Craig Potter

"We used a pair of Coles 4038 ribbon mics in a Blumlein (crossed) pair for most of the drum recordings – either over the drummer’s head, or out in front of the kit (which gives a very different sound, and we used this mic position for the songs when we wanted a bit more room sound on the kit). Danny Evans, our studio engineer, used these mics in this position a lot for Guy’s solo album and showed me this technique when Alex Reeves , who played on Guy’s album himself, came in to record. The 4038s have a warmth which was perfect for the kit sound we were looking for, and set up as a Blumlein pair, they give an amazing stereo image, picking up the elements of the kit in a very natural and balanced way. Normally the mics in a Blumlein would be set up at ninety degrees to each other, but by altering the angle between the two mics, it’s also possible to affect the stereo width of the recording."

"Re–amping and distortion are likewise more important to Craig Potter's own keyboard sounds than experimentation with synthesis or sampling. 'I don't have many old analogue synths, I have a few, but I usually just use piano and bits of organ,' he says. 'I suppose I'm just a big fan of distortion, really. I distort everything! Piano distortion I love. We just chuck a 58 or a 57 in the piano and then we run that out, make sure there's plenty of doors in the way so it doesn't feed back, crank it up through an amp — I love that sort of thing. So it is basically piano that I play, bit of organ, some synths. We've got the Microkorg we used for the bass on 'Bones Of You' and we've got a Nord, little bits and bobs.'"

"Re–amping and distortion are likewise more important to Craig Potter's own keyboard sounds than experimentation with synthesis or sampling. 'I don't have many old analogue synths, I have a few, but I usually just use piano and bits of organ,' he says. 'I suppose I'm just a big fan of distortion, really. I distort everything! Piano distortion I love. We just chuck a 58 or a 57 in the piano and then we run that out, make sure there's plenty of doors in the way so it doesn't feed back, crank it up through an amp — I love that sort of thing. So it is basically piano that I play, bit of organ, some synths. We've got the Microkorg we used for the bass on 'Bones Of You' and we've got a Nord, little bits and bobs.'"