From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Oct 20, 2002  2:00 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Tom Dowd
 
TOM DOWD

Born 20 October 1925, New York City, New York

Engineer / producer.
Tom Dowd joined Atlantic Records in 1954, where he became involved
in virtually every aspect of the recording process : from engineering the
original session to postproduction to disc mastering. During his long tenure
at Atlantic, he worked with such diverse acts as Joe Turner, The Drifters,
Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman (and many other jazz greats), Aretha
Franklin and the Young Rascals. "Every session was an adventure", Dowd
recalls. "You could be doing the Coasters at two in the afternoon and Charles
Mingus at two in the morning". Dowd did landmark work with multi-tracking,
helping Atlantic become one of the nation's best facilities in the early days
of eight-track and stereo recording. In fact, it was Dowd who designed the
first eight-channel console (first used by Atlantic on the April 1958 session
by Bobby Darin that produced "Splish Splash" and "Queen Of The Hop"),
because no commercial counterpart was available. Both a knowledgeable
musician and physics and electronics master, Dowd understood sound from
the technical and performance aspects. His recordings have an unusually
clear sound for their time.
Dowd made the transition from engineering to production by constructing
finished masters from bits and pieces of various takes of a song, thus
blurring the distinction between engineering and production.
When he left Atlantic at the end of the '60s, Tom Dowd quickly established
himself as one of rock's preeminent producers, supervising such classics as
"Live At Fillmore East" (The Allman Brothers Band), "Layla" (Derek and the
Dominoes), "461 Ocean Boulevard" (Eric Clapton) and "A Night On The Town"
(Rod Stewart). Most of his post-Atlantic productions were done at Criteria
Studios in Miami, his adopted home.