Stow, OH (September 27, 2013)—Audio-Technica microphones are in the mix as Dream Theater recorded its self-titled twelfth studio set, released on this week by Roadrunner Records.
The band’s engineer on this album and past projects, Richard Chycki (whose credits also include Rush, Aerosmith, Needtobreathe, Our Lady Peace and others), has been a longtime fan of Audio-Technica microphones. He says, “I’ve used them for years, starting with a pair of AT4050s or AT4060s for the ambient portion of recordings. Regardless of the mic design, there was always a distinct open quality to all the Audio-Technica mics I’ve used, and they’ve performed very well in all applications.
“For the new Dream Theater album, by pairing the right mic with the source, we captured some pretty amazing audio with a minimum of outboard trickery. For instance, the AT5040 [studio vocal microphone], with its amazing sensitivity and ultra-low noise floor, was an absolute joy to use, on acoustic guitar in particular. We also used AT4080 ribbon microphones as part of the main guitar tone.”
The full A-T mic list for the project included AT5040 studio vocal microphones on all acoustic guitars and some vocal tracking; AT4080 phantom-powered bidirectional ribbon microphones for electric guitars, rear ambience for drums and the strings room (in a Blumlein pair); AT4081 phantom-powered bidirectional ribbon microphones as spot mics for cellos and a string session; and AT4047/SV cardioid condenser microphones as a spot mic for contrabass and a string session, as well as for “B-cabinet” electric guitars.
“We used an AT4080 for the rear drum kit ambience, placed very low behind [drummer Mike] Mangini. The AT4080 captures a lot of the low end push from the kit without a lot of excessive top end. Another AT4080 was used as a predominant part of John Petrucci’s guitar tone,” he adds.
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