Working Class Audio

Larry Crane has been involved in music since the late seventies, when he self-released home recordings of his own music. Since then he’s been a musician, record producer/engineer/mixer, Tape Op Magazine founder and editor, book editor, studio owner, archivist, disc jockey, small label owner and even a record distributor employee.From 1994 to 1997, Crane ran Laundry Rules Recording, a home studio in his basement in Portland, where he recorded artists that include Versus, Stephen Malkmus and Cat Power. Since 1997, Crane has owned and run Jackpot! Recording Studio, Inc., a busy mid-sized studio in Portland, where he has worked with artists such as Sleater-Kinney, The Joggers, The Decemberists, Jenny Lewis, M. Ward, The Go-Betweens, Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, The Thermals, Stephen Malkmus, Quasi, The Portland Cello Project, Jason Lytle and Richmond Fontaine.Crane has spoken on and

You gotta love this guy. I asked him for a bio and I got this....."I hate bios. Bios suck. For more information about me you can visit my website at http://www.robotlemon.com/"So in an effort to have a little bit more info here's this....  F. Reid Shippen is a New Jersey-born, Nashville-based, highly motivated, completely caffeinated multiple Grammy® award-winning producer/engineer/mixer.Matt and Reid talk family, work/life balance, his power supply to his SSL, interns and much more. Listen in and enjoy.Happy Thanksgiving to my American audience! -Matt

Bill Simpkins started in a music career by teaching guitar at the age of 16. In the early 1990s, he started recording his own projects and other bands mostly in the local hardcore punk or straight-edge metal scene with some ADATs and a Mackie mixer. He then worked for several years at Binary Recording Studio with regional bands, eclectic audio projects, orchestras and films. In 2001, Bill graduated with a degree in Mathematics and became a software engineer but still did audio part-time. In 2011 he created Alpenglow Sound Studios in the downstairs of his house and has been mostly mixing and recording local/remote artists and doing part-time software engineering.Bill may be best known for his blog titled "aediaries" that aims to present highly-filtered information and useful philosophies for those who don't want to sift through endless forum posts and opinions.He enjoys climbing, snowboarding and surfing. He sings and plays guitar in the heavy metal band "Slavemason".Some of the artists Bill has worked wi

John Vanderslice (born in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer.He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, and Tiny Telephone Oakland, Bay Area analog recording studios.In 10 full-length albums, and 5 remix records and EPs, Vanderslice’s songwriting is characterized by deeply personal and political lyrics and the use of experimental analog recording techniques. His declared musical influences are diverse, ranging from Neutral Milk Hotel and Radiohead to Public Enemy and Henry Cowell. He has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Mark Kozelek, St. Vincent, and John Darnielle.He is currently a full-time producer and has worked with The Mountain Goats, Teen Daze, Spoon, Strand Of Oaks and Sophie Hunger.Matt and John sit down for a chat in Tiny Telephone studio A where they discuss borrowing money, the opening of Tiny Telepho

Matt Wallace is an American record producer. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and has been producing professionally since the early 1980s. He is best known for his work with Faith No More, Maroon 5, O.A.R., The Replacements, and Train.Wallace has produced some of Faith No More’s most iconic recordings, including We Care a Lot, their debut album on Mordam Records. He produced and mixed their breakthrough album, The Real Thing, which featured the hit song, “Epic.” He produced Angel Dust, named the #1 most influential album of all time by Kerrang!. In 2015, he joined the band again to co-mix their album, Sol Invictus. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hard Rock Album chart.He produced albums for The Replacements (Don’t Tell A Soul), Paul Westerberg (14 Songs) and John Hiatt (Perfectly Good Guitar). He co-produced the debut Juno-nominated album for Canadian singer

