CHRIS SHEPARD: Having a great tube microphone collection is also what really brings people to us. You can’t go to Guitar Center and go buy these microphones, so having a great old Neumann collection from the ‘50s and the ‘60s, they’re great mics. You also have to be very careful because they’re fragile. They also need regular maintenance, regular cleaning. But I think, you know, the main manufacturers, you know, Neumann, AKG, Shure, we use all of the above.

This one here, this is an M249. We have a matched pair of these, and these are perfect. I value these really. I don't know how to tell you, but for a lot of things, for room mics, for me like the Wilco, being their record, these were the room mics. I think we used these being all over the place on that record, and that was kind of the room behind you.

Each one has its power supply. I’d like to leave those powered up for at least an hour. Sometimes on a record, I’d like to leave them powered up overnight if we’re going to use them right away the next day. Especially if I really like the way their sounding, I’ll leave them powered on or at least have the assistant power them up an hour before.