Treelady News

PORTLAND, OR – Treelady Mastering client Mission Spotlight‘s latest CD has been named a “Staff Pick” by CD Baby. The new release “Everything That Floats,” was recorded and mixed at Jackpot! Recording Studios by Larry Crane, and mastered at Treelady Studios by Garrett Haines. It includes six original songs and a cover of the Spinanes’ “Noel, Jonah and Me.”

From the CD Baby Review:
“Their high-and-lonesome country sound is easy on the ears while it tugs at the heartstrings.” — Portland Mercury Mission Spotlight writes songs about the new American West, drawing inspiration from the classic country ballads of George Jones, the early country rock of the Flying Burrito Brothers and the modern sounds of Wilco. The songs on Everything That Floats tell stories of places from Paris to Winnemucca and of the drug dealers, adulterers, lost souls and bicycle-riding kids who inhabit them. Everything That Floats was recorded and mixed with producer/engineer Larry Crane at Jackpot! Recording Studios in Portland. It features six original songs and a cover of the Spinanes classic “Noel, Jonah and Me,” which was recorded as part of the Jackpot! Covers Portland project. Mission Spotlight is made up of long-time members of the Portland music scene with players from Worthington, Blue Giant, We Miss the Earth, Swords, Sharpening Markers and Recall Seven. The band includes Fasil Debeb (electric guitar), Jeremy Dietz (bass), Kurt Foster (acoustic guitar and vocals), Ryan Lynn (pedal steel and electric guitar) and Evan Railton (drums).

LOS ANGELES – Treelady Mastering client The Sugar Free Allstars won the Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. A handful of major trophies were presented before the main Grammy ceremony, which kicks off from the Staples Center in Los Angeles at 8 pm EST, including Best Children’s Album.

The Album, All About Bullies… Big And Small, featured various artists, including the song Sugar Free Allstars “Cooperate,” which was mastered by Garrett Haines at Treelady Studios in Pittsburgh, PA. The track was recorded and mixed at Bell Labs Recording in Norman, OK, by Trent Bell. Please join us in congratulating the winners.

Garrett Haines will be mastering a new compilation of Portland music at Treelady Studios. The Project, entitled “Jackpot! Covers Portland” will be recorded at Jackpot! Recording Studios, by owner Larry Crane and/or studio manager Kendra Lynn. Larry Crane is best known as the Oscar-Nominated Engineer who has recorded Elliot Smith, Sleater-Kinney, and the Shins (et al) as well as being the founder of Tape Op Magazine.

From the organizers: “Jackpot! Recording Studio has been recording wonderful local music (and lots of people from other places) for 15 years. The music scene in Portland, Oregon, has been very good to Jackpot!, and now we want to give something back to the world of musicians and fans that has supported us. We will be offering recording time to musicians that we like and asking them to track a song written by a Portland-based songwriter or band from any time past or present. We will record and produce the song, and then we’ll offer it up for free download on our website. So please drop by and check out some free music that celebrates the creative spirit of the town we call home, Portland, Oregon We will be mastering all of these downloads at Treelady Studios in Pittsburgh with the talented Mr. Garrett Haines”.

The first track, “Noel, Jonah, and Me,” was released on January 1, 2012. Performed by Mission Spotlight, the song is a cover of a ‘Spinanes’ track from their debut album Manos (Sub Pop, 1993). For release info, please click here.

Treelady Studios Chief Mastering Engineer Garrett Haines teamed up with legendary producer/enginer Joe Chicarelli in Tape Op Magazine issue 85.    The two reviewed the new  Fraunhofer Pro-Codec Plug-In by Sonnox.

The Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec Plug-In

The software  is designed for the real-time auditioning, encoding and decoding of audio signals using Fraunhofer codecs.    Before this new invention, it had not been possible to critically audition and then encode multiple formats in real time within a host DAW environment.

In the first part of the review, Chicarelli discusses the improvements in workflow, speed, and accuracy provided by the Sonnox application.   In the second part, Haines covers how internet music gatekeepers (such as Apple, CD Baby, TuneCore, et al) do not permit artists or mastering engineers to submit digital assets.   He calls for a change to this practice, suggesting some form of certification or licensing process.

Joe Chicarelli in the studio

Tape Op magazine is available in the United States, Canada, and the European Union.  Free Third Class subscriptions are available for US readers.   For more information see the Tape Op website.

About Sonnox: Sonnox Ltd. has evolved out of Sony Oxford, which in turn traces its history back to a group of five dedicated audio professionals that first worked together in the early 1980s. These engineers spent many years together designing analogue and digital consoles for Solid State Logic, and subsequently left to start a new Company in 1988 that was called Oxford Digital. Over the following few years the team slowly expanded, until in 1993 it became Sony Oxford.

