It All Starts In Here
The mind behind Master Recordings
Meet David Ripp
From the time he got his first tape recorder at age 12, David has had a passion for music and recording. Two years later, he would start “Sounds Unlimited,” a company focusing on recording and editing music for his other passion, the roller skating routines of competitive roller figure skaters.
In a career that has now spanned six decades, David has found himself consistently at the forefront of innovation and technology. Over this time, he has built and installed an FM Educational Radio Station (88.1 WGXM), been the music steward for the Roller Figure Skating National and World Championships, installed the original ALTEC Lancing sound system in Miami University’s Millet Hall and operated it for major concerts during his time as a student of Radio & TV Production and Engineering there.
A few years after attending Miami University, David turned Sounds Unlimited into a full time company, installing sound, video, and lighting systems in more than 650 roller and ice skating rinks and more than 350 nightclubs nationwide. In 1986, David would sell Sounds Unlimited to Allied Broadcast and stay on as VP of the new Allied Telecommunications, one of the top 10 A/V design and build companies in the US.
While this may sound like an impressive resume and full career, it barely scratches the surface of all that David has accomplished (we haven’t even mentioned that he is a highly respected sound engineer, or that he built Skates U.S., which is the exclusive US importer of EDEA and Roll-Line, the top two brands of figure skating equipment in the world, with a network of about 400 dealers nationwide).
David Ripp is an innovator with the drive and focus to change industries. And now he has set his attention to a new innovation: The High Resolution Immersive Technology of Master Recordings and The Location Capture System.
You won’t believe it until you hear it.
Based at RippFarm in Richmond, IN
RippFarm has been the residence of David and Carolyn (Duning) Ripp since 1987. Located just on the east side of Richmond and just off I-70, where the east property line IS the Ohio–Indiana state line. RippFarm was originally Meadowcrest Farms when Carolyn’s parents took over the property in the late 1940’s. This homestead is where Carolyn was born and raised on an operating farm. It started as a 160 acre farm with 100 acres in Indiana and 60 Acres in Ohio. The remaining 5 acres contains the original part of the house that has dated back to before 1809 (before Indiana was a state).
We have recently moved Skates U.S., Inc from this facility to the west side of Richmond, at 1950 NW 11th Street. Skates U.S. is the U.S. exclusively authorized importer and distributor of EDEA Skates and Roll-Line Skates, both of Italy. These two brands represent the top two quality brands in the world for high-level competitive ice and roller figure skating.
Richmond, Indiana has a long history of being key to both roller skating and recording. We are working to continue and enhance this history. The Henley Roller Skate Works could manufacture up to 2,000 pairs of roller skates in one day. Established in the early 1880’s, Micajah Henley held several patents and improvements to the roller skate. The skate was known as the “Chicago Skate” and continued to lead and innovate until the start of World War I when roller skates were not listed as essential products.
The Starr Piano Co. of Richmond, IN, revised its incorporation papers to include phonographs and records in 1915. Starr opened a recording studio in New York City in 1916. Gennett Recording Laboratory was started in 1917 to widen distribution, with the Richmond Studio opening in 1921. The Gennett label hosted many of the greatest artists in American jazz, blues, country, and gospel music. Here is a link to a great documentary about Gennett. Just a few of the incredible artists that Gennett recorded are the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael (Stardust), Louis Amrstrong, the Walpi Tribe of the Hopi Nation (Recorded by the Gennett Remote Recording Truck in 1926), Georgia Tom Dorsey, Doc Roberts, Bradley Kincaid, Charley Patton, Duke Ellington, Gene Autry, Lawrence Welk, Guy Lombardo, Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Alberta Hunter, and Jimmy Durante. The Studios closed in 1934. The Starr Piano Company closed in 1952.
Ice and roller competitive figure skating and recording high quality music and playback systems for skating rinks and night clubs have been passions of David Ripp throughout his life.
Creating Master Recodings
Part 1: During the Covid-19 pandemic, David finally had the free time to construct and assemble his dream Mix Room by designing and building a room that is sonically tight and yet very comfortable, creating a very special listening environment and incorporating a great deal of equipment already owned and by adding some of the very best additional equipment available today to create an inviting, creative, super high audiophile quality style stereo, multi-channel, or Dolby Atmos 7.2.4 monitoring system to do many personal projects.
Part 2: We added several live recording spaces. The main spaces are the Piano Room, with two incredible grand pianos and a large Allen Renaissance organ along with a restored antique pump organ, the Great Room, which is an acoustically balanced large live studio space that is very comfortable for artists, and the Teaching Room with a Yamaha studio piano. Each of these spaces are connected to the Mix Room via analog mic lines and digital DANTE systems. In our live studios, we can accommodate recordings of concert pianists, smaller orchestras, orchestral groups, choirs, classical groups like string quartets, brass ensembles, vocal groups, or classical crossover groups, jazz artists, and other artists.
