Blue Coast Collection -- Collector's Edition Gold Available NOW!

Blue Coast Records announces the release of the Blue Coast Collection--Collector's Edition Gold.  This special release has been remastered without compression for full dynamic range.  Also included will be a 16 page booklet with information on the recording sessions and full color pictures from the studio.

For more than 10 years recordings have been getting increasingly louder while the sound has been degrading in quality.  On the original SACD hybrid disc, only the SACD stereo layer was left uncompressed.  The CD layer had increased volumes which is standard for most discs even today.  The founder of Blue Coast Records, Cookie Marenco (a recording and mastering engineer herself) decided to take a stand on the volume wars by releasing the uncompressed version on Gold CDs.

This graphic representation is the actual comparison of the first song on the Collection, "Looking for a Home", performed by Keith Greeninger and Dayan Kai.  The top representation is from the original disc with increased volume.  You can see in the louder section that compression had "flat topped" the dynamics eliminating natural peaks.  The lower panel is the wave from the new Collector's Gold and is the same song with no compression and no flat tops.

The overall volume has been purposely reduced to avoid creating distorted peaks. While distorted peaks are subtle, the compression to limit those peaks creates an unnatural sound.  Blue Coast Records has felt it is time to take a stand on the loudness wars and believe people know how to use their volume controls. Here's to TURNING UP the volume!


Blue Coast Collection -- Collector's Edition Gold

Blue Coast News .. New Rob Ickes 96 24 Music Downloads, Garett Brennan on the Radio, Forum Finds!

Friends and fans of Blue Coast Records,

Garett Brennan live on the Radio

Garett Brennan (Dog Song) will be featured performing and talking about his music tomorrow, Thursday, at 1pm PST. Garett represents the new generation of Americana performers crossing lines of folk, rock, and hillbilly.

To hear the live show tune in at pdx.am on your internet. Those of you using internet radio for the first time might want to go there early to check out how to listen from your computer or mobile device.

You'll find more information here!
http://betweenthenotes.vox.com/library/post/time-out.html

It's a radio show in Portland that gets about 10,000 listeners worldwide each week.

Little Cottonwood was the recording Garett, Jean Claude and I did in a cabin at 9000 ft.  You'll hear the thunderstorm roll by on These Knees.   Since we recorded this to DSD and mixed to 1/2" tape, we will soon be releasing this as a 96kHz download.  Anyone buying it now at 44.1 until it's official release, will get free delivery of the 96kHz file when it's available in late June.  

Forum Finds of the Week  Thank you Leonid Lozner!  Thanks for the kind words, all!

http://www.psaudio.com/ps/forum/faq.php/viewthread/485/#4086

We welcome your help letting us know about websites and forums that are focused on high resolution downloads and super sonic products!

Rob Ickes, Live Again on Downloads NOW!

In case you missed our last email, we have debuted more songs at 96kHz from Rob's very popular record, Road Songs.  He has an interesting twist combing his style of jazz with his background in bluegrass, pop and folk music. Rob has played the dobro with Dolly Parton, Blue Highway and Alison Krause.

http://robickes.downloadsnow.net/

Thanks, all!  Be sure to let us know what you're listening to and any new gear you might want to tell us about!

Enjoy the music!

Cookie

Happy Valentine's Day -- New Piano Music Weekend at Blue Coast Records

Blue Coast Records and Blue Coast World would like to wish all of our fans, friends, family and followers a very Happy Valentine's Day!  While you're enjoying chocolate, flowers and time with your significant other, we hope our weekend release by solo piano artist, John Hinson, will give you 9 minutes and 20 seconds of time well spent together.  You can listen to the piece in its entirety streaming at 192 kbps at


JohnHinson.downloadsnow.net/

Or purchase the complete song for high resolution play (96kHz) with a special Valentine's Day discount.

We'd like to thank our Discovery and Distribution folks at Downloads NOW! for their incredible help getting this music up so quickly.  The internet is amazing when you think that last week, John and Blue Coast were strangers last week and today he's our featured artist.  We look forward to more spontaneous findings.

Surprise Download Coming this Week!

