Bradshaw Leigh

Bradshaw (Brad) Leigh
Background information
BornNew York, NY, U.S.
OccupationAudio Engineer
Websitewww.leighaudio.com

Brad Leigh is an American audio engineer, known for having recorded and mixed many recordings including Billy Joel's River of Dreams, Tracy Chapman's Matters of the Heart as well as Julian Lennon's Valotte and Secret Value of Daydreaming

Biography

Brad Leigh was born and raised in New York City. While attending Brooklyn Technical High School, he worked as an usher during concerts at Carnegie Hall.[1] After graduation in 1975, Leigh attended Al Grundy and John Woram's Institute of Audio Research and was then hired at Chelsea Sound[2] by Mark Freeh as an intern/assistant engineer/tech. In 1977, he left Chelsea Sound and took an MCI Factory training course to learn to repair MCI pro audio equipment, after which he was hired as a tech by Don Frey at A&R Recording. It was during this time that Leigh first met producer/engineer and owner of A&R Recording, Phil Ramone. The following year, Leigh became the assistant engineer for Jim Boyer who was Phil Ramone's chief engineer. Leigh assisted Boyer until 1979, when Leigh became Phil Ramone's assistant engineer on Billy Joel's Glass Houses. While assisting Ramone, Leigh worked on albums for Paul Simon, Chicago, and Frank Sinatra.[3] He continued to engineer for Ramone through the late eighties. Leigh's first full engineering credit was for the score/soundtrack for the film Reds followed by the original cast album for Little Shop of Horrors and while freelancing, he went on to engineer for Jimmy Iovine, Russ Titelman, Billy Joel and Davitt Sigerson. Leigh has recorded and mixed live concerts for HBO and Showtime using The Record Plant, Effanel, Sheffield remote recording trucks, and has recorded film scores for Marvin Hamlisch, David Grusin and Carly Simon.

In the late 1990s, Leigh accepted a position as Chief Technical Engineer at Sound on Sound Recording, NYC, where he continued to engineer recordings such as Widespread Panic's Til the Medicine Takes[4] and Five for Fighting's debut, Message for Albert. In 2005, Sound on Sound merged with Right Track Recording,[5] changing its name to MSR Studios.[6] Leigh was Chief Technical Engineer at MSR until its closing in June 2016.[7][8]

Technical Design

While at MSR, Leigh designed and manufactured audio equipment including custom dual 18″ subwoofers which were in both Studio A and Studio C and used on countless records as well as high resolution dynamics meters for the Neve VR console, the Procue personal headphone mixing system and a high quality DVD interface for SACD players.[9][10]

Selected works

[11][12] Studio Recordings

Live Recordings

Film and Broadway

References

  1. ^ Leigh, Bradshaw. "Flashback First Music Biz Job". Leigh Audio. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  2. ^ "Chelsea Sound". Discogs. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  3. ^ Ramone, Phil (Oct 9, 2007). Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music. Hyperion Books. pp. 28, 72. ISBN 978-0786868599. Retrieved 22 March 2017. Bradshaw Leigh.
  4. ^ "Audio Track". Billboard. 6 March 1999. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Amlen to Take Control Of Legacy Recording Studios". Mix Online. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  6. ^ "History". MSR Studios NY. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  7. ^ Leigh, Brad. "MSR Studios". SonicScoop. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  8. ^ "New York City Loses Another Recording Studio". Billboard. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  9. ^ "MSR Studios Becomes First NYC Facility to Purchase Clasp". Endless Analog. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  10. ^ Leigh, Bradshaw. "Bio". Leigh Audio. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  11. ^ Leigh, Brad. "Artist". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  12. ^ Leigh, Bradshaw. "Artist". Discogs. Retrieved 17 March 2017.