Ron Murphy: Detroit Techno Mastering Luminary

Ron Murphy was synonymous with mastering and engineering - and is known for working on the biggest Detroit Techno records back in the day. You can read all about his career in this Red Bull Academy Feature, and in this article from detroiteq.com. Here's an excerpt from the Red Bull article... 

Murphy eventually became Detroit techno's connection to Motown. But only by accident. In 1989, Murphy and his business partner Steve Martel opened a store specializing in old phonographs called National Sound Corporation on West Warren in Detroit. To have the option of cutting dubplates for customers, they set up record cutting equipment in one of the shop's back rooms.

Like most local businesses, National Sound was listed in the phone book. And when Derrick May and Juan Atkins flipped through the pages searching for a place to make a record locally, they stumbled upon Murphy's new company. "I sent my first two records to a company based in Cincinnati," recalls Atkins. "So we called up National Sound and made an appointment, and went over to the place and met Ron Murphy. He sat us down and explained the mastering process to us, then [mastered a record] in front of us."

Here he is in a few videos talking about his craft, including cutting a record of some filthy hardcore techno (the first Davros record - LOW 002) below: 

Here is a track from that EP .... complete with Dalek samples - brace yourself!

And here's an extended cut of the video above... 

And if you want more, here is a podcast featuring an interview with him - the sound quality is not great, which is kind of ironic. I'm sure he could have made it sound better!

Check out the Discogs for more information: https://www.discogs.com/label/272331-National-Sound-Corporation?page=1

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