We wanted to do something special for the Home Studio in our 200th issue and agreed that if we could visit any musician's house, it would be Joni Mitchell's. After posing for a couple of shots in front of her mixing board, Joni informed us that she hardly ever sets foot in her home studio, that since she and her producer husband Larry Klein split the gear is being divided up, and that if we really want to know where she creates music we should shoot her in her kitchen, with just her custom-built Collings Baby. "It's a magical little guitar," Joni says. "It's got a 14-fret neck and it's as beautifully balanced as a good violin. It has all of the sound of a dreadnought. I bought a Collings D2H and this little one, but the little one is enchanted. I had polio and the weight of an electric guitar is hard on my back. Bigger guitars put my back into a position that contributes to its deterioration."

Joni is more interested in finding new sounds by manipulating tunings and sonics at the source than by fiddling with electronic effects. "Maybe at the level of recording I'll do some sonic experimenting with electric instruments," she says, "but at the compositional level I like acoustic instruments."

Joni's main recording guitar has been a Martin D28, which she records using an AKG C12 mike. The mike's output is routed through a Neve 1073 preamp and Urei 1176 compressor on its way to her Trident 70 mixer. She treats vocals the same way except when she records vocals and guitar together, in which case she leaves the C12 on the guitar and sings into a Neumann U 67. Joni's outboard gear includes a slew of Yamaha effects (REV7s, REV5s, SPX90s and SPX 1 1000s) as well as a complement of compressors and limiters including a Urei LA-2A, dbx 165A and dbx 160X. She tracks to an Otari MTR-90 through Dolby SR noise reduction units, monitoring via Yamaha NS10s and Genelec speakers. Keyboards include a Sequential Prophet-5, Roland JD-800, Roland Juno 60 and Yamaha baby grand piano.

Joni explains, "I used to trick myself, I'd say, 'We're going in to do demos,' but the demos were the records. It would take the performance pressure off. It would give you the psychological notion that you had a second chance. I don't work with a producer, I've produced my own records although when I worked with Klein he suddenly became a producer overnight. I hate the term producer. When I think of produce I think of vegetables. I'm a composer of music. Whether that seems pretentious to people doesn't matter. I make no attempt to add things for the sake of being commercial. A producer might have that consideration. I as an artist do not and never have. Producers say, 'Oh, this is what they want these days!' The trends that producers consider is what makes records date. And I don't think mine do."