Thread: Doug Sax: Mastering Engineer

Posts: 5

Post by undertone April 3, 2015 (1 of 5)
Doug Sax passed away on April 2, 2015. His contributions to the art of recorded music are too numerous to list in this posting—see his All Music page—more than 1700 credits.

Significantly for SACD enthusiasts, Sax was one of the first veteran engineers to remaster older jazz recordings at the beginning of SACD production. As I write this, I'm listening to his sterling transfer of "Chet" on Analogue Productions. Doug Sax was an accomplished trumpet player, and direct experience of live instrument sound informed his mastering choices.

A family anecdote (my uncle was a classmate of Doug Sax and Herb Alpert at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles). Following competitive auditions for the trumpet section in the school orchestra, it was Doug Sax, not Herb Alpert, who played that year.

Post by rammiepie April 3, 2015 (2 of 5)
undertone said:

Doug Sax passed away on April 2, 2015. His contributions to the art of recorded music are too numerous to list in this posting—see his All Music page—more than 1700 credits.

Significantly for SACD enthusiasts, Sax was one of the first veteran engineers to remaster older jazz recordings at the beginning of SACD production. As I write this, I'm listening to his sterling transfer of "Chet" on Analogue Productions. Doug Sax was an accomplished trumptet player; direct experience of live instrument sound informed his mastering choices.

A family anecdote (my uncle was a classmate of Doug Sax and Herb Alpert at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles). Following competitive auditions for the trumpet section in the school orchestra, it was Doug Sax, not Herb Alpert, who played that year.

Sad news, indeed, undertone.

I always considered Doug Sax's name on a recording synonymous with quality.

Great anecdote about Sax winning the school competition over Alpert. Never even knew Doug played the saxophone.

RIP! Doug Sax was 79. http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/bio/doug-sax/489648

Post by Chris April 3, 2015 (3 of 5)
I still treasure my late 70s Sheffield Labs direct cut LPs done by him.
The Wagner LP is still my reference for Siegfried's Death.
No digital recording I have heard captures percussion and strings as realistically as that one. Majestic climaxes.
The Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet suite LP is also worth hearing to get an idea of what direct cut analogue was really capable of SQ wise.
Doug Sax employed simple miking and achieved a dynamic range of nearly 80 db from vinyl.
If anything they really showed how bad rbcd was in comparison.
But also of course how much better direct cut was than analogue tape.

Post by luna65 April 4, 2015 (4 of 5)
Doug was someone I had longed to meet, or at least to hear him speak (as he tended to do every year with Bob Ludwig at AES) because not only was he the father of modern independent mastering, but a very warm and funny person. His sense of humor was legendary among his colleagues. And he was one of the truly passionate advocates of audio excellence - it showed in his work and in his opinions about the industry and the work of others. For everyone who knew and worked with him, he was an absolute original and someone like that only comes along once in a lifetime. Even a brief glance at his credits shows the loss to the industry is truly monumental.

Post by Disbeliever April 5, 2015 (5 of 5)
rammiepie said:

Sad news, indeed, undertone.

I always considered Doug Sax's name on a recording synonymous with quality.

Great anecdote about Sax winning the school competition over Alpert. Never even knew Doug played the saxophone.

RIP! Doug Sax was 79. http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/bio/doug-sax/489648

+ 1 RIP a sad loss.

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