How It Was Recorded

Bruno Mars · Album, 2010

Doo-Wops & Hooligans

This is an album-level record: the sources describe how the album as a whole was recorded, not one song. Where a detail belongs to a single song, the row says so.

Songs this record stands for: Grenade, Just the Way You Are, The Lazy Song. We found nothing specific to these songs, so this album record is the closest account we have.

VocalsGuitarsBassKeyboards and synthsVerified6

What the sources do and do not say

Single Sound On Sound interview (Paul Tingen, June 2011) with Ari Levine about the Smeezingtons and their studio; Just The Way You Are is discussed only for the Needlz track and the MPC drum programming. Most rows are Levine describing how the team works in the one-mic studio, recorded here as album-level; the album was mixed by Manny Marroquin, whose gear is not described.

Vocals

Bruno Mars

Microphone

Neumann U 87

Verified

The studio owns a single microphone, and it is used to record the vocals on the album.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

No plugin suggested. Microphone-modelling plugins only work with their own matched hardware microphone, so there is no plugin to link. Placement and the room matter more than the model.

Input chain

Manley Langevin Dual Vocal Combo

Verified

Preamp, compressor and EQ unit through which the vocals were recorded, feeding Pro Tools without passing through the digital desk.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Close match

Universal Audio Manley VOXBOX Channel Strip

channel strip

Models the Manley VOXBOX, the valve sibling this unit was made as a cheaper alternative to, with the same preamp, EQ and optical limiting layout; the Langevin itself is solid-state and is not what is modelled.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Guitars

Instrument

Fender Acoustic guitar (model not stated)

Verified

The acoustic guitar used on the sessions is an inexpensive Fender costing about $150.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

No plugin suggested. A guitar is the source of the sound, not a process applied to it. No plugin stands in for it.

Amplifier

Recorded direct (DI), no amplifier

Verified

Levine says the electric guitars are recorded via DI.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

No plugin suggested. Recorded direct, so there is no amp to model. Leave the amp simulator off.

Bass

Amplifier

Recorded direct (DI), no amplifier

Verified

Levine says the basses are recorded via DI.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

No plugin suggested. Recorded direct, so there is no amp to model. Leave the amp simulator off.

Keyboards and synths

Ari Levine

Input chain

Yamaha 02R

Verified

Most of the keyboards and the MPC are run through its preamps, which Levine says adds a little analogue character.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Covers this kind of unit

FabFilter Pro-Q 4

equaliser

A clean digital parametric equaliser, the same kind of EQ this desk has on every channel; it is not a model of this unit.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Sources

  1. Ari Levine & The Smeezingtons: Producing Bruno Mars, Sound On Sound, 2011-06. Accessed 15 Nov 2026.
Verified

Stated by the engineer, producer or artist, or by the manufacturer.

Reported

Stated by a reputable secondary source.

Inferred

An educated suggestion, not a documented fact.

Disclosure: plugin links currently go straight to the maker and earn us nothing. If that changes, affiliate links will be marked here. Suggestions are chosen on fit, never on commission, and are kept separate from the recording facts. More.