A New "Live at Bernie's"

[Carolkoh]

Also known as "What Gary and Genesis are up to now."

What some may know is that one of Gary's favorite demo records, Anne Bisson's "Blue Mind" was re-mastered by Bernie Grundman and released as a 45 RPM, and the effort was sponsored in part by Gary L Koh, Genesis Advanced Technologies and in part by Wuti Larnroongroj, Brilliance Music. (Available at Elusive Disc). Only the first 1000 copies are on Blue Vinyl.



Here's the interesting thing that happened while Anne, Gary, Wuti and Bernie were shooting the breeze down at Bernie Grundman Mastering was that they ALL talked themselves into a Direct to Disc effort - another "Live at Bernie's" album.

Once again sponsored by Genesis Advanced Technologies and Brilliance Music, the effort was months in the making, finding excited collaborators, and to that end, we have, besides Bernie to Master, a Fazioli piano, Michael Ross to produce (a choice of mics from Allen Sides' microphone cache at Oceanway Studios) and Anne's favorite artistes to record with her.

Photos and updates to come as I have them.

[Carolkoh]

The artistes having a drink and reviewing the first day's session - from left to right, Pierre Tanguay (drums & percussion), Anne Bisson (vocals & piano), Jean-Bertrand Carbou (acoustic bass). They managed to do it all in a four session on Saturday, but returned Sunday "just in case" so... there may be more than one lacquer floating around there!

[Carolkoh]

Gary flew in on Thursday with a bunch of Genesis cables and set-up was done Friday – all day Friday. In order to make a direct-to-disc album at Bernie Grundman's – Michael Ross had to build a complete recording studio..... in 6 hours flat! There must have been at least a mile of cable and a ton of gear (hmm... metric or imperial? )

Then that recording studio had to be tied into Bernie's mastering suite and both workflows that are usually done weeks apart had to be integrated to produce that direct to disc recording.

As Gary said while he was there watching the progress of the process, “It is dawning upon me the magnitude of effort that goes into such a direct-to-disc album, and why it is so rarely done.”

[Carolkoh]

From Gary on Saturday:

What a thrill it is to be working with such a professional team!!! We are far ahead of the curve with all four sides already in the bag. But everyone wants to come in tomorrow (Sunday) to do all four sides again.

You never know, having a spare might rescue the day if something happens to one of the lacquers we've done today. RTI may be the best in the business, but there's a risk that something might go wrong in the plating process.

And with the direct-to-disc process being "live" and each "take" comprising 3 tracks, there is always the chance of improving a side. It's all the more exciting for me because the more "takes" we do, the more the chance that there will be a lacquer for me to bring home!!

[Carolkoh]

Some of the borrowed gear that was used for the project: Kubula-Sonsa cables. Here's a shout out to Joe Kubala for the loan of miles of microphone cables and interconnects to wire all the gear together during the direct-to-disc recording by Michael Ross at Bernie Grundman's Studio.

Gary : "It definitely made a difference and contributed to the excellent sound we achieved."

[Carolkoh]

From Gary:

""Recording a direct-to-disc LP is an exhausting and stressful endeavor. You have 3 musicians all playing 3 songs in a row perfectly to make a side. If you count the vocalist and pianist and leader of the trio as 2 instruments, it's even more challenging!!

After every "take", the musicians and recording engineer would have to decide to run the take again immediately or stop and have a listen or even take a run at the next side. Here, we are all listening to a side and trying to make a decision: Was it musically strong enough? Were the musicians all in the groove? Sonically, any problems? (we had a refrigerator kick on in the middle of one track!)""

Imagine - all that work! BUT professionals that they were, they went back on Sunday to do it all again, just in case they could improve on what they'd already accomplished.

Here's the group listening and discussing the merits of one of the takes. Left to Right - Jean-Bertrand Carbou (acoustic bass), Pierre Tanguay (drums), Anne Bisson (vocals and piano), Wuti Larnroongroj (Executive Producer), Scott Sedilo (back to camera - Assistant Engineer), Gary Leonard Koh (Executive Producer)

[MylesBAstor]

From Gary:

""Recording a direct-to-disc LP is an exhausting and stressful endeavor. You have 3 musicians all playing 3 songs in a row perfectly to make a side. If you count the vocalist and pianist and leader of the trio as 2 instruments, it's even more challenging!!

After every "take", the musicians and recording engineer would have to decide to run the take again immediately or stop and have a listen or even take a run at the next side. Here, we are all listening to a side and trying to make a decision: Was it musically strong enough? Were the musicians all in the groove? Sonically, any problems? (we had a refrigerator kick on in the middle of one track!)""

Imagine - all that work! BUT professionals that they were, they went back on Sunday to do it all again, just in case they could improve on what they'd already accomplished.

