Bill Porter (sound engineer)

Bill Porter (June 15, 1931 – July 7, 2010) was an American audio engineer who helped shape the Nashville sound and recorded stars such as Chet Atkins, Louis Armstrong, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Gladys Knight, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Skeeter Davis, Ike & Tina Turner, Sammy Davis Jr., and Roy Orbison from the late 1950s through the 1980s. In one week of 1960, his recordings accounted for 15 of Billboard magazine's Top 100, a feat none has matched. Porter mixed concert sound for Elvis Presley from 1970 until the singer's death in 1977. As a University of Miami music professor, Porter helped create the first college program in audio engineering, and went on to teach similar courses at the University of Colorado Denver, and Webster University in St. Louis. Porter was inducted into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame in 1992.

Porter was born Billy Rhodes Porter in St. Louis, Missouri on June 15, 1931. He graduated from East Nashville High School in 1949, then served in the United States Army Reserves In July, the song went to number one on the U. S. country and pop charts, and Porter's reputation rose. (At the time, there was only one studio, with no letter designation. In 1964, when the larger RCA Studio A was built, the original studio was renamed as "Studio B".) The studio's acoustics were problematic, with resonant room modes creating an uneven frequency response. To lessen the problem, Porter took $60 from the studio's petty cash and bought fiberglass acoustic ceiling panels which he and Tommy Strong, his assistant engineer, cut into triangles and hung from the ceiling at varying heights; these were called "Porter Pyramids". Adjacent to Studio B was a utility room containing a plate reverb device made by EMT, German makers of similar effects units installed in other recording studios around the world. The EMT reverb was an electro mechanical echo chamber used to add artificial reverberation effects to recordings. Porter arranged to have the dedicated echo room cooled down as much as possible with an air conditioner, and he adjusted the ten springs on the EMT plate to be tighter than usual, in order to feed the plate more audio signal and get a cleaner sound returning from the device. So much signal was being sent to the plate that Porter disconnected the associated VU meter so that he would not be bothered with its needle slamming against its peg. Porter related that the EMT's springs frequently broke under the increased tension, and he would have to replace them, but that the trouble was worth achieving a "brighter and fuller" echo effect. Porter had not studied Presley's earlier recordings—he started fresh, "doing what I thought it should be." Instead of the usual microphones used by RCA, Porter chose to use a Telefunken U 47 on Presley's voice, Porter engineered "Are You Lonesome Tonight", "It's Now or Never", and other early 1960s Elvis hits. Much of RCA's business was what they called "custom" clients—independent labels not affiliated with RCA, but willing to pay for recording sessions at the proven hit maker studio. One outstanding client was Monument Records under producer Fred Foster, bringing his client Roy Orbison. Porter was able to create for Orbison his trademark sound, with background vocals brought nearer the foreground, beginning with "Only the Lonely". Other Orbison hits recorded for Monument at RCA Nashville were "It's Over", "Running Scared" and "Oh, Pretty Woman". Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax" and Al Hirt's "Java" are other Monument recordings that Porter engineered at RCA. The atmosphere in the studio was important to Porter. He felt that the "music has to show the emotion of the artist",

Porter left RCA in November 1964 to engineer for Columbia Records in Nashville, where he stayed for six months, bringing some of his custom clients with him. but it had problems with its equipment, radio frequency interference from nearby broadcast transmitters, and rumbling noises generated by Union Pacific freight trains passing the building. Porter made recordings at his studio for artists such as personal friend Paul Anka, who would arrive at 2:00 am after his show and record until dawn. Other projects involved recording live shows at Las Vegas hotels, including Buddy Rich's Mercy, Mercy live album at Caesars Palace in 1968. In 1969, Porter and his maintenance technicians modified the 12 input, 4 output mixing console to give it 8 outputs, and made their own 8 track tape recorder from Ampex parts. into United Recording so that Porter could help him with the song's unusual fade out and back in three quarters of the way through. A bigger concern was that Jarvis wanted a horn section but there were no empty tracks left on the tape. Porter solved the dilemma by mixing the horns live in the studio as the original session tape played back, the total blend being recorded onto a stereo master. The hotel's engineers did not get the other two to work, so Porter had some of his own Shure Vocal Master loudspeakers brought over from the recording studio. He laid the column loudspeakers on their sides at the front lip of the stage and propped them up to aim at Presley, who was very happy with the result. Presley insisted upon having Porter mix his live show in January even though he was a recording engineer with no previous experience in live sound. Porter quickly learned about acoustic feedback during the first song, but backstage after the show, film stars and musical artists kept complimenting Presley, telling him that Porter’s concert sound was "just like the album". Porter recorded several of these shows in the mid 1970s, released as albums, In August 1977, Porter was changing planes in Boston to fly to Portland, Maine, to mix a Presley concert when he received a phone call informing him that the singer had died. VMI was housed in Porter's United Recording building. The first VMI release was in December 1971—the album was To Be Free and 18 by Sandi Scott, which did not take off. Better results came soon; in the first year of business, VMI songwriter Ronnie Gaylord wrote "I Will Never Pass This Way Again", a modest success for Glen Campbell, the song covered by others including Brenda Lee, Vikki Carr and Wayne Newton, who closed his show with it at each performance. Las Vegas singer Benny Hester's first album Benny and a related single were announced by VMI in late 1972. Other artists recording with VMI included Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Williams, Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '77, Ike & Tina Turner, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Danny Thomas, Harry Belafonte, Bobby Darin and Louis Prima. Porter was named director at large of the Country Music Association (CMA) in October 1972. He prepared a booklet for the organization in December, an instructional primer on sound techniques, describing microphones and their usage, loudspeaker types, audio mixers, and giving operating tips. VMI's publishing business never scored a major hit, and Porter was frustrated by what he saw as bad business decisions forced on him by the partnership. In January 1973, he resigned. and Porter lost all of the recording equipment stored inside, a total he estimated at $250,000—about $ in today's dollars.

