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I was extremely fortunate to have a father who was well known and well respected in the recording studio business. In the spring of 1968 I was going to college and he helped me get a job working for Howard Holzer. His company, HAECO, was building the recording consoles for Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss's A&M Records in Hollywood, CA. Howard's company also built custom disc cutting systems, one of which went to A&M's Studio for their new mastering engineer Bernie Grundman. After serving two years in the US Army and working for Western Electric, I was hired in 1972 by A&M Studios Chief Engineer, Larry Levine to fill a spot on the technical staff. The staff was headed by Roy Dunann who I still feel to this day knew more about every aspect of recording and disc mastering than anybody else I've known. We had a great staff of recording engineers and technical staff at A&M. Quality was always number one from the records we recorded and mastered to the albums that went into the stores. While studio manager at A&M Studios in the early 1980's, I was on the RIAA engineering committee representing A&M Records. I've been a voting member of NARAS and a member of the Audio Engineering Society since then as well. When Roy Dunann retired in 1985, I took over his position as head of R&D and technical services for A&M Mastering.
I started teaching technical classes associated with recording at the University of Southern California in 1984. The School of Music started a science degree in music for those music students who were interested in recording. I taught in the program until 2004 and some of my best friends and associates are all former students that I had in the program. It was a wonderful experience and my deepest appreciation to the director of the program that hired me, Richard McIlvery.
After more than twenty-three years at A&M, my good friends Bernie Grundman and his partner Karl Bischof asked me to leave A&M to join them at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. Bernie, Karl and Bernie's wife Claire had great visions for the future of Grundman Mastering and wanted me to be part of it. They are the only ones I would leave my position at A&M for. We all strive for excellence and I have the creative latitude to help make that happen. I joined BGM Hollywood in 1996. In the following two and one half years we built a mastering studio in Tokyo, Japan and a new facility in Hollywood. Our new endeavor for Straight Ahead Records has created another technical challenge that keeps the passion and juices for better sound flowing.
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