Howie Weinberg
Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits according to AllMusic, over 200 albums certified Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 3 TEC Awards, 20 Grammy Awards, 76 Grammy nominations, 2 Juno Awards, and 1 Mercury Prize. Notably, Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 Grammy Award-winning album "Future Shock". Other notable mastering works include the Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill"  and Nirvana's "Nevermind", both of which were ranked on "Rolling Stone"s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Weinberg has also worked with the  following: Dimebag Darrell of Pantera said of Weinberg: When you get to mastering you've got to find the magic mix that works once it goes through all the compression and EQing. We worked with Howie Weinberg and he's a fantabulous motherfucker. Weinberg began working in the mail room at Masterdisk in 1979, delivering recording tapes in New York City. Mastering engineer Bob Ludwig acted as his mentor. In January 2011, he left Masterdisk to set up his own mastering company in Los Angeles, Howie Weinberg Mastering, which appeared in "Voyage LA"s "Most Inspiring Stories" on February 11, 2021 . In 2017 his work on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. That year he also won a Juno Awards of 2017 for The Strumbellas. He appeared on a panel discussion at the 2009 SXSW music festival titled Producers "On Making Classic Records" sometimes working in a teaching capacity. Weinberg also consults with new technologies, new media, and education. In 2020, Weinberg began consulting with LANDR, an online, cloud-based, automated mastering service developed by MixGenius in Montreal, Quebec. The service digitally masters uploaded audio tracks using artificial intelligence algorithms. Weinberg also worked  on the Payolas' Juno-winning 1993 song "Eyes of a Stranger". In 1997 Polythene by Feeder was met with critical acclaim and made the UK Top 75. Weinberg was nominated for the Mix Foundation's TEC Awards (Technical Excellence & Creativity) for mastering engineer in 1997. He was named among the winners for Outstanding Creative Achievement in 2003 as part of the team for Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun" and "C'mon, C'mon", the album also earned 2 TEC Awards. In 2006 for Record Production as part of the team for Gorillaz's "Feel Good Inc". In 2001  he received a Mercury Prize for mastering PJ Harvey's album "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea". As of 2021, Weinberg has not won a Grammy statuette. Mastering engineers are not eligible for a GRAMMY statuette except in the categories of Best Historical Album, Best Immersive Audio Album, Best Engineered Album Classical, Best Engineered Album Non- Classical, Record of the Year and Album of The Year. (Mastering Engineers are eligible to receive a Winner's Certificate for all winning albums.). Weinberg will never be nominated as "Best Engineered" in any of those categories because those engineers (candidates and  nominees) are recording engineers and not mastering engineers. However, the recording engineers that recorded Sheryl Crow's, "C'mon, C'mon" that Weinberg mastered, Jack Joseph Puig, Trina Shoemaker, Eric Tew and Andy Wallace, (Sheryl Crow) in 2002, were Grammy nominated in one of those categories, Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, had they won for Best Engineered Recording, Non Classical, Weinberg would have received a Grammy statuette in place of a Grammy Winner's Certificate for mastering. They did not win, so instead, he earned the nomination. In 2019 Fiona Apple 's the album The Idler Wheel ... was included on The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list, and ranked 5th on Pitchfork's list of The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s. In 2020, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 213 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time while placing Nirvana at No. 6. Personal life. Weinberg married Rachel Felder, the director of artists and repertory at Columbia Records, in July 1999. The couple separated in 2009 and divorced soon after. Partial discography. If not stated otherwise, Weinberg received credits for mastering. Listed in alphabetical order: Howie Weinberg