Craig Bauer

Craig Bauer
OccupationsMix engineer, producer, songwriter, artist
Instruments
  • keyboards
  • guitars
Websitewww.craigbauer.com

Craig Bauer is an American Grammy Award winning mixing engineer and record producer. He has been nominated for two Album of the Year Grammy Awards for his work on Kanye West's multiplatinum album Late Registration and double platinum follow-up Graduation. He won a Grammy Award in 2008 for mixing the Clark Sisters' 2007 album, Live – One Last Time.

Bauer has worked with other high-profile artists across multiple genres, including Lupe Fiasco, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran, the Clark Sisters, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Common, Jennifer Hudson, Lil' Kim, Wu-Tang Clan, Richard Marx, 98°, Yolanda Adams, Dave Koz, Dennis DeYoung, Styx, Donald Lawrence, Destiny's Child, Public Enemy, Hezekiah Walker, and the Smashing Pumpkins.

He also mixed the Saturday Night Live Digital Short "Motherlover" featuring Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg.

Life and career

Craig Bauer was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked through the ranks of the studios there before migrating to Chicago, Illinois in the early 1990s to open his own recording studio. Bauer additionally studied classical piano and music education at Ohio State University.

In 1993, Bauer opened Hinge Studios in Chicago, Illinois. Many of his first clients were jazz artists, including, Dave Koz, Brian Culbertson, Steve Cole and Peter White.

By 1997, Bauer began working with a young rap group dubbed "the Go Getters", which included a 20 year-old Kanye West. Several of the demos that West recorded at Hinge Studios were built into tracks on the album The College Dropout. Bauer later mixed "Heard 'Em Say", "Roses", "Bring Me Down", "Addiction" and "Late" on West's Late Registration, which was nominated for Album of the Year at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards. He also mixed on West’s follow-up album Graduation, which was nominated again for Album of the Year at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.

Craig Bauer mixed Lupe Fiasco's debut studio album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor in 2006, which received four Grammy Award nominations at the 49th Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album. In 2007, he mixed the majority of Fiasco's second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, including the single "Superstar", which peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Cool was nominated in four categories at the 51st Grammy Awards.

In 2008, Bauer won his first Grammy for mixing the Clark Sisters album Live – One Last Time at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.

Hinge Studios

Opened by Bauer in 1993, Hinge Studios was a recording and mixing facility located in Chicago, Illinois. Hinge was one of the first studios to use the Euphonix CS2000 digitally-controlled recording console.

In 2014, Hinge relocated to Los Angeles, California, where the studio was temporarily operating at Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood. Hinge is now permanently located in Los Angeles.

Hinge Studios Chicago was once dubbed "Kanye West's fortress of solitude in the late '90s" by MTVNews.

Selected discography

References

  1. 1 2 Thomas, Mike. "Meet Chicago's Master Mixer". Chicago Sun Times. Archived from the original on 2012-06-28. Retrieved 2014-06-22.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Scalpone, Dan (12 October 2010). "In the Mix with Craig Bauer". Studio 11. Guitar Center. Retrieved 2014-06-22.
  3. ↑ "Grammy Winner Search". Grammys.com. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  4. 1 2 3 Daley, Dan. "Recording & Mixing Kanye West: Craig Bauer". Sound on Sound.
  5. ↑ "All Music Credits". Allmusiccredit.com.
  6. 1 2 Bauer, Craig. "Biography". CraigBauer.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-20.
  7. ↑ "Discogs". Discogs. 2007.
  8. ↑ "Billboard Top 100". Billboard.com. 13 March 2008.
  9. ↑ Reid, Shaheem. "Music Geek Kanye's Kast of Thousands". MTV.Com. MTV News. Archived from the original on 2006-04-15. Retrieved 2014-07-22.