Bernie Grundman

From an early age, Bernie Grundman was passionate about music and the heightened experience high quality recordings could add. He was a typical audiophile, spending most of his money on records and equipment and hanging out at the local audio shop on Saturdays.

After starting in professional audio at a studio in Phoenix, Arizona, he was fortunate enough to move to Hollywood and become chief engineer at Contemporary Records. He had always admired their sound as the cleanest most natural recordings, so this was a dream come true. After two years he had gained a big reputation in mastering, and was hired to head A&M's mastering department. He was there for 15 years throughout their most successful period. During this time he mastered most of the recordings of: Herb Alpert, Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Sergio Mendes, Carol King, Joe Cocker, Joni Mitchell . . . and the list goes on. In 1984 he opened his own studio, and to this day has maintained a prominent position in the music industry mastering hundreds of gold and platinum albums. Some of his major artists include: Michael Jackson, Prince, Mary J. Blige, Outcast, Jack Johnson . . . and other greats. He has also mastered almost all, or roughly 400 albums for the audiophile company Classic Records. For ten years he has also had a studio in Tokyo that masters many of the top artists in Asia. Bernie is a Grammy winner and has 13 Tec awards to his credit.

Bernie feels that a lot of his success comes from his technical staff. They have been able to improve existing equipment and build many proprietary components designed for exceptional quality. In 2005 he and partner Stewart Levine launched a new audiophile label called Straight Ahead Records aimed at optimized music and audio. He has come full circle from his beginnings as a listener and appreciator of audiophile recordings to pursuing and producing audiophile recordings.

Stewart Levine

Musician and producer Stewart Levine was born in the Bronx and is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied theory and met longtime friend and collaborator Hugh Masekela. In the mid ‘60s, the two created the Chisa record label, where they manifested their love of Third World artists and African rhythms. The 1968 hit record “The Promise of a Future”, which Masekela recorded and Levine produced, as well as the hit “Grazing in the Grass”, became breakthrough classics in the world music genre.

When Levine began his collaboration with the Jazz Crusaders, he built on his heavy percussive work developed with Masekela to produce most of the Crusaders ‘70s output. It was at this point in 1975 he brought original tapes to Bernie Grundman at A&M Studios at the recommendation of a valued opinion. Previously, vinyl acetates did not compare to the original tapes he had recorded in the studio, and he had been to about every other studio in town.

Bernie’s small mastering “suite” was, as Stewart says “the size of a postage stamp and I was less than impressed until I got home with my “ref” and for the very first time in my career, I had a “record” that sounded like my tapes. We have been working together ever since that day!”.

The Chisa label was eventually bought out by the Blue Thumb label, and Levine extended his career as an independent producer in jazz fusion with the Dixie Dregs, classic albums with blues legend B.B. King, and in the ‘80’s with U.K. neo-soul band Simply Red.

During countless hours in the studio, Stewart Levine and Bernie Grundman discovered that they shared a passion for Italian espresso and the great sounding records of the “Golden Age of Recording”: the late 1950’s. They would meet on Saturday mornings at Stewart’s home, drink fine coffee and talk endlessly about the beauty of the recordings made during this era. It is from these meetings that they finally decided to get together and try to create some “new” memorable moments where worthy music and great sound come together. To quote Stewart, “It is no coincidence that most great albums combine these two ingredients”.

Thomas “Beno” May is one of the secrets behind the magic heard in both Bernie Grundman Mastering productions and Straight Ahead Records recordings. Being that he builds & creates everything that is used from the ground up and seldom uses outside manufacturer’s products, shows that his standards hold beyond those in the scope of “brand name” produced recording and mastering gear. This approach came from a healthy history of learning from great minds coupled with a talent rarely seen in the area of electronics and recording.

In 1968, Beno’s father, a well respected gentleman engineer in the music industry, helped get him a job at Howard Holzer’s company HAECO. Beno assisted in the building of 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, Beno was hired in 1972 by A&M Studios Chief Engineer, Larry Levine, to fill a spot on the technical staff. Roy Dunann, “who Beno still feels to this day knew more about every aspect of recording and disc mastering than anybody else he’s known,” headed the staff at A&M. Beno recalls the great talent of the engineers and technical staff at A&M at that time. Quality was always number one from the recordings and mastering to the albums that went into the stores. In the early 1980’s, Beno was the A&M studio manager and represented A&M on the RIAA engineering committee. He’s been a voting member of NARAS and a member of the Audio Engineering Society ever since. When Roy Dunann retired in 1985, Beno took over his position as head of R&D and technical services for A&M Mastering.

Soon after in 1984, Beno began teaching technical classes associated with recording at the University of Southern California(USC). The School of Music initiated a science degree in music for those music students who were interested in recording. Beno taught in the program until 2004. Some of his best friends and associates are former students of his at USC. Teaching was a priceless experience for Beno and he is greatly appreciative to program director and his longtime friend, Richard McIlvery.

After more than twenty-three years at A&M, friends Bernie Grundman and partner Karl Bischof asked Beno 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 Beno to be part of it. Beno adds, “They are the only ones I would have left my position at A&M for.”

Scott Sedillo is also the other hemisphere of the technical department of Bernie Grundman Mastering along with Beno May. Often Scott is working on any number of analogue or digital tasks and has designed some of Straight Ahead Records secrets, as well. On weekends he is found on the sound engineering team for the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Scott is a man of many talents. But that started with a funny yet telling story when he was just 5 years old - the experiments started even then when his coveted “Chipmunk Christmas” album was being played on his Select-o-Matic record player, he placed a penny on the tone arm to improve the playback quality.From that point on, he was hooked on music, and audio equipment.