Part 3: In 2023 the Mix Room was upgraded with the installation of the AMS Neve Genesys 128 fully loaded Master Recording Console, the 80 channels of AVID ProTools MTRX A/D and D/A converters, the rack mounted Mac Pro, the 3,000 cubic foot real Echo Chamber, and the additional ATC speakers to take the audiophile quality analog monitoring system from 7.2.4 to it’s new 9.2.6 format. All of these additions have taken Master Recordings to be one of the best equipped studios in the country, especially for doing special projects.
Creating Location Capture System
Part 4: David’s dream was to have the ability to capture incredible performances in incredible spaces. He has realized that dream with high-quality Location Capture System, which is capable of recording 64-channel audio at the highest possible resolutions.
“[David’s wife] Carolyn is a wonderful pianist and organist but, you can’t just bring huge pipe organs and real cathedral acoustics into a recording studio. You must go to the venue and capture the sound in that unique space.”
The remote recordings are monitored through a 7.2 precision monitoring system of Neumann monitors. Once the recordings are captured, we bring the multi-channel, high resolution tracks back to the Master Recordings Mix Room and the controlled monitoring environment for the final mix and mastering to Stereo, Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 or any other needed format. This our “LCS” Location Capture System.
Learn the details of the Location Capture System here.
The Complete History of David Ripp
– 1963: David got his first tape recorder at 12 years old, a Voice of Music 7” reel to reel recorder.
– 1965: Started Sounds Unlimited.
– Recording and editing roller skating routine music for competitive roller figure skaters.
– Got a pair of Roberts 770X 7” reel to reel recorders, custom variable speed turntable, and built an EICO Pre-Amp/Power Amp for monitoring.
– 1966-1969: Served as the Student Director in charge of the Audio/Visual Department for my high school.
– 1969: Built and Installed a 10 watt FM educational radio station (WGXM – 88.1 mHz) for my high school after getting 2nd Class FCC license.
– 1966-1970: Music Steward for the Roller Figure Skating National Championships.
– 1970: Music Steward for the Roller Figure Skating World Championships.
– 1968: Formed Ripp Records, LLC.
– 1968: Started recording and editing ice skating routine music for competitive ice figure skaters.
– 1968-1980: Recording and editing ice and roller skating routine music for competitive ice and roller figure skaters, along with gymnastics floor ex routines.
– 1969-1972: Attended Miami University.
– Majored in Speech Education with emphasis on Radio & TV Production and Engineering.
– On Air programming four hours a day of classical music weekdays on WMUB-FM.
– Engineering work at WOXR-FM Radio.
– Produced the “Music From King” Library weekly program for Harold Weller.
– Soundtracks for student plays and A1 for performances in theater.
– Installed (as a part of a student team) the original ALTEC Lancing sound system in Millett Hall.
– Operated as the A-1 (FOH) Millett Hall Audio System for major concerts like:
Chicago, 5th Dimension, Blood Sweat & Tears, Earth Wind & Fire, and Simon & Garfunkel (with the Cincinnati Symphony) on an ALTEC 9300 console, one of the first with linear slide volume controls.
– 1971: Ripp Records first major live location recording of a pipe organ for Carolyn Duning.
– Rented the U-87’s and an Ampex 6 channel mixer for the sessions.
– 1970-1994: Worldwide Church of God – Provide the sound and video projection systems for hundreds of major annual events nationally over the years. (Norfolk, VA-Scope Arena, Vail, CO-Dobson Ice Arena, Hot Springs, AR, Jeckyl Island, GA, Poconos PA, Lake of the Ozark, MO, Columbus, OH-Fairgrounds, Dayton, OH-Hara Arena & UD Arena, Cincinnati, OH-Cincinnati Music Hall, Grand Bahama Island, Pasadena, CA.) Led many audio and video tech teams with various technical skills and abilities. Mixed and recorded numerous live performances and services for as many as 15,000 at some events.
– Altec Lancing’s 2nd largest dealer in the U.S.
– Started as a tech and advanced to Lead Systems Tech and Engineer.
– 1974: Created and took Sounds Unlimited to a full-time company, installing sound systems in roller rinks, ice rinks, and disco night clubs nationwide.
– Between 1974 and 1986 Sounds Unlimited installed more than 650 roller rink sound, lighting, and video systems.
– Between 1974 and 1986 Sounds Unlimited installed more than 350 major night club and disco sound, lighting, and video systems.
– 1980-1983: Vice President of Snyder Skate Company, the leading manufacturer of high level competitive artistic roller skates.
– My Grandfather (Charles Snyder) started the company in about 1939 and grew the company to a world leadership position.
– During this time at Snyder, I accomplished 3 full patents, (Click Action Adjustment, Zero Turn Radius Clip Axles, & Roller Skate Wheel Lathe), 11 design patents,
and hundreds of trademarks and copyrights.
– 1984: Started moving Sounds Unlimited to corporate boardrooms, conference rooms, presentation rooms and auditoriums.
