Legendary Sound Engineer John Dent who worked on many great post-punk releases has passed away

Legendary sound engineer John Dent, foundering of Loud Mastering, passed away of cancer on December 29th 2017.

Dent’s staggeringly impressive Discogs listing is full of numerous records covered on this site, featuring his work with The Stranglers, Ultravox!, Tubeway Army, U2 ( ‘I Will Follow’), XTC, Chrome, Killing Joke, DAF. The Comsat Angels, The Smiths (‘What Difference Does It Make’), and more.

This body of work is reflected on his CV—one of the most impressive in the music industry, where he notes his work with Daniel Miller’sMute, and Martin Mills and Nick Austin’s Beggars Banquet:

Mute was a major client of mine, I mastered numerous Erasure singles, Depeche Mode projects, Frank Tovey, Diamanda Galas, Barry humpfreys, Nick Cave, Miranda Sexgarden and many other Mute artists.

Considered to be one of the best mastering engineers of his generation,  Dent began his career in 1973 at age 16 working at Trident Studios where he was trained under Ray Staff and Howard Thompson in cutting vinyl.

Dent later founded LOUD Mastering in 1995 and went on to win the 2014 MPG Mastering Engineer of the Year Award.

Watch John Dent talk about mastering during this fantastic 2008 lecture where he talks about why analogue is superior to digital and more!