News

Legendary Mastering Engineer George Marino Dies

Michael Fremer  |  Jun 5, 2012

Mastering engineer George Marino, who worked for nearly 40 years at Sterling Sound cutting some of the greatest records of the LP era and helped usher in the vinyl renaissance, passed away on Monday after a year long bout with lung cancer.

"Sterling Sound and the music industry as a whole has suffered a tremendous loss," the mastering house said in a statement released shortly after his passing.

Marino mastered so many great albums through the years, listing them would take pages but they include everything from AC/DC's Highway to Hell to Stevie Wonder's Innervisions.

More recently, Marino had been busy mastering many double 45rpm issues for Chad Kassem's Analogue Productions as well as the superb sounding AAA Experience Hendrix catalog reissues.

Marino began his career as a librarian at Capitol Studios in New York back in 1967 and then apprenticed in the mastering department, cutting all genres of music but the former guitarist was best known for cutting rock records that did just that.

When Capitol closed, he moved on to The Record Plant and then to Sterling Sound. I was privileged to meet and spend an afternoon interviewing George for the DVD "21st Century Vinyl, Michael Fremer's Practical Guide to Turntable Set-up."

If you have the DVD, today would be a good day to watch the interview. He was such a solid guy and cut so many great records, many of which you surely have in your collection. Typical of George's modesty, if you look at the lead-out groove area and see a STERLING stamp, it might also show a GC for Greg Calbi, or TJ for Ted Jensen or LH for Sterling founder Lee Hulko, but if you see just a plain STERLING stamp, chances are the record was cut by George. For all of his great talent, he was a modest guy who will be tremendously missed.

George taught his craft to Ryan Smith, Sterling's newest and youngest LP mastering engineer. Based on his cut of the new Graceland reissue, George taught him well.

Rest in peace, George Marino. The vinyl community will miss you.

COMMENTS
Biff's picture
Submitted by Biff on Tue, 2012-06-05 12:57

I really enjoyed the segment with him on the DVD. He seemed like a nice fellow.

alan james's picture
Submitted by alan james on Tue, 2012-06-05 17:53

A great loss for all lovers of vinyl.  Luckily, Mr. Smith had the chance to 

learn from the best , and can continue to 

learn from the best. George will be greatly missed by all who knew him. 

deckeda's picture
Submitted by deckeda on Tue, 2012-06-05 21:50

From your DVD interview I really got my first sense how nuanced record mastering was. Your questions to hime were straightforward but it was clear there often are no simple answers when it comes to cutting vinyl. He was a true artist indeed working in a noble profession.

Jody's picture
Submitted by Jody on Wed, 2012-06-06 16:15

He helped make some great sounding records. One of my favorites is The Cars first album. Everyone should have at least 2 copies of that, it's found regularly in the dollar bins.

Theapplechap's picture
Submitted by Theapplechap on Wed, 2012-06-06 20:21

In his interview with Michael he was asked why he never put his "mark" on his pressings to identify himself. His reply was that if it sounded great then you knew it was his.   This modest master will be sorely missed.

Kirby's picture
Submitted by Kirby on Sat, 2012-06-09 08:10

First of all I would like to pass on my condolances to George's family, their loss is much more then ours.Secondly, yes we who appreciate terrific sounding music have also lost a great champion in our corner and his services to our comunity will be greatly missed. When ever I spin a record and notice only the " STERLING" on the lead out ( and I have many) I'll take 1/2 a second to remember the man who put it there and gave me such pleasure in doing so! Rest in peace George and spin lots of vinly in heaven as we all know there is no digital there only analog!

detroitvinylrob's picture
Submitted by detroitvinylrob on Wed, 2012-06-13 05:05

Thank you George for getting us closer to the music, RIP brother.

Happy Listening! ;^)>

edwordjhon's picture
Submitted by edwordjhon on Wed, 2012-07-18 00:24

The problem with that is that we easily blame outside of ourselves when we don't feel good about what is Love Quotes created in our lives. We are the architects of each and every day. Never forget that.

Smafdy Assmilk's picture
Submitted by Smafdy Assmilk on Mon, 2012-07-30 19:02

Thank you, George. My record collection sounds much better because of you. You will be missed.

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