Atlanta Studio Pioneer Richardson Dies
Stuart, FL (April 30, 2003)--Legendary Atlanta studio pioneer, Bob Richardson,
died in Stuart, FL on April 15, 2003. Prior to his retirement in 1992,
Richardson's career had embraced the whole of modern recording history.
As an aspiring engineer in the 1950s, Richardson taped regional bands in his North Carolina basement. In 1966, he recorded the Swingin' Medallions' fraternity anthem, "Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)."
Beginning in 1972, Richardson's Atlanta studio, Mastersound, became one
of the first American studios to have full console automation, multiple
24-track synchronization, and Quadraphonic mixing capability, making it
a haven for such R&B titans as Issac Hayes.
Born in Charlotte,
NC in 1927, Richardson was a professional musician by age 14, playing
upright bass around his hometown during the World War II years. He
worked briefly for National Shirt Shops, and Richardson always credited
his youthful background in retail for the business skills he would
require to survive in the music industry. As district sales manager for
Columbia Records, Richardson's frequent visits to Nashville recording
facilities compelled him to build his own studio in his Charlotte home
in 1958. Using an Ampex 300 tape deck, he scored a modest success with
the Delacardos' "On the Beach" in 1962.
As a regional rep for Mercury Records in the early '60s, Richardson visited an Atlanta photo session for Ray "Ahab the Arab" Stevens, where he first met music publisher Bill Lowery.
Sensing a solid opportunity, Richardson relocated to Atlanta and became
partners with Lowery in the early Mastersound studio, located in an old
suburban schoolhouse. Richardson was soon engineering hits for the
performers associated with the Lowery publishing and production company.
In 1965, he tracked Billy Joe Royal's classic, "Down in the Boondocks," and, later, the Classics IV 1967 chart-toppers, "Spooky" and "Stormy."
These
were the days before the mass manufacture of recording consoles;
Mastersound used a custom board designed by the inventor, Jeep Harned,
who would presently establish an international reputation as the sole
owner of MCI, builders of modern studio gear. Richardson and Harned
formed a lifelong association that would only end with Harned's recent
death on March 13, one month in advance of Richardson's passing.
In the early 1970s, Richardson built the new Mastersound studio in midtown Atlanta, which he managed with his wife, Babs. Lou Bradley, the
renowned Nashville engineer/producer, comments, "Bob had a dream to
build and own a recording studio, and he did. He was a bulldog."
Richardson's
sharp entrepreneurial instincts provided a motivation that kept him
well in advance of technological developments. The Mastersound facility
was designed by Tom Hidley and George Augspurger, known for their
innovative blueprint at Westlake Studio in Los Angeles. Harned installed
one of the early automated consoles on the East Coast. Later, when
Mastersound became one of the first (and few) Quadrophonic studios in
America, Harned retrofitted his deck with special panning and bussing
capabilities.
Richardson always saw the need to provide his clients with state-of-the-art gear and quality sound engineers, like Lou Bradley
and Joe Neil, whose experimentation he approved. Neil, who joined
Mastersound in 1974, successfully modified a video synchronizer in a
trailblazing attempt to lock together two 24-track tape machines.
Mastersound also became the first Atlanta studio to offer
post-production technology for film, even installing a projector booth
that doubled as a vocal chamber.
Under Richardson's direction,
Mastersound continued to stay on the cutting edge of the era's
technology, installing one of the first Solid State Logic (SSL) consoles
in America. Mastersound was the
first Atlanta studio to purchase a digital multitrack recorder. At the
time of his award in 1987, Richardson was the only studio owner and
engineer to be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
"Poor Bob Richardson.
We
worked him so hard once, that he was kinda punchy, and he was so scared
that he was going to accidentally erase,or screw something up, he just
refused to work any more.
We didn't quite get how someone could just
say" I'm tired and can't go any more" but we softened up, when he
explained that he had too much respect for us and our work to not be at
his best
As far as Lou Bradley goes, he was always a very positive and steady force.
He went on to a VERY responsible position in Nashville.I wish that we would have stayed in touch
I think that I saw him there when I was putting the strings on a Beaverteeth album........OK Nix when's his birthday ?
When you guys see Joe Billy tell him Hi for me.
RODNEY JUSTO
Mark Harrelson
posted by robertoreg at 5:09 AM
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