Piper Payne is a Mastering Engineer at Coast Mastering (formerly Michael Romanowski Mastering) in San Francisco. Piper is the Vice President of the SF Chapter of the Recording Academy and she Co-Chairs the SF Producers and Engineers Wing. She also serves on the Education Committee. In addition she is an active member of the AES and the Women's Audio Mission, as well as being the CEO of Giving Stage. Piper is an audio educator and lectures often about mastering and recording. She is also a first-call for large venue concert and classical recordings.Piper began her career with a BFA in Audio from the University of Michigan, continuing her Graduate education in Audio at the University of Stavanger in Norway. Piper has apprenticed under some of the best Mastering and audio mentors in the world, including Bob Katz in Orlando and Michael Romanowski in San Francisco. Piper moved to San Francisco after working at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada as the Senior Audio Associate in a work-study program that had her cl

Eli Crews has been recording since the early-'90s, when he started making weirdo fractured music on 4-track machines, hugely inspired by The Residents and early Devo. At the time he was also a very active musician, playing guitar and bass in a zillion and a half San Francisco bands. Over the course of making a few albums at small studios owned by Myles Boisen and Kyle Statham, he became inspired to pursue recording himself. Already being part of a vibrant music community, it was easy to find musicians and bands to practice his skills on. Things have luckily come a long way since then. Artists Eli has had the enormous fortune to work with, either in the studio or onstage, include tUnE-yArDs, ?uestlove, Yoko Ono, Kathleen Hanna/The Julie Ruin, Yuka Honda/Cibo Matto, Sean Ono Lennon/The GOASTT, Yo La Tengo, Laurie Anderson, Marc Ribot, Deerhoof, WHY?, Son Lux, Colin Stetson, Mike Watt, Erase Errata, Scott Amendola, Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Fred Frith, Ben Goldberg, Nels Cline (Wilco), Greg Cohen (Masada/Tom

Eric Valentine, is a record producer, who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride. He subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Taking Back Sunday, Nickel Creek, Queens of the Stone Age, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, The All-American Rejects, Persephone’s Bees, and Slash, among others.Eric chats with Matt about Undertone Audio, DIY acoustics, recording Dave Grohl & Dennis Chambers plus working his ass off and the importance of bringing your A-game. Moto the Bulldog makes an appearance by snoring during the interview.Barefoot Recording (Eric's Studio)Undertone Audio 

Greg Wurth is a Grammy Nominated, Gold & Platinum award-winning producer, working as Manager and Chief Engineer at L.A.’s Mothership Studio and Patagonia Studio. His credits range from Steve Vai and Tony MacAlpine to Tracii Guns to Jim Florentine & Don Jamieson, 2Cellos and Mary J Blige. Greg has been Steve Vai’s Engineer for 10 years and spends much his time  in the “Harmony Hut” studio in Encino, CA where Greg and Steve currently do all of Vai’s projects.“I grew up in southern San Diego. My parents were big fans of music and introduced me to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin early on. I used to collect cassettes & CD’s in the early ’90s and eventually I became interested enough to play an instrument, so I bought a guitar. I took lessons for a few years and had some bands but I realized that it wasn’t a natural thing for me. I eventually figured out that I was meant to produce and engineer music.”Matt and Greg chat about working for Steve Vai and what he's learned from working with Vai over the years,

Kim Rosen grew up in the western Massachusetts town of Northampton. Known for its amazing college music scene, the town and surrounding area is infamous for spawning such ground-breaking acts as Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and Buffalo Tom…just to name a few.Kim realized early-on that music was a driving force in her life. She poured herself into the local music scene while searching out a way to carve a path for herself. It was in the summer of 2001 that a friend turned her on to a mastering studio in NJ that was looking for an intern. Kim jumped at the opportunity, moved to NJ and began her journey with West West Side Music.After a couple of years in production, training and assisting in sessions, Kim was given the opportunity to take on her own mastering projects. While engineering at West West Side Kim racked up a few hundred mastering credits including notable projects from Jeremy Enigk, Franz Ferdinand, Dashboard Confessional and La Dispute.In 2009 Kim dove in head-first and made

