recording studios

George Avakian has produced so many pop and jazz recordings over his 50 plus year career with several labels it might be easier to list the recordings he did not take part in. Before entering World War II George had already produced his first recording, as well as writing about the music that he loved so dearly--jazz. While in college he became friends with the great Louis Armstrong, whom George would work with in the 1950s on such products as an album dedicated to the music of W. C. Handy. George played a very important role in reissuing recordings that otherwise may have been lost. He worked hard to bring traditional jazz recordings to newer audiences such as his work with Sidney Bachet in the later part of the great clarinetist’s life.

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.
 

John Fry is the founder of Ardent Records and is a noted recording engineer with a special talent for sound mixing and studio sound control. The results of his efforts are enough to fill several walls with gold and platinum records from the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Led Zeppelin. John is also a devoted Christian who saw the need to produce quality Christian rock music in an era before it was a large musical category or commercial success. His pioneer recordings using his engineering talents are well noted within the industry. His list of admirers seems to be an ever growing list of top-rated sound engineers and producers.
 

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.

Carol Kaye can be heard on such landmark recordings as “La Bamba,” the Mission Impossible theme, and scores of hits produced by Phil Spector. She started playing jazz guitar in a big band during the early 1950s. Within the decade, she gained employment at the studio where she would later meet Spector and became one of the most prolific studio players in Los Angeles. Carol has authored a series of method books for electric guitar bass and has been a noted endorser at countless NAMM shows. Her first NAMM Oral History interview was completed on February 2, 2002. 

Michael Lloyd is among the most prolific recording producers of the 1970s and 80s. His long list of successes include the Dirty Dancing movie soundtrack and Debbie Boone’s 70s mega hit “You Light Up My Life.” Michael has been equally innovative in the use in his recordings of electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and the mellotron. In fact his own mellotron, which was originally owned by Karen Carpenter and used on several of Michael’s own recordings, is currently on display in the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California.

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. 

Charlie McCoy is one of the noted musicians known as the A Team, in the Nashville studios of the 1950s, 60s and 70s! Charlie’s harmonica can be heard on several popular recordings –countless in fact – including the lead solo on “Candy Man” by Roy Orbison. Charlie formed an early relationship with Hohner and he has worked with the company over the years on product design and promotions.

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.