Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
And the Grammy for Engineering goes to....
Found this in the LA Times today. Anyone know this guy?
I posted the text as well as the link. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2174231.story Mark Recordings Are Seized at Engineer's Home Terry Howard, who won three Grammys last month for work with Ray Charles, is arrested after police find singer's master tapes. By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer A recording engineer who worked for Ray Charles for two decades and who won three Grammys last month for his work on the late singer's final album was arrested four days later after police pried open the door of his Burbank loft and found 300 original master recordings that belonged to Charles. Terry Howard, 48, was in custody Wednesday after his arrest Feb. 17, but his attorney, Steve Crom, said they would post bail today. A judge reduced it from $1 million to $100,000 this week because Howard had no criminal record. "These are recordings that he contractually and logically had every right to have in his possession," Crom said. A recording engineer, he said, often works at home. Los Angeles Police Det. Donald O. Hrycyk said the boxes of recordings carted out of Howard's home — which consisted of a bed, refrigerator and other amenities in a commercial property in a recording industry district — were not digitally recorded discs brought home for tinkering. The detective said the stacks of music included old reel-to-reel recordings of Charles and other artists whose work had been stored in the singer's library. "There were tapes that were stored in climate-controlled rooms at Ray Charles Enterprises, and they are so fragile that they need to be heated to be played or else they can be destroyed," Hrycyk said. "When we got to them, some of them were molding." Jerry Digney, Charles' former publicist and spokesman for his estate, said in a statement: "Whatever the outcome, Ray Charles Enterprises puts a high value on its assets, especially its master tapes, and will do its utmost to ensure their safety and proper handling along with protecting other irreplaceable valuables belonging to the late entertainer and to his estate." Howard's attorney and his credits describe him as an Ohio native, an Air Force veteran and a highly acclaimed technician in his field who not only had the trust of Charles for years but worked with Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac and Tom Jones. As one of several engineers who worked on Charles' "Genius Loves Company" album of all-star duets, released shortly after his death, Howard shared in the Grammys awarded for record of the year, album of the year and best-engineered non-classical recording. A source in the recording industry said Howard was "a guy they brought in when they needed him, a guy they trusted." Others in the Charles camp said the singer would call on "Mr. T" when he was working late nights at his famed RPM Studios on Washington Boulevard. "Ray had the key, and Howard would meet him, and they'd work on stuff, sometimes just them, but Ray couldn't see this guy was walking out with all this stuff," Hrycyk said. "And that would be pretty sad if that was the case." If that were the case, it would add a posthumous chapter to the betrayals of the singer, documented in the Oscar-nominated film "Ray," which showed that the iconic entertainer fought exploitation from his earliest days in the business because of his blindness. Charles died last summer at age 73 at his Beverly Hills home. Hrycyk said an associate of Howard's told Ray Charles Enterprises about the master recordings in Howard's loft, and police were notified. "When we got there, he wouldn't come to the door, but when we pried it open, he came out," the detective said. Crom and police said Howard had a flare-up last March with the leadership at Ray Charles Enterprises. That led to "someone at Ray Charles Enterprises wanting Howard to be less close to things," Crom said The attorney said that the filings in the case that have put the value of the items in excess of $8 million are "ridiculous" and are based on their value to a record company that could legitimately record, press and distribute them exclusively. But once that's done, the quality of every CD is as good as the master, he said, so after its release, its value is diminished. "Somebody is making a lot more of this than they should be," Crom said, as if this were "Babe Ruth's bat." Phil Ramone, a Grammy-winning producer who had worked with Charles, said that he did not know Howard but that the topic was ricocheting around the industry. "The value of these things would have been limited," Ramone said. "It's like having a Picasso. Sure, you could sell it, but everybody's going to know it, and if you try to make a lot of money off it, you're not going to get far." Police have not been able to catalog the items due to their fragility and the fact that many are unlabeled. Police also seized a tour travel box, used by touring concert bands for their gear, at Howard's residence that was labeled "Ray Charles Enterprises," Hrycyk said. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
