Tom Lord-Alge

Last updated
Tom Lord-Alge
Born (1962-01-17) January 17, 1962 (age 62)
Origin New Jersey, United States
Genres Rock, pop, indie rock, indie pop, pop punk
Occupation(s) Mixer, record producer, audio engineer
Website tomlord-alge.com

Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1962) [1] is an American music engineer and mixer. [2] He began his career at Unique Recording in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground floor of the Marlin Hotel.

Contents

Lord-Alge received two Grammy Awards for his work on Steve Winwood's Back in the High Life (1986), and Roll with It (1988), both winning in the 'Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical' category. His third Grammy was for Santana's Supernatural (1999), which won Album of the Year. Lord-Alge has mixed records for U2, Simple Minds, The Rolling Stones, Pink, Peter Gabriel, OMD, Sarah McLachlan, Dave Matthews Band, Blink-182, Avril Lavigne, Hanson, Sum 41, Live, Manic Street Preachers, New Found Glory, Story of the Year and Marilyn Manson, among others. [3]

Career

After doing live sound engineering for some time, Lord-Alge joined his brother Chris at Unique Recording in New York City in 1984. He began working as an assistant to Chris, who was then a staff engineer, and later became staff engineer until 1988.

Lord-Alge's first major project was engineering Steve Winwood's Grammy winning album Back in the High Life (1986) including its number one hit song "Higher Love". He went on to engineer Winwood's follow up Roll with It (1988) including its chart-topping title track. He then left Unique Recording to work as a freelance engineer and mixer. [4] [5]

Lord-Alge's turning point as a mixing engineer was in 1993 after mixing Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet , featuring their hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". Shortly thereafter he mixed Live's multi-platinum Throwing Copper , which to date has sold over eight million copies in the United States. [6] The success of these albums marked the beginning of Lord-Alge's professional career as a mix engineer. He mixed out of South Beach Studios in Miami prior to it closing, [7] and is represented exclusively by Global Positioning Services Management in Santa Monica. [5]

Like Chris, Lord-Alge is well known for his extensive use of compression in mix down as both a creative and functional technique. [4]

Personal life

Lord-Alge is one of four brothers, two of whom are audio and mixing engineers (Chris and Jeff Lord-Alge), and two sisters (Meg and Lisa). Their mother, Vivian Lord, was a jazz singer and pianist, while their father sold jukeboxes for a living. Tom Lord-Alge credits his brother Chris as being a strong influence on his early development as an engineer and mixer. [4]

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References

  1. Hoffman, Frank (2004), Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Volume 1 (revised ed.), Taylor & Francis
  2. "Awards Nominations & Winners". Grammy.com. 30 April 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  3. "Tom Lord-Alge | Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 "Tom Lord-Alge: From Manson To Hanson". Soundonsound.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  5. 1 2 "GPS welcomes Mixer Tom Lord-Alge to the Roster". Ymlp.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  6. "RIAA (Gold and Platinum)". Riaa.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  7. "Marlin Hotel sells for $9.5 million | Miami Herald". Miami Herald . Archived from the original on 2015-11-21. Retrieved 2015-11-20.