How It Was Recorded

Steve Perry · Street Talk, 1984

Oh Sherrie

Lead vocalDrum kitVerified1Reported5

What the sources do and do not say

Mix Classic Tracks piece with engineer Niko Bolas covers the Record One sessions for this song. Mic and compressor statements are the journalist reporting Bolas, so marked reported; only the chamber reverb is in his own quoted words. The Tape Op Steve Perry interview is about Traces and is paywalled, so was not used.

Lead vocal

Steve Perry

Microphone

Neumann U 67

Reported

Microphone for Perry's lead vocal overdubs, used with a vintage-style pop foam screen.

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.

Input chain

API Compressor (model not stated)

Reported

Compressor the vocal went into on the way to recording.

Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Covers this kind of unit

Waves API 2500

compressor

Models API's 2500 bus compressor, built on the same discrete op-amp circuits as the firm's other compressors. The source does not name the model, so this stands for the maker's family of units: it is not a model of the one on the record.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Mix effects

Capitol Studios Echo chamber five

Verified

Real chamber reverb on Perry's voice, fed by a send from the Record One console to Capitol Studios in Hollywood and returned.

Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Close match

Universal Audio Capitol Chambers

reverb

Models echo chambers at Capitol Studios. Whether chamber five is one of them was not checked.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Drum kit

Larrie Londin

Microphone

Telefunken 251

Reported

Drum overhead microphones.

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.

Sennheiser MD 421

Reported

Kick drum microphone.

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. The MD 421 is still made.

Sennheiser MD 421

Reported

Tom microphones: Bolas recalls either Telefunken mics or 421s, without settling which.

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. The MD 421 is still made.

Sources

  1. Classic Tracks: Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie", Mix, 2025-03-12. 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.