Famous Sound Engineers?

synergy

Senior Member
We all know the famous drummers and guitarists, there are some pretty famous techs out there.

Does anyone know of any famous sound engineers? You know the go-to-guy or gal that all the big names use when or tour?

Just wondered
 
Alan Parsons, Mutt Lang, Brian Eno, Glyn Johns, Phil Ramone... Some of these guys were both engineers and producers. I started really learning more when I got into recording. I guess if it's important to you, you'll start picking up on who's who in the industry.

EDIT: oops! You said tour. I guess you're right I know a lot of sound guys who do this work but not one of them are household names.
 
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Roger Glover.
Martin Birch.
Robert "Mutt" Lange.
Tom Allon.
Trent Reznor.
 
Some of the de-facto genius sound engineers are the guys that made the "wall of sound" for the greatful dead in the 70's/80''s. They pushed the envelope of what was possible, and uped the ante for outdoor and arena sound quality.
 
MediocreFunkyBeat.






......................

Ahahahahaha. Love it.

Actually one of the big 'go to' guys is Big Mick Hughes. He's been doing the sound for Metallica since the mid-80's and is still doing it. Whilst they may lack a lot of their former bite in the studio; they're still a great, great live show. Obviously Alan Parsons was one of the best studio guys of the 70's and people like Joe Boyd was a huge producer in the late 60's to 70's.
 
Ok here it is:

"The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead's live performances by legendary audio engineer and LSD chemist Owsley "Bear" Stanley.
music_phases9.jpg

The Wall of Sound fulfilled the band's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system."

"The Wall of Sound consisted of eighty-nine 300-watt McIntosh model MC 2300 solid state and three 350-watt McIntosh model MC3500 vacuum tube amplifiers, driving the JBL speakers with a total of 26,400 watts RMS. This system projected high quality playback at six hundred feet with acceptable sound projected for a quarter of a mile, at which point wind interference degraded it. The Wall of Sound was the largest portable sound system ever built."

"The output was measured with an output capability of a clean 5hz at 120db"
grateful_small.jpg
 
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Eddie Kramer recorded all of kiss' "live" cds. He's also worked with Led Zeppelin, Triumph, , Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones,
 
George Martin of the Beatles. Mainly a producer but had so much to do with the sound and the recordings. He and his son Giles re-did most of the Beatles music for Love, The Cirque du Soleil show. His son also does Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, and INXS
The Beatles also used George Emerick and Norman smith.
 
OF course, Gil Moore, drummer of triumph owns "metalworks" studios in Canada. As a sound engineer, he has won many awards, along with his studio.
 
Not a surprise that I would mention Terry Brown, who worked with Rush from Rush(1975) until Signals(1982). Just a master on Moving Pictures(1981).

Though, you have to give Paul Northfield credit for working with TB. He was an integral part of Rushs' sound on Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. And later on on albums Grace Under Pressure(1984), A Show of Hands(1989), Different Stages(1998), and Vapor Trails(2002).
 
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Ok here it is:

"The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead's live performances by legendary audio engineer and LSD chemist Owsley "Bear" Stanley.
music_phases9.jpg

The Wall of Sound fulfilled the band's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system."

"The Wall of Sound consisted of eighty-nine 300-watt McIntosh model MC 2300 solid state and three 350-watt McIntosh model MC3500 vacuum tube amplifiers, driving the JBL speakers with a total of 26,400 watts RMS. This system projected high quality playback at six hundred feet with acceptable sound projected for a quarter of a mile, at which point wind interference degraded it. The Wall of Sound was the largest portable sound system ever built."

"The output was measured with an output capability of a clean 5hz at 120db"
grateful_small.jpg

Just........................



WOA!!!!


*Otherwise speechless*
 
After reading this post I decided to start asking around to see if anyone I knew could name a famous LIVE sound engineer. I asked musicians and others in the music biz as well as those who are not.

Most could name at least one or more RECORDING engineers but NO ONE could name a LIVE sound engineer.

Interesting. Aside from Eddie Kramer, whom I'd known about through studio recordings, NO other name seemed to pop up.

So it seems LIVE sound engineering is a thankless job...Go thank your sound guy right now!
 
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Roy Thomas Baker; worked with Queen most notably, and more recently recorded The Smashing Pumpkins 'Zeitgeist' album. There's sections of interview with him on the 'Behind the Zeitgeist' DVD and he has a very organic way of working with artists, being open to all ideas and really trying to make the Band bring what THEY want out of themselves rather than what HE wants out of them. If I ever 'made it' in Music with a band he'd be number one on my wish-list of Engineers/Producers to work with.

Hope everyone's well,

Kev
 
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