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Keith O. Johnson is known for his many outstanding recordings and contributions to entertainment technology. He began by building a three-channel magnetic tape recorder and ribbon microphones in high school, which earned him a scholarship and training program from Ampex Corporation. At Stanford University, he recorded music groups and constructed a solid-state portable recorder that would ultimately record and master over 100 record releases. He introduced radio-frequency bias methods and photolithography construction of heads to significantly advance the state of recording art. He consulted to Sherman Fairchild, who licensed this patented “focused gap” technology for recorders he built for RCA. Johnson’s professional achievements and patents also include:
- Partnered Gauss Electrophysics and applied recording methods and patented air suspension of tape to standardize and dominate the high-speed tape duplication industry for many years.
- Developed an optical scanner to remove noise from damaged motion picture sound tracks. Famous movies are still being restored with the devices.
- Partnered Reference Recordings and has engineered over 120 exceptional titles.
- Designed critically acclaimed high-end audio equipment for Spectral Incorporated for almost 20 years.
- To improve the compact disc, he partnered with Pacific Microsonics and contributed important parts of the HDCD process and patents. Johnson’s ideas -- morphing filters, hidden codes in dither, conversion sequences or pipelines -- are amongst the first of their kind. Microsoft bought the company and Johnson provided a speaker correction method to remove object-related sounds from small speakers. For Microsoft, he also helped develop a system based on generic speaker models and simplified files that is bundled with Windows software to improve computer speaker sound.
- He has received many awards, including 2 Grammy®-winning releases, 7 nominations for Best Engineered Classical Recording, 2 NAIRD Indy winners for Best Recording, 2 Absolute Sound Golden Ear awards, and 3 awards from the Academy Advancing High Performance Audio.
2 Lacrymosa 7:53 3 Dies irae 5:02 4 Requiem aeternam 6:17
5 Dawn 4:04 6 Sunday Morning 3:46 7 Moonlight 4:26 8 Passacaglia 7:19 9 Storm 4:44
Labels: Britten's Orchestra, Britten's Orchestra SACD, David Frost, Grammy Award, Kansas City Symphony, Keith Johnson, Prof Keith O. Johnson, Reference Recordings, Reference Recordings SACD