Archiving Dobson

This evening, Dan and Jon Gomez, director of bands for Dobson High School spent a decent amount of time archiving all the recordings we have made with their various ensembles since 2003......and I must say, there are a lot of them.

The archival process will be multi-faceted. First we taking all CD media and transfering it to hard disc, in it's raw WAVE format. This will be arviced to DVD.....next we will take all the WAVE files and encode them using FLAC and add all the apropriate meta-tag informaiton. This will serve as the "reference" master that the directors will use and have copies of in their library as well as on their hard disc's so they can review and listen.

This is a very cool project and one that is not being taken lightly. This should lay the foundation for Dobson High Schools Performing Arts archival system that we have been concieving for a little over a year now. The idea is that with media being so inexpensive and as a result, not much value is placed on the media. Our goal is to establish a legacy that will carry on through the years allowing thoes down the road to listen to the schools history. Not to mention it gives us some great material to listen to along the way.

American Bach at All Saints

This afternoon Dan and Chris were on-location at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Phoenix, Arizona capturing the wonderful sounds of A list musicians under the direction of Scott Youngs.

This is the second year we have been invited to record this performance and we decided to take it up a level. Last year we simply recorded live to 2-track using the house microphones in their hanging position. This year we brought a full multi-track rig to capture 16 microphones placed within the glorious hall and within the musicians. Scott and Dan will take a listen and mix the performance to Scotts liking.

Dobsons Sounds of Spring

This evening Dan was back at Dobson High School with their Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Full Symphony Orchestra capturing Sounds of Spring II. The ensembles performed amazingly as expected and we were able to capture some amazing audio.

First of two evenings with Dobson High School

This evening Dan was on-location at Dobson High School recording performances by the Percussion Ensemble, Concert orchestra, Concert Band and Wind Ensemble.

Arnell Project sees the light.....

Some time ago Dan and Mike spent a few months working with Arizona’s Musica Nova tracking a series of compositions by Britain’s Richard Arnel. We just received word from Producer/Composer Marc Parella that the first CD is now being released on the Con Brio Recordings Label.

http://www.conbriorecordings.com/Artist%20info/MusicaNova.html

ASU and DHS share a stage

This evening Dan was on location at ASU’s Gammage Auditorium for a recording with The Dobson High School Symphonic Band and the ASU Wind Ensemble.

This was a memorable event from many perspectives. While we have made many recordings in the various facilities at ASU, this was the first time we have made a recording in Gammage. The room truly has a unique and desirable sound to it. At first we noticed the subtle sounds coming from the ensemble, the small details do not get lost as they do in most High School auditoriums. Also thanks to the acoustics, the room sounds very large and the ensemble can play at very high levels without driving the room too hard. It is a very nice balance.

Aside from our own experience, this made for a great experience for the Dobson Students to see what they have ahead of them at ASU, and for ASU students to see what a truly top notch High School Program is like. In fact Wayne Bailey was heard commenting on how he felt his ASU Wind Ensemble should open for Dobson……..