Greg Kurstin

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 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. On some of the songs it was the only drum mic I used!"

“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. On some of the songs it was the only drum mic I used!

"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 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.”

On 1:16 in the video you can see the Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 in Greg Kurstin's studio.

"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.”

In this interview Kurstin states that he recorded Sia voice on Chandelier into the Apogee Symphony I/O.

"For electric guitar I used my 1960s Fender Jazzmaster a lot, and sometimes my Vox Phantom, and occasionally my 1966 Fender Telecaster. My main guitar amp is a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and I record that with an SM57 and a Royer ribbon mic, going into my Altec 1567a, which submixes the two mics to one channel and then sends that through a Fairchild compressor. I record my piano with two AKG C414 mics, which go into two Chandler TG2 mic pres, and then into an Inward Connections Vac-Rac TSL4 tube limiter. I recorded Sia’s vocals with a Telefunken ELA M 251 — not a vintage one, but I’ve had it for a number of years — and that went through the TG2, into the Fairchild, and then the Apogee Symphony.”

In a feature on Apple's website, Greg Kurstin is mentioned using the SPL Transient Designer 4 in his work with Adele, highlighting its role in his production process.