It's always a treat when you have a young, talented artist, who you've never heard of, suddenly show up at your doorstep unexpectedly.  (And he hadn't heard of us either, by the way)....

Yesterday, John Hinson called our studio, OTR Studios, to book some recording time on the Steinway while he was passing through the Bay Area.  John was moving his family from Seattle to Phoenix and had stopped in Medford, Oregon to call.  He could be there tomorrow, he said.  Typically, we don't book sessions without 3 weeks of advance notice, but we had some time and he seemed like a nice guy...

John arrived and we recorded to tape and DSD.  The music and his playing sounded so good, I asked if we could offer this on Blue Coast for our fans.  We'll send out another email when we have the music posted.

It will be an exclusive to our mailing list fans only.. so JOIN UP NOW!

Thanks, and be on the look out!

Cookie

SoundStage.com Gives Rave Reviews to Blue Coast Records!

We'd like to thank Rad Bennett and Sound Stage for this wonderful review of our website! Please visit....
http://www.soundstage.com/digitaldomain/

December 2009

The Digital Music Revolution: What Download Sites Have to Offer -- Part 13

Note: Previous "The Digital Music Revolution" installments are available in the SoundStage! A/V archives, which is where the series originated.

This month’s download adventure takes us to Blue Coast Records for some exquisite but limited fare that will leave you longing for them to post more. Downloading and listening to these tracks is like discovering a great new restaurant. You enjoy your meal and feel satisfied, but even though your experience is complete for the moment, you can’t wait to return.

Launched in 2005, Blue Coast Records is very new. It’s the brainchild of respected producer and recording engineer Cookie Marenco, who has recorded over 400 projects in the last 15 years. Marenco felt our ears were being dumbed down by MP3s that sacrifice audio quality for convenience. Along with Jean-Claude Reynaud, son of the audiophile speaker manufacturer Jean-Marie Reynaud, she developed E.S.E. (Extended Sound Environment) technology for recording in surround, a technique that’s now applied to stereo recording. This method uses room and direct microphone placement to let musicians place themselves without using headphones. With E.S.E. there are also no overdubs or digital effects. The resulting sound lets you hear pure music without artifice. All of the masters are analog-to-2" tape.

With Marenco so interested in providing an audiophile alternative to iPod limitations, it makes sense that she would create an audiophile environment for downloads. Yes, Blue Coast Records produces both CDs and Hybrid SACDs, but it also has a very lively download venue. On its surface the site operates like many others, but there are a few surprises. It’s easy to surf because for the moment there are only two album-length downloads, Blue Coast Collection and While She Sleeps. But if you start examining the fine print under the Store and Special Events tabs, you’ll find many more singles and short concerts by Blue Coast Records artists. All downloads are DRM free, and prices range from $15 for CD quality to $40 for 24/96 HD.

You can listen to any of the individual cuts before purchasing, but before your first purchase you’ll have to create an account, which will make it easier to order on subsequent visits. You can pay with any major credit card. All of the files are WAV format, whether 16-bit/44.1kHz or 24-bit/96kHz, and they’re zipped. I found that they both downloaded and unzipped very quickly. One interesting thing about Blue Coast Records is that in addition to linking to your download file on the site, they also send you an email containing the link. Downloads are good for seven days, but should you run into any unforeseen problems, Blue Coast is big on customer service. Marenco likens Blue Coast Records, its artists, and its listeners to a big family.

Since their list is currently small, I easily downloaded all of the tracks from the Blue Coast Records page and two or three from its sister site, Blue Coast World. This site is available in beta for now. Marenco hopes it will someday be a showcase for other producers who create great recordings, regardless of whether they use the proprietary E.S.E. system. One of the albums I liked most, Calico Heart by Houston Jones, a West Coast band that blends bluegrass, folk, and blues, came from this site and is also available as a 24/96 download on the Blue Coast Records page. If you like Alison Krauss, you’ll most likely enjoy the heck out of this album.