Bird and Egg studio owner Nino Moschella is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer, and producer, who has been professionally engineering and producing for 15 years (though his interest in record-making started nearly 25 years ago). Born into a musical family, Nino began playing drums at the age of 6 when his father asked him to keep time on the snare drum at a band rehearsal after the band’s drummer failed to show. At that point, Nino was hooked and in time added vocals, guitar, bass, and keyboard to his repertoire.Moschella opened Bird and Egg in 2009. The studio has thrived and become a favorite of many of the Bay Area’s top musicians and singers. Moschella has had the opportunity to have supported the creation of a vastly diverse range of music for artists including, The late Skip Pitts (Issac Hayes Guitar player), Dennis Coffey, Chief Xcel of Blackalicious, Ledisi, Bernard Purdie, Laurie Lewis, Galactic, Ladybug Mecca (Digable Planets), Ashling Cole

John Greenham has had a love affair with mastering for over 20 years, starting in San Francisco at Rocket Lab in the mid-90s, and currently in Los Angeles where he re-located to in 2012 to work at Infrasonic Sound in Echo Park alongside Pete Lyman and Jeffrey Ehrenberg. John has earned several awards over the course of his career including Los Tigres Del Norte: Historias Que Contar – Grammy Winner 2006 (Mastering), Detalles Y Emociones – Grammy Winner 2007 (Mastering), Tu Noche Con…Los Tigres Del Norte – Grammy Winner 2009 (Mastering) Omar Sosa: Ceremony – Echo Jazz Award Big Band Album of the Year 2011 (Mixing, Mastering)John’s nominations include Sistema Bomb – Electro-Jarocho – Nominated for a Latin Grammy 2013 (Mastering), Los Cojolites – Sembrando Flores – Nominated for a Latin Grammy 2013 (Mixing, Mastering), Omar Sosa – Calma – Nominated for a Latin Grammy 2011 (Mixing, Mastering

Daniel Cantor is an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of music and Teaches music production in the Songwriting Department and Music Productions and Engineering Department. Dan in 2015 received Berklee’s prestigious Fly Grant for teaching innovation and with that grant brought 2 male and 2 female outspoken Muslim Hip-Hop artists from Iraq, Syria, Jamaica and London to the Berklee campus. The artists came to teach, collaborate and perform with students and do work shops in over 25 classes discussing gender and religion in Hip-Hop, protest music, the nuances of teaching hip-hop at a music school, navigating Artist identity, Hip-hop production, humor, protest and the complex roles and choices facing of Arab and Arab Americans performers.Originally Dan was a self producing artist in his own right w the band Hummer(on Accurate records) Dan became seduced by the role of the producer. Dan and his Studio Notable Productions have now produced many 100’s of albums f

Sean McLaughlin loves a lot of things, but his two favorite things are his wife and recording/mixing songs. After working in Los Angeles for the early part of the 2000s with some notable producers (Andy Johns, Jimbo Barton, Carmen Rizzo) and artists (Rush, Elliott Smith, Marilyn Manson, Death Row Records) Sean returned to Boston in 2004 to open his own studio, 37’ Productions. Since opening his studio Sean has been working on projects and with artists both regionally and nationally. Some of the artists with whom he has plied his trade are Matchbox Twenty, Queensryche, Dirty Vegas, Sarah Blacker, Kristen Merlin, Rafael Moreira, and Dark New Day, as well as ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, MTV, and ESPN. In 2013, Sean had the honor of being named Producer of the Year by the New England Music Awards. Since the beginning of 2013, he has mixed over 500 songs. In 2014 he authored Mixing with iZotope, a comprehensive mixing guide for beginner to intermedi

Warren Huart is an English music producer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He has played a fundamental part in the creation of many platinum-selling and billboard soaring albums, as well as the development of many of today’s most successful artists’ careers. He also has the Produce Like A Pro video series, which offers recording tutorials to beginners as well as Spitfire Music, a one-stop music house focusing on licensing music for film and tv.Warren is known for his hard work ethic, positive attitude and respect for the artist’s vision. Many of his long term relationships have turned into close friendships. With over 20 years of experience in the ever-expanding music industry (record production, engineering, mixing, and songwriting), as well his extensive knowledge of both modern and vintage musical equipment and instruments, Warren manages to create the most diverse sound around.Warren and Matt talk about vintage gear, work-life balance, commutes, kids and populous p

