The Tracking Room
The room makes records that sound like the music is breathing.
Mark Howard
The engineer behind Daniel Lanois's records, Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind, and Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball.
The band sits in a circle.
This is the room where the band sits in a circle, in full sight of each other, and plays the whole song top to bottom. No headphones. No click. No separation. Mics get full bleed. Takes have feel because feel can't survive a click.
The walls aren't parallel. The ceiling has period pieces. The light is right. The room sounds like rooms used to sound, because Mark designs rooms that way and because we don't treat the bleed as a problem to fix.
Mic list PDF — coming
Microphones
- Peluso P-67 — main condenser
- Peluso P-84 (pair) — small-diaphragm condensers
- Peluso P-87 — large-diaphragm condenser
- Shure SM7B — dynamic for vocals
- Shure SM57 (×5) — workhorse dynamics
- CAD M179 — multi-pattern condenser
Preamps
- BAE 1073 DMP
- Apogee Element 88
- Grace 8-channel
- Yamaha MLA-8
Treatment
- Mark Howard room design
- Period furniture, warm lighting, non-parallel surfaces
- Wall and side traps — broadband absorption + bass control