How It Was Recorded

Taylor Swift · Fearless, 2008

Love Story

Lead vocalElectric guitars (pop version)Pop version opening beatMix and pop versionVerified4Reported1

What the sources do and do not say

One short Mix 'Engineer's Diary' for this song, with Chapman speaking about the vocal microphone and the pop version. The fact box also lists a tracking chain (Avantone CV-12, Neve 1073, Tube-Tech CL-1B), Genelec 1032A mixing monitors and Pro Tools, but gives no function or position for the Neve and Tube-Tech units, so those are left out. The Sound On Sound Speak Now article was read in full but covers a different album and does not discuss Love Story's sessions.

Lead vocal

Taylor Swift

Microphone

Avantone CV-12

Verified

Taylor Swift's lead vocal microphone, a multi-pattern tube model fitted with a new-old-stock tube by Ray Kennedy.

Source: Mix (ProSoundNetwork), 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.

Electric guitars (pop version)

Nathan Chapman

Instrument

IK Multimedia AmpliTube Stomp I/O

Verified

Used for the new electric guitars added to the pop version of the song.

Source: Mix (ProSoundNetwork), accessed 15 Nov 2026

No plugin suggested. This is already software, so the stand-in is the thing itself. No product link has been added for it yet.

Pop version opening beat

Instrument

Apple Logic Pro Ultrabeat

Verified

Beat generator in Logic that supplied the opening loop of the pop version.

Source: Mix (ProSoundNetwork), accessed 15 Nov 2026

No plugin suggested. This is already software, so the stand-in is the thing itself. No product link has been added for it yet.

Mix and pop version

Mix effects

Solid State Logic 9080 K Series console

Reported

Console on which Justin Niebank mixed the song, in Studio F at Blackbird.

Source: Mix (ProSoundNetwork), accessed 15 Nov 2026

Close match

Solid State Logic SSL Native Channel Strip 2

channel strip

SSL's own channel-strip plugin. It is not a model of this particular desk.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Also worth a look: Waves SSL E-Channel (Models the 4000 E channel strip; the source does not make this the same desk).

Apple Logic Pro

Verified

Used by Chapman to build the pop version from Niebank's stems, muting the country instruments and adding banjo, fiddle and electric guitar.

Source: Mix (ProSoundNetwork), accessed 15 Nov 2026

The plugin used on the record

Apple Logic Pro

DAW

The DAW used on the record.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Sources

  1. Taylor Swift — Love Story, Mix (ProSoundNetwork), 2009-04-17. 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.