George Y. Massenburg (born

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

c. 1947) is a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

award-winning

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

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. Working principally in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Nashville, and

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

, Massenburg is widely known for submitting a paper to the Audio Engineering Society in 1972 regarding the

parametric equalizer Equalization, or simply EQ, in sound recording and reproduction is the process of adjusting the volume of different frequency bands within an audio signal. The circuit or equipment used to achieve this is called an equalizer. Most hi-fi eq ...

Career

At 15, Massenburg worked part-time both in the recording studio and in an electronics laboratory. He attended

Baltimore Polytechnic Institute The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a US public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational high school by the Baltimore City Council and the ...

and

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, majoring in electrical engineering. As a sophomore, he left the University and never returned. Massenburg authored a technical paper entitled "parametric equalization" which was presented at the 42nd convention of the

Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or product ...

in 1972.George Massenburg, May 1972
''Parametric Equalization''.
He is regularly published in professional journals and trade magazines worldwide. In 1973 and 1974, he was chief engineer of Studio Europa-Sonor in

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, and helped Gerhard Lehner install the expanded Neve 80 Series mixing console at

Barclay Records Barclay is a French Universal Music Group record label, originally owned by Eddie Barclay in 1953. Barclay previously established Riviera-LM Records in 1951. Eddie was a bandleader, pianist, producer and nightclub owner. With his wife and voc ...

studio on Avenue Hoche. During those years, Massenburg also did freelance engineering and equipment design in Europe. Massenburg participated (individually and collaboratively) in over four hundred record albums over the past 45 years. His work includes recordings of

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or EWF) is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Their music spans multiple genres, including jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling ba ...

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...

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, Toto,

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, Journey,

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Weather Report Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer Alphonse Mouzon a ...

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, and many more. He has designed, built and managed several recording studios, notably ITI Studios in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Blue Seas Recording in Baltimore, and The Complex in Los Angeles. In addition, he has contributed to the acoustical and architectural design of many other studios, including Skywalker Sound and The Site in Marin County, California.George Massenburg Labs
''About George''
Retrieved on May 26, 2015. Massenburg is also an Associate Professor of Sound Recording at the

Schulich School of Music The Schulich School of Music (also known as Schulich) is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, Rue Sherbrooke Ouest (555, Sherbrooke Street West). The faculty was named after the ...

at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and a Visiting Lecturer at the

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, the

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, the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston, and the

University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

in Memphis, TN.

GML

In 1982, Massenburg founded George Massenburg Labs (GML), an audio electronics company that has released console automation devices, analog signal processors, microphone preamplifiers and power supplies, all based on his original circuit designs. Among GML’s most venerable products is the GML 8200 Parametric Equalizer and the GML 8900 Dynamic Range Controller, which reacts to loudness like our ears do, rather than to voltage levels. GML also consults and does independent design for several major audio electronics manufacturers.

Awards and honors

He won the

Academy of Country Music The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller (songwriter), Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris ...

award for record of the year in 1988, the

Mix Magazine ''Mix'' magazine is a periodical, billing itself as "the world's leading magazine for the professional recording and sound production technology industry". The magazine is headquartered in New York City and distributed in 94 countries. "It was ...

TEC Awards The TEC Awards is an annual program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. The awards are given to honor technically innovative products as well as companies and individuals who have excelled in sound for television, film, recordings ...

for Producer and Engineer of the year in 1989, the TEC Awards Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Engineer of the year award in 1992. He won a

in 1996, and the Special Merit/

Technical Grammy Award The Technical Grammy Award is a Special Merit Grammy Award presented to individuals or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The award was first presented in 1994 to Dr. Thomas G. St ...

in 1998. In 2005, Massenburg was inducted into the

TECnology Hall of Fame The TEC Awards is an annual program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. The awards are given to honor technically innovative products as well as companies and individuals who have excelled in sound for television, film, recordings ...

for his 1969 invention of the ITI ME-230 Parametric Equalizer. In 2009, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music by Boston’s Berklee College of Music. In 2008 he received the AES Gold Medal.

Personal life

Massenburg married Carol "Cookie" Rankin in

Mabou, Nova Scotia Mabou (; ) is an unincorporated settlement in the Municipality of the County of Inverness on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The population in 2011 was 1,207 residents. It is the site of The Red Shoe pubBeinn Mhàbu ...

on July 27, 2001, when he was 54 and she 36.''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', Graeme Hamilton, July 28, 2001
''This is a great day for the Rankin Family''.
Retrieved on April 23, 2009. Rankin is one of the founding members of

the Rankin Family The Rankin Family (also known as The Rankins) are a Canadian musical family group from Mabou, Nova Scotia. The group has won many Canadian music awards, including 15 East Coast Music Awards, six Juno Awards, four Society of Composers, Authors, an ...

, a Celtic folk/country band from Cape Breton who were very popular in Canada during the 1990s. She and Massenburg live in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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and Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He has one son, Sam, an electronic musician and performer.

References

External links

George Massenburg official website

Face to Face with George Massenburg
*
George Massenburg Interview for the NAMM Oral History Program
January 17, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Massenburg, George Johns Hopkins University alumni American audio engineers Grammy Award winners Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American inventors 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers Engineers from Baltimore Engineers from Maryland Baltimore Polytechnic Institute alumni Academic staff of McGill University University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Southern California faculty Berklee College of Music faculty University of Memphis faculty