“When Mariah was signed to Columbia records, when she was still with the Sony label, she had a very specific setup made for her. It was the Sony C-800, but I think it was specifically modified for her by the Sony technicians. So it’s a one-of-a-kind Sony mic. And she had this special “top secret” travel case of like a mic preamp, EQ and compressor, but it had no labels on it. I didn’t know what it was when I first saw it. And it had an A-to-D converter that went straight to the PCM 3348, a Sony tape machine at the time. So Mariah had basically her own, proprietary vocal chain for all recordings.”
— Phil Tan
