We're proud of Blue Coast Artist, Rob Ickes, for making the cover of Guitar Player magazine, August 2011! Congratulations!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Rob Ickes on the cover of Guitar Player Magazine!
Coming soon! The whole article.
We're proud of Blue Coast Artist, Rob Ickes, for making the cover of Guitar Player magazine, August 2011! Congratulations!
We're proud of Blue Coast Artist, Rob Ickes, for making the cover of Guitar Player magazine, August 2011! Congratulations!
Jean-Claude Reynaud poursuit l'aventure du son
12 juillet 2011 | 04h00
Mis à jour | 09h34
Mis à jour | 09h34
Sud
Barbezieux: Jean-Claude Reynaud poursuit l'aventure du son
Jean-Claude Reynaud est désormais seul à la tête de la fabrique d'enceintes de Barbezieux. Son objectif: conjuguer fidélité de la marque et modernité.
Jean-Claude Reynaud, venu au son par son propre chemin, a la même obsession de la fidélité que son père. C'est à lui désormais de trouver de nouvelles voies.Photo CL
Jean-Marie Reynaud est mort le 31 mars dernier. Le «sorcier de Barbezieux» était reconnu comme le créateur génial des enceintes qui portent son nom. Aujourd'hui, Jean-Claude, son fils de 42 ans, reprend le flambeau. Il est PDG de l'entreprise depuis février dernier, deux mois avant la mort de son père. «C'est une très grande charge» reconnaît-il, incapable après le décès de son père «d'écouter de la musique pendant plus d'un mois». Jean-Claude est le fils naturel et spirituel de Jean-Marie. Enfant, il a joué dans l'atelier de son père. Plus grand, il a découvert son laboratoire, qui l'émerveillait, avec des boutons partout. Sa première chaîne hi-fi à onze ans, impressionnait ses copains. Il est aussi le fils spirituel en devenant un passionné de la qualité du son. Un obsédé de la fidélité restituée.
Deux parcours, le même objectif
Mais il a tracé son propre sillon. Il a plaqué l'école en terminale. Il a forcé les portes des studios d'enregistrement pour devenir ingénieur du son à Bordeaux et Paris. Il a poursuivi l'aventure dans les studios de San Francisco où il a créé un label. Il a imaginé des méthodes pour spatialiser le son, tout en collaborant avec l'Institut de recherche et coordination accoustique-musique (Ircam) de Boulez. De loin en loin, le père et le fils travaillaient, chacun à sa manière, sur la même matière. Leurs retrouvailles professionnelles semblaient inscrites. Et c'est parce que son père envisageait de vendre qu'il est revenu pour intégrer l'entreprise en 2005, en tant que simple technico-commercial. «On en a parlé pendant deux ans. Il n'était pas très chaud et pas sûr de l'avenir de l'entreprise. Il voulait me protéger.» Les deux hommes ont travaillé côte à côte pendant cinq ans. «J'apportais mon regard extérieur. Je voulais des produits plus dynamiques, plus vivants» se souvient Jean-Claude Reynaud. Il a fouillé dans les trésors enfouis de son père. «Il n'a jamais cessé d'inventer. Parfois il avait laissé tomber dans l'oubli des concepts très intéressants.»
Comme l'enceinte murale plate imaginée par le père une quinzaine d'années avant. «Mais à l'époque les gens voulaient toujours des enceintes de plus en plus grosses. Ils ne croyaient pas en son concept qui remettait en cause certaines idées.»
