Steven Miller
Encyclopedia
Steven Miller is an American record producer
and executive. He is best known for his association with Windham Hill Records
, where his ambient sound helped create notable instrumental recordings such as Michael Hedges
’ Aerial Boundaries, Mark Isham
’s Vapor Drawings and George Winston
’s December.
As a guitarist and keyboardist, Miller released a recording of his own compositions, Singing Whale Songs in a Low Voice (on his Hip Pocket/Windham Hill Jazz imprint) which featured Isham and pianist Art Lande
. He also worked with many of the other Windham Hill artists, including label founder William Ackerman
, Liz Story
, Alex de Grassi
, Darol Anger
, Barbara Higbie
, Scott Cossu
, Nightnoise
, Michael Manring
and Andy Narell
. Together with Narell, he created the original music for Apple Inc.’s early/mid 80’s products, IIe
, Lisa
, and Macintosh
.
Miller has been actively involved in new technology. He and Ackerman developed a system of pressing records which enabled the label to domestically manufacture and sell audiophile
quality lp
’s for standard lp retail price. He was also one of the first producers to fully embrace digital recording
. During the transition years from vinyl to compact discs, his recordings were frequently played at hi fi
shops to demonstrate the CD’s extended dynamic range
. In recognition of his work, he was appointed to the board of the RIAA’s Compact Disc Group.
After Windham Hill, Miller worked as an A&R
executive at RCA Records
and then briefly left the business. Upon returning to music, he has worked independently with a wide range of artists in the singer-songwriter
, pop
and jazz
genres.
Singer-Songwriters he has worked with include Suzanne Vega
, Dar Williams
, John Gorka
, Patty Griffin
, David Broza
, Paula Cole
, and Glen Phillips
.
Pop artists include Toad the Wet Sprocket
, Pink
, Dave Matthews Band
, Backstreet Boys
, Switchfoot
, Chicago
, G. Love
and Jack Johnson
.
Jazz artists include Manhattan Transfer
, Michael Brecker
, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Rick Braun
, Bobby McFerrin
, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dave Valentin
.
In partnership with Allen Sides and Ocean Way Recording
in Hollywood, he created Ocean Way Drums - a high end musical instrument plugin that was introduced at the 2008 NAMM show and is available at Guitar Center
and other outlets.
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and executive. He is best known for his association with Windham Hill Records
Windham Hill Records
Windham Hill Records is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment specializing in Acoustic, New Age and Folk music. Originally founded in 1976 as an Independent record label by guitarist and carpenter William Ackerman and his then-wife Anne Robinson, Windham Hill was a successful and well-respected...
, where his ambient sound helped create notable instrumental recordings such as Michael Hedges
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...
’ Aerial Boundaries, Mark Isham
Mark Isham
Mark Isham is an American trumpeter, synthesist, and film composer. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz, electronic, and film.-Life and career:...
’s Vapor Drawings and George Winston
George Winston
George Winston is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Miles City, Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California.-Background:...
’s December.
As a guitarist and keyboardist, Miller released a recording of his own compositions, Singing Whale Songs in a Low Voice (on his Hip Pocket/Windham Hill Jazz imprint) which featured Isham and pianist Art Lande
Art Lande
Art Lande is a jazz pianist, drummer, composer and educator.Born in New York City, he began piano at age 4, studied at Williams College, and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1969. He made the first record of his own compositions in 1973 for ECM Records, in a duo with saxophonist/flutist Jan...
. He also worked with many of the other Windham Hill artists, including label founder William Ackerman
William Ackerman
William Ackerman is a Grammy winning guitarist and composer of acoustic-based instrumental music. He founded and ran for many years the influential New Age record label Windham Hill Records.- Career :...
, Liz Story
Liz Story
Liz Story is an American pianist. She was born in San Diego, California. She attended the Juilliard School, studied under Sanford Gold and received additional education in Germany. In the 1980s she emerged as a prominent figure in new age music and recording artist at Windham Hill Records...
, Alex de Grassi
Alex de Grassi
Alex de Grassi is an American Grammy Award-nominated fingerstyle guitarist.-Early life and influences:Though born in Yokosuka, Japan, de Grassi grew up in San Francisco, California, where his grandfather played violin for the San Francisco Symphony and his father was a classical pianist...
, Darol Anger
Darol Anger
-Career:Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed,...
, Barbara Higbie
Barbara Higbie
Barbara Higbie is a Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 65 CD's including 3 tunes on the recent Carlos Santana CD. A longtime Windham Hill recording artist, she has also recorded for Olivia/Second...
, Scott Cossu
Scott Cossu
Scott Cossu is a New Age pianist. He released a large number of albums on Windham Hill between 1980 and 1992, some to considerable sales success: 1987's She Describes Infinity reached #24 on the U.S...
, Nightnoise
Nightnoise
Nightnoise was a music ensemble active from 1984 to 1997. Their original blend of Irish traditional music, Celtic music, jazz, and classical chamber music inspired a generation of Irish musicians...
