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Ron's Corner

I am not sure how or why I became part of the music industry. It was a twist of fate, I suppose. All my life, I loved listening to music. My Mother's piano playing and my Father's loud tube Fisher amp with Wharfdale speakers blaring out the 1912 Overture was obviously one catalyst. My brothers and I had garage bands back then. We tried to master the playing of Yes or King Crimson, but could only give justice (and even that is a stretch) to Black Sabbath's Iron Man. I would take my brother's Fuzz box and change the values of the resistor/capacitor networks to get different sounds. Sometimes it worked - sometimes it blew up. My father worked for Ampex Corporation at the time and I remember as an early teen going to his company and soldering little circuits together.

Just out of High School and after some college, the next thing I knew I was aligning tape machines for some of the world's greatest artists and engineers. It was 1976, at a studio in Hollywood, California. I was hired as a tech to keep the newly acquired analog 24 track tape machines going and make sure the consoles recorded everything they were supposed to. I knew this was going to be a fun and exciting career when the owner of the company asked me to roll a cart into the studio where Dean Martin was singing. The cart contained an ice bucket filled with ice, a few glasses and a plethora of Cognac and Brandy types that Dean was to enjoy. Dean was such a gentlemen and gracious of the service. It was the beginning of my career working in studios from Hollywood, California to the fjords of Norway.

I never really planned it. It just fell from the heavens. Ever since then, I have stayed true and devoted to this business, working in some of the biggest studios and trying to keep my sanity, while living 600 miles away from the business. But then again, maybe there is nothing sane or insane about life. It is just what it is - full of different turns and passages. It is really awesome, even the not so good times have their place in life, I believe.

Since then, I have spent many years watching the music industry morph and go from 16 track analog tape machines to a hundred plus tracks using computerized digital recording. The industry has changed in ways that make one's head spin. I remember in the late 70's, I was hired to work on 'The Doors anthology' session. Back then my job was to cut and splice sections of the recording tape of Jim Morrison's vocal. It would literally take hours to remove the sound of a bottle dropping to the floor or a glass breaking, or worse yet a yawn by Jim himself. I would cut out these parts and then take splicing tape and try to make one complete cohesive sentence, without the pauses, momentarily lapses of reason and other sounds that would overwhelm or bore the listener. It took months to do back then, where today it would take a few hours on any digital audio workstation (Protools, Steinberg, Cake walk, etc). Yes, so much has changed.

CD's and the concept of them were not even thought up yet. People still bought Records and Cassette tapes and put up with the 65 dB signal to noise ratio. Yes, Dolby labs helped out the situation a bit, but noise was still an issue. Well today, noise in almost all gear manufactured is not really an issue. As a matter of fact, many artists and engineers find ways to simulate the old 3rd harmonic distortion and noise sound of yesterday. Wow, in circles the industry goes, huh?

My all time top ten favorite albums (if you care). If I were stranded on an island, these are the albums I would hope I had with me.
1) Spocks Beard 'Snow'. By far this is my favorite album of all times.
2) King Crimson 'Lizard'
3) Cat Steven's 'Tea for the Tillerman'
4) Moody Blues 'To our Children's children children'
5) Joni Mitchell 'Hijira'
6) Passport 'Looking Thru'
7) Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds'
8) Beatles 'Rubber Soul'
9) Yes 'Tales of Topographic Oceans'
10) PFM 'photo's of Ghosts'

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David's Corner

Ron's Corner