Interviews

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Interviews
Michael Fremer and Joe Harley Interviewed By Colorado Public Radio's Scott Carney
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 19, 2014  |  17 comments
Last Thursday morning April 17th Joe Harley (Audioquest V.P. and record/reissue producer) and I visited Colorado Public Radio Studios where OpenAir host (and vinyl fanatic) Scott Carney interviewed us about vinyl for a show that would air on Record Store Day.
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Interviews
Tour Bernie Grundman Mastering and Hear Bernie on the High Resolution Blue Note Transfers
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 25, 2014  |  47 comments
While in Los Angeles recently I had visited Chris Bellman and Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman mastering.
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Interviews
Blue Note President Don Was Talks About His Blue Note Vinyl Reissue Project
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 19, 2014  |  31 comments
On Wednesday March 12th Blue Note President Don Was sat down with me to talk about the Blue Note vinyl reissues he's producing for the label.
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Interviews
Analogplanet Interviews Producer/Arranger/Musician John Simon (Corrected Introduction)
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 03, 2013  |  5 comments
I drove to record producer and musician John Simon’s Catskill mountaintop home on a gorgeous, unusually mild November 1st day. Simon is best known for producing Songs of Leonard Cohen, BS&T’s Child is Father to the Man, Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills and of course The Band albums Music From Big Pink, The Band and The Last Waltz
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Interviews
Analogplanet Interviews Record Industry Pressing Plant Owner Ton Vermeulen
Michael Fremer  |  May 30, 2013  |  1 comments
Before touring the Record Industry pressing plant Analogplanet's Michael Fremer sat down with Ton Vermeulen to get the factory's history and a figurative finger on the pulse of a man who would buy a record pressing plant as the vinyl record lay on its supposed death bed.

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Interviews
Minus K's David Platus Takes the Stand On Behalf of His "Negative Stiffness" Isolation Technology
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 17, 2012  |  11 comments
While effective isolation from both air and ground borne vibrational energy is important throughout the audio playback chain, it is essential for vinyl playback. It can be built into a turntable in the form of spring or "O" ring suspensions but current thinking downplays that in favor of separate isolation stands rather than incorporating it into the turntable itself.

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Interviews
Brian Wilson and the Long Journey of "SMiLE" Part 3
Harvey Kubernik  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Harvey Kubernik Interviews Brian Wilson Part 3

Q: You presented the SMiLEtracks to the Beach Boys when they returned from the tour. I seem to recall, with the exception of Dennis, there seemed to be some real hesitancy from band mates to really get involved singing to these instrumentals. Mike Love did not like the stuff presented.

A: No he didn’t.

Q And some other band members weren’t super thrilled, either.

Q: And some didn’t like Van Dyke Parks’ lyrics.

A: Right.

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Interviews
Preservation Hall: Back to the Future, Pt. 1
Roger Hahn  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  0 comments

Editor’s note: When contemporary roots rockers My Morning Jacket stopped by New Orleans’ Preservation Hall for an unplugged midnight show that served as a prelude to MMJ’s spring tour with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band as opening act, Rolling Stone made due note of the event in its May 27th issue with feature coverage.

Preservation Hall

The MMJ gig is one of many changes happening at the world-renowned French Quarter home to New Orleans jazz, all part of an historic attempt to forge a new identity as the Hall approaches its 50th anniversary and looks forward to a new life in the 21st century.Our Man in New Orleans, Roger Hahn, has the full story.

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Interviews
Preservation Hall: Back to the Future, Pt. 2
Roger Hahn  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  0 comments

Growing up, the younger Jaffe never intended to become the caretaker of the Preservation Hall legacy. In fact, he never thought he would be a professional musician. Coming of age in the musty rooms, dank carriageway, and inner courtyard of Preservation Hall—the French Quarter’s living shrine to traditional New Orleans jazz—Jaffe assumed music would play a secondary role in his life.

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Interviews
Brian Wilson and the Long Journey of "SMiLE" Part 1
Harvey Kubernik  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  0 comments
In director David Leaf's 2004 Grammy nominated film, “Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the story of SMiLE,” songwriter Jimmy Webb pointed to the tune “Surf’s Up” as evidence that Brian Wilson instinctively knew that the miraculous musical moment that was “SMiLE” was rapidly coming to an end.
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Interviews
Brian Wilson and the Long Journey of "SMiLE" Part 2
Harvey Kubernik  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  1 comments
Harvey Kubernik Interviews Brian Wilson Part 2

Q: During Pet Sounds and then SMiLE, the recording studio became an instrument.

A: Yes. It became an environment to record music. It’s a place to make music. Right?

Q: How about working with engineers like Chuck Britz at Western, Stan Ross and Larry Levine and Doc Siegel at Gold Star. Then, Bruce Botnick at Sunset Sound, along with several engineers at Columbia, including Ralph Balantin and a session for “Vege-Tables” with Armin Steiner at his studio.

A: The best trip is that they know music. They are good at music and engineering, too.

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Interviews
Smashing Records At PortalSpaceRecords, The Reconstituted EMI Pressing Plant
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments

Five years ago, during a visit to the Hi-Fi News “Heathrow” audio show someone passed along an intriguing tidbit: EMI’s mothballed record pressing plant was back in business on the Hayes-Middlesex campus. Since it was but a short cab ride from the show venue, I paid an unscheduled visit.

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Interviews
The Doors and The Elektra Records Sound Part 1
Matthew Greenwald  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  2 comments

This interview, conducted by Matthew Greenwald back in 1997, first appeared in issue 14 of The Tracking Angle. As Rhino readies the new Doors LP box set (now set for April, 2008), we figured it was a good time to present it here-ed.

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Interviews
Elite Recordings: A Conversation With Freelance Recording Engineer Veteran Marc Aubort
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  3 comments

Swiss-born recording engineer Marc Aubort began his career in the late 1940’s working first with wire recorders and later with tape. Aubort first came to America in 1955 to inspect the American operation of European budget label MMS (Musical Masterpiece Society).

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Interviews
Climbing "The Wall of Sound" With Gold Star Recording Studios Co-Founder Stan Ross—Part 2
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2009  |  0 comments

Part II:Building Gold Star Studios, Phil Spector and Alvin & The Chipmunks Come to Play:

FREMER: Where did you get all this (recording)stuff?

ROSS: We bought the parts. There were no recording consoles available. We had a broadcast console that was available to us. It was a stereo console because one channel was for cuing and the right was for the air. It was gorgeous. A guy had this wonderful board with the colored knobs and [it was] just what we wanted. And so we got it for a good price and I said, ah, we got the console.

FREMER: So you had to make an investment. So you had to have savings? You borrowed?

ROSS: We borrowed the difference, whatever. Hey, I wasn’t a GI so I had a problem. Anyway, we found out that this console was hot. [LAUGHTER]

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