Larry Mullen, Jr.

From Mullen's drum tech Sam O’Sullivan: "Larry’s kit is called the PHX, the Phoenix. It’s an amazing Yamaha kit which is a hybrid of different woods - maple, ash, kapur, jatoba - from different countries, and the sound is absolutely phenomenal."

According to the website U2: Stage And Studio, Larry Mullen, Jr. used a "14" Ludwig (hammered) Black Beauty snare drum" during U2's 360° Tour.

According to this transcription of a February 1982 issue of U2 Magazine, "Larry has a somewhat unusual drum set up. Not that the kit itself was unusual, but it was arranged in an unusual manner and had several unusual extras. The basic kit is a very impressive all black Tama Fiberstar - all single headed, and including a 24" kick drum, 16" and 18" floor toms, and a selection of rather deep rack toms. The snare was a Ludwig 14"x61 " steel shell and he also has a pair of Latin Percussion Timbale. The cymbals comprised Zildjian 18" thin ride; 18" thin crash; 18" medium crash; 18" pang and 21" ride, with Paiste 14" hi-hats on a Premier Trilock pedal. The rest of the stands are Tama. The kit is miked using Sennheiser 421's for the kick and the floor toms, Shure SM57's for rack toms and snare, Electro-voice RE10 on the hi-hat and AKG D190's on the rest. No overhead mikes."

According to Larry Mullen, Jr.'s Paiste artist page, he uses the 16" Signature Power Crash.

According to Larry Mullen, Jr.'s Paiste artist page, he uses the 17" Signature Power Crash.

According to Larry Mullen, Jr.'s Paiste artist page, he uses the 18" Signature Power Crash.

According to Larry Mullen, Jr.'s Paiste artist page, he uses the 18" Signature Full Crash.

According to Larry Mullen, Jr.'s Paiste artist page, he uses the 22" Signature Power Ride.

According to Larry Mullen, Jr.'s Paiste artist page, he uses the 14" Signature Heavy Hi-Hat.

Used for the rack toms and snare drum, as mentioned in this transcription of a February 1982 issue of U2 Magazine.

Larry has a somewhat unusual drum set up. Not that the kit itself was unusual, but it was arranged in an unusual manner and had several unusual extras. The basic kit is a very impressive all black Tama Fiberstar - all single headed, and including a 24" kick drum, 16" and 18" floor toms, and a selection of rather deep rack toms. The snare was a Ludwig 14"x61 " steel shell and he also has a pair of Latin Percussion Timbale. The cymbals comprised Zildjian 18" thin ride; 18" thin crash; 18" medium crash; 18" pang and 21" ride, with Paiste 14" hi-hats on a Premier Trilock pedal. The rest of the stands are Tama. The kit is miked using Sennheiser 421's for the kick and the floor toms, Shure SM57's for rack toms and snare, Electro-voice RE10 on the hi-hat and AKG D190's on the rest. No overhead mikes.

The SM57 was later used for the snare drum and ride cymbal on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney in this Sound on Sound interview.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

According to this transcription of a February 1982 issue of U2 Magazine, "Larry has a somewhat unusual drum set up. Not that the kit itself was unusual, but it was arranged in an unusual manner and had several unusual extras. The basic kit is a very impressive all black Tama Fiberstar - all single headed, and including a 24" kick drum, 16" and 18" floor toms, and a selection of rather deep rack toms. The snare was a Ludwig 14"x61 " steel shell and he also has a pair of Latin Percussion Timbale. The cymbals comprised Zildjian 18" thin ride; 18" thin crash; 18" medium crash; 18" pang and 21" ride, with Paiste 14" hi-hats on a Premier Trilock pedal. The rest of the stands are Tama. The kit is miked using Sennheiser 421's for the kick and the floor toms, Shure SM57's for rack toms and snare, Electro-voice RE10 on the hi-hat and AKG D190's on the rest. No overhead mikes."

