Dave Grohl

In this source Ian Beveridge lists what mics were used by FooFighters for the "In Your Honor" tour - "I've wanted to try a 431 on Dave's vocals for a long time," reveals longtime monitor engineer Ian Beveridge.

Asked about any tricks to recording natural guitar sounds, guitarist Dave Grohl replied, "As far as micing the amps, we used a Shure SM57. That's usually the mic they use on the amps when you play live, so why not use it in the studio as well?"

In this foo's recent bbc radio 1 live show, dave says that this is their studio, recording and rehearsal place. He sings in to a SHURE SM7B.

In this acoustic performance of Everlong on Howard Stern, Dave Grohl is using two RE20 microphones; One for vocals and another one for his Gibson Hummingbird.

Dave is spotted singing through this microphone in the "Best of You" music video right at the beginning and throughout all the shots of the band playing in the video.

Dave can be seen using this mic at this presentation, at the time of 0:46 is very easy to see the blue strip of the Shure Beta 58a.

In the BBC Radio 1 Stay Home Live Lounge video, Dave Grohl is seen using the Universal Audio Sphere DLX microphone.

Dave Grohl's setup includes a Shure UHF-R wireless system with auto-assigning belt packs.

Used for room mics on Nevermind, as stated by producer Butch Vig in this March 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

"In the case of Dave Grohl's kit I used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, and then we built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, and the FET 47 was a little farther away from where the front head would have been. By having the drum tunnel, you isolate the room, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, or whatever."

Otherwise the drum miking was fairly standard: a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics.

Used for vocals on The Colour and the Shape, as stated in this article posted to the fansite Foo Fighters Live.

In terms of outboard gear, UREI 1175LN Peak Limiter compressors were installed, along with a mixture of Manley and LA Audio tube amplifiers. A range of microphones were set up including Shure SM57s on the Amplifiers and Neumann u47 and u67 mics for vocals.

Used for the toms on Nevermind, as stated by producer Butch Vig in this March 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

"In the case of Dave Grohl's kit I used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, and then we built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, and the FET 47 was a little farther away from where the front head would have been. By having the drum tunnel, you isolate the room, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, or whatever."

Otherwise the drum miking was fairly standard: a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics.

Used for the bass drum on Nevermind, as stated by producer Butch Vig in this March 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

"In the case of Dave Grohl's kit I used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, and then we built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, and the FET 47 was a little farther away from where the front head would have been. By having the drum tunnel, you isolate the room, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, or whatever."

Otherwise the drum miking was fairly standard: a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics.

Used for the bass drum on Nevermind, as stated by producer Butch Vig in this March 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

"In the case of Dave Grohl's kit I used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, and then we built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, and the FET 47 was a little farther away from where the front head would have been. By having the drum tunnel, you isolate the room, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, or whatever."

Otherwise the drum miking was fairly standard: a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics.

Used for the snare on Nevermind, as stated by producer Butch Vig in this March 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

"In the case of Dave Grohl's kit I used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, and then we built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, and the FET 47 was a little farther away from where the front head would have been. By having the drum tunnel, you isolate the room, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, or whatever."

Otherwise the drum miking was fairly standard: a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics.

Used for the cymbals on Nevermind, as stated by producer Butch Vig in this March 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

"In the case of Dave Grohl's kit I used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, and then we built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, and the FET 47 was a little farther away from where the front head would have been. By having the drum tunnel, you isolate the room, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, or whatever."

Otherwise the drum miking was fairly standard: a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics.

Used for vocals on The Colour and the Shape, as stated in this article posted to the fansite Foo Fighters Live.

In terms of outboard gear, UREI 1175LN Peak Limiter compressors were installed, along with a mixture of Manley and LA Audio tube amplifiers. A range of microphones were set up including Shure SM57s on the Amplifiers and Neumann u47 and u67 mics for vocals.

Used for the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 19:16.

And so, I wanted to try and get away from having microphones right up on the toms and so I just had drum kit mics. So there was a mic that was sort of over on the left side that picked up the snare over here and the rack tom. There was this CMV 3, I don't know if you're familiar with those, with this old, you know, it's one of the very first condenser mics ever made by Neumann, and so that was in the middle of the kit and then I had another mic over here [on the right] so, these were C12As [gestures to left and right sides], I had the CMV 3 in the middle, and so here's the CMV 3. [plays isolated track, open another] There's the C12A on the left... [plays right C12A track] And so these three mics together would just give you, like, this stereo picture of the drum set that's really punchy and in your face because you're not in this big room, but the mics aren't, like, right up on the drums, you know, so for the toms, you know, the mics are a little further away. And then I had C-37As way up high in the room just capturing the ambience of the room.

Used as a room mic for the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this January 14, 2012 Rhythm interview and in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 19:16.

Rhythm, January 14, 2014, "Classic drum sounds: No One Knows"

Where exactly were the drums recorded for the track?

"The drums were recorded in a small isolation booth. It was roughly 8'x12' but not exactly a rectangular shape and the ceiling was quite tall (16'). It was very dead acoustically. It has curtains and cork on the walls and carpet on the floor. The idea was to have a room sound that still sounded very tight, focused, punchy and kind of claustrophobic. I used a pair of Sony C37A microphones for room mics. They were positioned up high - maybe about 12' up. I would just move them around in the room until they both sounded balanced between the kick and the snare and were roughly equal distances from the snare drum."

"Making Records with Eric Valentine", September 14, 2019

And so, I wanted to try and get away from having microphones right up on the toms and so I just had drum kit mics. So there was a mic that was sort of over on the left side that picked up the snare over here and the rack tom. There was this CMV 3, I don't know if you're familiar with those, with this old, you know, it's one of the very first condenser mics ever made by Neumann, and so that was in the middle of the kit and then I had another mic over here [on the right] so, these were C12As [gestures to left and right sides], I had the CMV 3 in the middle, and so here's the CMV 3. [plays isolated track, open another] There's the C12A on the left... [plays right C12A track] And so these three mics together would just give you, like, this stereo picture of the drum set that's really punchy and in your face because you're not in this big room, but the mics aren't, like, right up on the drums, you know, so for the toms, you know, the mics are a little further away. And then I had C-37As way up high in the room just capturing the ambience of the room.

Used for the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 19:16.

And so, I wanted to try and get away from having microphones right up on the toms and so I just had drum kit mics. So there was a mic that was sort of over on the left side that picked up the snare over here and the rack tom. There was this CMV 3, I don't know if you're familiar with those, with this old, you know, it's one of the very first condenser mics ever made by Neumann, and so that was in the middle of the kit and then I had another mic over here [on the right] so, these were C12As [gestures to left and right sides], I had the CMV 3 in the middle, and so here's the CMV 3. [plays isolated track, open another] There's the C12A on the left... [plays right C12A track] And so these three mics together would just give you, like, this stereo picture of the drum set that's really punchy and in your face because you're not in this big room, but the mics aren't, like, right up on the drums, you know, so for the toms, you know, the mics are a little further away. And then I had C-37As way up high in the room just capturing the ambience of the room.