Dave Pensado is a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

-winning

mix engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

. His career began in Atlanta in the 1970s and 1980s doing live and studio sound engineering. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1990. He mixes between 200 and 250 songs a year at

Larrabee Studios Larrabee Sound Studios is a recording studio complex in North Hollywood, California, originally established in 1969. Facilities Located at 4162 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, Larrabee has six studios, three tracking spaces, and a prod ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. When recording he usually records at Echo Bar Studios in North Hollywood. On September 12, 2011, mixing engineer Dave Pensado started a weekly show called ''Pensado's Place'', together with Herb Trawick, his manager and business partner. The first part of the show (ITL = Into the lair) is about audio engineering techniques; Dave evaluates - sometimes assisted or even replace by a guest speaker - new plugins, outboard gear like microphones, and he demonstrates in detail how to improve different aspects of the mix. The second part Dave and Herb interview together a(n award winning) mixer, master engineer, producer, label CEO and/or singer-songwriter. Dave asks questions about the general approach and philosophy, and often zooms in on a selection of songs and/or albums his guest(s) worked on, discussing technical details. Herb merely focusses his questions and remarks on the business aspect of music. At the end of every show there is a Q&A: questions of the audience are asked and answered. All episodes are posted on the pensadoplace.tv website, but also on the YouTube channel ''Pensado's Place'' and are available for free. . On July 20, 2013, Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick hosted an event at Vintage King Los Angeles called "Pensado Gear Expo 2013". More than one thousand people from around the world attended. 22-time Grammy Award-winning engineer,

Al Schmitt Albert Harry Schmitt (April 17, 1930 – April 26, 2021) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and other ...

, Steven Slate,

Alex da Kid Alexander Junior Grant (born 27 August 1983), professionally known as Alex da Kid or by.ALEXANDER, is a British musician, record producer, songwriter, record executive and fashion designer from Wood Green, London. He has gained recognition for p ...

, Ryan Hewitt, and Robert Duncan were a few of the featured guests of the expo.

Equipment

Being a modern show, Pensado mixes primarily "in the box," which means he only occasionally uses and demonstrates outboard analog gear, and instead processes/edits audio tracks in his computer ("the box") before sending finished mixes to a mastering engineer. He uses

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

for the demonstrations and the show is sponsored by audio companies he respects.

Awards

Pensado won a Grammy Award, alongside fellow engineers

Jaycen Joshua Jaycen Joshua is a mix engineer and music producer who owns the revered Canton House Studios in Studio City, California. Joshua started his mix career in 2005 when he became partners with his mentor Dave Pensado and formed The Penua Project. Joshu ...

and

Kuk Harrell Thaddis Laphonia "Kuk" Harrell ( ) is an American songwriter, vocal producer, arranger and engineer. He was a member of a songwriting–production team composed of himself, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and The-Dream, Terius "The-Dream" Nash. In ...

, for

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Best Contemporary R&B Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary ...

, ''

Growing Pains ''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes. The series followed the misadventures of the Se ...

''. Pensado was the recipient of the 2020 NAMM TEC (Technical Excellence & Creativity) Hall of Fame Award. Pensado was officially inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame at the 35th Annual NAMM TEC Awards, held on January 18 in Anaheim, California.

Discography

Alumni

Some successful audio engineers & producers that have assisted for Dave Pensado in the past include Sylvia Massy,

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is an American mixing engineer.Daley, Dan (May 2005).Manny Marroquin. ''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved February 10, 2007 He has received ten Grammy awards for his professional audio work. Life and career M ...

, Dylan "3-D" Dresdow, Ariel Chobaz, Ethan Willoughby, Nico Hamui, and Rafael Fadul.

References

External links

Dave Pensado
on Discogs
Pensado's PlaceDave Pensado
NAMM Oral History Program Interview (2015) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pensado, Dave American audio engineers Living people People from Los Angeles Engineers from California Year of birth missing (living people)