Cap sur le numérique
Jean-Claude Reynaud a remis au goût du jour le principe de mise en tension des haut-parleurs pour éviter les transmissions vibratoires à l'ébénisterie, et donc limiter la distorsion tout en améliorant la dynamique. «En fait une enceinte contrairement à ce que l'on croit, c'est tout sauf une caisse de résonance» précise Jean-Claude. Dans la famille Reynaud, l'enceinte est d'abord un objet au service de la fidélité. «Au-delà de la bande passante, il faut rester attentif au battement de l'air entre les instruments, être toujours au plus près de la vérité des timbres. Les ingénieurs sont capables de faire des enceintes parfaites techniquement. Ce sont toutes les mêmes, trop neutres, sans couleur, sans émotion, ni personnalité» explique le fils. La perfection d'un objet, en apparence si simple, se glisse d'abord dans les détails. Ainsi on utilise une même planche de médium pour la réalisation de toute l'ébénisterie. Chaque haut-parleur, construit en sous-traitance selon un cahier des charges précis, est rodé sur place avant d'être monté. Jean-Claude Reynaud a introduit l'utilisation d'éléments viscoélastiques qui ont la propriété de transformer l'énergie vibratoire en chaleur et donc de la neutraliser. On n'utilise pas n'importe quelle peinture pour les haut-parleurs, «elle peut changer de matière drastique la qualité restituée», raconte-t-il. Une obsession de la perfection qui n'est pas si loin de celle du père.
A lire en intégralité dans votre CL d'aujourd'hui
Deux parcours, le même objectif
Comme l'enceinte murale plate imaginée par le père une quinzaine d'années avant. «Mais à l'époque les gens voulaient toujours des enceintes de plus en plus grosses. Ils ne croyaient pas en son concept qui remettait en cause certaines idées.»
Cap sur le numérique
Jean-Claude Reynaud a remis au goût du jour le principe de mise en tension des haut-parleurs pour éviter les transmissions vibratoires à l'ébénisterie, et donc limiter la distorsion tout en améliorant la dynamique. «En fait une enceinte contrairement à ce que l'on croit, c'est tout sauf une caisse de résonance» précise Jean-Claude. Dans la famille Reynaud, l'enceinte est d'abord un objet au service de la fidélité. «Au-delà de la bande passante, il faut rester attentif au battement de l'air entre les instruments, être toujours au plus près de la vérité des timbres. Les ingénieurs sont capables de faire des enceintes parfaites techniquement. Ce sont toutes les mêmes, trop neutres, sans couleur, sans émotion, ni personnalité» explique le fils. La perfection d'un objet, en apparence si simple, se glisse d'abord dans les détails. Ainsi on utilise une même planche de médium pour la réalisation de toute l'ébénisterie. Chaque haut-parleur, construit en sous-traitance selon un cahier des charges précis, est rodé sur place avant d'être monté. Jean-Claude Reynaud a introduit l'utilisation d'éléments viscoélastiques qui ont la propriété de transformer l'énergie vibratoire en chaleur et donc de la neutraliser. On n'utilise pas n'importe quelle peinture pour les haut-parleurs, «elle peut changer de matière drastique la qualité restituée», raconte-t-il. Une obsession de la perfection qui n'est pas si loin de celle du père.
A lire en intégralité dans votre CL d'aujourd'hui
- TAGS
- Barbezieux,
- Sud Charente,
- artisanat
Friday, July 08, 2011
Tim Marutani Consulting / Blue Coast World Plaza 1 Ballroom from Tim Marutani Consulting
For Immediate Release
Tim Marutani Consulting / Blue Coast World
Plaza 1 Ballroom
California Audio Show by Dagogo, July 15-17, 2011
Crowne Plaza SFO, 1177 Airport Boulevard. Burlingame, CA
Emeryville, CA • 6/27/11 • Tim Marutani Consulting, in association with Blue Coast Records founder and engineer, Cookie Marenco, has assembled a state-of-the-art sound system for the Crowne Plaza SFO Hotel’s Plaza 1 Ballroom. The three-day display will include live performances, which Marenco will record direct-to-DSD twice daily and upload immediately for free DSD downloading. Question and answer periods will follow each recording session.
Marutani Consulting has also arranged a host of panel presentations. Thanks to Concord Music Group, First Impression Music, and Five/Four Productions, Michael Bishop, co-founder of Five/Four Productions, will play many of his live-to-stereo DSD masters. Selections will include new FIM re-releases of great Telarc Records DSD titles as well as previews of previously unheard Five/Four direct-to-DSD masters.
