Daft Punk

Some of the recording of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories took place in Studio C of Conway Recording Studios, which contains a Neve 88R desk, "...which is Mad Labs modified and has 24 remote Neve mic pres, consisting of 12 1081s and 12 Air customs."

Daft Punk recorded bass guitar DI, via the Neve 1081.

Daft Punk record bass guitar via a Neve 1081 and Teletronix LA-2A. The LA-2A was also used to record a couple of vocalists, and during the mixing process it was used for parallel compression on the kick and snare.

For the recording of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, signals were split and sent both to Pro Tools and tape. "The analogue side of the recording was a Studer A827 running 24-track ATR tape at 15ips, with +3 alignment and Dolby SR, because we didn't want to have hiss."

Neve 1073 mic pres were used for recording electric guitars, acoustic, steel guitar, and vocalists Todd Edwards and Paul Williamson.

Steel guitar for Daft Punk was recorded using a Neumann U87 mic, which went through a Neve 1073 as well as the Universal Audio 1176LN.

The 1176 was also used on the kick and snare for parallel compression during the mixing process.

"...we used the UA 2192 [converters] when we did the tests in 2008. They are great, but they're super-colourful, and don't have the same pristine presence as the Lynx Aurora 16s, which we didn't start using until late 2010 - they didn't exist yet in 2008. When we listened to the Auroras in 2010, we realised that they sounded better than anything we'd heard until then."

Mick Guzauski used the Avid Artist Mix during the mixing process for Daft Punk's Random Access Memories album. Daft Punk had the Pro Tools sessions very well organized and cleaned up, and collaborated with Guzauski throughout the entire mixing process.

The API 2500 compressor was used for parallel compression on Daft Punk's drum tracks during the mixing process.

In addition to the API 2500, the Chandler TG12413 was used for parallel compression on Daft Punk's drum tracks, specifically in the big section of the song "Touch".

In addition to the Universal Audio Precision De-Esser Plugin, the DBX 902 was used to process guest vocalists for Daft Punk's album, to "make the vocal brighter without it being sibilant."

One tip from mixing engineer Mick Guzauski is to very narrowly cut the vocals around 3-4kHz.

Used to process vocals for Daft Punk's tracks.

"We spent some time auditioning compressors, like several 1176s, LA2As and Neve 33609s, and used what individual piece of gear sounded best to us. Daft Punk actually bought a vintage reconditioned 33609 and it didn't quite sound the same, so they traded the one that they had spent a ton of money on for the 33609 that they had at Conway, because everybody loved that one! This is one of the fun things about analogue gear, every individual piece sounds a little different."

From a 2001 interview with Daft Punk: "We have a really small compressor, the Alesis 3630, which is $300. That's the main one we used on Homework and Discovery. The one we used the most is one of the cheapest ones on the market."

Mick Guzauski talks about using the Apollo working on Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" by saying, "I got that just before going to Los Angeles to work on the Daft Punk album because I had some projects that still needed recalls. I brought the Apollo with all of my UAD plug-ins, my laptop, and all of my files, so if there was anything I needed to tweak, I was ready."

At 7:26, in this performance video by Daft Punk, one can see the TR-909.

In this 2001 interview with Daft Punk about Discovery, they list some of their preferred samplers, the Roland S-760 being on the list.

In this 2001 interview with Daft Punk about Discovery, they list some of their preferred samplers; the 1200 is listed.

In this 2001 interview with Daft Punk about Discovery, their main synths are listed. The 808 and its cousin the 909 are both mentioned.

At the end of this 2001 interview, the duo give a brief run down of their gear, listing both the A77 and B77.

Two Behringer BCR2000 MIDI Controllers were part of Daft Punk's live setup.

At 2:58 of a video of their performance of "Stronger" with Kanye West, Daft Punk can be seen using JazzMutant Lemur controllers.

This image of an early Daft Punk show has an MSQ-100 in the foreground.

Daft Punk has a LinnDrum in this image of one of their performances from the 90s.

In this photo, Daft Punk is seen with a Roland TR-606 Drumatix as a part of their old live set up.

A Lexicon Vortex is shown in this diagram of Daft Punk's late 90's live setup. Source: CODA Magazine.

The JamMan live looper can be seen in this diagram and photo of Daft Punk's late-90s live setup. Courtesy CODA Magazine.