JAY HARPER
Jay was born into a musical family. His grandfather was a retired Navy band director and founded a music store in San Diego. Both
his parents were multi-instrumentalist musicians. From there, he learned to play drums and percussion. He also developed a keen ear for quality recordings.
In his first year at college, he took a recording class and the fire was ignited. He’d found his passion in helping artists achieve their dreams.
Earning his BA in Recording Arts from California State University, Chico, Jay moved on to Hollywood working for Bernie Grundman Mastering in various capacities. He assisted mastering engineers, cut lacquers, did quality control on masters sent for replication, and spent a fair amount of time in the shop building the custom-made equipment.
JAY'S STORY
After a few years, Jay was enticed to leave Hollywood and work for Digidesign (a division of Avid) in the San Francisco Bay area. While there, he began to build his freelancing business in mastering, recording, and mixing.
The University of Colorado at Denver was able to lure Jay to scenic Colorado where he managed the recording arts lab for 250 students. The studio complex consisted of 5 multi-track recording facilities with analog and digital desks, 2” analog tape, a Radar system, and various other digital formats including Pro
Tools. While there, Jay began teaching an audio mastering topics course which ran for 8 years.
Jay found himself back at Digidesign as a Product Specialist covering 13 states supporting retail shops as well as large recording and post production studios. Amongst those were Paisley Park, Microsoft, and Starz/Encore. All the while, his freelancing continued to grow.
Following Avid’s restructuring, Jay focused entirely on freelancing and became a mainstay at Backbone Studio in Loveland, CO. Backbone Studio was a multi-million dollar destination facility boasting an impressive equipment list of top microphones, preamps, outboard gear, as well as vintage amps and guitars. He tracked, mixed, and mastered projects at Backbone Studio.
Jay also frequently worked in post-production for Colorado production companies including Starz/Encore at their headquarters in Englewood, CO. Subsequently, he’s worked in surround formats since 2006 in various formats such as DTS and Dolby Digital/AC3.
North Carolina has been Jay’s home since 2015. As a multimedia technician for the Department of Music at UNC Chapel Hill, he’s been instrumental in stepping up their live stream offerings and offering his experience in broadcast. He continues to freelance with various projects including immersive audio and 360-degree video.
In 2021, Jay completed his MA in Educational Media with the emphasis on New Media and Global Perspectives. One of his capstone projects is a 360-degree video and audio recording of a musical performance which can be streamed on YouTube.
Jay is currently diving into the Dolby Atmos world and looking forward to making people’s dreams come alive at Sonark!