Barry Rudolph - Recording Engineer
The Corrs, Enrique Iglesias, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robbie Nevil, Hall and Oates, Rod Stewart, Ray Charles, James Last, Jon Bon Jovi Paul Young, The Beach Boys
Tell us a bit about your work, what have you worked on recently?
I mostly mix records and I just finished an album for a young artist name Bre Morgan for an indie label called Global Records out Florida. I'm now mixing songs for a Mid-west Rock band called Room For Gray.
Give us a little backround on your career: How did you get involved with music?
I had been a drummer in a Rock band during high school so I always had a love for music. Later in college, I worked nights in various aerospace electronics companies here in So. California. I was a production test technician mostly working on electronic systems and computers for NASA.
Did you have any education or training in electronics or audio engineering?
Well the A.A. and B.S. degrees. My recording studio engineering started with the owner/operator of that first studio I ever went into. It was a mentoring situation with a Jazz drummer and excellent recording engineer.
What made you choose a career in sound engineering?
With my B.S. degree in hand, I fully expected to move up at the company I was already working at but instead they fired me! I had been hanging around a recording studio in my home town and was immediately in love. Electronics+Music---works for me!
What has been your breakthrough in the business?
I've had many 'breakthroughs'. My first one might be my first #1 hit record way back in 1973. I've worked on about 40 gold and platinum records and three Grammy winners.
You worked with a lot of famous international artist. Is there any occurence, which you remember particularly gladly?
Well when I worked with Germany's James Last, I got to record strings at the famed Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft studios in Hamburg. The assisting engineer said (when I asked him what kind of microphones he had to record the strings with) "ha we ONLY Neumann U87s---we have 50 of them!
Later when I made a rough mix of the day's work, the producer asked for a cassette copy for his Walkman.The assistant made the copy and I check it on the Walkman only to find that the left and right channels were flipped--backwards. I asked the assistant about this and he was very adamant that the problem was with the Walkman and NOT with the studio's Studer cassette machine. I
thought hmmm and let it drop.
The next day, the assistant came to me immediately to apologize---that I was correct--the channels were indeed flipped and had been that way for FOUR YEARS! He added that nobody in all those years had every noticed the problem.
Which was your favorite project?
I have many. I suppose Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, Hall and Oates and many more.
In the past years large changes arose as a result of the increasing digitization of sound. Which changes did it bring. What are the advantages?
Well I am able to have a studio now and mix records here at my house! For better or worst digital has been a boon to the process of music production. I don't miss rewinding an analog tape deck!
You are a user of RND Plug-Ins. How are they integrated in the creative process of a project?
I use DYNAM-IZER for especially difficult dynamic control problems. I also use UNIQUEL-IZER when other EQs just don't have enough.
Any special hints or techniques you want to share with the readers?
Only to always leave a mix only when it is the best you can make it and come back again and again (if you have to) and make it even better.