recording equipment

NAMM President/CEO Joe Lamond today released a statement about Steve Jobs and his impact on the music products industry and music making.

Ed Cherney won a Grammy Award for his work as recording engineer for the 1989 Bonnie Raitt’s album “Nick of Time.” This was just one of his many projects as mixer and engineer. He has worked with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Elton John, just to name a few. During his career he helped to pioneer recording techniques and equipment as well as build several studios. Ed has won TEC Awards for his work in the industry and is a founding member of the Music Producers Guild of America, which is now the Producers and Engineer’s Wing of The Recording Academy.
 

Leslie Ann Jones is the renowned recording engineer and pioneering producer and mixer who helped re-define the craft of engineering in the 1970s and 80s. She is well known for her long list of successful and award winning projects as much as she is known within the industry as a giving and talented professional. She is also a past chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Board of Trustees and a multiple Grammy Award winner. Her impressive projects over the years includes the films “Apocalypse Now” and “Happy Feet” as well as the album “Good Night, Good Luck” by Dianne Reeves, which won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Susan Lipp has a background in the theater, which she has used to great success in running the pro-audio distribution company Full Compass. The company was formed by her husband, Jonathan, in 1977, and has since become an industry leader in pro-audio, pro-lighting and home engineering equipment. Over her career in the industry, Susan also served on the NAMM Board of Directors in the late 1990s assisting with programs and market development programs. 

Jonathan Lipp formed a recording studio, which by 1977 turned into a pro audio distribution company he called Full Compass. In the early days of the company he focused on the radio broadcasting market and played a role in the growth of home recording market as equipment prices went down and the number of home studios increased in the early 1980s. Over time Full Compass branched out into sound reinforcement, pro lighting and video products as his customer base grew. Today Jonathan runs the company with his wife and the firm’s Chairman of the Board, Susan.
 

George Massenburg has been the recording engineer on countless successful albums during his long and varied career, but may be best known for changing the way the music products industry looked at pro-audio gear with his 1972 paper on the parametric equalizer. Parametric equalizer, also known as EQ allows audio engineers to control the three primary parameters of an internal band-pass filter which are amplitude, center frequency and bandwidth. In 1982, Massenburg founded GML, Inc., which produces equipment for specific recording applications, with a strong focus on EQ products. 

Rupert Neve is the top echelon of sound engineering. His mixing consoles, with their unique designs and groundbreaking technology, have become mainstays of the recording industry and the stuff of recording legend. His name is hallowed among recording engineers worldwide. From a keen interest in audio and electronics as a child growing up in Argentina, he started a small radio assembly and distributorship there during World War II while still in school, constantly pursuing better sound quality. Moving then to the British Royal Corps of Signals and on to founding a sound production company in the UK, he never looked back.

John Oram is known as the father of British EQ, and has played an enormous role in the way recordings are made and how sound is heard on those recordings. At the incredible age of 15 years old, John had his first control mixer and made history with Dick Denney at VOX where the team created the first Wah Wah pedal, as well as the AC30, AC50, and the Super Beatle.

Les Paul will forever be known for his role in the popularity of the electric guitar, the design of the Gibson Les Paul guitar, the multi track recording, the early guitar effects, and his million selling recordings with wife Mary Ford. However, did you know Les also appeared as product endorsee in more NAMM shows than just about any other artist? From the 1950s onward Les stood in the Gibson booth shaking hands and signing autographs while promoting the guitar line. In fact in 2006, after the Gibson Company purchased Baldwin Pianos, Les was at the NAMM show promoting the Les Paul Baldwin Piano. Les passed away in August 2009 at the age of 94.