How It Was Recorded

Electric Light Orchestra · Album, 1979

Discovery

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: Don't Bring Me Down, Last Train to London, Shine a Little Love, The Diary of Horace Wimp. We found nothing specific to these songs, so this album record is the closest account we have.

Bass (Kelly Groucutt)Drum kit (Bev Bevan)Keyboards (Richard Tandy)Verified1Reported6

What the sources do and do not say

The only source is the Classic Tracks piece on 'Don't Bring Me Down', which gives album-level detail for the Discovery sessions at Musicland (drum miking, DI'd bass and keyboards, the bathroom overdub kit). It does not discuss 'Shine a Little Love' itself, so this is an album record. Mack's lead-vocal remarks (AKG 414 after a U87, slap delay) are about working with Lynne in general, not Discovery specifically, so they were left out; guitar details in the article are for 'Don't Bring Me Down' only.

Bass (Kelly Groucutt)

Kelly Groucutt

Amplifier

Recorded direct (DI), no amplifier

Reported

Bass was recorded direct (DI) in the live room during the Discovery sessions.

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.

Drum kit (Bev Bevan)

Bev Bevan

Microphone

Neumann U 47

Reported

Used on the kick drum during the Discovery sessions.

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.

Neumann KM 84

Reported

Used on the snare drum during the Discovery sessions.

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.

Sennheiser MD 421

Reported

Microphone on the toms during the Discovery sessions.

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. The MD 421 is still made.

Neumann U 87

Reported

Overhead microphones on the kit during the Discovery sessions.

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

UREI 1176

Verified

Compressed, driven hard into overload, the single microphone on the overdubbed kit recorded in the bathroom; on Discovery that kit covered only kick, snare and toms.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Emulation of this unit

Universal Audio 1176 Classic Limiter Collection

compressor

Models several revisions of the 1176, including the blackface units.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Also worth a look: Waves CLA-76 Compressor / Limiter (Models two 1176 revisions (blacky and bluey)).

Keyboards (Richard Tandy)

Richard Tandy

Amplifier

Recorded direct (DI), no amplifier

Reported

Tandy's keyboards were recorded direct (DI) in the live room during the Discovery sessions.

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.

Sources

  1. Classic Tracks: Electric Light Orchestra 'Don't Bring Me Down', Sound On Sound, 2013-09. 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.