Here is a wonderful documentary about the making of Michael Daves' double album, Orchids and Violence, out last February on Nonesuch. I had the pleasure of mastering both the bluegrass and the electronic recordings for CD and vinyl release. Michael is a genius bluegrass guitarist, a great teacher (I've taken his bluegrass harmony singing class), and has a rare ability to communicate his artistic vision to engineers using language that we both understood. He can speak both Hertz and emotions!
Saving Family Heirloom Recordings
A few times this fall, I've gotten calls from people with old, personal recordings of family or friends they want to digitize. These might be songwriting demos on cassette, or someone's grandmother singing on a direct-to-disc recording in 1947. On my last visit to Wyoming, my dad handed me a microcassette and told me it might be the only known recording of his high school band. (Alas, it wasn't).
These historic (heirloom?) audio recordings are locked on the physical media, playable only on machines that, for all intents and purposes, are obsolete in the consumer market. The contents remain a mystery until I come into the picture with my studio stocked with cassette decks, DAT players, turntable and styli, 1/4" tape machine. I digitize the audio content, clean it up, send it off to be shared with families and friends and given as gifts at holidays.
I love these projects. There's enormous joy in helping someone unlock memories. I think that's why I chose to specialize in restoration, preservation and music reissues. I'm an anthropologist and archivist at heart and an audio engineer in practice. It's a good combo.
So, bring them on! I am happy to digitize and preserve your heirloom cassettes, disks, DATs and reels. Let's find out what's on those tapes.
Ding Dong
When you google "beautiful doorbell," the results are all about the visuals: hand carved chime covers, intricate doorbell buttons. But I'm looking for a doorbell that sounds beautiful. I want one that rings with a proper ding dong in the classic major third. Moreover, it must be the proper third, not too high, not too low, with a rich, warm ring and decay. Where does one shop for a great sounding doorbell?
Unrelated - or is it? - one of the things I miss about living in New York City is randomly hearing car horns play "Speak Softly, Love," aka the theme to The Godfather. The vocal version was recorded by Andy Williams, which makes the second time he's made an appearance in this blog in the past two months.