Darcy Proper

Darcy Proper is a four-time GRAMMY Award-winning mastering engineer who began her career at Sony Music Studios in New York City in the Classical Department. She eventually chose to focus her skills on mastering, broadening her musical scope to include in all genres from historical reissues to cutting-edge surround releases.

In 2005, she moved to Europe serving as Senior Mastering Engineer at Galaxy Studios in Belgium for several years, moving on to Wisseloord Studios in Holland in 2011 where she served as Director of Mastering and Senior Mastering Engineer.

In 2015, she and her engineer husband Ronald Prent formed Proper Prent Sound, a company specializing in professional audio services for music productions. In the summer of 2019, they moved their business from the Netherlands to the U.S. As ever, Darcy’s focus remains on mastering – from reissue to front line releases, from vintage mono to immersive 3D formats, for virtually all genres of music. Darcy has earned three of her four Grammy awards in the prestigious "Best Surround/Immersive Album" category.

In addition to the Grammy wins, Darcy has been honored with eight additional nominations and has won several other professional awards for her work.

Darcy has had the pleasure of mastering historical reissue projects for such prestigious artists as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Stephen Sondheim, Johnny Cash, and Helloween. She has also worked on stereo, surround, and immersive-audio front-line releases for many talented artists including Steely Dan, The Eagles, Ozark Henry, Donald Fagen, Porcupine Tree, Peter Maffay, Patricia Barber, Marcus Miller, The Common Linnets, David Garrett, Jane Ira Bloom and Lori Lieberman.

RONALD PRENT

Ronald Prent started his career at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands in 1980 as an inexperienced assistant and has since established himself as one of the most accomplished and innovative recording & mix engineers in the world. In fact, the concept for Wisseloord Studios’ 2011 revival began with Ronald who, after many years of working abroad, returned home to where his career had begun over 30 years ago. From 2011 until 2015, Ronald served as chief engineer and partner in the business where he directed the creative and technical development of the facility while continuing to work his magic behind the mixing console. Ronald now continues his recording, mixing and consulting work through Proper Prent Sound, the company he has formed with his mastering engineer wife, Darcy Proper. They moved their business and family to the United States in 2019.

While quite content to work in stereo, Ronald specializes in immersive & surround sound, pioneering in recording/mixing and playing a key role in the development of new technology used in progressive high-resolution formats. In the early years of surround audio development, Ronald was a “test pilot” for Sony and Philips’ DSD/SACD format and many of the projects that he mixed in those days are still held up as benchmark examples of creative surround mixing – e.g., Guano Apes – “Don’t Give Me Names”, Kane – “So Glad You Made It”, Herbert Grönemeyer – “Mensch”. API’s flagship ‘Vision’ console, which features simultaneous stereo and surround mixing capability, and SPL’s benchmark MMC1 multi-channel mastering console are two examples of technological excellence stemming from Ronald’s original and practical ideas. Ronald quickly expanded into immersive sound, initially working in channel-based Auro3D (9.1) and now adding Dolby Atmos and Sony360RA to the list.

Not one to be limited to the studio, Ronald also puts his talents to work in live broadcast, mixing live in stereo and surround for chart-topping clients throughout Europe, including the MTV Music Awards. One of his more recent undertakings was the album release of renowned German artist, Peter Maffay – a live broadcast in 5.1 (and stereo) to 72 cinemas throughout the German-speaking market.

Ronald’s knowledge and insight are well appreciated by his colleagues in the academic world. He’s been asked on numerous occasions to guest-lecture and give master classes on recording and mixing for universities around the world, including McGill, New York University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Banff Centre for the Arts. He has participated in and hosted many workshops and panel discussions at professional seminars in the U.S. and Europe where his demonstrations never fail to draw a crowd.

His long list of clients includes such notable artists as Simple Minds, Rammstein, The Scorpions, Mink DeVille, Richie Hawtin, Udo Lindenberg, Gotthard, Tina Turner, Ilse DeLange, Live, Within Temptation, Herbert Grönemeyer, Clouseau, Lori Lieberman, Manowar, Alain Clark, Peter Maffay, The Common Linnets, Ozark Henry, Raccoon, David Garrett, Jett Rebel, Kensington, and Helloween.

Ronald was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Immersive album in 2018.