Insight into the making of 'Shine'

[matta]

First off thank you Mr. Lanois for sharing your precious time with us.

At the risk of sounding like gushing fool Shine has to be one of my favorite records of all time and been an inspiration in my music making career.

The lust low mids you got on there are amazing. Those guitar tones BLOW me away esp. the opening to 'Slow Giving'. I'd love to know more how you got that tone (well obviously your playing) but signal path from guitar to tape.

What were you using on your vocals as well? I've read you are a fan of of dynamics and ribbons for many applications and I believe you used an La-2a of many of the parts on the record (I still remember seeing Adam selling one of the La-2a's on Ebay about a year or 2 ago!)

Without giving too much away can you share a bit about your micing techniques on Brian's drums? They sound very 'open' and sound like a small mic set-up in most/all cases. I assume a couple room mics or were there a couple close mics on on the kit as well the were blended in? And as if in the days of the Beatles you are making use of the stereo spread with drums being panned hard left/right on songs like 'As Tears Roll By'.

RE the tracking medium it sounds like it went to tape but I've hear rumors that it was a Radar record? Care to share more about that?

With regards to recording philosophy/ethos and your experiences/relationship with Brian Eno do you find yourself incorporation his 'Oblique Strategies' in making 'random' choices or decisions?

From what I understand you have 2 studio set-ups now, one in Canada the other in LA. One of which a Midas Console (traditionally a 'live' console) the other a Neve (if I'm not mistaken), do you have preference in which project gets done when based on the sonics characteristics of each or do you just make do with each console depending on your whereabouts?

Have you found yourself tempted in the day and age to work inside of of a DAW, like Pro Tools, Logic etc, or are those cuss words? Hah hah.

I'm sure I'll think of many others, those were just off the top of my head.

Again, thank you so much for your time.

Cheers

Matt

[Daniel Lanois]

Many different micing techniques were used on Shine. The Sennheiser 409 is a nice friend to keep in your back pocket. Great for vocals and guitars. The drum micing is usually the same. 57 tight on the hihat, 47 overhead, the bass drum mic changes, sometimes a coles sometimes a d12. Switching the bass drum around for another bass drum is always the best way to change the kick drum sound.