Crosstown Arts and The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter present a discussion with Grammy Award-winning producer and recording engineer Matt Ross-Spang and recording engineer, mixer, producer, and vinyl mastering engineer Jeff Powell.
Matt and Jeff will discuss the recording process from start to finish, beginning with tracking and mixing and ending with mastering songs for vinyl. Moderated by The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter President Scott Bomar.
SoundOff is a quarterly forum for exploring the art and the science of audio recording and its storied and innovative history in Memphis. Learn the craft from the producers and engineers that helped to create and continue to shape the Memphis Sound. SoundOff is for musicians, professional recording engineers, producers, and anyone interested in better understanding audio recording.
Doors open at 6:30; program begins at 7 pm
Complimentary food & drinks
Free and open to the public
About Jeff Powell:
Jeff has been recording, mixing, and producing records for 28 years. He was a staff assistant engineer, then engineer/mixer, and finally producer at Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios from ’89-’97. He has been freelancing since then and now makes his home base at Sam Phillips Recording Service.
Working at Ardent in his early years afforded him many opportunities to work with some of the greatest producers and engineers of all time (Jim Gaines, Glyn Johns, Rob Fraboni, John Hampton, Eddie Kramer and Jim Dickinson), including working on six records with the late great Tom Dowd.
Through the years he has taken what he calls “the best from the best” and come up with his own eclectic approach to making records. Jeff has worked on multiple gold and platinum records, six Grammy award-winning projects, was twice voted Best Engineer for the Premiere Players awards by the Memphis Chapter of NARAS, was chairman of the Producer and Engineering wing for the Memphis Chapter of NARAS for over 10 years, and has been honored as a legendary producer of Memphis at the annual Blues Ball.
Besides being a producer and engineer, Jeff has expanded his horizons over the last nine years and is now cutting vinyl records on his Neumann VMS 70 lathe at Sam Phillips Recording Service. His vinyl cutting business is called Take Out Vinyl, and he has cut hundreds of records. Some of his vinyl cutting credits include Elvis Presley, The Afghan Whigs, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Dr. John, The North Mississippi All Stars, The Black Keys, Daft Punk, Al Green, Irma Thomas, Professor Longhair, Ann Peebles, Gregg Allman, and Lucero.
In July of 2011, Jeff opened a warehouse, no control room-style, recording space called Humongous Too in the Edge District in Memphis. He was also recently an adjunct professor in the commercial recording program at his alma mater, the University of Memphis.
Some of his engineering/mixing credits include St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Tonic, The Dave Matthews Band, Big Star, The Bottle Rockets, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sharon Jones, Centro-matic, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Primal Scream, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and The Afghan Whigs.
About Matt Ross-Spang:
Matt, a life-long Memphian, began working at the legendary Sun Studio when he was just 17, working his way up from intern to the Chief Engineer. He championed to bring the recording studio back to its origin, working hard to find, install, and use the same period equipment that Sam Phillips engineered with in the 1950s. His 11 years of dedication to Sun and its signature sound garnered national attention when he was featured by Lester Holt for NBC’s Nightly News and the Today Show. NPR also featured Matt and his work on All Things Considered.
While at Sun, Matt produced, engineered and mixed Margo Price’s debut album; entitled “Midwestern Farmer’s Daughter” the record was made in three days in 2014 at Sun Studio and released on Third Man Records. The record debuted in the top 10 Billboard country charts to critical acclaim and won the Best Debut Album of 2016 by Billboard.
In 2015, Matt left his longtime job at Sun to venture out on his own as an independent engineer and producer. His first project post-Sun was to engineer and mix Jason Isbell’s “Something More Than Free” for acclaimed Producer Dave Cobb, which would award Matt his first Grammy. The record broke several records debuting at number-one on the Country, Rock, Folk, and Indie Charts. It also broke Americana Radio chart records , staying at number-one for over 25 weeks. The record won Grammys for Best Americana Album and Best Americana Song for 24 Frames.
Some of the 2016 releases engineered by Ross-Spang include albums by The Drive By Truckers, Elle King, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Chris Isaak, The Rival Sons, Brett Dennen, Brent Cobb, Amanda Shires, Anderson East, The Sheepdogs, and Lori McKenna’s “The Bird and the Rifle” LP. Lori’s record was nominated for Best Americana Album and Best Americana Song at the 2016 Grammys. Matt also mixed previously unreleased recordings of Elvis Presley for the “Welcome to the Jungle Room” release on Sony Legacy.
This year will see the release Ross-Spang produced albums by Lucero, Margo Price, Patrick Sweany, Sean Rowe , Emily Barker, and Nicki Bluhm. He also has engineered albums soon-to-be released by Jason Isbell, Paul Thorn, The Lone Bellow, Jillette Johnson, and The Blind Boys of Alabama.
Matt is a member of AES and serves as a governor of the Recording Academy. The Memphis Flyer named him one of its “20 under 30” Memphians in 2015, and The City of Memphis honored him with a key to the city in 2016. The City of Germantown also named a day after Ross-Spang in 2016.
