I returned from the annual AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention in Los Angeles, held there after a 12-year hiatus. (AES has dropped San Francisco as a west coast convention site.) I love San Francisco, but it was great to be back in LA where so much of the music, film, and recording industry is based. […]
Eight Steps to Protect Your Collection From Disaster
The fires and floods that struck Colorado in summer 2013, after a series of devastating wildland fires between 2010 and 2013, raised our awareness about the threats facing our studios and Airshow’s media archive. Recognizing the unpredictability of Mother Nature is one thing, but having a tangible plan to prepare for – and respond to […]
What To Do About Flood-damaged Audiotape or CDs
Updated October 2014 The Restoration Center @ Airshow received inquiries about media damaged in the September 2013 flooding in Colorado. While we do transfer analog to digital media and we do provide sonic restoration, we do not provide media recovery service. Media recovery involves cleaning off and drying magnetic or optical media, with the goal […]
Quality Control: What and When
Quality Control, or QC, is an important part of the production process. Whether you are making a physical product or a digital one, QC makes sure everything is made as was designed. Many companies will hire a 3rd party to oversee quality control in the production of physical goods, especially if hiring a factory from […]
Naropa Archive Reaches Milestone
This month, Airshow completed the transfer of Naropa University’s complete analog tape collection: 4,148 recordings from the 6,000+-piece archive were transferred by four audio techs over 2+years, resulting in over 4,500 hours of digitized audio ready for online storage. Naropa was founded 40 years ago, during a wave of Western interest in Buddhism. Over the […]
How to Plan A Vinyl Release Without Delays and Headaches
Increased demand pushes the supply chain Since 2012, when Nielsen reported that 4.6 million vinyl LPs were sold, vinyl sales have nearly doubled. Nielsen projects 2014 sales over eight million vinyl units. These stats likely undercount indie vinyl releases, or 7” or 10” discs (the smaller projects that many Airshow clients favor). Infographic courtesy of […]
Oral History: Capture the Best Interview
When I conducted oral history interviews as a college student, I knew something about interviewing (but not much!) and nothing about audio. Armed with a portable cassette recorder the size of a textbook with only a built-in microphone, I worked to gather recollections from elderly union members about events 30 years in the past. As […]
Audiobooks and the Independent Author Part III: Estimating production time and expense
Airshow engineers Anna Frick and Jon Gold joined me to pool our thoughts on how a self-publishing author can affordably release their ideal audiobook. In Part I and Part II, we covered pre-production, recording, and post-production. In Part III, we explore a real-world production and manufacturing budget for an audiobook narrated by the author. Download […]