Engineer/Producer

Agraduate of Southwest Texas State University, with a degree in both Physics and math, Chet begain his professional audio career in 1971. Quickly moving his own 8-track studio from San Antonio to Austin in 1972, with partner Christopher Cross, was the beginning of a long successful relationship and the beginning of Chet's career as an independent recording engineer. Based at Odyssey Sound Ltd. in Austin, Chet's education, live music experience and engineering abilities became the backbone for Odyssey Studios and the infant mobile recording company, Reelsound Recording. During this period he also founded Southwest Pro Audio, which became the leading professional studio equipment and consulting company in the Southwest.

From 1974 to 1980 Chet spent considerable time with Christopher Cross, developing their live stage presentation, as well as their unique studio sound and Chet's recording techniques. Their unique sound became successful with their first Warner Brothers album, "Christopher Cross", winning (a record setting) five Grammy awards. Chet was nominated as "Engineer of the Year" for his work, receiving awards for engineering and mixing the "Album of the year" and the "Song of the Year". His next work with Christopher won the Academy Award as "Song of the Year".

Having to work more often on the west coast provided the opportunities for Chet to develop multiple professional friendships. Among the first was with Kent Duncan, which led to his relationship with Tom Hidley, the world's foremost studio designer. A direct result of these relationships resulted in Pecan Street Studios in Austin (successor to Odyssey) becoming one of 12 founding members of SPARS (Society of Professional Recording Studios). National credibility for a recording studio by the professional industry was a first for Texas. In 1981 Michael Brovsky, Christopher Cross and Chet rebuilt Pecan Street Studios with a Tom Hidley "state-of-the-art" acoustic design, added a computer controlled mixing console, and "Studio South" became the first automated studio in the Southwest. At their Studio South facilities, Chet, with producer Michael Brovsky (then president of FreeFlow Productions), recorded numerous successful projects for major label release and international distribution. Among these: Carole King, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ry Cooder, Willie Nelson, Shake Russel, Joe Ely, Al Kooper, The Lost Gonzo Band.

In July 1982, Chet returned to Warner Brothers' Amigo Studio in Los Angeles to record Christopher's second album. Acknowledged today as technologically innovative, and having all the necessary tools, Chet combined the best aspects of digital and analog recording, resulting in a flexible recording technique for protecting and assembling the best from analog masters digitally, keeping the sound of analog while using the advanced technology of digital (now widely used throughout the recording industry).

The period between mid 1983 and June 1984 saw FreeFlow Productions (Chet and Michael) became the main client at Warner Brothers Amigo Studios. Their projects included Chrisopher Cross, Carole King, Joe Ely, Billy Crystal, Shelley Duval, and Eric Johnson, among many others. Shellwy Duval's "Faerie Tale Theatre", seeking improvement in their soundtracks, came to Chet, who recorded and produced (with Rob Meurer) over twenty programs for her, all by renowned composer-songwriters.