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Mastering the Record

Biography

Alan Silverman is the founder of Arf! Mastering, a facility in NYC specializing in high-resolution audio. He has mastered numerous Grammy Award CDs, including world music phenomenon "Lagrimas Negras," nominated for Record of The Year, Album of The Year, and Best Engineered Record at the 2004 Latin Grammy Awards.
Alan began his engineering career in the 80’s assisting at Electric Lady Studios working with producer Mutt Lange, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Hall and Oates, and Foreigner. He then moved on to engineer at A&R Recording Studios, working with legendary producers Phil Ramone and Arif Mardin, and artists Billy Joel and Judy Collins. There he also did session work on orchestral film scores for directors David Mamet, Richard Attenborough, Francis Coppola, and Frank Oz, and for major film composers such as Elmer Bernstein and Ralph Burns. When the studio went dark in the early 90’s, Alan began working free-lance, producing records for Judy Collins as well as continuing to record scores for feature films, engineering the soundtrack of the United Artists musical adaptation of “The Fantasticks.” He later worked as a music supervisor for Sesame Workshop, producing music and directing Muppet performers and celebrities for the Sesame Street network television specials “Elmopalooza” and “Cinderelmo.” 
Alan turned to full-time mastering in 1996 and celebrated mastering his 30th Grammy Award project in 2007.  He received critical acclaim for re-mastering the RCA and MCA back catalogs of the British supergroup The Kinks on hi-resolution SACD, for his restoration of the soundtrack of the Americana cult-classic “Heartworn Highways,” and for an SACD featuring Norah Jones. He still returns to recording on occasion, recently engineering the orchestral scores for the films “Kinsey” and the Disney Company’s “Casanova.” He has just co-produced a new album for Judy Collins and continues to master independent and major label projects of all genres for US and international clients at Arf! Mastering.
Alan is active in the Audio Engineering Society and has chaired workshops in high-resolution mastering at the Society's national conventions.