In Remembrance: Steven C. Marshall

     Steven C. Marshall, the sound engineer who restored the soundtracks to classic films including Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz (both 1939), has passed away on May 6, 2006 in Woodbine, MD. He was 56.

     Born in Baltimore, MD and raised in Scottsdale, AZ, Marshall invented the Marshall Time Modulator, an electronic device that modified and manipulated voices. The Modulator was used by numerous musicians and also helped to transform the voice of actor James Earl Jones into the distinctive tones of the evil Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.

     In addition to his work as a sound engineer, Marshall was a professional musician, proficient on both guitar and keyboard. He toured as a musician with several bands in the 1960s and played guitar on Stevie Wonder’s classic Songs In The Key Of Life album.

     Following a tip from a friend, Marshall applied to MGM Studios to work on the audio tracks for a restoration of Gone With The Wind that the studio was doing. Marshall landed the job and worked on the restoration of several other classic films including The Wizard Of Oz, Yankee Doodle Dandy and Easter Parade. While at MGM he helped to develop computer software to isolate soft sound effects and voices from old, hiss-filled analog recordings.

     In 1995, Marshall helped to found Intelligent Devices, Inc. The Baltimore-based company would develop various audio software and speech processing systems to isolate human speech from noisy backgrounds by law enforcement agencies.