Recording techniques, production methods, and songwriting creation are fascinating to a music geek like me.  I tend to write songs in "batches". So I'll write 5 or 6 songs in a day or two, then work them up with a similar feel or instrumentation the next day. Then I rest for a day. This is what I use to record my songs. It's a very simple set up.

(2) AKG C-2000B mic - This is my one and only mic. All vocals and guitars are recorded through it. I love this "for all weathers" mic. Love it! I like to crank up the vocal input so it peaks into distortion, giving a static/driven sound to vocals for a lot of my tracks (listen to "Beneath The Waves" as an example). I call my studio Static Queen, an allusion to my songwriting friend - the genius Mark Linkous.

Tannoy Reveal R5A Monitors - Near-field monitors used for mixing down. I also use my pathetic Logitech computer speakers for infrequent mixing. But my real workhorse is the Technics RP - F400 headphones. 

I use a combination of recording equipment. I love my Boss BR-1200 digital recording studio, with it's super COSM guitar effects unit. But I also use a PC recording rig with Ableton Live 8. I adore Live's effects and sound/instrument library - especially the strings sections. I play every instrument (unless credited otherwise), and love tracking. I have Protools 7 with a whole host of software that includes Melodyne, but I use it very infrequently (listen to my album "Underground" as an example.

I use Arturia's Analog factory programme (wonderful Yamaha CS-80 sounds), controlled by my equally wonderful Axiom 25, which controls all of my computer-based software. Since album 28 "Parkour" I have used Toontrack's superb EZDrummer for the majority of my drums. I love it! So authentic! Before EZDrummer I used a host of drum loops imported into the Boss or Boss' EZ Compose  programmable rhythm.

On my early CDs (albums 1 to 18), acoustic guitar was recorded in stereo or multi-tracked up to 4 times,  usually with mics in XY configuration, panned 50-50%, or often one guitar laid over the other in the mix. A lot of listeners have mistaken the two six string guitar tracks for a twelve string. I crank the middle up as far as it will go to get some punch. I love single tracked acoustic guitar, too, which you can hear on tracks like "I Keep Wondering", "Lakota Holy Man", or "Looking Out For You."

Vocals are recorded in a variety of ways. Sometimes I get up within an inch of the mic, to get a breathy whispered tone. Othertimes, I'm a foot back when I blast it out! I don't use compression much, if at all. I often use a delay to give sparkle and life. The Boss Delay is rather versatile.  I often doubletrack lead vocals as well. I prefer dry vocals and only use reverb now and again for effect on the odd word or line.
 
Electric guitars are straight into the COSM effects unit. My fav setting is the preset Jazz sound, which has a bit of bite distortion-wise, but remains relatively clean. One thing I try to do is to keep a similar guitar sound per album, to unify things I guess.

My mixdowns are one way or the other per album. Either I use the Boss BR1200, or the Ableton Live on my computer. With the exception of "Underground" which was mixed in Protools, (and took an age!) most of my mixdowns have been done on the Boss BR1200. But from album 28 "Parkour" I used Ableton more and more for mixing. It's very stable on my PC, unlike Protools which crashes like Wall Street!

Because I work so fast with the album-a-month project, I need software and equipment I can trust and use swiftly. The Boss BR-1200, and Ableton Live do the trick for me!

Footnote:

During the late 1980s up to 2006 I recorded the majority of my home recordings on a variety of Tascam 4 track analogue recorders. I released many cassette albums (over 36 hours of songs) during that period. I am slowly re-releasing this huge back catalogue onto the internet, sites such as Last FM, Jamendo, and elsewhere.  I've released over 80 studio albums, many complilation albums, singles, EPs, and collaboration projects since I first walked into the legendary Spaceward Recording Studios, Cambridge, England in the Summer of 1976. I was16 years old and, although I didn't know it then, I was to become part of a music/social movement called punk, new wave, & NWOBHM. During the 2nd half of the 70s, early 80s, Spaceward Studios recorded many emerging artists, including Gary Numan, Bauhaus, Dave Stewart, Hawkwind, Hugh Cornwall & JJ Brunel (The Stranglers), Iron Maiden, Julian Cope, Katrina and the Waves, Krakatoa, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Scritti Politti, Julian Cope (Teardrop Explodes), Stiff Little Fingers, The Higsons, The Mekons, The Stranglers, The Soft Boys, Toyah, Tubeway Army, UK Subs, and many more. I returned many times to Spaceward to record songs between 1976 to 1982. During the mid-80s I wrote and recorded many songs with Dave Maile in Peer-Southern's Denmark St, London studio, under the management of multi-platinum selling songwriter/producer Kim Fowley. But most of my albums up to 2006 were lo-fi home studio recordings.

Check out my discography for a full run down.