When news broke on Wednesday (May 8) that legendary producer and musician Steve Albini died, the music world quickly took to social media to pay tribute.

Albini fronted the bands Shellac and Big Black, and was also known for being at the helm of iconic albums like Nirvana's In Utero, among others.

Pixies were one of the many bands who mourned the loss of the self-proclaimed engineer (he didn't like the term producer). They worked together on the group's 1988 album Surfer Rosa.

The Breeders, who worked with Albini on their 1990 album Pod, mourned the loss on Instagram, writing "The Breeders are mourning the sudden passing of Steve Albini. He built worlds," alongside a throwback photo of the engineer flipping the bird.

More recently, Albini produced Cloud Nothings' 2012 album Attack on Memory. "steve touched countless lives and changed mine and many others for the better," the band shared. "a genuine, singular, principled person. spent the last 40 years helping people make art. there's no reason for him to be gone and the world is less interesting without him. just a really sad day."

Albini died of a heart attack on May 7. He was 61 years old. See tributes from Jack White, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine, Fred Armisen, and more below.

The Downbeat