Full text of the review can be found: Here

America’s Got Talent Super Sensation Alice Tan Ridley is mastering her new single, “Winning,” at Treelady Mastering Studios with Chief Mastering Engineer Garrett Haines. Ridley has has been singing in New York City subways and parks for more than 20 years, performing timeless blues and gospel style songs reminiscent of Ann Nesby, KoKo Taylor and Sharon Jones.

At the age of 58, Ridley recently auditioned for America’s Got Talent and astonished the judges with her rendition of Etta James’ “At Last.” The performance earned Ridley a standing ovation and a chance to go all the way on the nationally televised talent show.

Her new single was mixed by gold and platinum mixing engineer Anthony ‘Rocky’ Gallo, who’s credits include: John Legend, The Cult, Fabulous, Jon Bon Jovi, Norah Jones and many more.

America’s Got Talent airs on NBC.

Treelady is a Pittsburgh Recording Studio specializing in CD Mastering, mixing, and recording. Treelady offers both Pro Tools HD digital recording and 2″ analog tape recording. For more information visit us online at www.treelady.com

Treelady Mastering has been retained to re-master the Silencer’s

Mixed by Bob Clearmountain at the legendary Hit Factory, the original release came out on CBS Records. The Silencers recently regained publishing rights for the release. The original quarter-inch analog mix master provided the source for mastering.

Original Album cover for ROCK N ROLL ENFORCERS by THE SILENCERS

Treelady Studios recently completed an extensive restoration transfer and preservation project for legendary artists Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri.

Treelady Mastering has partnered with Sonoris of the Netherlands to offer clients a custom DDP Player.

The Treelady Studios / Sonoris DDP Creator is a standalone cross-platform CD authoring application compatible with virtually any DAW software on the market. The DDP Creator allows Treelady Mastering Clients from around the world to create RedBook compatible audio CD’s and supports the import and export of DDP 2.00 images and Cue Sheet (cue) files.

The DDP format is much better than master CDs. The industry standard DDP protocol is supported by all major CD replication plants and ensures an error free transfer and manufacturing of a client’s masters. No more need to burn a physical master CD.

The DDP Creator can import (loadback) a DDP fileset too. This feature allows Treelady’s mastering clients to check their project including all PQ codes, ISRC, MCN and CD-Text data. Clients can edit the project, playback tracks and export to DDP, Cue Sheet or burn a Redbook compatible CD from it.

Famed author Bob Katz and Treelady Studios’ Chief Mastering Engineer Garrett Haines have coauthored a new article concerning digital clocking and jitter.   The piece is a part of the team’s review of the Grimm Audio CC1 master clock, and appears in the January/February 2010 Issue of Tape Op Magazine.

Grimm Audio CC1 Digital Clock

“The last chapter in the Jitter Saga has yet to be written. But the penultimate chapter has just been written by Grimm Audio, who have challenged the most sacred concept, the commonly-held notion that internal clock always performs better than external.   Digital clocking has been a hot topic among audio engineers in recent years.   Someone started the idea that the built-in clocks found in most converters were poor.  And it snowballed from there.” So begins the article, which not only examines the performance of the Grimm CC1, but also includes head-to-head tests of many popular converters and clocks from companies like Digidesign, Apogee, Lynx, and others.

Almost a year in the writing, the review dispels many marketing myths that surround digital clocks, and explains the benefits and trade-offs of using a central clock.   In addition to testing the Grimm CC1 in their respective mastering studios, Haines and Katz sought outside ears by visiting tracking studios and doing double-blind shoot outs with the Grimm and other brand gear.

Bob Katz, owner and Chief Mastering Engineer at Florida-based Digital Domain, is the author of Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (Focal Press), a book that is widely considered one of the best resources on the topics of contemporary digital audio and audio mastering.   Mastering Audio is available at Amazon.com, at the author’s website, and at fine booksellers everywhere.   Garrett Haines is the Chief Mastering Engineer at Treelady Studios and a Senior Contributor at Tape Op Magazine.

Treelady Studios assisted BBC Radio 2 by digitizing rare audio assets for a upcoming special on the life of Pennsylvania’s Stephen Foster.   The two part segement, called “Hard Times: The Short, Sad Life of Stephen Foster” features rarely heard Foster recordings, including 1930′s era Japanese renditions of the composer’s works.

BBC Radio’s Michael Feinstein pays tribute to the first great American songwriter Stephen Foster. Stephen (1826 – 1864) was the first songwriter to earn his living solely through his music rather than subsisting, as other songwriters did at the time, by teaching or performing. His life marks the start of popular music as we recognize it today.

The assets are part of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center For American Music.  The Center manages Foster’s assets, including various recordings made of his compositions.  Director of the Center, Deane Root, was interviewed for the piece.  Biographer Ken Emerson talked about the key aspects of Foster’s personal life and Deane L Root, musicologist and director of the Center for American Music explained the musical context of the time and why what Foster was attempting to do was so groundbreaking.

Episode one airs 15 December 2009.