On the Blue Coast Records site, I particularly enjoyed discovering Keith Greeninger, a balladeer whose laid-back style and superb guitar technique combine to focus on the lyrics and meaning of a song. The approach is almost conversational, and thanks to the E.S.E., it’s like he’s singing just to you. Many others, including Jenna Mammina, are well worth hearing. There’s some jazz and New Age music, but I think the real draw at Blue Coast Records is the folk and jazz vocalist genres. If you watch the video on the site or read the detailed article on E.S.E. recording, you’ll notice that none of the singers are too close to the microphones. This distance creates some of the best vocals I’ve ever heard -- they’re clean, open, and totally focused, yet they have a little space around them. The recording of guitars, bass, and piano is as good as anything you’ll hear, but the vocals are something special.

Blue Coast Records is adding special events, singles, and albums on a regular basis, and you can sign up on the site to be notified when there’s something new. After a few downloads, my bet is that you won’t want to miss a thing!

. . . Rad Bennett
radb@soundstage.com

A few months ago Cookie Marenco had the pleasure of having Keith Greeninger and Dayan Kai over to the Blue Coast Studios (AKA OTR Studios). The three of them got together to record their new album, live in the studio, for Keith's own label.

KeithDayan.argoarts.com

You probably remember them for their lead off track on the Blue Coast Collection.

This event has been years in the waiting and Blue Coast Records is happy to announce the completion of the recording.

The E.S.E. technique was used thoughout and lives up to it's previous recordings with full dynamic range and stunning clarity. Jim Norris and Steve Uccello joined Keith and Dayan on a few songs to provide drums and bass. Keith and Dayan covered some songs like Jerry Garcia's "Friend of the Devil" and Jackson Browne's "Lady of the Well". Don't miss the last track, it's excellent... "Bid You Goodnight".

You can audition the entire series of new songs in full length. They are available in 44.1 cd quality wav or 96Khz audio, uncompressed wav files. You can also download the cd artwork on our Downloads NOW! page.

Buy a latte or a 96Khz uncompressed audio download! Or do both :)

Thanks for your support of high resolution sound!

New 96kHz Songs by Rob Ickes and Gregory James recorded by Cookie Marenco

Many of you have just returned home from Denver's Audiofest. We hope you had a wonderful time! Unfortunately, we couldn't attend this year, but are hoping to see you at CES in January.

Many of you know that my regular job is that of an engineer and producer for other artists and labels. When I record, I use the highest standards possible, often in a more traditional recording style than the restrictiveness of E.S.E recording. Meaning the use of overdubs, headphones and other typical techniques that are not the live performances as we do for Blue Coast Records. This week, I have two exceptional recordings that I'd like to point out to you.

Last year, Blue Coast artist, Rob Ickes, asked me to engineer a recording in Nashville for his own label, Reso Revolution. Rob and I have recorded many albums for Rounder Records in the past, but this was the first for his label. Rob is an exceptional talent and a 10 time winner of Dobro Player of the Year. On this recording he is performing in the studio live, with Michael Alvey on piano and Robinella on vocals-- the album is called Road Songs. Rob has graciously allowed me to release 3 songs at 96kHz that have uncompressed dynamics. Let us know what you think!
http://robickes.argoarts.com/

Gregory James is a world music artist who's guitar playing crosses into jazz, flamenco, Afro-Cuban and Middle Eastern musics to name a few. Gregory and I recorded this album many years ago with producer/bassist, Benny Reitveld. Benny is most known as the bass player for Carlos Santana and Miles Davis. For this album, Benny wanted to go into a more 'Electronica' genre. We are happy to be re-releasing this album as CD Quality Downloads. We have also uncovered previously unreleased tracks of the Bjork Song, Come to Me, sung in Spanish by Destani Wolf. The 96kHz tracks posted came directly from the 1/2" mixes. It's a 10 minute version complete with a 20 piece string section and incredible musicianship.
http://gregoryjames.com/come-to-me

Many of you have been asking for more variety in our music selection, so, we thought we'd offer you something different from our catalogue at Downloads NOW!
We'll be back soon with more live E.S.E. recordings from Blue Coast Records very soon!

Enjoy the Music!
Cookie Marenco
Blue Coast Records
founder and producer