Charles Richard Plotkin (born September 8, 1942) is a

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

, best known for his work with

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Recording engineer

Plotkin has recorded, engineered, mastered and produced albums by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and many other artists, starting with The Floating House Band in 1972. Just before hooking up with Springsteen for the mixing of "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", Plotkin produced the critically acclaimed "Cocaine Drain" album by

The Cowsills The Cowsills are an American singing group from Newport, Rhode Island, six siblings noted for performing professionally and singing harmonies at an early age, later with their mother. The band was formed in early 1965 by brothers Bill Cowsill, B ...

. Among Plotkin's major achievements as an engineer, according to Springsteen official biographer Dave Marsh, was the mastering of Bruce Springsteen's ''

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...

'' album. Springsteen recorded the album as a set of demonstration tapes on an inexpensive home cassette recorder. According to Marsh, the task of turning the raw, unprocessed cassette tape (which had spent weeks in Springsteen's pants pocket) into a professional-sounding

vinyl LP The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and ...

was a daunting one, and a major technical accomplishment. He has been credited as a producer on several Springsteen albums.

Film and record producer

Plotkin was credited as producer for the 1995 movie ''

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meani ...

'

and produced the soundtrack albums for several films including '' Dead Man Walking (film), Dead Man Walking'', '' Vietnam, Long Time Coming'', ''

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

'', and ''

Jerry Maguire ''Jerry Maguire'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama sports film written, produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe; it stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, and Regina King. Produced in part by James L. Brooks, it was in ...

''.

Other appearances

Plotkin was also featured in the 1996 documentary '' Blood Brothers: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band'', which documented an

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...

recording session the preceding year.

External links

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Allmusic info AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

Living people 1942 births {{music-producer-stub