James Lock (23 June 1939 – 11 February 2009) was an English sound engineer, who worked on recordings by many of the most celebrated and demanding figures in classical music.
He also worked on one-off and outdoor venues, most famously the Three Tenors concert on the eve of the 1990 World Cup Final, which brought opera to the attention of many who had previously ignored it.
[1] Winner of two Grammy Awards (one for Mahler's Ninth Symphony with Solti), James Lock's recordings always presented us with a lush and very pristine sound—atmospheric but, at the same time, with pinpoint instruments.
In this way, he managed to get what every classical music sound engineer may have spent a [lifetime looking] after without getting it: a recording capable of capturing the venue's acoustics without losing the focus of the orchestra in different sections.
In the summer of 2008, he started to write The Other Side of the Microphone, an autobiography about his Decca years and the human experience of recording great musicians.