My dad is an Ohio native and an Air Force Vet. But he has no ****ing
talent, so this ain't him!!! Anyway, I think this guy had a strange way of contributing to his IRA. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
In talking with some friends... it seems that someone at RCE kinda jumped the gun on this for at the moment an unknown reason. Turns out that there was well over a 20 year relationship between artist and recordist, that there was a reason for this 20+ year relationship [like Mr. Howard is an EXCELLENT engineer kind of a reason]... and there was less than no intent to steal anything from anyone when it came to these masters... or at least that's the word on the street in LA with people that know the other side of this debacle. Apparently the subject of this article did indeed live in his studio, hence the bed, refrigerator and "other amenities" [like a shower?]... the studio, not being your average piece of **** home studio, was "soundproof" [hence why he didn't answer the door but came out after they "pried it open"]. While the original article was obviously skewed by some publicist for the person or persons who were pulling the strings from RCE, the fact of the matter is that anyone who works on any "real" product should be very worried right about now... imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... and all of a sudden the Gestapo is kicking in the door? I know I have "masters" at my house, as well as at my office... many of these masters are indeed owned by record companies who didn't want to store them/"outtake reels" at the end of the project, and the studio didn't want to store them at the end of the project... so in many cases, I got stuck with them. Some of these masters have the work of dead people on them... after this bullsh*t I'm going to figure out how to send them back to the labels/artists/anyone in the fukking world but me!!!
__________________
Fletcher http://www.mercenary.com Roscoe Ambel once said: Pro-Tools is to audio what fluorescent is to light |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
I thought this story was a bit fishy. What was he going to do with these
"stolen" masters anyway? Fletcher wrote: Mark Stebbeds Wrote: Found this in the LA Times today. Anyone know this guy? I posted the text as well as the link. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2174231.story Mark Recordings Are Seized at Engineer's Home snip happens "These are recordings that he contractually and logically had every right to have in his possession," Crom said. A recording engineer, he said, often works at home. Los Angeles Police Det. Donald O. Hrycyk said the boxes of recordings carted out of Howard's home — which consisted of a bed, refrigerator and other amenities in a commercial property in a recording industry district — snip happens "When we got there, he wouldn't come to the door, but when we pried it open, he came out," the detective said. In talking with some friends... it seems that someone at RCE kinda jumped the gun on this for at the moment an unknown reason. Turns out that there was well over a 20 year relationship between artist and recordist, that there was a reason for this 20+ year relationship [like Mr. Howard is an EXCELLENT engineer kind of a reason]... and there was less than no intent to steal anything from anyone when it came to these masters... or at least that's the word on the street in LA with people that know the other side of this debacle. Apparently the subject of this article did indeed live in his studio, hence the bed, refrigerator and "other amenities" [like a shower?]... the studio, not being your average piece of **** home studio, was "soundproof" [hence why he didn't answer the door but came out after they "pried it open"]. While the original article was obviously skewed by some publicist for the person or persons who were pulling the strings from RCE, the fact of the matter is that anyone who works on any "real" product should be very worried right about now... imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... and all of a sudden the Gestapo is kicking in the door? I know I have "masters" at my house, as well as at my office... many of these masters are indeed owned by record companies who didn't want to store them/"outtake reels" at the end of the project, and the studio didn't want to store them at the end of the project... so in many cases, I got stuck with them. Some of these masters have the work of dead people on them... after this bullsh*t I'm going to figure out how to send them back to the labels/artists/anyone in the fukking world but me!!! |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
"Fletcher" wrote in message