– 1986: Sold Sounds Unlimited to Allied Broadcast (Roy Ridge) and became VP of the new Allied Telecommunications.
– 1986-1990: Grew and ran Allied Telecommunications to be one of the top 10 A/V design & build companies in the U.S.
– 1995-2000: joined Hughes-JVC Technology to promote and sell cinema-quality, high brightness, new technology Light Valve Video & Data projectors.
– Hughes did many high profile, large projection technology projects from Disney Quest to CBS and NBC, to outdoor billboards, rock concerts like Elton John and Billy Joel, command & control centers, Microsoft, Las Vegas Casinos, Star Trek Adventure, Mercedes, the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Dr. Bose Theater at the Bose Facility near Boston, and many more.
– Implemented the start of “Digital Cinema” as we know it today with the first ever digital showings of “Shakespeare In Love” and “Life is Beautiful” on a 40’ wide cinema screen with an incredible 5.2 audio support system.
– 2000-2001: Joined Legacy Audio as VP involved in product sales and marketing.
– Remastered many music tracks for use as demo music for the presentations.
– Did a series of national Legacy Product Demo’s from coast to coast. Also put together a special large 200 strong press gathering for Legacy Audio at the Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas during the CES show.
– 2001-2004: Joined Theta Digital working in sales and marketing, dealer training, technical advisor.
– Remastered many music tracks for use as demo music for the presentations.
– 1994-2002 Joined Telarc Records as the Assistant Engineer for Cincinnati Pops and Symphony.
– Captured recordings in Music Hall Cincinnati, OH.
CD-80381 The Magical Music of Disney
CD-80383 Symphonic Star Trek
CD-80366 Puttin’ on the Ritz (djr)
CD-80437 The Big Picture
CD-80440 Beautiful Hollywood
CD-80498 On Broadway
SACD-60571 A Celtic Spectacular (djr)
SACD-60578 Cincinnati Symphony – Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz (djr)
SACD-60592 Got Swing
CD-80700 Cincinnati Symphony – Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2
– 1994-2021: Ripp Records creates multiple recordings of many pianos and organs played by Carolyn Duning Ripp.
– Christmas 2001 – Happy Holidays – Carolyn Ripp plays the Christmas Favorites on the small historic Moller Tracker Organ of Zion Lutheran Church. Originally recorded in 2 Channel at 16 bit/44.1 kHz.
– 1999-2002: Ripp Records creates two album releases for the Chanticleer String Quartet.
– 1999-2004: Ripp Records creates recordings of the New World Youth Orchestras.
12 Concerts/CD Releases
– 2002: Purchased and operated Skyborn Skateland in Fairborn, OH.
– 2004: Started Skates U.S., Inc.
– 2004-Present: Skates U.S., Inc. is the exclusively authorized U.S. importer and distributor of the two top brands of figure skating equipment: EDEA Skates and Roll-Line.
– Built an organization with more than 400 Dealers all over the U.S.
– Controls roughly 80% of the U.S. market share in competitive artistic roller skating.
– Controls roughly 60% of the U.S. market share in competitive figure ice skating.
– 2021: Forms Master Recordings, Inc.
– Built the Master Recordings 8.2.4 Mix Room
– Built the Great Room Live Studio Room
– 2022 and to the Future: – Looking forward to many incredible recordings and helping artists and performers to be creative and sound their absolute best.
– Built the Location Capture System for remote recordings.
– 2023: Upgrading the Mix Room with an AMS Neve Genesys 64 Channel / 128 Input Inline Master Recording Console.
– Digitally controlled analog audio paths with total recall and preset memories.
– 64 channels of Neve 1073 Analog Preamps with Marinair Transformer Inputs and digital control.
– 64 channels of Neve 88R four band analog EQ with digital control.
– 64 channels of Neve VCA compressor/gate/expander dynamics with digital control.
– 16 Monitor Output Channels.
– 2023: Upgrading the Mix Room to a full High Resolution Immersive Technology ™ system with a fully Analog (Digitally Controlled) 9.2.6 high resolution Monitoring System with ATC and EAW speaker systems.
– 2023: Upgrading the Mix Room adding the main computer, which is a rack mounted Mac Pro recording from the analog input/output AVID Pro Tools MTRX system and DANTE 128 X 128 system.
– The 2022 Mac Pro has 3.2 GHz 16-Core Intel Xeon W processors, 768 GB of RAM, two Radeon Pro W5700X with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory each, and 4TB SSD for system files.
– The two 16TB OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini are utilized for recording storage with four 4TB SSD drives providing 8TB of recording space with 8TB mirror in each unit for a total of 16TB recordings and 16TB of mirror.
– 2023: Upgrading the Mix Room with 80 Channels of AVID ProTools MTRX A/D and D/A and DANTE.
– The Official Registrations of:
– December 2023 – Trademark for HRI Technology (High Resolution Immersive Technology).
– July 2024 – Full Registration of Master Recordings Logo received.
– July 2024 – Full Registration of Master Recordings – Location Capture System Logo received.