Mark Rubel is the Director of Education and Instructor for The Blackbird Academy, a recording school at renowned Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. He has taught audio, music technology, music business, and the history of rock to thousands of students at various colleges and universities since 1985. Prior to The Blackbird Academy, he served as Audio and Recording Director and Instructor at Eastern Illinois University’s $70 million Doudna Arts Center.
Since 1980, Mark has recorded and produced thousands of recordings at his Pogo Studio in Champaign, IL (now moved to Nashville) and elsewhere, for such clients as Hum, Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts, Jeff Coffin, Henry Kaiser, 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 recorded Los Lobos, Calexico, Ani DiFranco, The National, Junior Brown, Derek Trucks, Taj Mahal, Bill Frisell and many others.
Mark has been in the same silly rock and roll band since 1980. 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, Potluck and Welcome to 1979 Conferences, SXSW. He appears frequently as a guest on recording shows and podcasts, in documentaries, etc.
Mark Rubel also works as a consultant and legal expert witness in the fields of audio and copyright. He writes for such publications as Mix Magazine and Tape Op, for whom he has interviewed Dave Cobb, Terry Manning, Bill Schnee and the legendary Les Paul. Mark is currently writing a history of recording studios of the 1960s and ‘70s for Rowman and Littlefield, entitled “The Great American Recording Studios”.