Larry Mullen, Jr.

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."

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 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 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 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 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.

Used for overheads on Pop, as explained by engineer Robbie Adams in this July 1997 Sound on Sound interview.

DECONSTRUCTING DRUMS

Three years ago, U2 engineer Robbie Adams explained in SOS how he recorded Larry Mullen's drums with just three mics, an approach he had picked up from Flood, who, said Adams, "is bored with all this traditional, big stereo nonsense." Flood explained that his way of recording drums was partly born from necessity, and partly from reading Mark Lewisohn's classic book on The Beatles' recording sessions: "When we were working on Achtung Baby, we had two drum kits set up, and I had very few channels on the desk, so that was a bit of a problem. I noticed from the photographs in the Beatles book how there was always one mic parked just above the drum kit. I thought it was maybe just for the photo or something, but then I saw it in other studio shots as well, and so, because of the problem I had with too few channels, I decided to try it out on one of the two kits. I put one mic on the bass drum -- an AKG D12 or Neumann U47 -- a Shure SM57 on the snare, and an SM58 as the overhead just above the kit.

"What started to happen was that people would prefer that drum sound, even though it's virtually mono. I also noticed that with Larry, who is a powerful drummer, when you put the drums in stereo you have to have the levels up higher on playback, whereas the mono drums were more powerful, even at lower levels. When I thought about it, I realised that if you're standing in front of a drum kit, you hear it in mono -- you don't hear the toms panning neatly from left to right in your ears. Also, a mic just above the kit compresses the sound. And that's the same effect that happens in the ears of a drummer or when you stand close to the kit; the sound is compressing in your ears because of the level of air pressure. So when you have a cheap, lo-fi overhead mic in that position, and add compression on a mic that's already compressing, it brings out the excitement, the same feel and natural balance that the drummer is getting."

"I've used the three-mic approach as a starting point ever since. You can do all sorts of things with it. For example, if the room you're recording in is rather dead, you can add a bit of room reverb just on the mad-sounding compressed mic. That will give the illusion of the drums having space, and yet the physical punch still comes from the middle. I will sometimes add two more overheads, like a 414 or 87, placed a bit higher up, or at the same height as the drummer's ears. A lot of the times we end up monitoring kick, snare and these higher overheads, and then if the track sounds a bit lame, we'll feed that extra low overhead mic in, which can bring out all the reflections that the drummer gets and that you may not hear normally. It's always good to experiment and listen to the sound the drummer gets in the room. When we were working on Pop in Miami, we were in a room that had very little character, so we put the two ambient mics right in the corner, pointing towards the ceiling, away from the drum kit, thus deliberately creating a woolly, booming drum sound that went well with the brightness of the drum kit. We were always pushing for character, and trying to stay as far away as possible from a generic rock drum sound."

Larry Mullen, Jr can be seen using the Yamaha SD-493 14x3.5 Brass Piccolo Snare Drum on both the Joshua Tree Tour (1987) and the Lovetown Tour (1989-1990). He used it as a main snare rather than an auxiliary snare. It gets several features on many of the performances during the "Rattle And Hum" movie, notably on "With Or Without You". During 1:37 and 2:42, you get a shot of Larry playing the kit and the snare is able to be seen in use. During every concert on these tours he used this snare, so if you have footage of these concerts you'll be able to see the snare, depending on the angle and camera shot. I believe he used this snare on the recording of "The Joshua Tree" album as well, based on the similarities of the snare sound on the record and live. On "U2: Rattle And Hum, The Offical Book Of The U2 Movie", at the back it mentions the gear each of the band members used which includes the Yamaha SD-493.

Listed as part of Mullen's setup on his post-2020 Paiste artist page.

Listed as a part of his 1984-1985 and Rattle and Hum setup

Listed as a part of his 1984-1985 and Rattle And Hum setup

Listed as a part of his 1984-1985 and Rattle and Hum setup

Listed as a part of his 1984-1985 setup

Listed as a part of his 1984-1985 setup

Listed as a part of his Rattle and Hum setup

According to an announcement made on the official Yamaha Drums Facebook account, Larry Mullen, Jr., the drummer for U2, used the Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple drum set in Vintage Natural during the U2 eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour. The setup includes 14x12 and 16x14 toms, a 16x15 floor tom, and a 22x18 bass drum.

According to Yamaha Drums' official Facebook account, during the U2 eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour, Larry Mullen Jr. used the Yamaha SS-950 Double Braced Snare Drum Stand.

In this Flickr image of his setup. Larry Mullen Jr. is seen using an LP rock cowbell.

In this Flickr image, Larry Mullen Jr. is seen to be using multiple HXACII's to support his Yamaha MSD-10 Peter Erskine snare above the ride.

In this Flickr image, Larry Mullen Jr. is seen to be using four Yamaha CS-865 cymbal stands to hold his crashes.

In this Flickr image, Larry Mullen Jr. is seen using a 6.5x14 Ludwig Black Beauty snare as his main snare.

On his Remo artist profile, Larry Mullen Jr. is confirmed to use a Remo Powerstroke P3 Clear Bass Drum head. He uses this as his bass drum reso head and cut a center porthole and added a Yamaha decal to it.

In this article from the Guardian, Larry Mullen Jr. can be seen playing a Yamaha Club Custom kit in a black swirl finish.

In this Flickr image, Larry Mullen Jr. is seen using a Yamaha CS-BW to hold up his ride cymbal.

In this image, Larry Mullen Jr. is seen using an LP Tito Puente Signature Timbale.

In this article, Larry Mullen Jr. is stated to have used the Yamaha Beech Custom Absolute Drum Set on the Vertigo Tour.