Here's the group listening and discussing the merits of one of the takes. Left to Right - Jean-Bertrand Carbou (acoustic bass), Pierre Tanguay (drums), Anne Bisson (vocals and piano), Wuti Larnroongroj (Executive Producer), Scott Sedilo (back to camera - Assistant Engineer), Gary Leonard Koh (Executive Producer)

Pardon the dumb questions Carolyn. When they went back and listened, I assume it is a digital copy done in parallel. IIRC the sides were cut at 45 rpm-so was there just one song per side or did they do more? If so, I assume they did the two or three songs per side and then listened and would repeat if necessary all the songs?

[Carolkoh]

Link to a live video Gary took at RTI where they "silvered the lacquers" - fascinating to me, watching from afar.

https://www.facebook.com/garylkoh/videos/10155100545743559/

Everything was coordinated, booked in advance so all parties could be there every step of the way, from recording to producing the first LP stamps.

From Gary:
""Portrait of the silvered lacquer of the direct-to-disc Anne Bisson album just before it goes into the nickel-plating bath for the next 24 hours.

When we met with Dorin, the plating manager at RTI, he said that the last direct-to-disc lacquer he remembered doing was in 1989!! There may have been others, but not to his recollection.""



I'm sure when Gary gets back into town and has a little time to format and share photos, he will share more. You can follow him on his Facebook Page where he shares many interesting things.

https://www.facebook.com/garylkoh?fref=ts

[Rob]

Kudos to Wuti and Gary for the guts to put their money, time and energy into releasing all new D2D recordings. what the audiophile world doesn't need are more DSD snoozers, bring on more D2D!!

[MylesBAstor]

Carol-any idea when the album might be out?

[garylkoh]

Myles - the D2D album is 45rpm, 4 sides. There was a baker's dozen, so one side had 4 tracks (with a very short introductory track), and the other 3 sides had 3 tracks per side. That was the difficulty - we had to get all 3 tracks perfect to do each side. You can't break in between songs as the lathe keeps running.

We ran digital in parallel for "proofing". What's interesting is that this is a direct-to-disc album, as well as a direct-to-2-track tape album. We were also running 30ips 1/2-inch tape at the same time.

An album like this will take years. Anne has been composing and practicing for the past 8 months. We are looking at the possibility of getting test pressings within the next 6 weeks or so. Hopefully, we'll have jacket design approved in 8 weeks for printing which takes another 6 weeks. Then, the bottleneck is going to be RTI as they are running at well over 100% capacity. You only get in the queue for pressing after we deliver jackets to them......... you work out when we might be able to release.

[MylesBAstor]

Thanks Gary! That's what I thought.

[Rob]

Gary, are you using Stoughton for your jackets?

[garylkoh]

Yes, Rob. We are trying to work with the best of the best, and Stoughton is the best jacket printer we've found.

[garylkoh]

Oh, it turned out that the Fazioli piano that we were going to use got commandeered by Herbie Hancock and he wasn't going to let us have it. So, we got a very, very nice Steinway instead. Bernie Grundman called up Steinway of Los Angeles about "borrowing" a piano, and they offered him the pick of three!!

[Guest]

Marvelous thread. Thank you!

When do you start taking pre-orders?

[garylkoh]

Let me at least get test pressings first........

[MylesBAstor]

Myles - the D2D album is 45rpm, 4 sides. There was a baker's dozen, so one side had 4 tracks (with a very short introductory track), and the other 3 sides had 3 tracks per side. That was the difficulty - we had to get all 3 tracks perfect to do each side. You can't break in between songs as the lathe keeps running.

We ran digital in parallel for "proofing". What's interesting is that this is a direct-to-disc album, as well as a direct-to-2-track tape album. We were also running 30ips 1/2-inch tape at the same time.

An album like this will take years. Anne has been composing and practicing for the past 8 months. We are looking at the possibility of getting test pressings within the next 6 weeks or so. Hopefully, we'll have jacket design approved in 8 weeks for printing which takes another 6 weeks. Then, the bottleneck is going to be RTI as they are running at well over 100% capacity. You only get in the queue for pressing after we deliver jackets to them......... you work out when we might be able to release.

Any reason RTI say over QRP or Pallas?

[garylkoh]

RTI is one of the best and probably the most experienced. However, for me, there was a significant advantage especially for direct-to-disc. These lacquers are irreplaceable. By not handing them over to FedEx, there is no risk of loss. Also, the earlier we get them to plating, the better these soft lacquers will sound.

RTI cleared the decks in the plating room, and we drove the lacquers over from Bernie's ourselves. Less than 24 hours from cutting to plating for 2 of the sides from the Sunday sessions.

[MylesBAstor]

Thanks, that's what I figured! I told you the original lacquer of M&K's Flamenco Fever was lost between California and Germany and they had to redo it! So your concerns are real!

[MylesBAstor]

Kudos to Wuti and Gary for the guts to put their money, time and energy into releasing all new D2D recordings. what the audiophile world doesn't need are more DSD snoozers, bring on more D2D!!

And to Anne and the musicians. Put tremendous pressure on them too!