Bishop, former chief engineer at Telarc Records, has been privileged to record icons of the music industry for over thirty years. His releases have helped define the sound of popular, jazz, blues, and classical music for the record-buying public. For his efforts, he has received nine Grammy Awards, Japan’s Grand Prix Award, Gramophone Magazine’s Record of the Year; and multiple Surround Music Magazine and RIAA Platinum Album awards.
On Friday and Saturday, another industry leader, Grammy and Emmy award-winning producer and engineering veteran, Bill Schnee, will present live-to-two-channel, 24-192k recordings of several artists featured on his new audiophile label, Bravura Records. Schnee produced and engineered many of the legendary Sheffield Lab direct-to-disc recordings, including those of Thelma Houston, James Newton Howard and Friends, The Drum Record, The Track Record, etc. Grammy nominated eleven times for Best Engineered Album, he has over 135 Gold and Platinum albums to his credit. Bravura Records’ new breathtakingly live, high-resolution studio recordings must be heard to be believed!
Randomly throughout the show, Marutani will play Reference Recordings 2-channel DSD and high-resolution PCM masters (in HRx 176.4 kHz/24 bit format). In addition, attendees will hear sneak previews of vinyl test pressings of upcoming Reference Mastercuts LPs. Since 1976, Reference Recordings has produced outstanding audiophile-class classical and jazz releases engineered by the legendary “Prof.” Keith Johnson. Johnson has received the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album as well as 8 Grammy nominations for Best Engineering.
Tim Marutani Consulting’s state-of-the-art main system in the Plaza 1 Ballroom will include Magico Model Q5 Loudspeakers ($59,500/pair); Constellation Audio Altair linestage preamplifier ($65,000); Constellation Audio Hercules power amplifiers ($140,000/pair); Continuum Audio Labs turntable system ($100,000); and a computer source consisting of a Zalman TNN300 with no moving parts and external supply, Win XP, Pyramix 6, and Mykerinos card ($10,000). Also featured are a Mike Spitz ATR102 ½”, ½ track with Mike Spitz hybrid repro using copies from running masters (n/a); Pacific Microsonics Model Two converter for 1x, 2x, and 4x LPCM files (n/a); and Merging Technology DSD DAC (n/a).
The room’s second reference system will include Technical Audio Devices (TAD) Model CR1 Compact Reference loudspeakers ($37,000); Constellation Audio’s not-yet-released or priced Performance Series linestage preamplifier ($TBD) and stereo 250 watt power amp ($TBD); and other outstanding equipment.
Separately, Blue Coast World will host a panel entitled DSD -- Then, Now and Tomorrow. Scheduled for Saturday July 16, 1-3pm in the Peninsula Ballroom, it will be moderated by Marenco and Chris Connaker of Computer Audiophile.
The panel will include original members of the Sony DSD design team. Speakers will provide a history of the DSD recording format, and explain how it led to the development of SACD discs and high-resolution data files. Guest speakers include Gus Skinas of the Super Audio Center, Leslie Ann Jones of Skywalker Sound, and Michael Bishop, with others to be announced.
For further information, please contact Tim Marutani Consulting at tim@marutaniconsulting.com or (510) 652-1911.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Blue Coast Collection 2 debuts to Fans only and gets First Review!
Before we could get a link up on the Blue Coast Records website, Our Music Lover friend, Morten Teinum posted this wonderful photo and review of the recording. Thanks Morten!
http://mortenteinum.blogspot.com/2011/07/blue-coast-collection-2.html
He has a beautiful blog, Check it out!
http://mortenteinum.blogspot.com/2011/07/blue-coast-collection-2.html
He has a beautiful blog, Check it out!
Blue Coast Collection 2
Finally!
