tape and disc transfer season
All of a sudden I’ve been doing a boatload of tape and disc transfers. One job is for “60’s” singing star Jane Morgan. She just got her “Star on the Hollywood Walk”. Her biggest hit wqs “Fascination”, and she appeared on every variety show. The shows recorded these performances to disc- some of them 78s and most 33 rpm. I’ve been transferring them, and cleaning the sound up. She is a remarkable singer; always in pitch…. really, I’ve listened to 20 hrs of her appearances so far, and she just never misses a note. I can think of more than few ” singers ” on the market right now, who seldom get close to the right pitch…..
Dan Moore brought in some tape masters from 30 years ago of the Provincetown Jug and Marching Band . I “baked ” the tapes, ( Some formulations of tape absorb moisture and when played will shed the oxide, which makes them impossible to play, and damages the tape deck, so I have to dehydrate (bake) the tapes to make them able to play) , and them transferred them to a computer. Once in the DAW, I was able to get rid of some noise, and we did just a db of mastering eq to make the lower end a tad more solid, and the upper mids a bit smoother. The unknown engineer at Perfect Crime studios had done a great job of the mix, so it was easy as pie…..
Then, songwriter/ producer Con Fullam brought in some very old tapes of his Dad singing folk songs. His Dad explained the origin of the songs and would then do a very excellent job of singing and playing. The apple didn’t fall far from that tree…