Recording engineers - whom would you write about?

Hammerstone

Hammerstone

Out of style
So I'm supposed to write a biography paper on a recording engineer for my intro to sound recording class. The paper's due tomorrow, so I don't think I'll get any helpful hints before then, but I just wondered who you guys would write a paper about, if you were doing the same. I'm kind of leaning toward Dan Auerbach, being a native son of Ohio (like me!) and also because I love the idea that he would get bands all over the midwest to come and record in his home studio. I only own one Black Keys album, but I own three or four albums that were recorded at Akron Analog. Alternately, I might write about Bruce Botnick, just because.

So is there any one producer who stands out to you guys? Who would you pick?
 
Hammerstone said:
The paper's due tomorrow....
Click to expand...

I see you took the assignment seriously. :laughings:

There are so many to pick from ...just toss a dart at the bunch of names, and write something. I would think ideally you would pick someone you know a little about, and/or whose music you've listened to. Someone else picking one for you would not necessarily be anyone you're even remotely familiar with...so your writing would not be personally meaningful ...and you can do that with just some Google searches.

That said...I might pick some of the ones who are musician/engineers/producers rather than pure engineers, like Daniel Lanois or Alan Parsons....but on those more on the ngineer side, maybe Bill Szymczyk, Phil Ramone, Al Schmitt or Bruce Swedien.
 
miroslav said:
I see you took the assignment seriously. :laughings:
Click to expand...

With so little time, George Martin. There is so much material on line should be about an hours work, in fact you could watch one of the many doco's and write as you go which would be more fun.

Plus Sir George is the guy that started it all in the modern recording world.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
With so little time, George Martin. There is so much material on line should be about an hours work, in fact you could watch one of the many doco's and write as you go which would be more fun.

Plus Sir George is the guy that started it all in the modern recording world.

Alan.
Click to expand...

Though I would say that George Martin is mainly known as a producer/arranger/composer right from the time he first became better known, following his work with the Beatles.

I just thought of probably the coolest guy to write about.....Tom Dowd! :cool:
 
Tom Dowd, whose fingerprints are all over American popular music on both an artistic and technical sense.
 
miroslav said:
I see you took the assignment seriously. :laughings:

There are so many to pick from ...just toss a dart at the bunch of names, and write something. I would think ideally you would pick someone you know a little about, and/or whose music you've listened to. Someone else picking one for you would not necessarily be anyone you're even remotely familiar with...so your writing would not be personally meaningful ...and you can do that with just some Google searches.

That said...I might pick some of the ones who are musician/engineers/producers rather than pure engineers, like Daniel Lanois or Alan Parsons....but on those more on the ngineer side, maybe Bill Szymczyk, Phil Ramone, Al Schmitt or Bruce Swedien.
Click to expand...

No, I wrote it on Auerbach, I was just curious who you guys idolized. It's something that I haven't seen discussed that much here.

Thanks for all the names guys, now I have some more people to look into and learn about!
 
Well, I know it's too late but the subject is really interesing.

I'd write about Roy Hallee or Delia Derbyshire.
If we are to include producers with an amazing ear for sonics I'd include Kevin Shields, Lee Hazlewood and Martin Hannett.
 
Bridesmaid late to the party

I love reading about producers and engineers and some of the best autobiographies I've read have been by them {Tony Visconti, Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick, Norman Smith} and the two "Behind the glass" books and "The mix engineers handbook" are packed solid with fantastic interviews. I love hearing about what they do from their own perspective.
But I never think about the person behind the engineering when I hear a song. They're strangely disconnected because I don't recognize any particular thing they may do. It's not like a recognizable drum pattern or guitar lick or bass doodle. They're a bit like the people who mix the ingredients in chocolate. I eat the bar and contentedly purr. I don't think about what the confectioner did, even if I could recognize it !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top