In 1975, Porter took a call from Jerry Milam of Milam Audio and Golden Voice Recording in South Pekin, Illinois, informing him that there was an audio engineering teaching position forming at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Porter taught audio engineering and music history at the University of Colorado Denver in the late 1980s, living outside of Denver with his wife Charmaine, "Boots". Porter asked Chet Atkins to accompany him to the ceremony, but Atkins could not attend because of a prior engagement at Carnegie Hall. However, before the honor was conferred at the ceremony, a video was played of Atkins congratulating Porter, saying "you improved the echo sound tremendously and made things sound so big and so full." In 2003, Porter won the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the St. Louis chapter of the Audio Engineering Society. Late in life, Porter said that among his favorites of his career recordings were Atkins's The Most Popular Guitar, an album recorded with lush string orchestration, and Jerry Byrd's Byrd of Paradise, recorded during Porter's stint with Monument Records. Regarding the Nashville Sound, Porter believed that it was in the people who were involved: Hank Garland, Ray Edenton, Buddy Harman, Harold Bradley, Bob Moore, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Velma Smith, Charlie McCoy, the Anita Kerr Singers, and the Jordanaires. Porter's health declined from Alzheimer's disease, and he died in a hospice near Ogden on July 7, 2010, at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife Carole, a brother and a sister, his children Nancy, a retired professor, and Gene, a prominent Las Vegas attorney and politician, and his grandchildren Sam, Marcie, Chandelle, and Weston Porter.

These songs engineered by Porter placed in the top ten in the U. S. Billboard Hot 100 chart:
Artist Song Year month Highest chart position Louis Armstrong "What a Wonderful World" 1968 02 1 (UK) Bobby Bare "500 Miles Away from Home" 1963 10 10 The Browns "The Three Bells" 1959 08 1 The Browns "The Old Lamp Lighter" 1960 03 5 Floyd Cramer "Last Date" 1960 10 2 Floyd Cramer "On the Rebound" 1961 03 4 Floyd Cramer "San Antonio Rose" 1961 06 8 Skeeter Davis "End of the World" 1962 12 2 Skeeter Davis "I Can't Stay Mad at You" 1963 09 7 The Everly Brothers "(Till) I Kissed You" 1959 08 4 The Everly Brothers "Cathy's Clown" 1960 04 1 The Everly Brothers "When Will I Be Loved" 1960 06 8 The Everly Brothers "So Sad" 1960 09 7 The Everly Brothers "Walk Right Back" 1961 02 7 The Everly Brothers "Ebony Eyes" 1961 02 8 The Everly Brothers "Crying in the Rain" 1962 01 6 The Everly Brothers "That's Old Fashioned" 1962 05 9 Connie Francis "Together" 1961 07 6 Al Hirt "Java" 1964 01 4 Hank Locklin "Please Help Me, I'm Falling" 1960 05 8 Bob Luman "Let's Think About Living" 1960 09 7 Bob Moore "Mexico" 1961 08 7 Roy Orbison "Only The Lonely" 1960 06 2 Roy Orbison "Blue Angel" 1960 09 9 Roy Orbison "Running Scared" 1961 04 1 Roy Orbison "Crying" 1961 08 2 Roy Orbison "Dream Baby" 1962 02 4 Roy Orbison "In Dreams" 1963 02 7 Roy Orbison "It's Over" 1964 04 9 Roy Orbison "Oh, Pretty Woman" 1964 08 1 Elvis Presley "Stuck On You" 1960 04 1 Elvis Presley "It's Now or Never" 1960 07 1 Elvis Presley "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" 1960 11 1 Elvis Presley "Surrender" 1961 02 1 Elvis Presley "I Feel so Bad" 1961 04 5 Elvis Presley "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" 1961 06 4 Elvis Presley "Little Sister" 1961 08 5 Elvis Presley "Good Luck Charm" 1962 03 1 Elvis Presley "She's Not You" 1962 08 5 Elvis Presley "Return To Sender" 1962 11 2 Elvis Presley "(You're the) Devil in Disguise" 1963 06 3 Elvis Presley "Crying in the Chapel" 1965 04 3 Elvis Presley "Suspicious Minds" 1969 09 1 Jim Reeves "He'll Have to Go" 1960 01 2 Tommy Roe "Sheila" 1962 07 1 Ronny & the Daytonas "G. T. O." 1964 08 4 Sue Thompson "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)" 1961 09 5 Sue Thompson "Norman" 1961 12 3 Johnny Tillotson "Poetry in Motion" 1960 10 2 Johnny Tillotson "Without You" 1961 08 7 Johnny Tillotson "It Keeps Right On a Hurtin'" 1962 05 3