Engineer Darrell Thorp Chooses Loads of Lauten for Foo Fighters Concrete & Gold Album

Darrell Thorp in his private studio with his Series Black Microphones. Photo Credit: Derek McCoy

Seven-time Grammy winning engineer and mixer, Darrell Thorp, used Lauten Audio mics, including its flagship tube mic, Eden, on new Foo Fighters album “Concrete and Gold”

San Jose, CA — Sept 19, 2017 — Engineer Darrell Thorp recently recorded the Foo Fighters new album at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles and chose to use loads of Lauten Audio microphones, including the Atlantis, Eden, Clarion, and the new Series Black LA-120, LA-220, and LA-320. The new Foo Fighters album “Concrete and Gold” (Roswell Records/RCA Records) was released on September 15, its first single, “Run,” hit the top 10 on the Rock Airplay Billboard charts in June. “We had a massive setup for recording the band,” says Thorp, “part of the challenge was we had 4 drum kits set up at once, a bass station, vocals, keys with 2 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, he explains, “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 quietest, 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 "expletive" genius!” exclaims 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.”

The Series Black LA-220 mics were used for some of the main tom mics says Thorp, “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.” 

  

Thorp concludes, “I really do stand behind the Lauten Audio mics, I use the products a lot! I’m not just a face on an ad and a face on the website. 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!”

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. Thorp moved to Los Angles in 1997 after a 4-year service in the U.S. Navy and started interning at smaller studios, and eventually worked his way up to an Assistant Engineer at some of L.A.’s prestigious studios such as Track Record, Conway, and finally Ocean Way Recording. He recently had the pleasure of recording and mixing the new Foo Fighters album "Concrete and Gold," and also engineering the new Beck record "Colors". 

About Lauten Audio 

Lauten Audio microphones continue to carve out a unique niche for recordists seeking microphones with an original sound. In addition to the Series Black, their product line includes their flagship “Eden” LT-386, the award-winning “Oceanus” LT-381 transformer-less tube condenser microphone, and the FC-387 “Atlantis” solid-state Multi-voicing™ large diaphragm condenser microphone. Lauten Audio microphones have received rave reviews from both experienced recording engineers and leading Pro Audio magazines around the world. Lauten Audio is located in San Jose California, for more information visit http://www.lautenaudio.com or call 1-877-721-7018.

Lauten Audio

www.lautenaudio.com

Lauten Audio Press contact:

Paul J. de Benedictis

pauljdb@gmail.com (650)-303-2565

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Darrell Thorp Becomes a Believer in Atlantis

Los Angeles, CA – May 18, 2015 – Seven-time Grammy® winning Engineer and Mixer, Darrell Thorp, recently acquired a pair of Lauten Audio’s Multi-voicing™ microphones, the Atlantis FC-387.

Recently picking up multiple Grammy’s for his work on Beck’s, “Morning Phase,” Thorp has built a solid foundation in the music industry, further adding to that foundation with his Atlantis microphones. Thorp and Lauten Audio’s founder, Brian Loudenslager, recently became acquainted after exchanging social media praise for each other. “I friended Darrell on Facebook; upon him accepting my request, he posted on my page stating, “Love your mics!” I replied simply, “Love your ears,” says Loudenslager, adding, “Of course I had to inquire and get more specifics as I wasn't aware Darrell was using our microphones”.

During a session in 2014, Thorp had a challenging vocal session with a female singer, Suzanne Santo from the band HoneyHoney, who had a very powerful and dynamic vocal. Thorp talked the producer into getting a demo of the Atlantis microphone so he could try it on a few things. “The producer wanted to try it on her vocal,” said Thorp. “We had tried other microphones without success. We put up the Atlantis and, BAM!, really airy and open,” says Thorp. “What really surprised us was how much the mic was smoothing out the 3k bump that was part of her tone. It smoothed the vocal into a more manageable place that I could handle better on the mix. And she loved the Atlantis as well,” added Thorp. He used the ‘Neutral’ setting on the Multi-voicing Atlantis mic, the other settings are ‘Gentle’ and ‘Forward’.

Thorp speaking at Grammy's

“It was truly an honor to have the intended design of the Atlantis validated by such a decorated engineer like Thorp”, says Loudenslager. Released in 2012, the Atlantis was a collaboration between engineer/producer Fab Dupont and Lauten Audio. Dupont wanted a modern vocal microphone, with multiple timbres that could tackle any vocal challenge, that idea became the Atlantis, model FC-387. On release of the Atlantis in 2012, Fab said, “I need a microphone that can be custom tailored for recording female vocalists, so that when they start belting on a chorus – my eyes don’t hurt!” 

Since that initial demo of the Atlantis, Thorp added a pair to his own collection. “I’ve now used them on drums, vocals, background vocals, and guitars,” says Thorp. “I recently used Atlantis on snare; turned it to the ‘Forward’ setting, holy crap, the snare was really snappy and bright - perfect for the song. I like it on back-ground vocals in Omni mode.” In addition to having the Multi-voicing switch, Atlantis also features Cardioid, Figure-of-eight, and Omni-directional polar patterns, as well as a +10 gain, and -10dB pad.

“It’s been great in the mix,” Thorp told Loudenslager, “Man, I am a believer. You have a great product here!”




Lauten Audio
www.lautenaudio.com

Darrell Thorp
www.darrellthorp.com

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