James Guthrie (record producer)

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James Guthrie (record producer) bigraphy, stories - English sound engineer

James Guthrie (record producer) : biography

14 November 1953 –

James K.A. Guthrie (born 14 November 1953 in Edmonton, Middlesex) is an English recording engineer and record producer best known for his work with the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as a producer and engineer for the band since 1978. He is the owner and operator of das boot recording in Lake Tahoe, California.

Post-Wall era

In the mid-1980s Guthrie emigrated to the United States, first residing in Los Angeles where he and his business manager/partner Larry Belling owned and operated Slippery Studios, a recording facility specifically geared towards sessions for film. Guthrie eventually settled in Lake Tahoe, California where he designed his own home-based studio, das boot recording (named by a client in tribute to Guthrie’s love of WWII-era American submarines).Richardson, K. "Tales from the Dark Side", Sound & Vision, May 2003 Guthrie and his assistant engineer, Joel Plante, supervise every remastering of the Pink Floyd back catalog, as well as mixing and mastering of various works (some for 5.1 Surround Sound), including Pink Floyd-related releases.

In the 1980s, Guthrie would produce a number of other releases, including Heatwave’s fourth album Candles (co-produced with lead singer Johnnie Wilder, Jr.), Queensrÿche’s major-label debut The Warning, Ambrosia’s concept album Road Island (the final release of the David Pack era), and three tracks on The Boomtown Rats’ In the Long Grass. He would also work as an engineer on various releases, such as Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love (the orchestral session used for the track "Cloudbusting") and The Dream Academy’s Remembrance Days; as well as contributing miscellaneous music and sound design for films such as Lethal Weapon, The Dead Zone and Lifeforce. Guthrie has also produced tracks for Toto and Danish rock band Kashmir, among other artists. Guthrie would also become the engineer who has mixed the most releases utilizing QSound technology, nine in all.

Guthrie’s primary responsibility was (as it is to this day) to serve as one of the final authorities on the audio quality of Pink Floyd and Floyd-related releases. He has mixed and/or mastered nearly every Pink Floyd and Floyd-related release since 1978, and could be considered to be Pink Floyd’s archival engineer. Others have referred to him similarly, such as mastering engineer Doug Sax ("He has also been the Floyd’s quality control man ever since The Wall.")"Doug Sax takes us to the Dark Side", news.acousticsounds.com, March 2003 and musician/Pink Floyd associate Jon Carin ("He is the keeper of the audio flame.")Danesh, A. "Interview with Jon Carin", brain-damage.co.uk, August 2007 In 2002, Guthrie was selected by the band to engineer the 30th Anniversary reissue of The Dark Side of the Moon in the SACD format, providing the mix and mastering for 5.1 Surround Sound. The final product was the biggest-selling Surround Sound release of 2003, the winner of three 2003 Surround Music awards, and received overwhelming praise from the technical press, including Jerry Del Colliano of Audio Video Revolution ("If you were to own only one SACD, Dark Side of the Moon is it.")Del Colliano, J. "Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon SACD", avrev.com, March 2003 and this summation from Matt Rowe of The Digital Bits: "The way I see it, James Guthrie should be asked to do every 5.1 SACD project from here on out. For every band."Rowe, M. "Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon SACD", thedigitalbits.com, April 2003

In recent years, Guthrie has worked on a number of projects, including an eponymous-named remix of the Blink-182 song "I Miss You", mastered releases for Kate Bush and Gilmour, as well as co-produced the track "Hello (I Love You)" for Waters (which appears on the soundtrack for the film The Last Mimzy) and performed the remastering of the 1984 Gilmour release About Face and the 40th Anniversary reissue of Pink Floyd’s debut release The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Guthrie was also part of the Pink Floyd crew for the band’s reunion performance at Live 8, assisting with the live video feed mix for television broadcast; and subsequently provided the live mix for Waters’ appearance at Live Earth.