Tom Petty

Mentioned by recording engineer Richard Dodd in this Sound on Sound interview about the recording of "Learning to Fly".

"Tom would play his guitar in the control room, too, unless it was acoustic, and in his case I might have had two mics on his amp: a 57 as well as an AKG 251, just in case it sounded better, although it very rarely did. Tom's a great rhythm player, so he definitely played rhythm on acoustic and on the Tele while I think Mike played the more lead-type 12-string stuff."

Original Telefunken 251s were manufactured by AKG.

In this official video for "Room at the Top," Tom is singing through an SM57. The SM57 is also mentioned in this March 1983 Musician article about Tom Petty and the Heartbreaks.

They all use Shure SM57s, are mixed through a Davey Bryson console and are heard through Jensen Bulldogs.

Mentioned by recording engineer Richard Dodd in this Sound on Sound interview about the recording of "Learning to Fly".

"When it came to his vocals, Tom had an affinity for the AKG C12, whereas [producer] Jeff [Lynne] tended to prefer the 87. So, we'd go between those on any given occasion, but in this case I'm pretty sure we used the C12. Tom was pretty automatic in terms of his vocal performances, although the final take was the only time he did the bird whistle at the end of the song. I remember laughing when he did that and telling him I loved the bird when he came back out of the booth. He said, 'You like that? Well, maybe we'll keep it.' Again, he might have been planning it for weeks, but it came across as if he just did that on the spur of the moment."

The photo, from the Telefunken website, shows Tom using the M80 live. Also, there is another photo in the same page of him using the same microphone.

Mentioned by recording engineer Richard Dodd in this Sound on Sound interview about the recording of "Learning to Fly".

"When it came to his vocals, Tom had an affinity for the AKG C12, whereas [producer] Jeff [Lynne] tended to prefer the 87. So, we'd go between those on any given occasion, but in this case I'm pretty sure we used the C12. Tom was pretty automatic in terms of his vocal performances, although the final take was the only time he did the bird whistle at the end of the song. I remember laughing when he did that and telling him I loved the bird when he came back out of the booth. He said, 'You like that? Well, maybe we'll keep it.' Again, he might have been planning it for weeks, but it came across as if he just did that on the spur of the moment."