See you at the Head-fi meet tomorrow!

[Doc B.]

Just a reminder that we are hosting a Head-Fi meet at Bottleheadquarters tomorrow, from about 2-5 pm. Public is welcome. Address is 9415 Coppertop Loop.NE, Suite 101, Bainbridge Island, 98110.

We've done several of these meets over the past few years, and they are always great fun. Eileen and Josh have been getting everything ready while I have been in a session at Skywalker Sound this week. I plan to jam home just in time for the meet, with a few interesting tales of 1" tape and amazing 17th and 18th century instruments played and recorded by some of the best in the world.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

[fullheadofnothing]

Also there is a new business on Bainbridge Island that might interest attendees of thos event — a record and book store. I found a nice Phil Ochs record and an Octavio Paz book there a few weeks back. Doc picked up a few things there too. Its called Backstreet Beat and its at 265 Winslow Way, suite 102. Its back off the main drag, look for the sandwich boards. Definitely worth a stop in.

[ironbut]

I hope you don't think you can just "mention" been in a session at Skywalker sound this week and not give us some juicy details (and maybe a pic or 20)!

[Doc B.]

Working on images today. We were asked to make a straight analog capture to 1" two track of the two Brahams string sextets, performed by the Cypress String Quartet, augmented by two additional artists, Zuill Bailey and Barry Schiffman.

This was a bucketlister for me. Skywalker Sound - it's even cooler than you are imagining - no, even cooler than that - some of the world's best classical artists, millions of dollars worth of 18th century string instruments, the supervising music editor for all the LOR and Hobbit movies as producer, 2016 Grammy winning recording engineer Leslie Ann Jones doing the mix, our big 1" ATR recording Leslie's mix, and me given the privilege of being one the analog tape version producers and the session photographer. We used about 24 reels of tape!

Yup, it was pretty much like a dream. The house engineer, Dann Thompson, even gave me a staff T-shirt.

[Alonzo]

So..... "Been There, Done That, Got the T-shirt"!!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist.  Sounds like a dream opportunity!

[ironbut]

Freakin' amazing Dan!
Leslie Ann Jones is a legend!
Spending a week working at Skywalker!
And I'm a sucker for recording with period instruments too.
I'm so happy for you I could bust a gut!

[mcandmar]

That sounds like an amazing experience, would love to see some pics

I first heard about the place in this interview with Lesie, fascinating the hear what is involved in recording orchestras
 

[Doc B.]

Leslie is a wonderful person. She is very sweet, absolutely brilliant and I was very much in "stay out of the way, shut up and absorb all you can mode" working with her.  Everyone was really great to work with, and at Skywalker you are treated like a very special guest. Every day at 3 the caterer would bring in a plate of sliced fruit and cookies fresh from the oven. That kind of care and attention ran throughout the experience, someone would run grab anything you needed at the drop of a hat. I had to take a high shot for the album and as soon as the house engineer heard that he was offering tripods, ladders, anything I needed.

I had to pinch myself every morning when the session would begin, to be sure it wasn't a dream.

[xcortes]

Any chance the sextet is released bu the TP?

Saludos

[Doc B.]

Yes indeed. They recorded two sextets. Each was coming out to about 40+ minutes so we are thinking it might actually end up being two TP albums, one Opus 18 and one Opus 36. That's just speculation at this point, it's a little difficult to estimate the finished recording length from various takes and there is a lot of material.

[xcortes]

Nice!