Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Happy Holidays and Best for 2008

To all the artists, fans, gear manufacturers and staff, thanks for a great year! I especially would like to thank Patrick for all his work. Thank you to Tim and Josh for taking the challenge to the next step. Thanks to Ezra and Andrew for all your ideas and loyalty. Thank you to Nick and Nick for your enthusiasm.

We're looking forward to expanding next year and giving you continuing quality service.

Best in 2008!

Cookie Marenco
Owner and Believer that great music and great art deserves great sound!

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Alex De Grassi, Paul Hanson, Steve Erquiaga at OTR this month!

We're thrilled to have Alex de Grassi back working at OTR finishing up his harp recording. It will be available next year.

Also in the studio was bassoonist, Paul Hanson and acoustic guitarist, Steve Erquiaga perform live duos in the studio. Paul is on his way to Japan for a two year stint in Tokyo for Cirque de Soleil and wanted to document this incredible duo before leaving.

Cookie Marenco engineered both sessions to 2" tape, dropping them to DSD digital for editing and mixing later. Patrick O'Connor was on board to work the digital equiment and the sessions were assisted with Tim Jones and Josh Cummings, both part of the New View Crew.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Bands As Brands Hitting Big

Hey friends, here we go.. we've stumbled on the future.. LOL
a couple of articles that might be of interest to you, especially those of you who had been in on reading my business plans of the last 5 years.
check out what these folks are doing with distribution to Whole Foods (it's wimpy content, but good lookin' displays in the stores)

then here's the latest terms for "records companies are trying to get a clue".. 360 contracts.. they want to act as managers and take a piece of everything. not a bad concept, but they're kinda late to the party....
ny times
economist

Brand association is hitting the music business.
Fifty cent owns part of 'Vitamin Water' that just sold to Coke for billions.

Art? Commerce? Bands as Brands?
you decide

Monday, October 08, 2007

Live from AES 2007 in New York

Go to www.livefromaes.com for updates....

GIT'N 'R DONE: This year's AES Convention has it all, and Jim Anderson, chair, Convention Committee (left) and Chris Plunkett, deputy director, Convention Management, are two of the lead pros who made it happen.1-2-3 Ready To Roll For decades, the annual AES Convention has been the center of the pro audio world, and this year's edition upholds that tradition by looking ahead into the future. The annual gathering always brings with it new technologies, thousands of visitors, exciting panels and workshops, and more. While it may sport a retro-sounding theme in "Where Audio Comes Alive"-and it'd be fitting since the classic Frampton Comes Alive was recorded in nearby Long Island-this year's convention is unquestionably about today and tomorrow.

AES Honors Its Own Today's Audio Engineering Society was built upon the achievements of the pioneers in our industry. The awards presentation, held during today's opening ceremonies, honors audio's top innovators and practitioners-an important highlight of each AES Convention. The success of tomorrow's audio professionals is possible thanks to these honorees' considerable accomplishments.


Post Production Tools Up Every year at the AES Convention post-production professionals have an opportunity to catch up with the latest and greatest in software and hardware audio tools. As a recent straw poll of several post houses around the country suggests, even if there are no plans for a facility expansion, post shops are always on the lookout for new gear that will allow the creative talent to hone their craft and get the job done just that little bit faster and better.


Reasons To Be Cheerful Today looks to be getting busy, so I'll move quickly to what I consider to be essential Convention highlights...


Chris'Picks The opening day of the 123rd AES Convention includes a wealth of fascinating and insightful events. Like New York itself, today's special events feature something for everyone.


Wieslaw Woszczyk Reflects On AES Presidency Outgoing Audio Engineering Society president Wieslaw Woszczyk reflected on the previous year for Pro Sound News.


eSession-Born Of Necessity Necessity may be the mother of invention, but raw inventiveness is not enough to ensure that a good idea is feasible in the marketplace. For eSession (Booth 462), a convergence of opportunity with inventiveness, supported by current technology, has put online music production collaboration into the category of "idea whose time has come."
LIVE FROM AES DAY 01 EDITIONFriday, October 05, 2007


Manufacturer News
Turbosound Joins AM&S Network
Producers, Engineers Embrace A-T Flagship Headphones
Pinewood Studios Group Revamps With Euphonix
HPG HiQnet System Architect In Control On Rascal Flatts Tour
Versatile New Processor In Lexicon Spotlight
Meyer Honored With Silver Medal Award
Al Kooper Visits MOTU Booth Today
Renkus-Heinz Showcases New VERSYS VL3 Line Array
Shure Funds Research For Hearing Loss Study
SSL Duality Consoles At Heart Of New Germano Facility
SSL Will 'Shed' New Light On Home Studios
Yamaha Adds TXn Series Amps To Flagship Line
Yamaha Is Official AES 5.1 System Provider


Products
Equator Audio Heats Up With Q Series Monitors
New Preamp Bolsters Focusrite Liquid Technology
Holophone Spotlights New Portable Surround Mic
JBL Launches VRX Series Powered Models
Neutrik Launches IP65 Rated OpticalCon System
Neve Genesys Console Makes U.S. Debut
Wafer Monitors Key Wide Ranging PMC Showcase
Sony Shows Next-Gen Digital Wireless System
TI Showcases 216kHZ Stereo ADCs
Waves Spotlights API Plug-Ins Collection


Main Features
1-2-3 Ready To Roll


Features
AES Honors Its Own
Post Production Tools Up
Reasons To Be Cheerful
Chris'Picks
Wieslaw Woszczyk Reflects On AES Presidency
eSession-Born Of Necessity

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Great Concert in Santa Cruz Oct 13!

