Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Mastering Legend George Marino Passes

By Clive Young. Legendary mastering engineer George Marino died Monday, ending a battle with cancer. Working nearly 40 years at New York City's Sterling Sound, Marino had put the finishing touches on hundreds of albums throughout his career, including innumerable classics, ranging from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's “Double Fantasy” to Guns n' Roses' “Appetite For Destruction.”

By Clive Young. New York (June 5, 2012)—Legendary mastering engineer George Marino died Monday, ending a battle with cancer. Working nearly 40 years at New York City’s Sterling Sound, Marino had put the finishing touches on hundreds of albums throughout his career, including innumerable classics, ranging from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy to Guns n’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction.

“Today Sterling Sound and the music industry as a whole has suffered a tremendous loss,” said Sterling Sound GM Robert Robles. “Senior Mastering Engineer George Marino lost his battle with cancer this morning. Words cannot express the sorrow we feel. George was family to us all and we will miss him dearly.”

Marino broke into the music business as a guitarist in local New York City acts during the 1960s, but before long, began working as an assistant and librarian at Capitol Studios in 1967, soon moving into an apprenticeship in the facility’s mastering department.

He moved to Record Plant, which was just becoming established at the time. Much as its notoriety grew, so did Marino’s, as he worked on Don McLean’s American Pie and other notable releases during his time there.

According to Sterling Sound, Marino joined the company in 1973, where he had worked ever since. Over the course of his nearly 40 years with the company, he mastered and/or remastered albums by AC/DC, Led Zeppelin (with Jimmy Page), Metallica; Cheap Trick, Arcade Fire; Whitney Houston; Coldplay; Cyndi Lauper; Journey; Kiss; Motley Crue; The Cars; The Offspring; Bon Jovi; Arctic Monkeys; Dan Fogelberg; Iron Maiden; UFO; Fountains of Wayne; Incubus; Joe Bonamassa; Jimi Hendrix; the Strokes; Joe Satriani; Michael Buble; Nada Surf; Scorpions; Weezer; 311; Dokken; Dio; Leonard Cohen; My Morning Jacket; The Tragically Hip; Skid Row; 3 Doors Down; Alice Cooper; Billy Squire; Cinderella; Sarah Brightman; Ted Nugent; The Psychedelic Furs; Tommy James and the Shondells; Bob Dylan; John Mellencamp; O.A.R.; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Ringo Starr; Santana; Rose Tattoo; Josh Groban; Southside Johnny; Antrax; Willie Nile; Elvis Presley; Fall Out Boy; Ozzy Osbourne; Blondie; Hanson; and hundreds of others. An astonishing discography can be found at http://sterling-sound.com/engineers/george-marino/#discography

Throughout the day, an outpouring of tributes from industry peers and clients appeared via Tweets:

Masterdisk: “We just learned that mastering great George Marino died. Our deepest condolences to his friends and family. A sad day for mastering & music.”

Stephen Marsh of Marsh Mastgering: “RIP George Marino – Mastering Legend, Gentlemen Scholar”

Euphonic Masters: “RIP George Marino – your amazing talents will be greatly missed. Cut so many great records, the industry is much poorer with you…”

Steve Hall of Futuredisc: “Another loss to the music industry. George Marino was one of the greatest mastering engineers of all-time.”

Producer Jack Endino: “RIP George Marino, one of the top mastering engineers ever. Sorry to hear this. Mastered some of my records, incl. Bleach reissue.”

Mix engineer Tim Latham: “I just learned about the passing of a dear man,friend & w/o question 1 of histoy’s finest mastering engineers. Rest peacefully George Marino”

Joe LaPorta of The Lodge Mastering: “R.I.P. George Marino”

NRG Recording: Rest in Peace George Marino. You’ve mastered MANY of our favorite records.

Songwriter Diane Warren: RIP George Marino. U will now make the angels sound better than they ever have.

Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano: “R.I.P. George Marino….a Mastering Legend,” later adding, “This is so sad. George mastered a bunch of records for me over the years. He was a really great guy….”

Joe Satriani: R.I.P. George Marino, we will miss you.

Dream Theatre’s John Petrucci: So sad to hear about the passing of the great George Marino today. We have surely lost one of the last titans in the mastering world. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Dream Theatre’s Mike Portnoy: Sad to hear of the passing of George Marino…I worked with him mastering several DT albums through the years

Brian Slagel, CEO of Metal Blade records: So sad to hear of the passing of George Marino. We worked with him and his mastering lab many, many times over the years RIP George

Sterling Sound
sterling-sound.com

Close