Vance Powell explains how he creates a natural room sound by playing back recorded signals through studio loudspeakers and rerecording them with microphones. This technique is particularly useful when the original recording lacks room mics, as it can simulate the natural ambiance of a real room in a very convincing way.
In this live take, Powell strategically splits up the band, placing the drums in a booth but leaving the door open to allow some natural spill and echo. This setup provides the needed isolation between the louder drums and the quieter acoustic instruments, while preventing full isolation of the signals, enhancing the depth and cohesiveness of the recording.
Feeding the recording back into the studio loudspeakers then augments the illusion that all instruments are playing together in the same room, creating a unified and immersive sound.