A memorial service will be held for veteran CRC engineer/sound designer Tim Butler Sunday, Oct. 5, from 6-8 p.m. at the Capital Grill, at Ohio and St. Clair.
Mr. Butler, 55, died early Tuesday at Swedish Covenant Hospital from heart failure caused by a massive stroke he had suffered at his home.
Mr. Butler had been one of CRC’s oldest employees. He had been hired in 1980 by CRC owner Alan Kubica, when CRC was a small music studio located at 528 N. Michigan.
As the studio grew and branched out into broadcast, so did Mr. Butler’s reputation among commercial producers. “Tim specialized in advertising,” noted Mike King, one of Mr. Butler’s oldest colleagues, who had worked with him for a decade at CRC before founding ARU.
“He was incredibly talented at what he did. Mixing for him was an art form. He understood all the subtleties of making a story come to life with the sounds he chose. He was a master at that,” King said.
Commented voice casting director David Lewis, who had worked with Mr. Butler on hundreds of radio spots over the years, “Tim held himself to very high standards. He held everyone and himself to very high standards. It was evident in his work that he was a perfectionist.”
Audio producer Mindy Version of APG had worked with Mr. Butler for 14 years at CRC. She recalled him as “a brilliant engineer, technologically very smart ? but tough. He always treated me with respect whenever I produced a session with him.”
Voiceover actor Harlan Hogan called Mr. Butler “a recording superstar.” The two had been friends and colleagues for 30 years, dating back to Mr. Butler’s first job as a young assistant to Kirk Johnson at Studio One.
As his career developed, “Tim became a great manager with great skills and ears. He was one of the few people who knew how to interface with talent, without intruding on the producer’s role.
“There was a time when recording engineers wanted to go into the music business,” Hogan said. “But Tim was content in his job ? to get the voice right, get the sound effects right ? and he was a master at it.” Add your tribute to Tim Butler in BackTalk.