![Blue Coast Collection 2 [DSD]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vJYyi5o0pXPoz_db4dEu9t88UeUVf5peVBnVPyLnKTzrDHyxD7KBdCpuUKq6mIB7B6rDuakB8LRQSt-3elZYhxtiOdINbearTZBcWBhvYFta5jQ9voEAsiP-jLFGuPFKOlHQ=s0-d)
It was supposed to be released last spring, but now it's here, and it's good. There will be multiple releases of this record. First out is download editions including 44kHz /16 bit, 96kHz / 24 bit, and the most exciting, DSDIFF files. You can also buy a promo CD, but that is a gift if you get one of the download editions (valid if you purchase a download edition in July). In september a Hybrid SACD is released.
DSDIFF or Direct Stream Digital Interchange File Format, is a file container for the format used on the SACD layer, and most likely will the SACD edition and DSDIFF be the same, except you can't rip the SACD. You can play DSDIFF files using Korg AudioGate (mac/win). There is also a DSDIFF plugin for foobar2000 (win) that will play these files without a problem.
Pure Music from Channel D (mac) is also an option.
AudioGate can convert DSDIFF files to multiple formats including flac and Apple Lossless up to 192kHz / 24bit.
On the picture above I have made a 96 kHz / 24bit copy that I can play through a SqueezeBox / Benchmark DAC.
Sonics
As expected, this is the top of the line. The music is recorded live without overdubs, digital effects and so on, and is wonderfully captured by Cookie Marenco.
This is a no-brainer - get this one:
bluecoastrecords.downloadsnow.net/
It was supposed to be released last spring, but now it's here, and it's good. There will be multiple releases of this record. First out is download editions including 44kHz /16 bit, 96kHz / 24 bit, and the most exciting, DSDIFF files. You can also buy a promo CD, but that is a gift if you get one of the download editions (valid if you purchase a download edition in July). In september a Hybrid SACD is released.
DSDIFF or Direct Stream Digital Interchange File Format, is a file container for the format used on the SACD layer, and most likely will the SACD edition and DSDIFF be the same, except you can't rip the SACD. You can play DSDIFF files using Korg AudioGate (mac/win). There is also a DSDIFF plugin for foobar2000 (win) that will play these files without a problem.
Pure Music from Channel D (mac) is also an option.
AudioGate can convert DSDIFF files to multiple formats including flac and Apple Lossless up to 192kHz / 24bit.
On the picture above I have made a 96 kHz / 24bit copy that I can play through a SqueezeBox / Benchmark DAC.
Sonics
As expected, this is the top of the line. The music is recorded live without overdubs, digital effects and so on, and is wonderfully captured by Cookie Marenco.
This is a no-brainer - get this one:
bluecoastrecords.downloadsnow.net/
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Blue Coast Records to Demonstrate Direct Stream Digital Recording at 2011 California Audio Show (July 15-17)
The 2011 California Audio Show (CAS) will feature world renown audiophile producer Cookie Marenco and her Blue Coast Records team recording a series of acoustic performances live to Direct Stream Digital (DSD). The sessions, using her proprietary Extended Sound Environment (E.S.E.) recording technique, will be open to the public, so fans can experience first-hand how Blue Coast’s world-class musicians are recorded in a natural setting, without headphones or overdubs. Marenco’s recording technique was featured in the July 2011 issue of Keyboard Magazine and newly launched pstracks.com which centered around Vijay Iyer’s critically acclaimed release called Solo.
CAS takes place the weekend of July 15th at Crowne Plaza SFO in Burlingame. The live recording events will be hosted by Blue Coast in the Plaza One Ballroom. Veteran audio consultant and dealer Tim Marutani will share the space. Blue Coast Artists Jane Selkye, Chris Kee, Chi McClean, Gregory James, Houston Jones, Frank Tusa and more will be performing live in the Blue Coast room. Gus Skinas from the Super Audio Center will also be present demonstrating the Sonoma DSD editing system. Observers will be encouraged to ask questions about the equipment, techniques and recording process.