... Mark Stebbeds Wrote: Found this in the LA Times today. Anyone know this guy? I posted the text as well as the link. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2174231.story Mark Recordings Are Seized at Engineer's Home snip happens "These are recordings that he contractually and logically had every right to have in his possession," Crom said. A recording engineer, he said, often works at home. Los Angeles Police Det. Donald O. Hrycyk said the boxes of recordings carted out of Howard's home - which consisted of a bed, refrigerator and other amenities in a commercial property in a recording industry district - snip happens "When we got there, he wouldn't come to the door, but when we pried it open, he came out," the detective said. In talking with some friends... it seems that someone at RCE kinda jumped the gun on this for at the moment an unknown reason. Turns out that there was well over a 20 year relationship between artist and recordist, that there was a reason for this 20+ year relationship [like Mr. Howard is an EXCELLENT engineer kind of a reason]... and there was less than no intent to steal anything from anyone when it came to these masters... or at least that's the word on the street in LA with people that know the other side of this debacle. Apparently the subject of this article did indeed live in his studio, hence the bed, refrigerator and "other amenities" [like a shower?]... the studio, not being your average piece of **** home studio, was "soundproof" [hence why he didn't answer the door but came out after they "pried it open"]. While the original article was obviously skewed by some publicist for the person or persons who were pulling the strings from RCE, the fact of the matter is that anyone who works on any "real" product should be very worried right about now... imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... and all of a sudden the Gestapo is kicking in the door? I know I have "masters" at my house, as well as at my office... many of these masters are indeed owned by record companies who didn't want to store them/"outtake reels" at the end of the project, and the studio didn't want to store them at the end of the project... so in many cases, I got stuck with them. Some of these masters have the work of dead people on them... after this bullsh*t I'm going to figure out how to send them back to the labels/artists/anyone in the fukking world but me!!! -- Fletcher In helping to clear up a friend's estate, I'm having similar problems. Years of annual requests for disposition instructions for session tapes have apparently been ignored by labels and/or artists. My friend should have disposed of the tapes as he threatened in the letters I suppose, but he was reluctant to destroy the artists' work. Also, even if you send a registered letter to a label or artist and get a receipt that it was delivered but receive no reply, as happened in many cases, how do you carry out the threat of destruction? You can't just pitch a couple hundred pounds of 24 track reels into the trash, where some enterprising dumpster diver might dig them out. The result, in the case I'm trying to resolve, is the equivalent of a large bedroom stacked floor to ceiling with boxed session tapes, including masters, not a few of which are very big sellers by known artists. I've got it! I'll threaten to send the tapes to a well know pirate operation in China that has agreed to assume responsibility for 'storing' the tapes. Steve King |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Steve King wrote:
You can't just pitch a couple hundred pounds of 24 track reels into the trash, where some enterprising dumpster diver might dig them out. Bulk eraser? |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
On 3/6/05 10:29 AM, in article , "Steve
King" wrote: "Fletcher" wrote in message ... Mark Stebbeds Wrote: Found this in the LA Times today. Anyone know this guy? I posted the text as well as the link. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2174231.story Mark Recordings Are Seized at Engineer's Home snip happens "These are recordings that he contractually and logically had every right to have in his possession," Crom said. A recording engineer, he said, often works at home. Los Angeles Police Det. Donald O. Hrycyk said the boxes of recordings carted out of Howard's home - which consisted of a bed, refrigerator and other amenities in a commercial property in a recording industry district - snip happens "When we got there, he wouldn't come to the door, but when we pried it open, he came out," the detective said. In talking with some friends... it seems that someone at RCE kinda jumped the gun on this for at the moment an unknown reason. Turns out that there was well over a 20 year relationship between artist and recordist, that there was a reason for this 20+ year relationship [like Mr. Howard is an EXCELLENT engineer kind of a reason]... and there was less than no intent to steal anything from anyone when it came to these masters... or at least that's the word on the street in LA with people that know the other side of this debacle. Apparently the subject of this article did indeed live in his studio, hence the bed, refrigerator and "other amenities" [like a shower?]