Jim Shelton
James P. Shelton was studio manager at Mercury Sound Studios, and acted as mastering consultant on Rush’s first album. Mastering was done by Gilbert Kong: “Gilbert actually worked with the client, while I managed the studio,” says Jim. Jim remained in charge when the studios were spun off from Mercury and bought by Lee Hulko of Sterling Sound, who named the new organization Masterdisk. “After Masterdisk was sold off, I moved on,” says Jim. In 1977 he started a company, Europadisk Plating Ltd., to be the first in the North America market to use Swedish company Europafilm’s plating equipment and process for electroforming vinyl stampers from lacquer masters. Europadisk has prided itself on its adoption of new technologies when they became available, from Direct Metal Mastering of vinyl up to the present day addition of DVD replication.