The Short, Weird History of Recording In Your Car

New York, NY (December 5, 2024)—Renault recently asked UK singer Sinéad Harnett to record inside its new 5 E-Tech electric vehicle for a promo video, and while the company mistakenly claims it’s the first track ever recorded in a car (not even close), it’s still a fun experiment.

The UK singer got behind the wheel to re-record some vocals from her single “Thinking Less,” providing the French auto manufacturer with an opportunity to show off the car’s quiet interior as well as its intuitive audio controls. The vehicle’s baguette holder (really) was used for mounting Harnett’s microphone, and the interior sound system was used for playback.

Good gear was used for the project—the unnamed engineer in the passenger seat used Apple Logic Pro to record the proceedings and we spotted an AKG logo on the back of the microphone’s shock mount; given the silver band around the center, we’re guessing it was an AKG C214 large-diaphragm condenser.

In a press statement, Adam Wood, Managing Director, Renault UK, noted, “Sinéad’s world-first re-recording and mixing of her hit single is the perfect way to showcase its capabilities.”

Well, actually there’s a number of artists who have recorded in cars, but this was certainly the first time someone’s recorded in a 5 E-Tech—because the car doesn’t officially launch until Spring, 2025. It might also be the first time someone’s recorded in an electric car, or perhaps recorded using power provided by an electric car, if the laptop was plugged in somewhere.

Cutting in a car is pretty well-documented, however—back in 2017, Rolls-Royce had Skepta record in the back of a sleek Phantom VIII. The company eventually had to pull the promotional clip after social media commentators noted that the grime star didn’t wear a seatbelt while the car wound through the Swiss Alps, but you can still see the video in our coverage.

A few years earlier in 2014, Chevrolet invited Midwest rockers The Gentlemen Mutineers to record in a Chevy Impala (check our coverage here). For the clip, lead singer Frankie Turner belted into a Blue Microphones Snowball while Grammy award-winning engineer Mark Pastoria of Harmonie Park Studios captured the result on his laptop computer.

Still, the greatest automotive recording feat of all-time has to be Ben Vaughn’s entire 1997 album, Rambler ’65, which was recorded inside the slowly rotting titular vehicle. This resulted in one of the funniest interviews that ever ran in Pro Sound News and we wholeheartedly encourage you to take a few minutes to check out the highly amusing read; while you’re there, you can catch the goofy mockumentary Vaughn made about recording garage rock on a driveway.

If all this has inspired you to drag some gear out to your car and start recording, check out a serious, real-world ‘how-to’ written by Mix contributor Frank Verderosa, who detailed how he used vehicles to record socially distanced voiceovers during the pandemic back in April, 2020. Give it a shot, and you may soon find yourself experiencing playback by the dashboard light.