
Shaping Sounds
Robert Margouleff
In Shaping Sounds, visionary music producer Robert Margouleff shares his stories of pushing the boundaries of musical innovation, art, and technology while helping to create some of the most significant and influential music of our time.
Beginning on...
Location:
United States
Description:
In Shaping Sounds, visionary music producer Robert Margouleff shares his stories of pushing the boundaries of musical innovation, art, and technology while helping to create some of the most significant and influential music of our time. Beginning on the set of his first film, Ciao! Manhattan, with Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick, Robert Margouleff captures the tragic beauty of New York’s East Village and Warhol’s Factory while he discovers a powerful new way to score his movie: the Moog synthesizer. This discovery leads him to meet a studio engineer who would become his long-time partner, Malcolm Cecil, whom he would collaborate with to invent the world’s largest analog synthesizer, TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra). Together, Cecil and Margouleff used TONTO to help unleash Stevie Wonder’s genius on his era-defining albums, Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale. In legendary studios like Electric Lady and the Record Plant, Margouleff became a pioneering producer and engineer for artists like Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, DEVO, The Isley Brother, and David Sanborn. A true sonic innovator, he was an early adopter of immersive audio and surround sound, developing new mixing techniques for home theater that brought some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters to life. Shaping Sounds is so much more than a chronicle of music history. It’s a story about creativity, collaboration, and artistic courage. Margouleff interweaves his personal experiences with the teachers, friends, mentors, and influences who shaped him, revealing how empathy and curiosity fueled his life’s work. This memoir is a rich and entertaining chronicle of a key period in music that will bring readers deep into the world of record and film production and inspire new generations of music makers and dreamers. Duration - 9h 36m. Author - Robert Margouleff. Narrator - Robert Margouleff. Published Date - Monday, 19 January 2026. Copyright - © 2026 Robert Margouleff ©.
Language:
English
Opening Credits
Duration:00:01:17
Foreword by Mark Mothersbaugh
Duration:00:03:54
A Note from the Author
Duration:00:03:55
Prologue: Memorial Day Weekend, 1971
Duration:00:12:40
Chapter 1: Planting Seeds
Duration:00:10:25
Chapter 2: Learning Became Living
Duration:00:24:41
Chapter 3: Finding My Voice
Duration:00:19:54
Chapter 4: The East Village…Via Uncle Sam
Duration:00:22:21
Chapter 5: Ciao! Baby
Duration:00:20:27
Chapter 6: Tuning into the Future
Duration:00:07:59
Chapter 7: Total Chaos and “Vitamin Shots”
Duration:00:17:10
Chapter 8: Fire Island and the Reset Button
Duration:00:06:30
Chapter 9: Two Minds, One Tonto
Duration:00:40:28
Chapter 10: It’s Stevie Time!
Duration:00:41:43
Chapter 11: Go West: The Record Plant Years
Duration:00:41:56
Chapter 12: The Magic We Created
Duration:00:32:54
Chapter 13: Our Non-Stop Studio
Duration:00:11:12
Chapter 14: All Good Things Must End
Duration:00:12:01
Chapter 15: Life After Wonder
Duration:00:33:01
Chapter 16: My Journeyman Years
Duration:00:07:51
Chapter 17: Let’s Whip It Good
Duration:00:21:23
Chapter 18: It Was the 80s, After All
Duration:00:16:33
Chapter 19: What’s a Nice Gay Man Doing Marrying a Sweet Woman Like This?
Duration:00:14:35
Chapter 20: Flying Down to Rio
Duration:00:22:11
Chapter 21: A Producer at the Cross Roads
Duration:00:14:16
Chapter 22: Immersive Audio (At Last)
Duration:00:20:12
Chapter 23: Mi Casa: Bringing Surround Home
Duration:00:47:41
Chapter 24: Chasing My Tall Ship Dreams
Duration:00:27:49
Chapter 25: Stepping Back from the Edge
Duration:00:09:06
Epilogue: Still in the Game
Duration:00:07:50
Closing Credits
Duration:00:02:13