Nity Lost One of Its Giants. Dick Rosmini
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n September 9, the music actor on "Bonanza," his production world and the audio commu- of Gale Garnet's "We'll Sing in the 0nity lost one of its giants. Sunshine," his playing, recording and Dick Rosmini succumbed to Amy- production for Jackie DeShannon, otrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) at recording Jackson Browne's demos. the age of 59. He is survived by his his writing and playing of all the gui- wife of 35 years, Christine. tar and banjo music for Coppola's Dick Rosmini grew up in New "The Black Stallion," and his 12- York's Greenwich Village. He was string guitar on the sound track of immensely entertaining both to his "Leadbelly ." musical audiences and his engineer- Musical art was Dick Rosmini's ing colleagues. No one who met him life passion. At a gala tribute orga- ever felt ambivalent about him. He nized by the Hollywood Sapphire was either loved or disliked: loved by Group for him last year-attended by those who found his brusque and many artists and musical associ- often arrogant truths refreshing, and ates-the recurring theme of speak- feared by those whose own arrogant ers was his immense capacity for truths were never as well studied. sharing information that enriched Rosmini never suffered fools, but Dick Rosmini them or improved their art. Anything was as generous a teacher as ever and everything that had the potential there was. typical of anyone else. He earned the to give a musical artist a new color A man of intense intellect. unelring irreverent appellation "The Sabicas of on the palette became Dick's personal focus and burning impatience, Ros- the Blues Guitar" from his friends. crusade and reason for being. He mini was given to take up difficult His rare Elektra solo guitar albums are taught recording for over a decade at studies and master them, sometimes among the most highly prized collector the University of Southern California within days, as he did with the piano items among guitar music enthusiasts. and had a hand in the evolution of mo- a few years ago, setting out to play Rosmini also was a world-class tion picture sound into its present day rock styles and achieving in just a few photographer and photo chemist. In form. His musical passion and sense weeks what studio keyboardists the 50s and 60s he was the principal of showmanship led him to investigate would have taken decades to accom- jewelry photographer for Tiffany and how he could successfully cornmuni- plish. After meeting Eric Darling and Co. for theii- amazing catalog pho- cate his artistic intent to an audience, Michael Steig in Washington Square tographs. This work supplemented his which. of course, involves the tortuous and hearing folk music. Rosmini de- pursuit of a musical career. path those of us in audio are rcsponsi- cided that the folk music community Rosmini's talents were put to use ble for creating. operating and-until offered him the family he did not working on musical instruments, mu- the advent ol audio data compres- have at home. Within a few months, sical electronics, recording, produc- slon-improving. he had mastered a new and unique ing, photography, writing, arranging? Rosnlini was an electronics renais- style of playing the 12-string guitar performing, mixing and engineering. sance man in the way he so easily and in short order, was well known in The list of music business luminaries saw the shortcomings of audio equip- Greenwich Village as possibly the Dick played for and worked with is ment and redesigned it. His constant best 12-string guitar player in the much too long to print here-just the fight to make audio electronics acces- world. Eric Darling recalls that Dick records he either played on, engi- sible to musicians led to his develop- was always meticulous and complete- neered or produced would fill a page. ment of many of Tascam's multitrack lj7 fascinated by the details of any dis- Notable was his 10-year tour with the and portable multitrack recorders and cipline. Even when playing blues gui- Smothers Brothers, his tour with Tiny mixers. He also wrote many of their tar at a jam session, he would play Tim, his producing of Pernell Roberts stunningly pithy instruction manuals fast, intricate and precise notes not for RCA and his brief career as an and the Mi~ltitrackPnmer-publica- 1128 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 43. No. 12, 1995 December This publi- cation is I available in I tions that have now educated an entire generation of recorded music makers. Two of Dick's instructional I microform I recording projects, "Home Made with Teac" and the JBL "Sessions" album have become gold records. Rosmini's affiliation with Robert Easton got 360 systems off the ground in 1974 with the introduction of their polyphonic guitar synthesizer. He helped launch it at the AES convention by demonstrating it with dazzling gui- tar virtuosity that left no doubt of the product's potential. His affiliation with Aspen Pittman got Groove Tubes start- ed in 1975 with their speaker emula- tor-codeveloped with Rosmini's friends, Dick Heyser, Dean Jensen and Marshall Buck. He never hesitated to assemble the most senior scientists for projects whose results would have eluded lesser engineering talents. Ros- mini tackled everything in the audio chain, designing microphones, mixers, recorders, amplifiers and loudspeakers. He was a consultant to JBL on the monumental musical instrument trans- Please send me additional information. ducer K-series 120 and 130, whose sound is the sound of popular music Name itself. He codesigned JBL studio moni- tors and participated in their integra- Institution tion into Hollywood's top studios. Dick Rosmini's impact on the way Street music is made and the tools used to City make it is pervasive. It is not inaccu- rate to say that he was the principal State Zip driving force behind the home record- ing revolution that has shaped the University Microfilms International entire music industry and the audio 300 North Zeeb Road industry. Thousands of us owe our Dept. P.R. vocations and avocation to his efforts, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 for which he never sought recognition, U.S.A. but generously lit the way for so many 18 Bedford Row whose passions were given direction Dept. P. R. by his amazing insight. London, WC1 R 4EJ Drew Daniels England North Hills. CA J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 43, No. 12, 1995 December .