Rudy Van Gelder (born November 2, 1924, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA - died August 25, 2016, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA) was a recording engineer who specialized in jazz.

Beginning a s a hobbyist, he started to record local musicians in the late 1940s in his parents' living room (which became known as the Creed Taylor. In the more than fifty-years Rudy was active, it is estimated that he recorded, mixed and mastered over 2,000 albums,

Van Gelder can be identified as the lacquer cutting engineer of LPs by the stamp "RVG" or "RVG STEREO" or "VAN GELDER" in the runout section.