Catherine Vericolli lives in a recording studio, or rather her studio has taken over most of her residence since its beginnings in 2005. As an owner, engineer, and occasional tech at Fivethirteen Recording in Phoenix, AZ, she is dedicated to keeping the traditional analog recording process alive in the desert. Going on a decade of being in business, Fivethirteen has grown out of its local musician homestead roots into a stop-off for touring nationals and international bands, guest engineers, and home for the occasional film score. Added on in 2010, Fivethirteen’s mixing suite has become one of Arizona’s premier mixing destinations, and with the installation of an RND 5088 in it’s tracking control room during the summer of 2013, Catherine has since taken on the studio’s management position full time. She also coedits and writes for Pink Noise Mag (pinknoisemag.com), an online pro audio publication dedicated to increasing the diversity and intellectual tradition of the practice of record mak

Mark Rubel is Co-Director of Education and Instructor at The Blackbird Academy, an intensive recording school at famed Blackbird Studios in Nashville, TN. Since 1980, Mark has made about a zillion recordings at his Pogo Studio in Champaign, IL (currently reopening in Nashville), including such artists as Allison Krauss, Jay Bennett, Ludacris, Hum, Adrian Belew, Melanie, Fall Out Boy, Duke Special, and many others.! !Mark has taught audio, music business and other subjects at the college level since 1985, and presents audio panels and workshops for various schools and professional organizations around North America. He writes occasionally for recording magazines, including his Tape Op interviews with Les Paul and Terry Manning, with more coming soon. Mark also works as an audio consultant and legal expert witness. His band Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets has been rocking East Central Illinois and beyond for 35 years and

Joe Barresi has produced, engineered, and mixed some of the most important hard rock, metal, and punk bands of the last 15 years including Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Bad Religion, The Melvins, Skunk Anansie, Turbonegro, and Clutch.Although widely respected for his abilities as an engineer (one writer wrote “If you don’t generally think of sound production as an art form, you don’t know Joe Barresi”), Joe is first and foremost a musician. He started playing guitar when he was 7 and played in local bands in New York and in Florida. He studied classical guitar, piano, and music theory at the University of South Florida and the University of Miami. Joe also studied engineering and spent hundreds of hours recording local bands, developing patience and understanding for what goes on in the studio.A trip to the West Coast inspired Joe to move to Los Angeles where he began working his way up the ladder by assisting at numerous local studios. In time, he engineered for many well-

Myles Boisen has enjoyed a 35-year career in recording, beginning as the head instructor at one of the country’s first accredited university-level recording studio programs. With his roots in the punk rock/ D.I.Y. recording scene of the late 1970’s, Myles has avoided the world of major labels and top-dollar studios, choosing instead to pursue affordable and top-quality recording from his Oakland CA. Guerrilla Recording/ Headless Buddha mastering complex for the past 20 years.Boisen’s articles and reviews over a ten-year span at Electronic Musician magazine were known for fiercely high standards, and a no-nonsense attitude that made him many friends among recordists and readers, as well as a few enemies in the corporate pro audio world! Along the way there have been Grammy nominations, film soundtracks with David Lynch and composer Fred Frith, and sessions and gigs with a who’s who of the avant-garde, jazz, out-rock and blues worlds (Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, Nina Hagen, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Kronos String

Allen Farmelo has begun to call himself a “recordmaker”.”We all do everything these days,” he says, “and the old terms like producer, engineer, mixer, carry so many assumptions that aren’t really accurate these days. They have their roots in a much more ordered hierarchy that’s rarely true today.” As a record maker, Allen has worked intimately with everyone from Ian Gillan of Deep Purple to The Cinematic Orchestra. Allen has also worked with a slew of rather huge pop artists that he doesn’t put on his discography because, as he puts it, “Fattening up one’s discography with incidental big-name sessions doesn’t tell the real story. I just put the stuff on there that’s really got my fingerprints all over it. That way people know what I’m truly inclined make.” Restlessly pushing for the return of high fidelity as a popular interest, fighting to raise the female participation in our field beyond 5% with his publication Pink Noise (co-edited with Catherine Vericolli), writing classic essays about recordin