Phil Collins Face Value equipment

Face Value is the debut studio album by Phil Collins, released in February 1981.

The album itself originated as home recordings done by Phil at his Old Croft home in Shalford, Surrey in 1979 during a brief hiatus for Genesis. They arranged for the hiatus in early 1979 so Phil could move to Vancouver and attempt to save his marriage, which basically didn't work out in the end. He returned to England in April 1979 and began writing material (with the other two bandmembers occupied with their solo albums). By the time of working on Duke with Genesis, Phil had a batch of fully written songs but hadn't considered them for an album yet. Of those songs, the band chose "Misunderstanding" and "Please Don't Ask" for Duke.

Following the Duke tour in June 1980, Phil composed at least two more songs: "This Must Be Love" and "Thunder And Lightning". Both were made after meeting girlfriend and future wife Jill Tavelman on tour, reflecting the lighter and optimistic mood of those tracks.

The main recording sessions for Face Value took place between August and December 1980 at The Townhouse in London and The Village Recorder in New York. Hugh Padgham was involved as engineer and assistant producer, having worked with Phil before on Peter Gabriel's third album (when they helped pioneer the gated reverb sound). To start with, they transferred the 8-track demos to 24-track for overdubs. The basic instrumentation from the demos were retained (including keyboards) on most songs.

Phil Collins
Drums
 * Premier 717 Elite Black custom kit
 * Zildjian/Paiste cymbals

Keyboards & Synthesizers
 * Collard & Collard 6' grand piano
 * Fender Rhodes Stage 73 electric piano
 * Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus
 * Roland RS-202
 * Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synth

Misc.
 * Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm drum machine
 * Moog Taurus I pedals
 * Asba congas

John Giblin

 * 1958 Fender Precision bass

J. Peter Robinson

 * Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 ("Behind The Lines")

Microphones
Drums:
 * Bass Drum:
 * Neumann U47
 * Snare:
 * Shure SM57
 * Hi-hat:
 * AKG C451
 * Tom-toms:
 * Shure SM57's (or SM56 model) or Sennheiser MD421's
 * Overheads:
 * Neumann U67/U87/U47 or STC 4038 ribbon (x2)
 * Drum ambience:
 * STC 4021 Ball and Biscuit (Reverse Talkback mic - "In The Air Tonight" sound)
 * Neumann U87 (x2)

Guitars: Vocals:
 * Neumann U47 FET
 * Shure SM57 or Sennheiser MD421's etc.
 * Beyerdynamic M88 /w Allen & Heath Mini Limiter

Outboard equipment and processors

 * cheap guitar effects pedals
 * Allen & Heath Mini Limiters - from Phil's home studio
 * AMS DMX 15-80 delay
 * Eventide H910 Harmonizer
 * MXR digital delay - from Phil's home studio
 * UREI 1176 compressors (drums)

Tape machines

 * Ampex MM1200 2" 24-track (The Townhouse)
 * Ampex ATR-100 1/4" 2-track (The Townhouse)

Mixing consoles

 * Solid State Logic SL-4000B (The Townhouse Studio 2)