Stan Ross, co-founder of Gold Star studio, dies at

Obituaries for folks in the entertainment world that have come to the end of the road.

Stan Ross, co-founder of Gold Star studio, dies at

Postby radiofan » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:07 pm

Stan Ross, co-founder of Hollywood recording studio, dies at 82

By VALERIE J. NELSON
Los Angeles Times


Producer-engineer Stan Ross, who co-founded Hollywood's Gold Star Recording Studio, which has a storied place in rock history as the home of Phil Spector's innovative "Wall of Sound" technique, has died. He was 82.

Ross died Friday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of complications following surgery for aneurysms, his family said.

"Stan was born with a musical ear," said David Gold, an engineer who co-founded Gold Star with Ross in 1950 when both were barely out of their teens. "He would come up with ideas for people who were recording, things that had never been tried before."

Many of the more than 100 Top 40 hits recorded at Gold Star benefited from Ross' creativity and inventiveness, Gold said.

The recordings were as diverse as Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," the Champs' "Tequila," Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida," Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" and the Beach Boys' classic 1966 album "Pet Sounds." While Buffalo Springfield was recording the 1967 hit single "For What It's Worth," Ross said "you gotta do this one thing to the drum" and mixed in the sound "of a guitar pick goin' through a broom, on the straw," band member Neil Young recalled in the 2007 book "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound."

Ross mentored a young Spector, who named one of the studio's echo chambers "the Wall of Sound" as he learned to expertly manipulate the effect. He used it to bring depth to such monumental hits as the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron," the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."

Stanley Herbert Ross was born Dec. 15, 1928, in New York City to Irving and Anna Rosenthal.

At 15, he moved to Los Angeles, where his father worked as an electrician in Hollywood.

While earning his diploma at Fairfax High School, Ross got a job at a recording studio called Electro-Vox and spent about four years learning from recording pioneer Bert B. Gottschalk.

When Ross sought a raise to $50 a week, Gottschalk balked, so the 21-year-old Ross quit to start his own recording studio with his friend Gold, the electronics wizard who would build all of their equipment.

Gold Star, at Santa Monica Boulevard and Vine Street, started out as a demo studio but quickly started doing master recordings for record labels.

The echo chamber that Gold designed was a draw, but so was Ross' "tremendous personality," Gold said. "He was extremely likable and very outgoing."

When "young or inexperienced producers found themselves hopelessly out of their depth," Ross rescued them, Gold said.

By the 1980s, technology had enabled many bands to set up their own recording studios, essentially rendering Gold Star obsolete, Ross later said.

After Gold Star closed in 1984 and a mini-mall was built in its place, Ross liked to compare the studio to a long-playing record. It had been open 33 1/3 years.

Ross is survived by his wife of 62 years, Vera of Burbank; two sons, Jeff of Fountain Valley, Calif., and Brad of San Diego; six grandchildren; and a sister, Ruth Schultz of Los Angeles.

Posted on Wed, Mar. 16, 2011 10:11 PM



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/16/27 ... z1Gv8zzDg6
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
User avatar
radiofan
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 13719
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:24 pm
Location: Keremeos, BC

Re: Stan Ross, co-founder of Gold Star studio, dies at

Postby hagopian » Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:57 pm

One of those "If the Walls could talk" stories.

Mr. Ross and Mr. Gold did a great service to our beloved Rock and Roll. Technicians and innovators never get their due.

Mr. Ross, thanks for some of the best memories of my young life.

Cruising the Queensway in Ottawa, top down on a 65 Mustang, screaming along with "River Deep, Mountain High" - is still etched in there and I smile.

Pet Sounds.

The Righteous Brothers.

Jeez.

Thanks so much.
User avatar
hagopian
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1188
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:56 pm


Return to The End Of The Road

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 71 guests