According to this transcription of a February 1982 issue of U2 Magazine, "Larry has a somewhat unusual drum set up. Not that the kit itself was unusual, but it was arranged in an unusual manner and had several unusual extras. The basic kit is a very impressive all black Tama Fiberstar - all single headed, and including a 24" kick drum, 16" and 18" floor toms, and a selection of rather deep rack toms. The snare was a Ludwig 14"x61 " steel shell and he also has a pair of Latin Percussion Timbale. The cymbals comprised Zildjian 18" thin ride; 18" thin crash; 18" medium crash; 18" pang and 21" ride, with Paiste 14" hi-hats on a Premier Trilock pedal. The rest of the stands are Tama. The kit is miked using Sennheiser 421's for the kick and the floor toms, Shure SM57's for rack toms and snare, Electro-voice RE10 on the hi-hat and AKG D190's on the rest. No overhead mikes."

Used as overheads on the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour.

“We have a fairly traditional mic setup for Larry [Mullen’s] drums, from Shure 421s on toms, to 57s on top and bottom snare, and Audio-Technica 4050s for overheads,” says monitor engineer CJ Eiriksson. “We keep the mics fairly close and tight on everything, which helps keep the arena bleed out of drums as much as possible.

According to the website U2 Atomic, Larry Mullen, Jr. used a Shure Beta 52 to mike his B-stage bass drum during U2's Joshua Tree tour.

Used for the toms on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

The 421 was later used for the same purpose on the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour, as stated in this Mix Online article.

“We have a fairly traditional mic setup for Larry [Mullen’s] drums, from Shure 421s on toms, to 57s on top and bottom snare, and Audio-Technica 4050s for overheads,” says monitor engineer CJ Eiriksson. “We keep the mics fairly close and tight on everything, which helps keep the arena bleed out of drums as much as possible.

Used for the bass drum on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

Used for the snare on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

Used as overheads on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

Used for the ride cymbals on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

Although the model is unspecified, mention of an EB in this article about the Joshua Tree Tour 2017 suggests it is that one.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the L2007 was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the Phoenix was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the VEQ4 was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the settings can be found here.

Used on the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour.

“The DiGiCo SD7 I’m using is extremely powerful and reliable. It can do anything we throw at it,” says Bono monitor engineer Alastair McMillan, pictured at left with monitor engineer CJ Eiriksson (Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton) and monitor engineer Richard Rainey (the Edge), each of whom also has an SD7. “We’re using all of the available processing power, which is quite impressive for a four piece band! I’m a big fan of the new classic EQ option and especially the multiband compressors. With those two features I have everything I need so I decided not to opt for the Waves grid. We’re all running at 96k. I am hooked up to Pro Tools via two Madi bridges which are able to sample convert in real time. This way we can run our Pro Tools sessions at 48k, making them a much more manageable size.”

Producer Declan Gaffney stated the following about the recording of No Line On The Horizon:

"We wanted to keep the recording setup small, so we just had a few microphones, a Control 24, Pro Tools, and three drives, so we could move easily and quickly between different songs. Other than Pro Tools, the recording setups for most of the sessions were pretty similar. Edge's old Neve desk was pulled apart for on-location recording, and its 1091 and 1093 mic preamps were racked. Everything was going through these mic pres, or a small Neve sidecar, then through any required outboard, and monitoring was via two Mackie 24-channel desks."

Producer Declan Gaffney stated the following about the recording of No Line On The Horizon:

"We wanted to keep the recording setup small, so we just had a few microphones, a Control 24, Pro Tools, and three drives, so we could move easily and quickly between different songs. Other than Pro Tools, the recording setups for most of the sessions were pretty similar. Edge's old Neve desk was pulled apart for on-location recording, and its 1091 and 1093 mic preamps were racked. Everything was going through these mic pres, or a small Neve sidecar, then through any required outboard, and monitoring was via two Mackie 24-channel desks."

Producer Declan Gaffney stated the following about the recording of No Line On The Horizon:

"We wanted to keep the recording setup small, so we just had a few microphones, a Control 24, Pro Tools, and three drives, so we could move easily and quickly between different songs. Other than Pro Tools, the recording setups for most of the sessions were pretty similar. Edge's old Neve desk was pulled apart for on-location recording, and its 1091 and 1093 mic preamps were racked. Everything was going through these mic pres, or a small Neve sidecar, then through any required outboard, and monitoring was via two Mackie 24-channel desks."