Sound Experience

MARK RUBEL has taught audio, music technology, music business, and the history of rock to thousands of students since 1985. He has taught at various colleges and universities, and served as the Audio and Recording Director at Eastern Illinois University’s $70 million Doudna Arts Center.
Mark has recorded and produced extensively since 1980, both at his Pogo Studio in Champaign, Illinois and elsewhere. His list of clients includes Hum, Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts, Fall Out Boy, Ludacris, Adrian Belew, Luther Allison, Jay Bennett, Melanie, Ian Hobson, Henry Butler and many more. For the Wall to Wall/Ellnora Guitar Festival, he has recorded Los Lobos, Calexico, Ani DiFranco, The National, Junior Brown, Derek Trucks, Taj Mahal and many others.
He serves as panelist, moderator, lecturer, workshop leader and recording judge at numerous audio conferences, including national and regional Audio Engineering Society Conferences, the Tape Op and Potluck Conferences, SXSW, and many more. He is on the national board of SPARS (the Society of Professional Recording Services) and also belongs to NARAS, AES, ASCAP, MEIEA and EARS.
Mark is a musician, recording engineer and producer, and also works as a consultant and legal expert witness in the fields of audio and copyright. He has written occasionally in such publications as Mix Magazine and for Tape Op Magazine, for whom he interviewed Les Paul.

Gov’t Mule, Roger Waters, The Black Crowes, Shawn Colvin, John Mellencamp, R.E.M.and Jewel are some of the artists this Multiple Grammy-winning producer/engineer/mixer has had the joy of working with over his two-plus decades in the recording studio.


Ross’ wide varied experience and taste opened up all creative doors and usual and unusual possibilities. He’s never allowed himself to be pigeonholed or trapped in any one musical genre as his studio work runs the gamut from the heavy metal insanity of Motley Crue and Coal Chamber to the Grammy-winning Keb’ Mo’ release Slow Down to recent releases by Van Halen, Grammy winning Ziggy Marley and the Sick Puppies.


Growing up in NY during the influential punk scene of the 70′s, Ross began his musical career as a guitarist/singer/ songwriter, playing in the wild downtown New York clubs. With good fortune paving his way to California, he had the rare opportunity to hook up with both the San Francisco Bay area’s exploding New Wave music scene and Southern Cal’s seminal rock scene. Natural evolution took him from doing live production and sound on the road with Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Fleetwood Mac and Little Feat into a world class producer, mixer and recording engineer.


Hoax Productions was established in 1986 as a vehicle for Ross to have the freedom to promote and produce top names as well as newly discovered talent.


Versatility, absolute belief in the artists’ vision and his complete commitment to bringing that vision to the final master are all representative of Ross’ strengths and abilities.

Antony "Tony" Harnell is an American power metal singer, best known for his work with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. He is also known for his exceptionally wide vocal range, with his chest-voice alone spanning over 4 octaves.

Michael Romanowski is a Grammy nominated mastering engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is owner and chief mastering engineer at Coast Mastering and co-owner and founder of the analog tape label The Tape Project. Michael is currently a Trustee of the The Recording Academy San Francisco Chapter (NARAS), Chair of the National Presidents Council, former president of the S.F. chapter and serves on the National Advisory Council to the Producers Engineers Wing.  


Since 1994, Michael has worked to support the tradition of the diverse San Francisco sound and has become a national expert in the art and science of mastering (Mix Magazine, Electronic Musician, AES, NAMM, SXSW, Tape Op, Potluck Con, AES Mexico, AES Europe). Michael started his audio career as a musician and live sound engineer in Nashville, where he quickly progressed to recording and mixing pop, rock and alternative acts. In 1994, he relocated to the Bay Area to apprentice at Rocket Lab with Paul Stubblebine and Ken Lee, learning the art and craft of the mastering engineer. In 1999, he became the chief mastering engineer for Sausalito’s Plant Studios, in 2001 he reunited with Paul Stubblebine and built two new mastering rooms at the former location of Coast Records. In 2007, Michael acquired the business and continued to expand the facility.   


He teaches at San Francisco State University and is a guest lecturer at other regional colleges. Michael’s extensive credits include Third Eye Blind, Pat Monahan, Devotchka, Chuck Prophet, Train, Alasdair Fraser, Los Amigos Invisibles, Laura Pausini, Matt Nathanson, America, Jacqui Naylor, Will Kimbrough, The Dynamites, Ant Banks, Norton Buffalo, Too $hort, Colorado Symphony, Chanticleer, Dredg, !!!, Junior Toots, Bad Finger, and several thousand more.