So Many Roads… Media One on the Road
So Many Roads to Soothe My Soul…
Said Jerry Garcia in song. And like Jerry, I found myself traveling so many roads, representing our Media One Archive side in the month of October. I traveled to the East Coast for a large conference and then back to the Bay Area for another recording gig. In October alone, Media One was involved in approximately 125 hours of recordings – all edited-down into 72 individual sound files and then transferred onto Flash Drives or burned onto MP3 Cd-R’s.
The first rounds of recordings were up in Burlington, Vermont. I flew into Boston, MA, the place where I was born and raised, and drove up to Burlington for the “Over Eaters Anonymous Region 6 National Conference”. I worked this event with my bud and associate, David Lee Joy of All Star Media in San Diego, and it was a great experience. David has a great expression that rings true in our working world, “We’re only as good as the speakers we record”. That statement is especially accurate when creating archival material.
But on to the trip…
First of all, it was mid October in New England. The ride up to Vermont was beautiful as I took my time to cover the almost 4 hour drive. I had clear blue skies, some puffy clouds, sunshine, low 60’s temperature, and peak foliage throughout southwest New Hampshire and well into Vermont. It seemed every hilltop or turn offered a post card type of view; simple beautiful landscapes drenched in full vibrant colors. There were golds, greens, reds and oranges. And like magic rivers, they swam up mountain valleys, with colors jumping like rainbow trout up and over the hills, splashing into electric green pastures, golden haystacks, apples, tractors, red barns, maples, cows, pumpkins, blue sky, and crisp, elf-like air… I felt as if in a cartoon at times.
My plan was to stay at the Dunn Family Homestead high upon a mountain in Jericho, Vermont, about 20 minutes outside of Burlington. Dick and Donna Dunn are friends and the parents of my friend and great singer/songwriter Jesse Dunn of Montana Slim and now the Dead Winter Carpenters. This bluegrass band is based in Lake Tahoe, CA. The Dunne stay was fantastic as their hospitality was kind and comfortable. It felt like being with old family.
The Next Day
As I neared Burlington,
it seemed to me,
that some of the trees,
were dusting themselves free,
of the leaves,
that grew upon their boughs.
They showed a little more bare,
while the branches flexed their muscles in the air.
You could almost feel the nip of winter on the air,
while hints of summer
still struggled to hang on
hoping to be spared from the changes of the season.
And then, Burlington…
The 3 day event had 52 individual hour-long conferences in 8 different rooms, as well as two all day “open talk” marathons from 8 am until Midnight. These were rooms where guests and attendees could essentially express their feelings to a willing and sympathetic audience: a healing benefit for those attending these conferences and a big reason why we record these events. And a great benefit for us providing Audio/Visual or Conference Recording Services is our exposure to cool events or educational seminars such as these. It has greatly enriched my life in the 20 or so years I’ve been working in this field.
In late October, I arrived back in the Bay Area for a 3 day event of the “Workaholics Anonymous World Conference” in Menlo Park, CA. I am also very happy with those recordings as I personally brought in and mixed the main session room. To save on my post production work, you better believe I had the headphones on and was riding the fader levels and EQ for clarity! Overall, as mentioned above, approximately 125 hours of recordings and lots of fun.
The Gift of Archiving
The communication of our recordings is, quite often, healing, revealing, educational, and comforting. We try and capture the essence of the message, conference or concert through our recording techniques. These may include mic placement, mixing, audio/visual services, and post production editing. Recording is our passion and we really enjoy being out in the field with the challenges each working environment presents to us. I feel we are very good at what we do and it’s why we’re doing it for a living.
And on a related note: I have been a practioner of various audio formats for many years in my life, starting with reel-to-reels through Wave files and more. One of the more recent lessons I am learning – and I can’t believe I’m going to say this – is an appreciation for MP-3 recordings. Ahhh, but this is a subject for my next blog…
You’ll have to check back in a couple of weeks or so. Until then…
Happy recording folks!!!
– Dark Star Dan