This three day exposition will introduce the next generation of high-end audio to audiophiles and the general public, with a list of exhibitors and panelists including Acoustic Science, Music Interface Technologies, Blue Coast Records and many others. Confirmed media sponsors include Dagogo, Stereophile Magazine, Wired.com, KCSM (Jazz FM 91.1) and KOIT (Light Rock FM 96.5). A full list of participants can be found at www.caaudioshow.com/.
Blue Coast Records founder, president and producer/engineer Cookie Marenco is a five-time Grammy nominee known throughout the music community as an A&R representative during the “golden years” of Windham Hill Records and pioneering recording engineer for Liquid Audio. Blue Coast has been mixing and releasing audio files in DSD for more than ten years. The DSD format provides a stunning difference in sound when compared with industry standard Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) for high resolution audio distribution.
Blue Coast Records has always been and remains committed to preserving audio at its highest quality, even under the most difficult and challenging of circumstances.
For more information on the event please visit:
BlueCoastWorld.com
Caaudioshow.com
ActMusic.downloadsnow.net/solo
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/kb_201107/#/38
CookieMarenco.com
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thank you PSTracks.com for This Article!
Written by Cookie Marenco
Though Vijay is a resident of New York City, he chose to fly to the San Francisco area to record at OTR Studios, my commercial recording facility of 25 years. Because this would be his first solo piano effort, his decision to use my studio was based around the 1885 Steinway that lives at OTR along with my personal bias to record on analog tape and mix to DSD (Direct Stream Digital). Light or heavy action, key grip, pedal noise, and you name it variations between instruments make it a challenge for any pianist to perform at their best.
Vijay is always keen to ‘future-proof’ his music by recording with the highest fidelity audio gear and format available. We used the E.S.E (Extended Sound Environment) techniques devised for Blue Coast Records’ projects. We simultaneously recorded to tape, DSD and 44.1khz/24bit.
Vijay’s choice of songs showed his wide appreciation for all great artists. From Michael Jackson’s Thriller he performed a version of ”Human Nature”, my personal favorite. Over the three-day recording period, he applied his unique interpretive style to works by Ellington, Monk and many other well-known composers. Most of you are familiar with analog tape and have heard of Direct Stream Digital recording. DSD is a one-bit digital recording format that offers 2.8 million samples per second. I realize there are numerous opinions on this subject of preference, but, in my view, DSD comes closest to tape and is our format of choice for multitrack recording. Thanks to Gus Skinas and the Super Audio Center, we have a Sonoma System at OTR studios for use with EMM Labs ADDA converters.
To Read the complete article at PStracks.com please click here!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Valentine's Day Rebate from Blue Coast Records and Artist Connex!
Happy Valentine's Day to our audio friends! We're sending you virtual hugs for supporting high resolution audio.
Starting friday, we will be offering a 20% rebate (discount) on all products sold at Blue Coast Records and through the entire Artist Connex catalog. In celebration of Valentine's Day, any purchase of downloads through the end of the day on February 14th, 2011 will be eligible. Rebates will be credited back to your account no later than February 18.
Our DSD catalogue includes some of our favorites
http://bluecoastrecords.com/
http://bluecoastrecords.com/
http://keithdayan.
http://bluecoastrecords.com/
http://bluecoastrecords.com/
http://keithdayan.
There are plenty of new titles in the Artist Connex Music Discovery module from various labels.
If you have not been at the site recently, we are pleased to announce that there are 3 DSD songs available for free download. In conjunction with Korg and their wonderful AudioGate software, we will offer one new download to guests registered at the site.
There will always be 3 songs in DSD available for collectors of high resolution audio.
This is a good time to begin collecting the downloads.
You can get AudioGate free from Korg here.
Watch for next month's newsletter, we have a very special announcement to make....
If you can guess what that announcement is, I'll give you a free download of any song in the catalog!
Happy Valentine's Day
We love your all!
Cookie Marenco
Blue Coast Records
founder and producer
Happy Valentine's Day
We love your all!
Cookie Marenco
Blue Coast Records
founder and producer
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