Lanois and his long-time engineer Mark Howard avoid the industry standard DAW Pro Tools

Neil Young, Dave Howard and Daniel Lanois recording LeNoise at Silverlake Studio, LA (picture Sound on Sound)

Daniel Lanois has won three Grammy Awards as producer for album of the year. He also likes to avoid Pro Tools and other software based audio recording software.

“I don’t like the sound of Pro Tools, and I also don’t think it’s a reliable platform: it crashes too often,” Lanois’ engineer Mark Howard told Sound on Sound (Feb 2011).

That statement is heresy in the world of music recording where Pro Tools is the creme de la creme of digital audio workstation software.

Lanois has been known for unconventional thinking in music production. His last two albums were Neil Young’s LeNoise and Black Dub.

Neil Young won the 2011 Grammy for Best Rock Song for Angry World off Le Noise. Lanois must be doing something right.   Continue reading →