QL Records

Originally run by Rob Burr. Recently purchased by Bennett Hirschhorn. QL Mobile Recording was established in Miami, FL by Robert Burr in 1977, a recording studio control room built in a truck. The 16 track system, with a home-base at Down South Rehearsal Studios, was used to record many live concerts, and broadcast them live on radio. Robert was one of the first recording engineers to embrace digital recording, working with JVC Cutting Center in Hollywood, CA to experiment with their first DAS-90 stereo recording system. His early recordings of steel drums (Michael Rogers - Digital Steel) in the pristine environment of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles earned him a nomination for a Grammy Award in technical excellence. Robert was the first American customer to press compact discs at JVC’s facilities in Japan. He was introduced to the members of Einstein’s Riceboys by his brother Rick. Robert proposed a project to record the band live to digital as an example of the extremely high dynamic range of the JVC recording system. The project also included mastering with the state-of-the-art JVC cutting lathe, before pressing on JVC virgin Japanese vinyl. Over a period of five days in Miami, the band was recorded live in a home studio, then mastered by Larry Boden and Ron Leuter at JVC Cutting Center. The perfectly mastered vinyl discs were sent to Japan for a limited pressing of 1,000 units. The band and the “Civil Rice” live recording enjoyed considerable success within the burgeoning college radio scene across the country. The experimental recording was used to demonstrate the JVC recording system and Robert went on to produce recordings with The Sleep of Reason, and The Answer, among others, which also charted well in college radio. In 2018, indie producer Bennett Hirschhorn purchased the QL Records logo and the right to use the names QL Records and QL Digital to release retro sound indie vinyl records (and other media) by bands in New York. The first band to sign to this label is Blonder (on Cool World). QL Records may re-release some of the original legacy titles from the original digital masters. Robert Burr remains on the Board of Directors of QL Records.