The recording of If I Ever Lose My Faith In You began on the first day of sessions for Ten Summoner’s Tales at Sting’s country home in Wiltshire. Rather than using a conventional studio setup, the main recording space was the dining room, a 9.1m x 6.1m room with a wooden floor, oak panelling, and a high semi-circular plaster ceiling rising to around 5.5m at the centre. The room was not divided into a normal control room and live area. Instead, the SSL console was placed at one end of the room and the musicians performed at the other, creating a direct, band-based working environment but also making live monitoring difficult for Hugh Padgham.
The track was cut with the core touring band from Sting’s 1990 world tour: Sting on bass and vocals, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, David Sancious on keyboards, and Dominic Miller on guitar. The backing track for If I Ever Lose My Faith In You was completed in five passes, including two run-throughs, during that first day. The performance-based approach was central to the sound of the record. Padgham later noted that, despite the practical difficulties of recording everyone in the same room, the arrangement allowed the musicians and producer to communicate naturally without talkback buttons or the separation of a conventional control room.
The recording medium was a Sony PCM-3348 digital multitrack machine. Padgham valued the editing flexibility of the Sony PCM-3348, especially its ability to move, edit, and bounce material in ways that would have been much harder on analogue tape. Although he still felt analogue handled transients in a way digital did not, he considered the Sony PCM-3348 the right format for a project that involved detailed editing and rearranging. The sessions also used the first SSL portable studio, built around an SSL 64-channel G-Series console, giving the temporary recording setup a full professional studio infrastructure inside Sting’s home.
The SSL portable system was supported by a substantial equipment list. The outboard included Lexicon 224XL and Lexicon 480L reverbs, Yamaha SPX900 multi-effects processors, dbx 160 compressors, Summit valve compressors and mic amps, a Urei 1176 compressor, ten dbx 902 de-essers, Eventide H3000 and Eventide 949 harmonisers, Sony timecode DAT machines, a Sony professional CD player, and Fostex analogue cassette decks. Monitoring at Sting’s home was through ATC SCM20 nearfield speakers, although Padgham eventually decided that proper final mixing needed to be carried out in a conventional studio.
The vocal recording chain for Sting was centred on a Sony 800G microphone. Hugh Padgham had used the prototype Sony 800G during The Soul Cages sessions and came to regard it as his favourite microphone for Sting’s voice. For Ten Summoner’s Tales, the Sony 800G was placed in a small vocal booth built from rented Audio Kinetics screens. Sting’s vocal passed through a Demeter preamp and was usually controlled with a Urei 1176 limiter. Padgham kept the chain ready at all times so that Sting could record immediately whenever he decided to sing.
Although some of the original live vocal was retained in places, around 99 percent of Sting’s vocals were recorded again. Padgham would sometimes comp from two or three vocal takes, but usually one take clearly stood out and only required a small number of drop-ins. The approach was practical and direct rather than heavily constructed. Sting’s vocal performance was described as strong throughout the album sessions, and Padgham did not regard the vocal recording as difficult once the Sony 800G chain had been settled.
The Sony 800G was also used to record Sting’s harmonica part on If I Ever Lose My Faith In You. Padgham acknowledged that a Shure SM57 might have been a more obvious choice for harmonica, but the Sony 800G was used and then shaped during mixing, with some top end removed. The track also included Synclavier organ rather than the Hammond B3 used elsewhere on the album, plus percussion played by Sting and Vinnie Colaiuta to a drum track from an old Linn machine.
Vinnie Colaiuta’s drums were recorded with a carefully chosen microphone setup. The kick drum was captured with a Neumann U47, the snare with a Shure SM57, the Zildjian cymbals with STC 4038 ribbon microphones, and the toms with Yamaha MZ203 and MZ204 dynamic microphones. For If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, the room sound was captured using a pair of Neumann U87 microphones placed approximately 4.6m from the drum kit. Padgham liked the compact Yamaha tom microphones because their side-exit connectors made them easier to position around a drum kit.
Sting generally used a DI’d Fender Jazz Bass for the album, but If I Ever Lose My Faith In You was recorded with a Fender Precision Bass. According to Padgham, the bass part needed to be played higher up the neck on the A string rather than the D string, avoiding excessive low end while still keeping a fuller tone. The Fender Precision Bass provided the fatter, lower character required for the part. The bass on the original backing track was later replaced during the mixing sessions at The Townhouse.
Dominic Miller’s guitar setup was based around his Japanese Fernandez Stratocasters, a Boss pedal board, and a Mesa Boogie combo amplifier. The amplifier was placed in an adjacent room to reduce spill into the main recording area. The Ten Summoner’s Tales sessions did not require heavy guitar sounds, and only a couple of punch-ins were made to the guitar part on If I Ever Lose My Faith In You. The aim was to retain the feel of the live band performance while making only essential corrections.
David Sancious’ keyboard rig was built around a Yamaha KX88 piano-action controller and an Atari computer, with pedals used to control different synths and MIDI channels. His setup included Peavey synth modules, E-mu piano modules, Roland D-50s, and older Yamaha TX racks. Sancious used the single controller to manage layered and split sounds across the keyboard, with MIDI channels brought in and out using volume pedals. On If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, the final arrangement included Synclavier organ as one of the overdubbed elements.
The acoustic behaviour of Sting’s dining room became an important part of the recording story. During a weekend break, Padgham took home a rough mix and realised that the sound was overloaded with bass. After consulting Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, he identified the problem as an 80Hz anti-node near the desk position. The solution was to move the desk back and install between 30 and 40 TubeTraps, arranged to control low-frequency build-up and create a more reliable working environment inside the room. Larger traps were placed in the corners, while smaller ones were also used around the monitoring area and could be repositioned during overdubs.
Despite the improvements, Padgham later chose to mix Ten Summoner’s Tales at The Townhouse in London. Because he had recorded the tracks mostly flat, without much equalisation, the recordings translated well once they were moved into a proper studio environment. Mixing at The Townhouse allowed Padgham to work with greater confidence, while Sting would come in towards the end of the day to give an objective response. The goal was not to overproduce the song, but to preserve the feel of the original performance while making the final mix technically stronger than the rough mixes.
If I Ever Lose My Faith In You is significant because it captures Sting working with a small, highly skilled band in an unconventional recording space, supported by a full professional recording system but without losing the immediacy of a live ensemble. The song’s production balances the precision of the Sony PCM-3348 digital multitrack and SSL G-Series console with a largely organic performance, minimal overdubbing, and a carefully chosen vocal chain built around the Sony 800G, Demeter preamp, and Urei 1176. Its success as a single, its Grammy win, and its continued inclusion on Sting compilations reflect both the strength of the song and the disciplined, musician-led recording approach behind Ten Summoner’s Tales.