OTR would like to support our friend, Jay Saber, by announcing his event on our site.

Polly Wood, an incredible performer who recorded her first release with me at OTR, is on the bill.

We hope you attend. Should be a great time!
Cookie Marenco

PRESS RELEASE
For those of you in town, come hear a great concert at the Santa Cruz Veterans Hall with Workingman's Ed performing music of the Grateful Dead, Ragged Glory performing music of Neil Young and Polly Wood performing music of Polly Wood. Randy Merten will be producing a liquid light show and LaVie will be providing organic and yummy food. The show will be benefitting Solutions in Action, the Resource Center for Non-Violence and Veterans for Peace.
Doors- 7
Show- 8
Tickets- Streetlight Records
$10 Advance
$12 Door

--
Jay Saber
The Wheel Company
www.thewheelcompany.com

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Been There, Done That... the Haps, Claps and Slaps

Hey there friends and fans of OTR...... from Cookie
It's been way too busy the last four months. We're taking an August breather to catch up on our database, make a few deals, plan out the next few months.

You can check out our specials at our new "button buys" on the special page. You get a discount for just PAYING on line..... and 5% if it's paid by august 31... 'nuff said...

HERE'S THE HAPS

Jean Claude Reynaud made his annual visit from France to help out co producing duties for Blue Coast Records. We are running a hidden page for discount pricing of the Blue Coast Collection. I won't ramble on about my label here, you can check out the blog at Blue Coast for that. Jean and I were working on mastering Art Lande on DSD for the second release. He also showed us how to wire up an ipod cable using the Goddess Labs silver cable designed by his father, Jean Marie Reynaud.

Last few months were spent producing and finishing up the Houston Jones project. It's an amazing combination of great songs, masterfully performed... and not OVER produced. It's just the band in all their glory with great take after great take... we finishing up mastering and hoping for September release.

Jeff Schmidt was in working with me on his solo bass project... i know, it sounds a little weird.. solo bass?
well, it's more like Michael Hedges on bass. Hard to describe, but really fun material. It's in my cd changer now on unlimited repeat! There's even a bit of BLU CUBE in there... crazy dude.

From Phoenix Videoediting Labs, comes Cathyann Stonehill, producing a recording with artist Kim Cladas. (I'll get links for you soon!) This project took Cathy over many years to produce and includes Kim on vocals (as well as songwriting), Bill Spooner, (from the legendary Tubes), Bonnie Hayes and a more talented sidefolk than you can imagine. Cathy brought the tracks to me for mixing from her pro tools files... She was a joy and pleasure to work with. Hope we get to do more! Due out in the fall.

Long time OTR guest, Gregory James has been working on his acoustic quartet record that has Jon Herrera (one of the editors of Bass Player magazine), Deszon Claiborne (drums) and Barry Shulman (szx and flute). I think this is the 5th recording I've made with Greg... always fun, always different and always great music. If you want a little history on Greg, check out his site on CDBaby. Not sure of the release date, but we'll keep you informed.

Jazz poet, Norman Woods, brought his tribute to Smiley Winters and Ed Kelley in for mastering and touch ups. Should be available soon. Norman mashed up elements of old recordings with his poetry to make an incredibly moving recording. This session was especially touching because I used to play with Smiley. He was an amazing drummer, but more than that, a beautiful human being. You'll be touched by his words as well. Thank you, Norman, for keeping Smiley and Ed alive for all of us. Check out Norman's previous recordings on Amazon.com.

THAT WAS THE HAPS AND CLAPS
NOW HERE'S THE SLAPS

SLAP
me silly for not ordering enough Blue Coast Collection CDs. We sold out in 6 weeks. and SLAP Sony silly for closing their plant in the USA so that we have to have them manufactured in Austria. MULTIPLE SLAPS for the shipping dudes in Austria for sending 2000 units packaged so badly we had to reject the order.. the replacement shipment wasn't much better.

But CLAPS to Patrick O'Connor for trying to keep it straight and to all our interns who checked 2000 discs for errors.. Andrew, Tim and Eric. CLAPS to Gus Skinas for trying to keep high def audio alive with the SACD program and DSD. STANDING OVATION CLAPS to all those audiophiles who took a chance on an unknown label charging 3x more per disc on a seemingly dead format while the headlines read disaster for record labels. No downloads here... till they sound incredible, at least.

AND IN CLOSING
There is just TOOOO much going on... and i really have to get to a session. Sorry, I've taken so long to get back to all of you and my apologies for those I may have not mentioned here. I'll try to get back more often and keep you updated. And to my friends and family, you KNOW who you are.... where ever you are on the planet...

miss you all,
good health, good love and good fortune
peace to all,

many hugs and kisses

cookie

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Vinyl Mastering Alert!

Hi Friends, we are pleased to announce that RTI is still in business and manufacturing vinyl records. At the plant is a mastering facility so you can go from cutting to press in the same day. AcousTech Mastering is also associated with acousticsounds.com the online store for purchasing vinyl, sa-cd, and other high quality audiophile discs.

Check them all out!