Stephen Desper

Stephen W. Desper
OccupationSound engineer
Websiteswdstudyvideos.com

Stephen W. Desper is an American audio engineer who is best known for his work with the Beach Boys and for inventing the Spatializer.[1][2][3] The Spatializer is an effects unit which employs psychoacoustic techniques that emulate three-dimensional ambience via traditional stereophonic units, and can be heard in the Bonnie Raitt album Longing in Their Hearts (1994).[1][4]

Desper was also the house engineer for the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. Through the Beach Boys subsidiary American Productions, the band loaned their touring sound system to the festival. He accompanied the equipment from the Beach Boys storage warehouse up the coast with band road manager Jon Parks and ended up mixing the house system for the entire three-day festival.[5]

  1. ^ a b Magazines, Hearst (October 1994). "Popular Mechanics". Popular Mechanics Magazine. Hearst Magazines: 64. ISSN 0032-4558.
  2. ^ Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio. Backbeat Books. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-87930-818-6.
  3. ^ Stebbins, Jon (2011-09-01). The Beach Boys FAQ: All That's Left to Know About America's Band. Backbeat Books. p. 234. ISBN 978-1-4584-2914-8.
  4. ^ Ferstler, Howard (July 1999). The Digital Audio Music List. A-R Editions. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-89579-438-3.
  5. ^ Desper, Steve (9 February 2013). "Live Sound at Monterey". SmileySmile.net. Retrieved 10 September 2021.