Charles Richard Plotkin (born September 8, 1942) is an American

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

, film producer,

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

and

mixing 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 ...

, best known for his work with

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

Recording engineer

Plotkin has recorded, engineered, mastered and produced albums by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and many other artists, starting with the Floating House Band in 1972. Just before hooking up with Springsteen for the mixing of '' Darkness on the Edge of Town'', Plotkin produced the ''Cocaine Drain'' album by

the Cowsills The Cowsills are an American singing group from Newport, Rhode Island, six siblings noted for performing professionally and singing harmonies at an early age, later with their mother. The band was formed in early 1965 by brothers Bill Cowsill, B ...

. Among Plotkin's major achievements as an engineer was the mastering of Bruce Springsteen's ''

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

'' album. Springsteen recorded the album as a set of demonstration tapes on an inexpensive home cassette recorder. The task of turning the raw, unprocessed

cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

(which had spent weeks in Springsteen's pants pocket) into a professional-sounding vinyl LP was a daunting one, and a major technical accomplishment. He has been credited as a producer on several Springsteen albums.

Film and record producer

Plotkin was credited as producer for the 1995 movie ''

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...

'', and produced the soundtrack albums for several films including '' Dead Man Walking'', '' Vietnam, Long Time Coming'', ''

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

'', and '' Jerry Maguire''.

Other appearances

Plotkin was also featured in the 1996 documentary '' Blood Brothers: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band'', which documented an E Street Band recording session the preceding year.

References

External links

* * AllMusic credits info
Blog on the making of
''

''
Chuck Plotkin turns himself into a microphone stand
to record

's '' Every Grain of Sand'' 1942 births Living people American record producers American audio engineers Mixing engineers American film producers Engineers from Los Angeles Record producers from Los Angeles {{music-producer-stub