George Y. Massenburg

George Y. Massenburg was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised between there and Macon, Georgia. Keenly interested in music, electronics and sound recording at an early age, he was working part-time both in the recording studio and in an electronics laboratory at 15 years of age.

As a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, he left and never returned.

He designed, authored and presented the 1972 AES paper on the Parametric Equalizer and is regularly published in professional journals and trade magazines worldwide

He was chief engineer of Europa Sonar Studios in Paris, France in 1973 and 1974, and also did freelance engineering and equipment design in Europe during those years.

He chartered an electronics company, GML, Inc., in 1982 to produce equipment as needed for specific recording applications. Some early ideas' time had come - notably that of 'Parametric Equalization' but also seminal features of third and fourth generation automation systems for recording studios. More recently introduced devices, such as the GML 2032 Mic Pre and Parametric EQ, have been in development, on and off, for 20 years. Currently the company manufacturers this, as well as the GML Automation System, the High Resolution Topology line-level mixing console, and the GML Microphone Preamplifier. GML also consults and provides independent design for several major audio electronics manufacturers.

Individually or collaboratively, he has participated in over two hundred record albums during the past 30 years.

He has designed, built and managed several recording studios, notably "ITI" Studios in Huntsville, Maryland and "The Complex" in Los Angeles. He has in addition, contributed acoustical and architectural designs to many others, including "Skywalker Sound" and "The Site" in Marin County.

He is currently Adjunct Professor of Recording Arts and Sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and visiting lecturer at UCLA and USC in Los Angeles, California and MTSU in Murfreesboro Tennessee.

He has been working to qualify extended resolution and bandwidth as a goal of modern professional digital recording standards work, and has worked unceasingly to improve analog-digital-analog analysis and conversion methods. He and GML, Inc. are currently researching extended automated work-surfaces, high resolution graphical interfaces, extensible network automation for audio production environments, and automation data interchange standards.

George Massenburg's engineering and producing credits include Billy Joel, Kenny Loggins, Journey, Madeleine Peyroux, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Lyle Lovett, Aaron Neville, Little Feat, Michael Ruff, Toto, The Dixie Chicks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Linda Ronstadt, among others (see the discography page for a more complete list). He has been nominated many times for the non-classical engineering Grammy (including a nomination in 2001 for the Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Time*Sex*Love"), for Record Of The Year in several years, and has won Grammys as producer for Linda Ronstadt's 1996 "Dedicated To The One I Love" and another for Best Engineered Non-Classical Record in 1990, for Linda Ronstadt's, "Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind." In 1998 he received the Grammy for Technical Achievement, one of only four such awards presented in the history of NARAS. He also won the Academy of Country Music award for Record Of The Year in 1988 (for "The Trio"). In 1989, he received the Mix Magazine TEC Awards for Producer and Engineer Of The Year (for Little Feat), as well as Engineer Of The Year Award (for Linda Ronstadt) in 1991, and 1992 (for Lyle Lovett).

He currently resides in Williamson County, Tennessee