Mick Guzauski


Nathan "Mick" Guzauski is an American multi-platinum Mixing Engineer and sound engineer.
His work spans a wide range of styles, including jazz, R&B, Latin, rock, pop, easy listening, funk and hip hop. He won a 2002 Latin Grammy for Thalía's "Arrasando", four 2004 Latin Grammys for Alejandro Sanz's "No Es Lo Mismo", and the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, for Eric Clapton's "Back Home." As of 2001, he had mixed 27 # 1 singles. He also won multiple awards for the engineering and mixing of the Daft Punk album Random Access Memories.

Early life

Guzauski grew up in Rochester, New York, where there were no commercial sound studios. In high school he put together his own studio in his parents' basement with equipment that he borrowed, built, repaired, and modified. He did pickup engineer work with Steve Gadd and Tony Levin, then students at the Eastman School of Music, and Lou Gramm, who soon hit it big with Foreigner.

Career

Around the same time, he met Chuck Mangione, an up-and-coming composer in Rochester, and engineered his recordings as well as mixed his live sound. When Mangione signed with A&M Records in 1975, he asked Guzauski to go to Los Angeles with him to engineer his new album, a recording with a 45-piece orchestra with a rhythm section and soloists at A&M studios. Guzauski engineered several albums for Mangione over the next few years.

1980s

In the early 1980s, Guzauski worked with Maurice White and Earth, Wind and Fire at the Complex. Conway Studios in L.A. became his home base in the mid-1980s, where he engineered and mixed projects for Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, Mr. Mister, Madonna, Talking Heads, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini, Patti LaBelle, Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Quincy Jones, The Stabilizers, Michael Bolton, Kenny G, George Benson, and Cher.

1990s on

In 1991, Walter Afanasieff asked him to mix a Michael Bolton record he was working on. Guzauski still does work for both of them. Afanasieff then hired him to mix a Mariah Carey album in 1993. Tommy Mottola, then CEO of Sony, liked his mixes and asked him to relocate to New York and work for him at Sony Music Studios. Guzauski accepted Mottola's offer, and worked on albums with Mottola at Sony and at Mariah Carey's home studio, doing mostly female ballads. He also mixed projects for David Foster, Babyface, Boyz II Men, and All-4-One.
In 2001, Guzauski worked with Michael Jackson to create 5.1-channel surround sound remixes of Thriller as well as all his other albums for release on the then new Super Audio CD format yet despite numerous retries the artist never approved any of the mixes.

Current work

Guzauski now works from his private studio, Barking Doctor Recording, located in the basement of his home. The studio has 2 control rooms, and a small tracking/overdub room. Studio A is built around a Sony OXF-R3 Oxford mixing console and Pro Tools HD Xcel 3 system with Accel cards with 96 channels. Studio B is built around a Yamaha DM-2000 console and standard mixing outboard that he prefers: Eventide SP-2016's.
At Barking Doctor, he has mixed projects for Brian McKnight, Michael Jackson, LeAnn Rimes, Eric Clapton, The Corrs, BB King, Brandy, Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Monica Naranjo, Michael McDonald, and Mariah Carey. Recently, he's currently working on new projects for Pharrell Williams.

Grammy Awards and Nominations

Winner – Latin Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
2017 • Jei Beibi
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album
2014 • Girl
Nomination – Grammy Award for Album of the Year
2014 • Girl
Winner – Grammy Award for Album of the Year
2013 • Random Access Memories
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album
2013 • Random Access Memories
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
2013 • Random Access Memories
Winner – Grammy Award for Record of the Year
2013 • Get Lucky
Winner – Grammy Award for Best pop Instrumental Album
2013 • Steppin’ Out
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
2006 • Back Home
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
2007 • The Road To Escondido
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album
2004 • No Es lo Mismo
Winner – Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year
2004 • No Es Lo Mismo
Winner – Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year
2004 • No Es lo Mismo
Winner – Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
2008 • The Road to Escondido
Winner – Latin Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album
2004 • No Es lo Mismo
Winner – Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Album
2004 • No Es lo Mismo
Winner – Latin Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album
2001 • Arrasando
Nomination – Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Or Music Series Or Special Or Animation
2005 • Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival

Emmy Award nomination

Guzauski was nominated in 2005 for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety or Music Series or Special or Animation, for his mixing for Eric Clapton in "Great Performances; Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival", along with Elliot Scheiner, Ed Cherney, and Neil Dorfsman.

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