From my studio
Over the past years, I have discussed audio archiving and preservation. I do that because it is a topic that piques my interest, especially when researching the different types of tangible audio recording materials versus digital restoration. Starting this month, I will add new content to this blog that will showcase the audio recording collection that I have amassed in my studio. For those who don’t know, I collect vinyl and shellac records. I became fascinated with that form of audio technology for several reasons. The first was that I listened to records while growing up and still have some of the albums from my parents’ collection from the 1960s and 70s, in addition to other albums that I found or had been donated to me. The second reason stems from reading books like Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music by Mark Katz (2004), which devote time to talking about the impact of records and their overall “warm” analog sound quality.
Much of what you will see in this record collection covers myriad genres: everything from classical, to rock and pop, to film soundtracks, foreign language/international, electronic, spoken word, and more. Of course, categorizing the collection in such a subjective way is not all that simple. I have found that some of the albums that I currently possess illustrate different musical subgenres. I have many albums of twentieth-century classical pieces that represent different compositional approaches throughout the era (neoclassical, serialism, jazz-inspired, postmodern, etc.). In other instances, multiple genres collide to form an unexpected aural experience. This has been the case for some 1960s and 70s rock and jazz albums in the collection that combine instances of classical or funk music. To make these posts more interesting (and to spare the audience from boredom), I will refrain from talking at length about categorizing all the records that I have—something that has become a daunting process. I more interested in providing “my take” on these albums, their possible rarity, and whether they are currently accessible to the public through digital formats.
Much of what you will see in this record collection covers myriad genres: everything from classical, to rock and pop, to film soundtracks, foreign language/international, electronic, spoken word, and more. Of course, categorizing the collection in such a subjective way is not all that simple. I have found that some of the albums that I currently possess illustrate different musical subgenres. I have many albums of twentieth-century classical pieces that represent different compositional approaches throughout the era (neoclassical, serialism, jazz-inspired, postmodern, etc.). In other instances, multiple genres collide to form an unexpected aural experience. This has been the case for some 1960s and 70s rock and jazz albums in the collection that combine instances of classical or funk music. To make these posts more interesting (and to spare the audience from boredom), I will refrain from talking at length about categorizing all the records that I have—something that has become a daunting process. I more interested in providing “my take” on these albums, their possible rarity, and whether they are currently accessible to the public through digital formats.
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