... the studio, not being your average piece of **** home studio, was "soundproof" [hence why he didn't answer the door but came out after they "pried it open"]. While the original article was obviously skewed by some publicist for the person or persons who were pulling the strings from RCE, the fact of the matter is that anyone who works on any "real" product should be very worried right about now... imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... and all of a sudden the Gestapo is kicking in the door? I know I have "masters" at my house, as well as at my office... many of these masters are indeed owned by record companies who didn't want to store them/"outtake reels" at the end of the project, and the studio didn't want to store them at the end of the project... so in many cases, I got stuck with them. Some of these masters have the work of dead people on them... after this bullsh*t I'm going to figure out how to send them back to the labels/artists/anyone in the fukking world but me!!! -- Fletcher ... My friend should have disposed of the tapes as he threatened in the letters I suppose, but he was reluctant to destroy the artists' work. Also, even if you send a registered letter to a label or artist and get a receipt that it was delivered but receive no reply, as happened in many cases, how do you carry out the threat of destruction? The movie BLOW OUT comes to mind. THAT was a scary scene I tell you... |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 03:57:16 +0000, Fletcher
wrote: [...] imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... Yeah, but 300? I can see a 'few' from current and recent projects, but 300? Something's not right here, I agree, but that number just doesn't sound kosher. A_C |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 09:29:18 -0600, "Steve King"
wrote: I've got it! I'll threaten to send the tapes to a well know pirate operation in China that has agreed to assume responsibility for 'storing' the tapes. LOL, be sure to let us know when you're up for parole... A_C |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Steve King wrote:
The result, in the case I'm trying to resolve, is the equivalent of a large bedroom stacked floor to ceiling with boxed session tapes, including masters, not a few of which are very big sellers by known artists. I've got it! I'll threaten to send the tapes to a well know pirate operation in China that has agreed to assume responsibility for 'storing' the tapes. Send 'em to hev and he'll put 'em line for ya. -- ha |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Agent_C wrote:
Fletcher wrote: [...] imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... Yeah, but 300? If he worked with Ray for twenty years, and especially if he worked on the duo project, I could see that, even easily. I can see a 'few' from current and recent projects, but 300? Something's not right here, I agree, but that number just doesn't sound kosher. I think we're reading RCE hype, passing mostly for news, and that if one reads it carefully there are lots of things that don't sound kosher. Most newspapers readers might want to convict the guy on the basis of the news items, while they knwo absolutely nothing of sound studios or mixing/producing practices. -- ha |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
|
#14
|
|||
|
|||
|
#15
|
|||
|
|||
I'm just now dealing with a vault with over 3000 master tapes. The studio
went under, defaulted on their storage lease, and now, according to the lease, the owner of the storage company "owns" the contents of the vault. Of course, he has no legal right to exploit the recordings, but we have a team of lawyers trying to figure out some of the ramifications. All of the labels involved have been contacted repeatedly for the last ten years, and only one has expressed interest in recovering their tapes. They came by a couple of years ago, pulled about 300 masters, and left without taking the tapes or paying the back storage on them. We're talking about masters from some of the biggest artists of the last three decades, but once the CD is out, the labels don't have much interest. My gut tells me that there is no criminal activity in the Ray Charles situation. Who knows what this guy was doing for Ray...maybe cataloging, pulling alternate takes for a project, editing.....anything. I know I would much rather do that kind of stuff at home as well. Just some people trying to make a name or a case on someone else's misfortune. Oh well. On 3/6/05 4:15 PM, in article , "Agent_C" wrote: On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 19:43:56 GMT, (hank alrich) wrote: Agent_C wrote: Fletcher wrote: [...] imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... Yeah, but 300? If he worked with Ray for twenty years, and especially if he worked on the duo project, I could see that, even easily. I can see a 'few' from current and recent projects, but 300? Something's not right here, I agree, but that number just doesn't sound kosher. I think we're reading RCE hype, passing mostly for news, and that if one reads it carefully there are lots of things that don't sound kosher. Most newspapers readers might want to convict the guy on the basis of the news items, while they knwo absolutely nothing of sound studios or mixing/producing practices. I don't know... I managed the traffic in and out of the vault at EMI New York for three years and don't recall ever coming across an engineer, producer or musician who had that many tapes in their possession. (With the possible exception of Ian Anderson, who as a matter of policy keeps copies his own masters - all of them) We tracked masters zealously after each project and had to account for everything. On the rare occasion we came across tapes that were laying around studios and someone's home, we always followed up and tried to get them back. This strikes me as either a sanctioned arrangement, or colossal negligence on the part of the label(s). This guy is not a bootlegger... A_C |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
Agent_C wrote:
I don't know... I managed the traffic in and out of the vault at EMI New York for three years and don't recall ever coming across an engineer, producer or musician who had that many tapes in their possession. (With the possible exception of Ian Anderson, who as a matter of policy keeps copies his own masters - all of them) We tracked masters zealously after each project and had to account for everything. On the rare occasion we came across tapes that were laying around studios and someone's home, we always followed up and tried to get them back. And that's how it's supposed to be done. But not every entity owning such tapes kept such diligent track of them. This strikes me as either a sanctioned arrangement, or colossal negligence on the part of the label(s). This guy is not a bootlegger... Agreed. Can't imagine he'd risk his successful career on those tapes. -- ha |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 03:57:16 +0000, Fletcher
wrote: I know I have "masters" at my house, as well as at my office... many of these masters are indeed owned by record companies who didn't want to store them/"outtake reels" at the end of the project, and the studio didn't want to store them at the end of the project... so in many cases, I got stuck with them. Yeah, I have dozens of master 24 tracks here also, but most of the two track masters ended up at the label after mastering. I've also been on the receiving end of managing a major artist's tapes at a storage facility here in LA, when the artist ****ed off in England for years and didn't pay his bill. I question the fact that the guy had 300 tapes, and the fact that they were removed from RCE's temperature controlled vaults. It's a well known fact that RC was one of the first artistst to own his masters while under contract with a major. In a local newspaper here in town, there was specific mention that RCE was looking for the master of "Georgia On My Mind" which they found at Howard's place. And in the article, it says the tapes in question were missing over a one year period, not twenty years. I am aware that Howard had a twenty year relationship with RC. The guy's attorney is quoted as saying he suspects there was jealosy with certain people at RCE, and this was a revenge thing. We'll see how it all plays out. Like you, I am going to make an effort to get some of these tapes out of my office, even the demoes. If someone kicks the bucket, I dont' want the gestapo knocking my door down because of some ex-wife looking to get in the middle. Mark |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 09:29:18 -0600, "Steve King"
wrote: In helping to clear up a friend's estate, I'm having similar problems. Years of annual requests for disposition instructions for session tapes have apparently been ignored by labels and/or artists. Years ago I was working at a studio where Rick Nelson had recently recorded in the months before his death. The next day after the plane crash, his engineer came storming into the studio to scoop up any masters that were there. I don't know if he was representing the artist's estate, or if he was just trying to be a good guy and prevent any funny business. In any case, we didn't have anything because they always carried the tapes with them when they came and went, but we had to let the guy rummage through the tape vault to get him to shut up and go away. mark |
#19
|
|||
|
|||
