About Paul
I am a native San Diegan. Growing up in the Beatles era, I spent much time listening to music on the radio and playing records. After my parents took me to a 1966 Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass concert, I took up the trumpet, and played in the school band for several years. This early musical training helped me in high school when I got a part time job at Sea World in the Productions Department as a show operator, which involved live sound mixing at shows in the park.
Later on I worked in Sea World’s recording studio creating audio tapes for the various shows, educational exhibits, employee orientations, and marketing presentations. 
Our studio was fairly well equipped for audio production circa 1974, with a Langevin AM-3A 8 input stereo output mixing console, Altec 844 monitor speakers, a QRK 12-C turntable, a Spotmaster 500 NAB cartridge recorder, and Ampex 300 and AG 440B 2 track tape recorders. The photo on the left shows the back of a MulitiSync motor drive amplifier on top of the Ampex 440B.
Working at Sea World provided me with the opportunity to work on productions for a variety of artists including Buck Owens, Mike Douglas, Perry Como, Anson Williams, and Captain Kangaroo, who did shows or television specials in the park, and Les Baxter who composed music for several park shows.
Several of the people I worked with were graduates of the Telecommunications and Film Department at San Diego State, and they encouraged me to enroll in the Telecommunications program. I graduated from SDSU in 1978 with a BA degree in Radio & Television and a minor in Industrial Arts.
Career Highlights
After graduation I started McManus Enterprises, and later Paul McManus Recording. Managing these businesses has allowed me to pursue and develop both technical and creative areas of interest, including broadcast engineering, audio/visual system design, installation and repair, live sound mixing, and music recording for CD releases.
Radio experiences include installing an
RCA 20 Kilowatt FM transmitter on Mt. Soledad, and working on numerous remote broadcasts at places such as Disneyland and the Queen Mary.
If you look really closely at the picture on the right, inside the purple circle you will see me engineering a 1991 remote high atop a billboard next to Mission Beach.
I have worked as a freelance audio engineer extensively across the United States and in many foreign countries. I began a long association with songwriter J.J. Cale in 1989, and have 
worked on various musical tours and recording projects with him since. Highlights include recording a European tour in 1994, and a Carnegie Hall performance in 1996. These recordings resulted in the "J.J. Cale Live" CD.
Working with Cale over the years has provided me with the opportunity to work with an eclectic group of artists including the late Charles Brown, Ben Harper, David Lindley, John Hammond, Widespread Panic, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Phish, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. Three songs that I recorded with blues artist John Hammond featured on Hammond's Cale produced “Long As I Have You” CD received a nomination for a Grammy award in 1998. I was interviewed about my Cale tour recording methods in a 2002 Mix magazine article. Portions of an interview with me filmed while I was working on the 2004 Cale tour appear in the documentary film "To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale" released in 2006.
Professional Organizations
I am a full member of both the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). I served as Chair for the AES San Diego Section for several years in the mid 1980's.
Working together with AES members Jack Mullin and George Somes, I helped plan, organize, and also served as a speaker for the “John T. Mullin Collection: The History of Recorded Sound,” historical exhibit presented at the 85th AES Convention in Los Angeles, CA, in November 1988.
More recently, I have helped organize, develop, and present several educational audio engineering historical exhibits at national AES conventions in both Los Angeles (2000) and New York (2001).
Through working on these various historical exhibits, I found that I have a knack for creating informational displays and presenting content in a way that resonates well with audiences. To develop further skills in this area, I returned to SDSU and earned a Masters Degree in Educational Technology in 2006. Now I plan on using my new educational technology skills together with my existing audio production skills to create more effective multimedia projects.