The Albert Brothers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Albert Brothers are a pair of recording engineer brothers, Ron Albert and Howard Albert, who are best known for their work on various recordings at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida. Ron and Howard Albert worked on two important double albums of the 1970's: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos in 1970 and the first album from Stephen Stills's group Manassas in 1972. The Albert brothers also worked on Crosby, Stills and Nash's 1977 reunion album, CSN.
Ron and Howard Albert also founded their own production company, Fat Albert Productions.
When the Albert Brothers (Ron and Howard) began (circa 1967), recording techniques where a little different. Multi-track tape machines where just finding their way thanks to the efforts of Les Paul and Tom Dowd. Recording consoles, power amps and speakers left a lot to be desired.
In fact the only true wonderful stuff was the European microphones. Howard and Ron where instructed early on that those expensive mics where only for delicate orchestra recordings, not for loud rock!
In spite of that, the Albert Brothers were on a mission. Daytime recording was reserved for ad agency clients, so most of Howard and Ron’s recording (and experimenting) was done at night (out of sight from the boss). As soon as Howard heard the drum sound they got with condenser mics all bets were off! Uncountable hours were spent experimenting and eventually the Albert Brothers "fat" drum sound was being heard all over the world.
As time went on it became common knowledge that the secret to the Albert Brothers sound was their "multi mic" concept of using a separate mic on every thing! (So now you know why the album credits read: Recorded and Produced by Howard Albert and Ron Albert for Fat Albert Productions).
It is important to remember that through the kindness and understanding of Mack Emerman (founder and owner of Criteria Studios) and that Boss, Howard and Ron were given the opportunity to develop their skills.
South Florida wasn’t known as a recording capital and South Beach hadn’t been invented yet, but Jerry Wexler (Atlantic Records president) and legendary record producer Tom Dowd had a plan. They were spending a lot of time in South Florida entertaining artists on "The Big A" (Atlantic’s corporate sport fishing yacht). Naturally the idea of hopping into a studio for a quick overdub made a lot of sense. Soon Ron and Howard (also fishin’ fools) were hangin' out with the best of company.
The Albert Brothers have said "Tom Dowd gave us both his unlimited knowledge of producing records and the understanding of artists’ creative minds. It is a great honor for us to have Tom as our mentor and as our friend". Working with Tom (and later with Karl Richardson and Chuck Kirkpatrick) Howard and Ron have recorded rock history!
"Idlewild South" and "Eat A Peach" by the Allman Brothers Band are two of the early albums that Ron and Howard recorded. The first album the Albert Bros. recorded with Eric Clapton was Derek and The Domino's "Layla". By the time the Brothers recorded the Rolling Stones, Crosby Stills & Nash, and John Melencamp the floodgates were open.
Sales of records recorded and produced by Howard and Ron have topped 100 million copies! The sun was shining brightly on both South Florida and The Albert Brothers.
In 1987 Howard and Ron (along with their partner Steve Alaimo) formed two new companies. Vision Records, an independent record company offering national distribution to new and established artists including Betty Wright, Stephen Stills, Jimmy Cliff and Dion.
Additionally they opened Audio Vision Recording Studios (initially for their in house use). Recently Audio Vision Studios was opened to the recording community, offering major labels, producers and local artists a state of the art recording facility.
