How It Was Recorded

George Harrison · Album, 1987

Cloud Nine

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: Got My Mind Set on You, This Is Love, When We Was Fab. We found nothing specific to these songs, so this album record is the closest account we have.

Lead vocalGuide guitarDrumsKeyboards (guide parts)Verified2Reported3Inferred3

What the sources do and do not say

Mix Classic Tracks piece with engineer Richard Dodd on this song and the Cloud Nine sessions. Song-specific rows cover the Drumulator demo drums and the Emulator II piano guide; microphone rows are album-level and the guide guitar and OB-X rows are general practice. The final drums, bass, piano and mix equipment are not identified, and two short Mix obituaries of Harrison were read but name no gear.

Lead vocal

George Harrison

Microphone

Neumann U 87

Reported

Harrison's lead vocal microphone on the Cloud Nine sessions, with him singing from the control room.

Position
In the control room, with headphones and the monitors turned down low

Source: Mix, 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.

Guide guitar

George Harrison or Jeff Lynne

Instrument

Fender Telecaster

InferredUsual practice

Usually the guitar recorded as a guide part, played by Harrison or Lynne, depending on the song.

A suggestion, not a documented fact: Richard Dodd describes this as usual practice; it is not stated for this record.

Source: Mix, 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

InferredUsual practice

Usual practice, not stated for this record: The guide Telecaster was recorded direct rather than through an amp.

A suggestion, not a documented fact: Richard Dodd describes this as usual practice; it is not stated for this record.

Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

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

Drums

Jim Keltner

Instrument

E-mu Drumulator

VerifiedOne song

Held a kick and snare lifted from Keltner's Power Station cassette plus its own built-in hi-hat, giving a drum part for the demo that the song grew from.

Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Emulation of this unit

UVI Emulation II+

instrument

Its Drumulation+ drum machine is built from the original Drumulator's sounds, sampled from the hardware.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Microphone

Neumann U 67

Reported

Kick drum microphone across the Cloud Nine sessions.

Source: Mix, 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 U 87

Reported

Drum overhead microphones across the Cloud Nine sessions.

Source: Mix, 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.

Keyboards (guide parts)

Instrument

E-mu Emulator II

VerifiedOne song

Used for its decent piano sound as a guide part, because the studio piano was out of tune.

Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Emulation of this unit

Arturia Emulator II V

instrument

An emulation of the E-mu Emulator II.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Oberheim OB-X

InferredUsual practice

Usual practice, not stated for this record: Sometimes put down with Lynne as a pad guide part on songs during the sessions.

A suggestion, not a documented fact: Richard Dodd describes this as usual practice; it is not stated for this record.

Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Close match

Arturia OP-Xa V

instrument

Models the OB-Xa, the model that sits between the OB-X and the OB-8.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Sources

  1. Classic Tracks: George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set on You", Mix, 2011-12-01. 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.