Live Performance Schedule at California Audio Show

Blue Coast Records, Valence Records and OTR Studios are hosting 2 live performances daily with guest artist from our labels.  The doors will close during the shows and we will record 1-3 pieces, demonstrate our recording techniques and upload to the internet.  Later that night, attendees to the performances will be able to download the songs for free at 44.1 or 96. 

With Gus Skinas' help, we hope to get at least one song on DSD available for testing.  We hope you all come to listen.  Check the website for where to find the downloads.  Artists will be available for signing CDs or items. 

Here's our current show schedule
Engineered and produced by Cookie Marenco, Sponsored by Blue Coast Records and OTR Studios

Confirmed Live Recording Performances
Friday 11am -- Jane Selkye, Singer / Songwriter, Blue Coast Artist
Friday 4pm -- Gregory James, Contemporary Jazz Guitarist and founder Valence Records

Saturday 11am -- Jason McGuire, Flamenco Guitarist, Blue Coast Artist
Saturday 4pm -- Emily Palen, Solo Violin Improvisations, Valence Records Artist

Sunday 11am -- Joshua and the Juncos / Woodie Guthrie for our times, Blue Coast Artist
Sunday 2pm -- Keith Greeninger and Dayan Kai / Singers, Songwriters, multi skilled instrumentalists, Blue Coast Artists

Reserve your space in advance. 24 seats available, some standing room.
Email support@bluecoastrecords.com please put the Artist name/CAS in the subject. Confirmation will be emailed.
Doors close at beginning of session for 30 minutes.
Questions answered at the end of the session.

Gus Skinas will be available through out to answer your questions about DSD recording and playback at home.

Blue Coast World at the California Audio Show and free passes

Blue Coast World at the California Audio Show will be offering free passes compliments of Blue Coast World.  To receive your free passes, send an email to:
support@bluecoastrecords.com and include in the subject:
Free Passes to Blue Coast World
In the email, include your name and how many passes you'll need.  We will reserve those tickets for you at will call.

We are thrilled to be hosting a music room at the Show. Blue Coast World will be located on the lobby level in a room called the Platinum Dock of the Bay room.  From July 30- Aug1, you can come by and listen to our music selection, purchase 96 24 downloads, buy CDs from many of the Artists who will be in attendance and meet Cookie, founder of Blue Coast Records.

Several labels will be represented as well as legendary Gus Skinas, one of the first people to pioneer SACD and DSD (direct stream recording). Gus will be available to discuss how to use a Sony Playstation as a DSD playback system. We will be using music from our Blue Coast World catalogue to demonstrate.

We look forward to seeing you there!  For updates, check our Blue Coast World page on Facebook.

New High Resolution Downloads from Blue Coast Records Artist, Garett Brennan.

We are thrilled to announce that Little Cottonwood, Garett Brennan's first recording as a solo artist, is now available as a 96khz audio download.  Blue Coast Records founders, Cookie Marenco and Jean Claude Reynaud, recorded Garett in a cabin high in the mountains of Utah, live and without headphones or overdubs.  Many audiophiles will delight in hearing the sound of a real thunderstorm passing through on the song These Knees.

The proprietary recording technique, Extended Sound Environment (E.S.E.) was used through out.  The original recording format was DSD (Direct Stream Digital) which is one bit recording and 2.8 million parts per second.  Cookie Marenco remastered the recording to 96 24 files for the high resolution downloads using her Dynamic Mastering process which eliminates the compression used in mastering. "I have very fond memories of this session with Garett, his band standing by listening, Jean Claude and Nick, our Russian assistant.  Most of these songs were recorded in one or two takes."

This weekend only, June 12 and 13, Little Cottonwood 96kHz audio downloads will be featured and on sale through the Artist Connex module.  Additional CD Quality and High Resolution Downloads can be found rotating in the module.  Blue Coast Records and Blue Coast World is one of the first distributors to have high resolution files available to international fans.

Garett Brennan, a Portland, Oregon resident, has been a favorite of our Blue Coast fans with poignant songs like These Knees and The Dog Songs on the Blue Coast Collection.  You can find more of Garett's recordings in the Artist Connex module.

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