Resume	Recordings	Bio	Equipment	Miscellany
Specializing in Location Recording, Editing, Mastering, and Transfers/Restoration.

Welcome to my website! In the words of my former employer, the late Gabe Wiener of Quintessential Sound Inc., the ultimate goal of purist recording is to "create an incomparable transcription of a musical event." For any skilled recordist, this means finding the optimal technology to translate art into a great recording.

Location Recording can be anything from making an audition tape for a music student in someone's living room to recording a large symphony orchestra at Carnegie Hall for commercial release. This can either be a live concert or series of concerts, or recording session where one or more "takes" might be recorded of each piece or section to be edited together later. The ideal recording situation is a performer and/or group of musicians performing in a space they are comfortable in and that sounds good. My specialty is using a pair of microphones to capture the sound of such an event, timbrally, spatially, and in terms of optimal instrumental and acoustic balance. When necessary, "spot microphones" might be added to reinforce a soloist, instrument, or chorus that is getting lost and cannot be brought out simply by repositioning. The end result is a recording that will sound as true to the original as possible, and will put the listener back in the recording space with the performers located where they should be in the sound image.

Audio editing includes everything from the creation of radio spots to editing classical music from numerous takes, or from two or more performances, with a marked score. Fortunately, computers have replaced open reel tape decks and splicing blocks, and vastly more complex and seamless edits are now possible. The only acceptable edits are those which are inaudible and which do not upset the flow of music.

Mastering is the final step in the production of an album. In this process, order and spacing of tracks on a CD might be determined, in addition to volume adjustment and refinements in the overall sound quality. The end result is a high-quality CD-R which can be used for replication.

Often old 78 RPM acetates, reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, and LP's turn up and their owners desire to have them transferred to CD for listening and safety. Optimal transfer might include alignment of the playback device to the original media, equalization, and noise reduction decoding, in addition to level optimization and compensation. Restoration is the other half of the coin, and utilizes processors and other tricks to reduce or eliminate clicks, pops, crackle, hum, and other obtrusive noise where possible. I can work with the following formats, plus others if a playback machine can be hunted down:

• 78 RPM Acetates and records
• 33 1/3 and 45 RPM Microgroove
• 1/4" Reel-to-reel 4-channel and 2-channel formats
• Beta/VHS PCM/Video formats - sample rate conversion, digital de-emphasis, 1/2 sample delay compensation.
• DAT
• CD-R