Bob Wayne | Director and Archive Specialist
Bob founded Sunburst Recording in 1977 in Los Angeles and moved the facility to its current Culver City location in 1982. Over the years, he has worn many hats at Sunburst.
As a studio owner, Bob has been passionate about creating an exceptional acoustic environment providing an array of both vintage and modern recording equipment within a comfortable and creative setting. As a recording engineer, he is dedicated to bringing artistry and technology together ensuring that each performance is captured with efficiency and pristine clarity.
Bob's work encompasses a wide range of media: album projects, film, television and spoken word/narration assisting local, national and international artists and institutions. Starting in 2006, Bob has extended his work to include archiving and restoration services for analog tape and disc formats.
He has recorded with Adam Sandler, Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), Fishbone, Richie Havens, Firesign Theatre, Mickey Dolenz, Steve Allen and Jazz greats Plas Johnson (tenor sax soloist on Henry Mancini's "The Pink Panther"), Barbara Morrison and Ernie Andrews. The archiving division has taken on projects ranging from composer Ernst Tosh & folk songwriter Tom Paxton to Jazz musicians Cannonball Adderley & Wes Montgomery to authors Aldous Huxley & Ray Bradbury.
Recognition of Bob's contributions to the recording industry include a Grammy Award for his work on George Carlin's Napalm & Sillyputty in 2002 and four nominations as a Grammy finalist. Additionally, Bob has contributed his music production talents to many feature films such as Election, Swingers and Guess Who. His work has also been heard on television in Alias, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Party of Five and the PBS series Nova among others.
As a Record Producer, Bob has added his expertise to individual artists, bands, record labels and commercial music houses. In this regard, he was a founding member and producer for "Big Daddy", a 1950's parody band that released five albums on Rhino Records from 1983 – 2000. In addition to these recordings, "Big Daddy" had a top twenty national hit in England in 1985 with their version of the Bruce Springsteen classic Dancing in the Dark. In 1986, the band was honored as a Clio finalist for their original musical composition and performance of My Kind Of Zoo, a TV ad that promoted the then renovated Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The jingle also won both New York and Chicago Film Festival awards. More on "Big Daddy" can be found on this website under From The Vault - Big Daddy History.
Richard Foos, Founder of Rhino Records and Shout! Factory Entertainment says of Bob:
"I have known Bob Wayne since the late 1970's during the early days of the Rhino Records label. Bob showed a sincere dedication to these early projects and proved time and time again to be a talented recording engineer and (record) producer. Over the next 20 plus years, Bob continued to make major contributions for Rhino as he produced and engineered well over fifty projects including Rhino's first international hit record in the UK "Dancing in the Dark" by Big Daddy in 1985 and "Chantmania" in 1994, the biggest selling original project ever on the Rhino label."
Mike Masters | Staff 1st Engineer
Before joining the Sunburst Staff in 2008, Mike engineered extensively in both digital and analog formats at some of the most famous studios in the Los Angeles area including The Village, Ocean Way, Westlake and Cello. He worked with Producer John Cale, founding member of the Velvet Underground and on the HBO hit show Flight Of The Conchords which won a Grammy in 2008. He also engineered a number of L.A. based band projects before joining the Sunburst Staff in 2008 including The Flys (Trauma Records), Pride Tiger (EMI), Maurice (Warner Brothers Records), Nebula (Century Media), the Queers (Hopeless Records), Ambulance LTD, (TVT), Strung Out (Fat Wreck Chords Records) and ASG (Volcom Records).
Since starting at Sunburst, Mike has engineered music tracks here for Adam Sandler's number one box office film Just Go With It (Sony), an Adam Sandler music track Like A Hurricane produced by Brooks Arthur. The Warner Brothers track features guitarist Waddy Wachtel and appears on Covered, A Revolution In Sound. Also on Mikes busy schedule has been music for the feature film Takers (Sony) and the NBC-TV Network show Love Bites. Mike recently also worked with two of L.A.'s best known record producers engineering album projects with Patrick McCarthy for Irish band BiPolar Empire and Matt Hyde producing 69 Eyes for EMI.
Brooks Arthur, legendary New York and L.A. Recording Engineer and Producer said of Mike:
"The addition of Mike Masters (Pro Tools recording engineer) to your studio repertoire certainly brings today's recording capabilities to a new height, BUT he meshes it perfectly with the sound and vibe of the room…"
John Axtell | Staff 1st Engineer
John joined the Sunburst Staff in early 2010. He began his audio career in San Francisco working in a number of facilities including Studio D, CRI and the legendary Fantasy Studios. John then ventured to the Southwest where he ran Signalhouse Recording Studio in Tucson for nearly a decade.
With extensive experience in audio production, sound design, post-production and the web, John is a welcome addition to the staff here at Sunburst. He has worked in a variety of formats including Pro Tools HD, Logic and other DAW applications. He is also well versed in analog recording and music composition.
John has engineered records for various bands such as Black Sun Ensemble on Camera Obscura Records, Will Elliott, Greyhound Soul and Sun Zoom Spark on SlowBurn Records along with engineering and mixing a number of live "on air" sessions for Tucson's KXCI.
John also wrote and recorded original music for the documentary Jaguars, Mermaids & More: The Masks of Mexico which received the New York Film Festival's World Bronze Medal in 2008.
