Today Is Analog Day

It is very hot in Los Angeles…even by the beach where Charlie and I went running this morning. Today is the day I start transferring the analog master tapes of Christian Jacob’s “Beautiful Jazz” for about a half dozen hard analog tape guys. After a few last minute orders, I had to order additional tape. The local supplier didn’t have the 20 reels that I needed so they had to be shipped from Chicago to arrive today. I was in the studio when the UPS driver showed up so I missed the delivery. We managed to get him to return and so the tape stock problem was solved.

Step two was the rental of the truck with a lift gate. I found one yesterday at a local rental place and had my son take me there just after noon after stopping by the local hardware store for some straps and furniture blankets…I wanted to complete prepared once I arrived at Tim Jordan Rentals. The guys at the rental shop showed me how to operate the life gate and I headed for the west valley. I used to live in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley and I know how hot it can get. The Santa Monica mountains stand in between where the studio is located and the place where I had to go and get the machine. You can count on the temperature being at least 10 degrees hotter in the SFV…and it was. I heard on the news that it was 105 in the valley and I believe it. I’m so glad that I made the move from there to the west side 15 years ago…it was one of the best decisions of my life. The weather is perfect living by the beach.

I met Rodney at his home and we rolled the Studer A820 onto the lift gate and up in the back of the truck. I made good use of the blankets and straps and secured the machine to the side of the truck. I certainly didn’t want the deck rolling. The trip home was uneventful and reasonably cool thanks to air conditioning and the fact that traffic was headed in the opposite direction. I heard on the news this morning that Los Angeles has the second worst traffic in the U.S. I didn’t hear who topped the list but I know that things get really ugly in my city.

So the machine is safely in the studio, the Nagra IV-S has been cleaned and calibrated, and I’m about ready to spend the evening starting the transfer process. Rodney told me that he did a reproduce alignment on the Studer using IEC playback EQ but was unable to do a record alignment because he didn’t have the same RMG 911 tape stock that I’m using for these transfers. I’m headed back to the studio in just a few minutes to do the record alignment and start copying “Beautiful Jazz” analog tape to analog tape.

Let the transfers begin.