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Dear Don, it is my pleasure to sing your praises:
The biggest compliment I can pay a mastering engineer is knowing when to leave something alone:
In my opinion this skill takes the most self actualization for you are truly working for the betterment
of the music and not your ego. In my ten years of working with Don, he has only done what is necessary to
enhance the music and for this he has always won my respect and that of my clients. He has solved some
pretty sticky sonic situations with a cool head and a flawless knowledge of the equipment. You are in
good hands and good ears with Don Grossinger." |
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Doug Maxwell,
Media Right productions, New York |
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I've been running Swill Radio (a small independent record label) since 1983.
I've had records cut by a number of different people and none have really come
close to the quality of work done by Don Grossinger. Don is obviously someone who
treats the cutting of records as what it is- an art. The final product always sounds
as good as the master and most of the time,better. Perhaps quality isn't important nowadays,
but if you want your music to sound its best, I would heartily recommend Don Grossinger. Don is
also very sensitive to the material (and if he is able to deal with my bizarre recordings, he will
be able to deal with any recordings). In this age of digital reproduction, record cutting is certainly
becoming a lost art. Don Grossinger is an artist.
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Scott Foust
Swill Radio |
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| Don Grossinger has been our mastering engineer on all Desco & Soul Fire releases. As a producer of raw original funk it is always imperative that my records sound crisp and heavy and also have warm analog feel. My customers are all discerning funk enthusiasts and are all very demanding when it comes to how a record should sound. Don has always done an A+ job on all our records, taking any type of mix and making it sound incredible. My customers & I have always been 110% satisfied with Don's work and I would not ever consider mastering a record with anyone else. |
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Phillip Lehman
Co Founder Desco Records
CEO Soul Fire Records |
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"What Don brings to my projects can not be found anywhere else. He brings his ears.
Ears which, over the last 20 years, have been used to mold and sculpt some of the most influential
music on the planet. When he masters a track he draws on the cumulation of all the music he has been
part of."
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Jay Miceli
NutekK Labs
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| A visit with the master -- Don Grossinger. Let me tell you. There is nothing like hearing your music once it has been professionally prepared for release. By that I mean, once it has been mastered.
Kassy and I ventured out to Dobb's Ferry, Westchester recently for an afternoon in Don Grossinger's personal studio. We had with us the final mixes of the new, still untitled, Native album. Those mixes, by Craig Randall, are superb but all mixes must go through a further process before they are sent to be manufactured. That process is mastering and it's a bit of a mystery to most folks.
To be over-simplistic, the mastering engineer takes your mixes that you have labored lovingly over and adds that extra bit of sparkle to it that you didn't know was missing. He also makes sure that there is a uniformity to all your tracks so that there is not a disconcerting change in sound as a disc plays from track to track.
Some mastering guys like to, in the words of mastering guru Steve Hoffman, "Play God." This can take the form of EQ-ing and compressing your songs to the point where they sound nothing like the original mix. Don is old-school in the sense that he simply wants it to sound like the track you mixed, but even better than you could have dreamed. I must say, after listening to his work on many playback systems, from boombox to car-stereo, to my own rancid home stereo -- it sounds wonderful with a full soundstage and a lot of air underneath it. Lovely, just lovely. A real 'headphone album.'
We are especially pleased to have been able to work with someone of Don's calibre and reputation. I mentioned his work on SMiLE (my personal favorite album in, like, decades!) in my last blog. But his credits are literally staggering -- The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Springsteen, and many other giants as well as newer artists like Franz Ferdinand, Christina Aguilera, and many others. Watching him work so hard on our project was a real thrill.
I'm happy with the results and can't wait for the world to hear this album, truly a labor of love, years, tears, sweat, and (if I may be so bold) group-genius.
Being able to say these things, after such a long process, is the best Christmas present I could get. |
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Dave Thomas
Indie Producer
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