Columbia and A&M Studios Ray Gerhardt info and bio

Does anyone have any sources for information and any biographical content on sound engineer Ray Gerhardt. I can see some of the projects he's recorded (all music.com), know that he recorded some of the Byrds material, and moved early on to A&M, but I am unable to find any interviews with him or further information. Do we even know what he looks like? Is he still alive?

Thanks,
Robert

 

Ray also recorded a lot of the early Carpenters sessions!!!

 

Thanks. Yes, I saw that among all his sessions on all music.com

 

robert D...i'm his daughter, christy. ask me anything and i will try to fill you in. my dad was very much the introvert and would never have given any interview. during the last years of his life, i wanted to sit down with him and write a book of all his memories. his response was "who the hell would be interested in that?" i replied "are you kidding? lots of people". he gave his usual laugh and turned away. he would have none of the idea. but i have many many memories of his career....from the very beginning. he started out at columbia as the radio engineer for the bing crosby and rosemary clooney radio show. it goes on from there....

 

robert D...and if you want to track down a photograph of Ray Gerhardt, there is one as a part of Jack Daugherty's album, Class of 1971, where the album has a few pages of photographs of all musicians and the two engineers. i have the album; my dad is sporting a huge mustache, which was a very transitory condition just sported during that time period. i looked everywhere online and couldn't find any photograph of him anywhere. he got along well with jack daugherty, the producer for the carpenters' early years. when i was sitting in the studio's control booth during the carpenter's sessions, i noted jack performed the usual fine job as producer. the fact that richard claimed jack did nothing is an unfortunate reflection on richard ...over$500,000 was spent by A&M during the lawsuit, nine years of it, as jack tried to combat being let go by A&M. richard insisted he was the producer for all their albums, not jack. when my father passed in 2010, two weeks before his 89th birthday, his sister, caryl, sent an email to notify richard carpenter. there was no response....another indicator of my dad's untiring expertise ignored. another fact not known...as the carpenters were perfectionists, karen would often record only one note at a time. it was my dad's task to knit the entire song together, seamlessly...while using analog equipment. of course, this practice was never brought to light.

 

oh. one more thing....the list of recordings my dad worked on as listed on all music.com is only a tiny fraction of his work. during his years at columbia, it was common for the recording engineer to receive no mention at all on albums. notably missing from the list is andy williams...i remember being very little and sitting on william's lap as he offered to share some bing cherries he was eating from a paper bag.

 

Hi christy, I´m a big fan of your fathers´work for the The Carpinters and I´m searching for years for informations about him. I´m not only a music enthusiast but a mixing engineer
and love his work from that point of view! So great to read at least some storys about his work from you. Would love to hear some more about him ? Kinde regards from Germany Andreas