-effects unit, a Lexicon 480L reverb, a [Yamaha] SPX-990 multi-effects, a PCM 42 delay and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer. On Alanis' CDs, she overdubs her voice a lot to create harmonies and textures, so I use a variety of delays and the harmonizer to create different textures between the verses and the chorus. But [I] keep it sounding natural to imply the effect that she uses on the CDs."

"For effects, Pearson uses a variety of multi-effects units to help create different sonic textures. 'I have a TC M5000 multi-effects unit, a Lexicon 480L reverb, a [Yamaha] SPX-990 multi-effects, a PCM 42 delay and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer. On Alanis' CDs, she overdubs her voice a lot to create harmonies and textures, so I use a variety of delays and the harmonizer to create different textures between the verses and the chorus. But [I] keep it sounding natural to imply the effect that she uses on the CDs."

"I use six dbx 160A compressors for the bass and acoustic guitars, then two dbx 160XT for the kicks and snares, coupled with four Drawmer DS201s stereo gates so you have a gate/compressor setup there, where the signal goes into the Drawmers then into the 160XTs. I also have a Drawmer 1960 tube compressor that I use on the guitars. I also use a dbx 1046 compressor; I use two lines for the keys and two for the stereo Leslie inputs."

— Terry Pearson, Morissette's FOH engineer for Under Rug Swept's promotional tour

"But [songwriter and producer Glen] Ballard’s latest project, an acoustic re-recording of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill required techniques a bit more delicate. Ballard’s collaboration with Ms. Ironic on the original was both artists’ biggest commercial success, and they commemorated the albums’ 10th anniversary by revisiting the songs unplugged.

The acoustic instruments were captured at Westlake Audio Studios (where Ballard once jammed on the synth of Michael Jackson’s Bad) with his cherished standbys — a vintage [AKG] D12, and a trio of Neumann mics — a 49, 47, and 67. These went through outboard Neve 1073 preamp, a classic Neve BCM-10 'sidecar' console."

"But [songwriter and producer Glen] Ballard’s latest project, an acoustic re-recording of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill required techniques a bit more delicate. Ballard’s collaboration with Ms. Ironic on the original was both artists’ biggest commercial success, and they commemorated the albums’ 10th anniversary by revisiting the songs unplugged.

The acoustic instruments were captured at Westlake Audio Studios (where Ballard once jammed on the synth of Michael Jackson’s Bad) with his cherished standbys — a vintage [AKG] D12, and a trio of Neumann mics — a 49, 47, and 67. These went through outboard Neve 1073 preamp, a classic Neve BCM-10 'sidecar' console."

Used for the vocals on Under Rug Swept, as is visible in this photo from this article from issue 594 (December 2001) of Rolling Stone Magazine.

Used for the vocals on Havoc and Bright Lights, as stated by producer Joe Chiccarelli in this July 26, 2012 Universal Audio blog interview.

I recorded her vocal through a Sunset Sound preamp, which is a kind of hybrid Jensen/API design. It’s a very unusual preamp; very warm sounding, but very fast and aggressive at the same time.

Then it went through a real vintage UREI 1176. I like to do different types of compression for lead vocals and background vocals, often I’ll use tighter compression with background vocals. All the backgrounds were done with vintage LA-3A Audio Levelers and a lot more compression than I would have used on her lead vocal.

She always has used an AKG C12 microphone. She’s used it for all her career so we stuck with it.

Used for the background vocals on Havoc and Bright Lights, as stated by producer Joe Chiccarelli in this July 26, 2012 Universal Audio blog interview.

I recorded her vocal through a Sunset Sound preamp, which is a kind of hybrid Jensen/API design. It’s a very unusual preamp; very warm sounding, but very fast and aggressive at the same time.

Then it went through a real vintage UREI 1176. I like to do different types of compression for lead vocals and background vocals, often I’ll use tighter compression with background vocals. All the backgrounds were done with vintage LA-3A Audio Levelers and a lot more compression than I would have used on her lead vocal.

She always has used an AKG C12 microphone. She’s used it for all her career so we stuck with it.