New Foo Fighters album hits No.1 with Lauten Audio mics

Engineer Darrell Thorp recently recorded the Foo Fighters new album at EastWest Studios in LA with a range of microphones from Lauten Audio, including the Atlantis, Eden, Clarion, and the new Series Black LA-120, LA-220, and LA-320.

The band’s new album Concrete and Gold (Roswell Records/RCA Records) was released on 15 September. Its first single, "Run," hit the top 10 on the Rock Airplay Billboard charts in June and took the #1 spot in both the UK and US album charts.

"We had a massive setup for recording the band," said Thorp, "part of the challenge was we had four drum kits set up at once, a bass station, vocals, keys with two keyboards and pianos, and over 20 guitar amps, some in the live room and some in Iso-booths – I was using a lot of Lauten Audio mics."

Discussing how and where some of the different mics were used, Thorp explained: "For a sonic clarity difference I was having all the background vocals recorded on the Lauten Audio Eden mic, it’s a bit of a sweeter sounding mic, and I was using the ‘Forward’ switch so they would always sound breathy, and open and airy, around the lead vocal.

"On the song ‘Happy Ever After’ which is the quietist, most acoustic track on the record, Dave Grohl was playing this Harmony solid body acoustic guitar, which is super quiet, but it has a ‘sound’ – so I grabbed a Lauten Audio Atlantis mic and switched on the +10 dB gain switch – which is genius!" added Thorp. "I was barely rocking my mic pre, so I had plenty of level to Pro Tools and I was able to get a really good guitar sound. I was also using the Atlantis and LA-320 on guitar amps a lot, sometimes the LA-320 was on room guitar amps as well at about 15 to 20 feet from where the amps would sit in Studio One at EastWest – the room is huge and sounds amazing."

I really do stand behind the Lauten Audio mics, I use the products a lot!

– Darrell Thorp

The Series Black LA-220 mics were used for some of the main tom mics, Thorp revealed: "They were amazing, they worked so well. I used the LA-220s on the Gretsch ‘George Lake’ kit with a 13-inch rack tom and a 16-inch floor tom.

"I really do stand behind the Lauten Audio mics, I use the products a lot! We just did a Foo Fighters BBC Live session and I took an Eden for a mono overhead on the drums, which sounded great. I use the mics all the time when recording!" he concluded.

Darrell Thorp is a seven-time Grammy Award winning producer, mixer, and engineer (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Switchfoot, Molotov, Beck), with over 20 years experience and many multi-platinum records on his discography. He had previously worked as an assistant engineer at some of LA’s prestigious studios such as Track Record, Conway, and finally Ocean Way Recording.

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