RIP Chris Garges @cgarges

[darjama]

a gentleman and a scholar. Never met him in person (I think he came to a DC TOMB meetup once but I was working late) but he was always a great presence here.

[CraigS63]

Sorry to hear this news, I only knew him from posts on here. My loss.

[shedshrine]

Chris, thanks for those great snake cables, and all the great info here. So sorry Tony, Scott and all who were close.

[Scodiddly]

What a loss. I got to meet Chris a few years ago when he was flying into Chicago - I gave him a ride from the airport to the city, and we had dinner on the way. Great guy all the way around.

[thunderboy]

What terrible news. I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but like all here benefited from his knowledge and experience.

My heart goes out to all who knew and loved him.

I haven't been active here for a very long time, I hope you are all doing well.

[Nick Sevilla]

Wow, what a loss. Condolences to his close friends and family.

[drumsound]

Oh man, first we lose Rob Christensen this year – see the upcoming End Rant I wrote about him and our Tape Op journey. Now Chris. I am so glad we did those few TapeOpCons despite the (behind the scenes) bad shit it left in my life. Meeting people like Chris, Mark Rubel, Tony, and so many others was an amazing reassurance that there were so many of us out there doing great work in "other" markets that didn't get on the cover of Mix or always work with big names. Chris was calm, considered, and always honest with his advice. Fuck. It sucks getting older... but let's keep Garges in our thoughts.

Interestingly, at one point Rob almost moved in with Chris and Carrie. I don't quite remember the details on why, but that was typical of both of them really. Even though they were going through so much with Chris' illness, they were still willing to open their home to someone in need. I believe he stayed with them a number of times.

When I was on the phone with Mark Rubel he also commented on how many good people we are both still in contact with that grew out of meeting at TapeOpCons. I know they were VERY difficult and time/energy consuming for you, Larry, but they were freaking magic for the rest of us.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Yeah, I only went to the one in Tucson in 2007 (i think? maybe 2006), but it was a great time and that's actually where I met Chris for the first time. We became fast friends, which was very easy to do with him.

I'm so going to miss the epic, sprawling phone calls. It'd be like this:

me: I really dug the harmonica solo on that track I just did for you.
Garges: Oh man! Do you know *insert name of local Charlotte legend*?
me (lifelong New Englander): *has no earthly idea at all*
Garges: OH MAN! So, Jim started playing harmonica when he was 2, sitting on the floor in the back of his dad's tv repair shop. One time, his dad was fixing a tv for Manny McGuillicutty, one of the best jazz drummers in town. Manny's wife Abigail tended bar at Johnny's, well actually, before that she was at Finnegan's, but that place burned down back in '82. Anyway, Abigail was friends with the Johnson brothers, who.....

and I'd be like DUDE! You're been talking for like 2 minutes and we're already 5 tangents deep! How is my weed-addled mind supposed to keep track of all this? And we'd die laughing.

I got to play a couple gigs with him back in 2011. My first night there, we're at his house, sitting and sipping bourbon. I still smoked then so I asked if we could move outside to the porch. So we do, and we sit and sip and talk shit literally all night. At some point about 5am, Carrie comes down and she's laughing and says "you guys are so fucking loud!" We're like shit we were trying to be quiet! In an attempt to sober us up, Carrie brings out a tray of homemade cookies.....which of course had rum in them!

I felt unspeakably terrible the next day but it was a great hang.

Anyway, I worked on this record for him last year, it's a masterpiece, it's for a great cause, and I'm so glad he was able to do this, it must've been a mountain of work:

https://thedefactobrothers.bandcamp.com ... o-yourself

[trodden]

Fuck.

I wasn't as close to Chris as some of you, but with nearly 20 years of hanging out on this board, Chris was one of those talented people who was alway happy to share, teach, and discuss making records, listening to records, and his love of music with others without an air of gatekeeping superiority. I alway respected his kindness and the wealth of information that he gladly provided to anyone. I never got to meet him in-person, but I always felt that if I did, it would be a pleasant conversation much like his presence here, online. I've had a handful of Lexicon LXP-1's in the last 25 years. The one in my rack at the moment I got from Chris, maybe 10 years ago? I have and will continue to think of him whenever I use it.

[Recycled_Brains]

Sad to hear this. Also never met him, but he was a guy I just knew I could trust when he offered his insights and opinions on this forum (and elsewhere), to the point where I would skip to his posts very often and then leave it at that. I had a couple of minimal interactions with him via social media over the years and he was generous with his knowledge.

I'm so sorry for those of you that were close with him. He sounds like a really great person and our tribe has clearly lost someone special.

[ulriggribbons]

Such an out of the blue shock.

Always great advice, and willing to listen to my ramblings in the weeds about ribbon mics. Just a genuine great guy.

We mainly interacted around ribbon mic repairs, but was always great to talk with.

He told great stories, and helped so many people!

Fly on, Chris Carges!

[Shawn Simmons]

Very sad news. I met Chris through this forum and we talked privately about all things recording. I also bought a Federal AM864 from him years ago. Rest in peace. You will be missed, Chris.

[biasvoltage]

I feel like I know Chris but I really only know him from interacting with him here and reading his reviews in TapeOp. But those interactions on here weren't trivial - he was always so incredibly generous with sharing his time and knowledge, even if I was just some dude recording stuff in a bedroom. Never a scintilla attitude or pretense. Thanks Chris, the world's signal-to-noise ratio just suffered an incalculable loss.

[vvv]

R.I.P.

[Dr Rubberfunk]

Was very sad to see news of Chris' passing via a mutual friend on Facebook. I only really knew of Chris through his posting here, but always enjoyed reading his articles, posts and advice, and chatting with him here in a few threads.

Thoughts with his friends and family x