When I was a teenager I wanted a “Dream Machine” where I could record all the musical ideas in “me head” & hear them “beck” all at the same time. I was using two cassette players & bouncing tracks while I added live new parts. With very noisy results it was great fun to create layered recordings. Then when I was seventeen I got my first multi track tape recorder. A TEAC 2340 four track. I still have my first mixer, the TEAC AX20, little box that subs four tracks to 2. The options were L, R or center! I still have my first mic, an AKG & mic stand & I still have all the recordings.
There was no digital recording, no software, no computers. And I offered to record my friends’ music when they had no way of capturing the music in their heads. HS friends, band demos, school projects, college friends – “Missy” Melissa Etheridge, Kate Finn, & Erika Luckett, Gina Felicetta, Tim Donahue. There were live recitals I taped for friends as well & all along I was writing tons of songs & learning how to play with sounds to hear my ideas.
In the 80s I got a TASCAM 8 track multi track & an 8 channel mixer. With this set up & synths & digital performer thanks to the ingenuity of Cindy Brown we were syncing tape to drum machines & sequencers when Berklee’s Music Production & Engineering dept. was saying this was possible in theory! We had just done it, many times & recorded our 1st CD, Among The Ruins in our condo that we had pressed when it wasn’t fashionable, when everyone around us was still making albums.
We were recording projects for another friend, bassist & composer, Ruth Mendelson for PBS’ Home With Bob Vila.
So Cindy & I started a label, Feather Records, & studio, PassaBrown Studios. We got a 32 channel, 5 foot, Studiomaster, mixing console. We were the studio for CRAVE “Garden Party”(-Elizabeth Lorrey’s band), Sarah Burrill “Stained Glass” as well as Sarah’s label. Many of my students recorded demos & CDs as well.
In the late 90s changed format to ADAT & had 32 digital tracks to play with and started recording our next CDs, Shadow Language & Back To The Bone.
Then it happened, after much encouraging & offering an emotional safety net, Cindy got me to switch to: DUM DUM- digital recording with Logic Pro 7. Best thing ever. All our digital singles were mixed & or recorded & mixed with Logic 7 & 8.