, Michael Manring
Michael Manring
Michael Manring is an American electric bassist from the San Francisco Bay Area, .-Biography:...
and Andy Narell
Andy Narell
Andy Narell is a musician and composer specialized in the steelpan.-Biography:He was born in New York City and moved to California in his teens. He took up the steelpan at a very young age in Queens, New York...
. Together with Narell, he created the original music for Apple Inc.’s early/mid 80’s products, IIe
IIE
IIE can stand for:* The Institut d'Informatique d'Entreprise, one of the French public Grandes écoles of engineering, specializing in computer science...
, Lisa
Lisa
-People:* Lisa * Lisa , Japanese singer and producer* LiSA, Japanese singer* Esteban Lisa, Argentine painter-Information technology:* Apple Lisa computer, the precursor to the Apple Macintosh* Lisa assembler, a 6502 assembler for Apple II...
, and Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
.
Miller has been actively involved in new technology. He and Ackerman developed a system of pressing records which enabled the label to domestically manufacture and sell audiophile
Audiophile
An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
quality lp
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
’s for standard lp retail price. He was also one of the first producers to fully embrace digital recording
Digital recording
In digital recording, digital audio and digital video is directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure for audio and chroma and luminance values for video through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or...
. During the transition years from vinyl to compact discs, his recordings were frequently played at hi fi
Hi Fi
Hi Fi is Hugh Cornwell's 2000 album. All instrumentation Hugh Cornwell with appearances from Justin Chapman, Michelle Marti, Mike Polson, Gita Langley, Jesse Murphy, Rachel Helleur, Úna Palliser, John Dominic....
shops to demonstrate the CD’s extended dynamic range
Dynamic range
Dynamic range, abbreviated DR or DNR, is the ratio between the largest and smallest possible values of a changeable quantity, such as in sound and light. It is measured as a ratio, or as a base-10 or base-2 logarithmic value.-Dynamic range and human perception:The human senses of sight and...
. In recognition of his work, he was appointed to the board of the RIAA’s Compact Disc Group.
After Windham Hill, Miller worked as an A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
executive at RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
and then briefly left the business. Upon returning to music, he has worked independently with a wide range of artists in the singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
genres.
Singer-Songwriters he has worked with include Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
, Dar Williams
Dar Williams
Dar Williams is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk.She is a frequent performer at folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.-Biography:Williams was born...
, John Gorka
John Gorka
John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."-Biography:...
, Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964, is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with...
, David Broza
David Broza
David Broza is a multi-platinum Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist.-Personal life:The son of an Israeli–British businessman and a folk singer, Broza was born in Haifa, Israel. He was raised and educated in England and Spain, where he was schooled at Runnymede College, in Madrid...
, Paula Cole
Paula Cole
Paula Cole is an American singer/songwriter. Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.-Early life:...
, and Glen Phillips
Glen Phillips
Glen Phillips is a songwriter, lyricist, singer and guitarist. He is best known as the singer and songwriter of 1990s alternative rock group Toad the Wet Sprocket.-Personal life:...
.
Pop artists include Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986. The band consists of singer/guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss. The band enjoyed chart success in the 1990s with the singles "Walk on the Ocean," "All I Want,"...
, Pink
Pink (singer)
Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....
, Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...
, Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys
The Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band originally consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. They rose to fame with their debut international album, Backstreet Boys...
, Switchfoot
Switchfoot
Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band's members are Jon Foreman , Tim Foreman , Chad Butler , Jerome Fontamillas , and Drew Shirley .After early successes in the Christian rock scene, Switchfoot first gained mainstream...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, G. Love
G. Love
Garrett Dutton , better known as G. Love, is the frontman for the band G. Love & Special Sauce.-Biography:Dutton, the son of a banking lawyer, was born in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, and began playing guitar at age eight. He wrote his first song by the time he was in the ninth...
and Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (musician)
Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...
.
Jazz artists include Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal music group. There have been two manifestations of the group, with Tim Hauser being the only person to be part of both...
, Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Rick Braun
Rick Braun
Rick Braun is a smooth jazz trumpet player.Before embarking on a solo career, Braun got his start by playing in several bands, including guitarist Jeff Golub's Avenue Blue...
, Bobby McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin
Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, Jr. is an American vocalist and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy". He is a ten-time Grammy Award winner.-Life:...
, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dave Valentin
Dave Valentin
Dave Valentin is a jazz flutist.He learned latin percussion first when he was a teenager, and then switched to flute. Valentin's teacher, Hubert Laws, suggested that he not double on saxophone because of his attractive sound on the flute. He studied at the Bronx Community College...
.
In partnership with Allen Sides and Ocean Way Recording
Ocean Way Recording
Ocean Way Recording is the name of a series of recording studios in Hollywood, California and Nashville, Tennessee. Ocean Way Studios is well known in the recording industry due to the award-winning albums that were produced there....
in Hollywood, he created Ocean Way Drums - a high end musical instrument plugin that was introduced at the 2008 NAMM show and is available at Guitar Center
Guitar Center
Guitar Center is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in the world with 223 locations throughout the United States. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California....
and other outlets.