Mark Hornsby: Sweetwater's senior producer

Nashville-trained — at Sweetwater Studios, Fort Wayne, since 2012

The imported craftsman: Fort Wayne's music producers were not born here; they were hired here, and Mark Hornsby is the senior of them. He started in Nashville, where an uncle — himself an award-winning engineer — gave him the advice his career is built on: diversify. He learned critical listening as an assistant at Seventeen Grand Recording, one of the first 5.1 surround mix facilities in the country, and diversified across thousands of sessions until his project list ran, in the trade magazine's summary, "from King Crimson, to George Strait, to Bootsy Collins." In 2012 he came to Fort Wayne to run the sessions at Sweetwater Studios, where he is Vice President of Music Production and Senior Producer/Engineer, in charge of all of the studio's recording projects and its recording MasterClasses.

The Fort Wayne credit line is a working producer's, made in a Russ Berger–designed room in a cornfield's edge: he recorded, produced, and mixed Russ Taff's comeback album Believe; recorded and mixed Beth Hart's Live at Royal Albert Hall; recorded Billy Cobham's Crosswinds: Time Lapse Photos at Sweetwater, sitting the fusion drummer's band down live in the room; engineered Peter Erskine's Second Opinion; produced Carl Verheyen's Sweetwater albums; and produced Marcus Scott's solo debut Back 2 Da Soul (2019), cut with the studio's staff band in the manner of a classic Memphis session and released on the Sweetwater Studios imprint through Entertainment One. Tape Op, the recording profession's own magazine, profiled him in 2019 under the title "Serving the Song."

Sources:

1. Jeff Touzeau, "Mark Hornsby: Serving the Song," Tape Op Magazine, Issue 134 (2019) — the Nashville uncle's advice; assistant at Seventeen Grand Recording; projects from King Crimson to George Strait to Bootsy Collins; recorded and mixed Beth Hart's Live at Royal Albert Hall; recorded, produced, and mixed Russ Taff's Believe; at Fort Wayne's Sweetwater Studios, overseeing its recording projects and MasterClasses.
2. JazzTimes, "Inside the Recording of Billy Cobham's Crosswinds" (2019/2020) — Hornsby as Sweetwater's Vice President of Music Production and Senior Producer/Engineer, come to the facility in 2012 after a Nashville start; the Cobham sessions recorded at Sweetwater Studios, Fort Wayne.
3. Vents Magazine, 30 September 2019 — Marcus Scott's Back 2 Da Soul, recorded and produced at Sweetwater Studios by Mark Hornsby with executive producer Phil Naish and Chuck Surack; released 27 September 2019 on the Sweetwater Studios imprint, distributed through Entertainment One.
4. Sweetwater Studios session coverage (sweetwater.com; M Music & Musicians Magazine, 2017) — Carl Verheyen's The Grand Design and Essential Blues recorded at Sweetwater with producer Mark Hornsby; Peter Erskine's Second Opinion engineered by Hornsby.