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1110127954k@trad... In article writes: In helping to clear up a friend's estate, I'm having similar problems. Years of annual requests for disposition instructions for session tapes have apparently been ignored by labels and/or artists. My friend should have disposed of the tapes as he threatened in the letters You can't just pitch a couple hundred pounds of 24 track reels into the trash, where some enterprising dumpster diver might dig them out. I'd take the flanges off the reels, saw through the tape with a bandsaw, sell the reels (premium for boxes with famous names on them) on eBay, and toss the foot-long pieces of tape. I do this with my scrap tape that I want to salvage for reels. It's faster, neater and safer than cutting it with a razor blade. Then you can see how long it takes for someone to put the scraps back together and release the "unrealeased recordings." Okay. Now, let's all tell our favorite story about the intern/apprentice/new engineer/old hand who used a razor blade to slice off the junk-stuff reel only to find that it was the master that hadn't been labeled yet story. Why do these all happen at 2 AM. I do love the band-saw idea. Two-inch tape is no fun to cut with a razor blade. Steve King |
#20
|
|||
|
|||
"hank alrich" wrote in message
.. . Agent_C wrote: Fletcher wrote: [...] imagine you happen to have some masters from something you were working on... Yeah, but 300? If he worked with Ray for twenty years, and especially if he worked on the duo project, I could see that, even easily. I can see a 'few' from current and recent projects, but 300? Something's not right here, I agree, but that number just doesn't sound kosher. I routinely made dupes of masters for many clients, labeled them as M2-2T-######, our designation for a back-up stereo master, put the charge on the job sheet, and took them home with the clients full knowledge and approval. It was a CYA thing in case the studio got swallowed up by one of those Midwest volcanic eruptions that happen every million years or so. A few times they actually saw use. Always after the client had signed them out of the studio and lost them or, in one case, splattered most of a reel around a west coast control room, when an old Presto deck had a brake failure. Steve King |
#21
|
|||
|
|||
In article znr1110127954k@trad, says...
I'd take the flanges off the reels, saw through the tape with a bandsaw, sell the reels (premium for boxes with famous names on them) on eBay, and toss the foot-long pieces of tape. I do this with my scrap tape that I want to salvage for reels. It's faster, neater and safer than cutting it with a razor blade. This reminds me of a story one of my Berklee professors told us. Apparently, someone left a razor blade sitting on the Otari in just such a position that it ended up slicing through the tape as it wound onto the take-up reel. Hit rewind at the end of the night and was left with nothing but shreds. Frantically tried (and failed) to splice it back together. Got an "A", because he learned a valuable lesson... -- Jay Levitt | Wellesley, MA | I feel calm. I feel ready. I can only Faster: jay at jay dot fm | conclude that's because I don't have a http://www.jay.fm | full grasp of the situation. - Mark Adler |
#22
|
|||
|
|||
|
#23
|
|||
|
|||
On 3/7/05 9:02 AM, in article znr1110197228k@trad, "Mike Rivers"
wrote: Someone told me that story. The studio where he was recording had one of those newfangled 8-track recorders and the engineer needed a takeup reel. He found a 1" reel with a small amount of tape on it which he cut through with a razor blade to free up the reel. Then someone asked for that reel that had a good take on it. Of course they spliced all the pieces together and they were good to go. Can you do that with a hard drive? |
#24
|
|||
|
|||
In article , John
wrote: On 3/7/05 9:02 AM, in article znr1110197228k@trad, "Mike Rivers" wrote: Someone told me that story. The studio where he was recording had one of those newfangled 8-track recorders and the engineer needed a takeup reel. He found a 1" reel with a small amount of tape on it which he cut through with a razor blade to free up the reel. Then someone asked for that reel that had a good take on it. Of course they spliced all the pieces together and they were good to go. Can you do that with a hard drive? The hard drive does it automatically. -Jay -- x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x x---------- http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jay/ ------------x |
#25
|
|||
|
|||
John wrote:
On 3/7/05 9:02 AM, in article znr1110197228k@trad, "Mike Rivers" wrote: Someone told me that story. The studio where he was recording had one of those newfangled 8-track recorders and the engineer needed a takeup reel. He found a 1" reel with a small amount of tape on it which he cut through with a razor blade to free up the reel. Then someone asked for that reel that had a good take on it. Of course they spliced all the pieces together and they were good to go. Can you do that with a hard drive? NSA probably could, but not us mortals. |