Greg Kurstin

"My desktop Mac is an eight?core Intel with 8GB of memory, and I have Apogee Ensemble for going in and out of the computer, and Brent Averill BAE 1272 and BAE 312A preamps, plus a Universal Audio 1176 compressor. Almost everything I track goes through the 312A, then the 1176 and into the computer. Everything else is done in the box. My master keyboard is a Roland A37, my monitors are the Adam 7s, and I recently acquired an Adam Sub 8 bass speaker. My room has some acoustic treatment, with stuff above my head and in front of me. I also have a large selection of analogue keyboards, organs, Moogs, ARPs. I love these things and I have about everything from the '60s and '70s. I've sampled many of them in Logic's EXS24 sampler, so I have a bunch of unusual and imperfect?sounding sounds that I can use for writing and arranging.”

“My mic pres are… let me walk to my rack and shine a light so I can have a look… I have API 500-series mic pres, and two Neve 1073LBs and my two overhead and two kick mics go through my four Helios Type 69s. The overheads then go through a Manley Vari Mu limiter/compressor, and I have another Altec 1567a mixer which I send my two snare mics through before they go through a Urei 1176. I also use a distant Beyerdynamic ribbon mic on the drums, which goes through a Standard Audio Level-Or, and an important part of the drum sound on Sia’s record came from an RCA 77 ribbon, placed just in front of the kick."

"Kurstin recorded Sia’s vocals through his Telefunken ELA M 251 into a Chandler TG2, through a Fairchild compressor and into the Apogee Symphony, they only needed minimal processing through a combination of Logic channel EQ, Waves’ CLA-2A compressor and the Lexicon Hall reverb. This was the same vocal chain that he used on his mix of Burn the Pages."

“My drum mics consist of two Coles 4038s for overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on the kick, and during the recordings of Sia’s record I had Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, but now I have AKG C414s — the old, silver ones".

“My drum mics consist of two Coles 4038s for overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on the kick, and during the recordings of Sia’s record I had Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, but now I have AKG C414s — the old, silver ones".

“My drum mics consist of two Coles 4038s for overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on the kick, and during the recordings of Sia’s record I had Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, but now I have AKG C414s — the old, silver ones".

“My drum mics consist of two Coles 4038s for overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on the kick, and during the recordings of Sia’s record I had Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, but now I have AKG C414s — the old, silver ones".

“My drum mics consist of two Coles 4038s for overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on the kick, and during the recordings of Sia’s record I had Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, but now I have AKG C414s — the old, silver ones".

“I played my red Hagstrom bass on the entire album — in fact, I use it on 99% of the records I do. Sometimes it’s just DI’d, at other times I use my Ampeg B15S amp, on which I have this weird CAD E200 microphone. It’s similar to a Neumann FET47, but very inexpensive and it sounds good. It goes through a Helios Type 69 and then into an 1176."