Jeffrey Ginn
23rd September 1964 – 1st June 2022
Recording engineer, audio editor, musician, Tonmeister

Ken Blair writes…

Jeff was a fellow student at the University of Surrey Department of Music in the 1980s. He was a year ahead of me but we were a small close-knit bunch. We followed a similar path into engineering and editing recordings of classical music. Jeff worked for the record labels Chandos in Essex and BIS in Sweden before going freelance but continued to undertake projects for both labels. He took over from me as audio editor on a large scale project with the Columbian harpsichordist, Raphael Puyana in Paris for Sanctus Records in 2010. I was content to know the project was in such safe and conscientious hands. A proud and down to earth Yorkshireman, he was as passionate about music as he was about recording and was always fine company. Departed too soon. Rest in peace Jeff.

Ateş Orga writes…

The backroom boys of the recording business rarely get public recognition, awards even less. Yet it’s they – the producers, balance engineers, audio editors – who bring projects to life, who witness at first hand the best and worst in artists, the tears, tantrums and triumphs, who use their skills and imagination to enhance the glory moments or save a crisis when all else fails. Exactly what everyone does isn’t that evident to listeners, which is as it should be. The fact is each relies on the best in the other to gild the dream and consolidate the outcome. Last in the chain, the editor is critical, stitching takes and notes to arrive at a seamless, believable master. People working often long late hours, many in cottage industry environments, score on the desk, headphones on, endless repetitive waveforms dancing and peaking across computer monitors, fresh coffee brewing. It’s a lonely, time-intensive job. Jeff was meticulous and self-critical in everything he did. Twenty or so years ago the quietness and order of his Bedford home, 11 Haycroft, blanked out the world. Tidily organised CD shelves. The best of speakers and reproduction equipment. Triple-glazed listening room/studio. Pencils in their place. Hand hovering over mouse, the smallest body action expecting and demanding silence and concentration from himself and everyone before embarking on an edit. A committed work ethic. Day over, a takeaway, blasts of brass-band, the big symphonic repertory auditioned and compared with discerning, informed insight. He loved his music. As the man so the student. R I P.

Sound Bite: Chausson Poème. Exceptionally, Jeff let the soloist, Laurent Korcia, sit in on the editing sessions, circa 1997/98.