What mic did James Taylor use on "Sweet Baby James"?

I'm not so Shure about that.

I know Richard Orshoff who recorded Jackson Browne's debut album, James Taylor, Poco. He said he was using U87s and U67s interchangeably on those guys. He loved the desk at Crystal Studios. Here is a note from him:

Hi--Richard Orshoff here. Jackson's first album was recorded at Crystal Studios in Hollywood in mid 1971. Jackson sang entire album using a Neumann U87 mic. The console was a custom designed and built console by Andrew Berliner, the owner of Crystal Sound at the time. Excellent to work on! We never used any compression on Jackson's vocals. Echo was almost always Crystal's natural echo chamber. First, re the mic--don't knock the U87. It was one of the two or three vocal mics of the day. U67 or U87s were used on probably 60 or 70% of the vocals recorded in Los Angeles at the time. One correction...as I think about it, we had both U67 and U87s available/at hand. Doctor My Eyes may very well have been recorded using a U67--definitely one or the other.

Yes, just EQ, echo and fader rides. : ) In mixing, we used to do a lot of EQ "carving." That is, in addition to adding EQ to the vocal to "fill it in," we would also "carve" a space in the middle of the mix for the vocal by just so barely cutting back on some of the same frequencies in the surrounding instruments so the vocal would essentially occupy a "space" that was carved out for it. We did a lot of "tuning" as well. For example, one of the things I can still hear when I listen to Doctor My Eyes is we tuned the conga drums. If you listen carefully, they are tuned in the key of the song. As well as the low conga and the bass drum were "tuned" together to create a sound almost like a basketball bouncing. You can hear that most clearly in the first verse and the conga tuning in the intro and guitar solo.

Crystal had a BIG studio. Jackson sang out in the open with 3 tall sound baffles in an angled "U" behind him, like this. \__/

I recorded James at Crystal as well. That was in 1970. Same with James vocals--all done on either U67s or U87s through the Crystal console with Crystal's natural echo chamber and fader ridden vs compression. Difference is, James often would sing live as he recorded the track--probably half his vocals were recorded as they laid down the tracks--and then we might overdub a phrase or two or a verse, etc. Sometimes he would like one verse from one take and another from another. We would literally edit an entire passage of the 2" tape and insert a verse or such into another take!

A little piece of trivia for you--in February of 1970 (approximately) we took an evening and did a mono radio mix of Fire and Rain from Sweet Baby James. Warner Brothers wanted to run quick with another single, as Sweet Baby James (the single) wasn't quite making it. Two weeks later, as we were recording You've Got A Friend, Fire and Rain was soaring up the charts. One day we were just guys recording in a studio. The next week James had the biggest single in the country!

I wish I could go back in time...,I used u87s on my voice for years, and then when I decided to buy a nice mic for my home studio, I couldn't justify the (then) $1500 an old 87 went for....now they sell for nearly twice that....but, more importantly, I went through likely 20 different MICS, counting all the rentals over the years trying to find one that was "like that but cheaper" and later "like that but better" (ala M269 and McBride's Innertube 87)....oh well. Good news is, I have an old UM70 now that really is "like that but better", IMO....but, I went around the world and back chasing that dragon.had I just popped for an old 87 in 92 or whenever, I'd still be using it today....and likely never have wasted lots of precious artistic energy in pursuit of a mic that worked as well....

Yup. 67/87's were ubiquitous in LA. Still are. I think that maybe they are the most recognized vocal sound in pop/rock music of all time. I've used my 87 on more records than I can count. But I'm upping it's game with an Innertube retrofit. Should be here next week. Can't wait.....

Can't remember Crystal Sound yotonic, and the building doesn't look familiar. Must have been gone before my time....