Merter Yildirim transfers O'Keeffe estate recordings

Our tape transfer wizard Merter Yildirim’s latest digitization and restoration project came from the estate of renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Merter’s work on the batch of tapes helped to preserve a large collection of taped interviews and conversations, some in a pretty serious state.

The process of restoration and digitization is not strictly limited to processing the sound with your usual analog and digital equipment. In cases such as this one, it can be significantly more conservatorial in nature, with the engineer having to first carefully mend any broken tape and untangle cracked cassette cases before the tapes are prepared to run again. Gentle handling of the medium, along with careful de-noising and processing techniques once the tapes have been re-recorded, can pull some of the most badly damaged tapes back from the brink, and breath new life into the memories on the recordings.

Alfred Stieglitz’s portrait of the artist, “Georgia O'Keeffe at "291", 1917”

Michelle Rodriguez narrates "The Real Toltec Prophecies" with Hay House

Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious, Lost, Girlfight)

Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez was in the studio recently, alongside Hay House Publishing producer Steve Morris, to narrate the audiobook of Sergio Magaña’s The Real Toltec Prophecies. Rodriguez has had an interest in Magaña’s work for some time–you can see a great video of them both here, from ABC–and made a perfect choice to narrate the book. Studio engineer Pascal McGilvray Guard recorded the sessions in our Main Floor studios, which are SAG-AFTRA Safety Protocol certified alongside our full Manhattan facility.

You can preorder a hard copy of the book from the publisher, with the audiobook coming soon!

Dubway certified as compliant with all SAG-AFTRA Safety Protocols

Thanks to the efforts of studio management and all our staff, Dubway Studios is now officially listed by SAG-AFTRA as an approved audio house/studio for voiceover recording. Special thanks are due to our studio manager, Nina Moss, who now also holds a COVID-19 Safety Compliance Officer certification, and to all our staff, who have taken to tracking, testing, and reporting with the focused seriousness the situation demands.

For more on our protocols around the studio, check out our Pandemic Production page, give us a call at the studio office line during business hours, or read the SAG-AFTRA safety protocols here in full.

German public radio station Deutschlandfunk Nova records storytelling show with Dubway

Alice Hasters, host of Einhundert on DLF Nova.

Cologne-based public radio station Deutschlandfunk Nova recorded a new episode of their storytelling show Einhundert–Stories with Alice Hasters in our Main Floor studio facilities this past week. Dubway engineer Louis Fisher recorded in-studio with guest Vivien Schütz, connecting remotely to the German studio from which host Alice Hasters conducted the recording. The show covers stories of transformative decision making, or “the moment when you have to take your life into your own hands,” says Schütz.

For those of us who speak German, the episode drops on November 6th and will be streamable at the above link to the show’s homepage.

Dubway contributes recording to upcoming Michael Mankowski project "The Beast"

Jack Rabbit, voiced by Gordon Pinsent.

Animator, director, producer, and Toronto Film Festival-winner Michael Mankowski is hard at work on a new project, and we were lucky enough to get to contribute by remotely recording some of the film’s voice over. Mankowski’s animation projects are often environmentally-focused, and this one will be no exception. The Beast: Heroes of The Wildfire is a retelling of one of the largest forest fire evacuations in Canadian history, and features a star studded cast and a deeply considered production process, some details of which are available at this project writeup and on the IMDB page. Stay tuned!

To learn more about the Fort McMurray fire, which was the impetus for the film, click here.

Bang & Olufsen shoots documentary footage with Dubway A1

BeoLab 90 model speakers from B&O.

We recently paid a visit to renowned design-meets-audio company Bang & Olufsen for a recorded interview with B&O’s Brian Bjørn Hansen, conducted over Zoom, as is the current norm. Dubway engineer Zach Grappone served as the A1 for the interview shoot, which included a camera team and our mobile rig.

Bang & Olufsen design some of the most beautiful home speakers on the market, which is why they’ve partnered with Bosa Properties to outfit one of their new luxury buildings with built-in B&O acoustics. The interview we recorded with Hansen is part of a larger project of documentation of the design and architectural work going into the property in question, including contributions from other famed creative houses like Thomas Heatherwick, Gensler, Ole Scheeren, Dornbracht, and Miele.

Check out some photos from the office visit below; you can find B&O products at one of their many showrooms, or at the website linked above.

Roc Nation preserve archival Jay-Z tapes

Dubway engineer Merter Yildirim recently completed a series of transfers for hip-hop giant Roc Nation, taking a large collection of archival tapes and footage reels of concert and studio material (including reels from and including the agency’s owner, Jay-Z) and converting them to digital formats for archival purposes.

While individual collectors may often choose to digitize their physical media, it’s a near-necessity for labels. Recording labels of all sizes need to ensure a stable copy for reference and future license, reproduction, or re-release; otherwise, you run the risk of a catastrophe like the 2008 Universal fire, in which irreplaceable master tapes and records burned without leaving a digital legacy behind.

We’re proud to have contributed to Roc Nation’s effort to preserve their historic catalogue for future listeners. Find everything Roc Nation at the link at the top of the article, and give us a call if you’d like your collection to be digitized next!

Young MA live with Tito's Made To Order series

Dubway was honored to be involved in production for Brooklyn rapper Young MA’s set for the Tito’s Made To Order series of streaming events. Our engineers worked alongside a talented team of creatives from Panopticon NYC, Hook Studio BK, and First Tube Media, plus Young MA’s team and everyone at World Central Kitchen. Tito’s Made To Order shows are benefits for World Central Kitchen and feature sharp lineups with artists like Bun B, A-Trak, Kali Uchis, Portugal. The Man, and Claude VonStroke. Dubway engineer Louis Fisher and assistant engineer Jake Zacharia recorded the set, with Pascal McGilvray-Guard mixing and editing the recordings for post-production documentation.

Catch a recording of the set below on the Tito’s Made To Order YouTube channel, or revisit the record that put Young MA undeniably on the map here.

The McKinsey Podcast continues remote work with Dubway

Global management and consulting firm McKinsey & Company continue to work with Dubway to remotely record their show, The Mckinsey Podcast. Episodes have released without an interrupted schedule during the pandemic; Dubway engineers Louis Fisher and Zach Grappone, and studio head Al Houghton, all contributed to the production planning and design of the remote recording packages that go to the podcast participants. Engineering has primarily been conducted by Grappone, who has the task of remotely managing the recording of both the host and any local or remote guests.

You can find The McKinsey Podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher, all of which can be accessed at the link above. If you’re interested in business and management, don’t miss these episodes!

Sarah M. Sala records audiobook version of "Devil's Lake"

Poet and educator Sarah M. Sala joined us in the studios last week to record an audiobook version of Devil’s Lake, her debut poetry collection, available through Tolsun Books. Sala’s poetry has featured on NPR’s Radiolab and BOMB, and she lectures at NYU’s Expository Writing Program. Recordings for the book were tracked and edited by Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois.

You can pick up a copy of this excellent collection at the above link to Tolsun Books’ site; the audiobook will be arriving soon, available everywhere you find your audiobooks.

Richard Kogan returns for new piece, new edits

Lecturer, pianist, and psychiatrist Richard Kogan returned to Dubway with his longtime producer Tom Mowrey to re-edit and mix standalone versions of one of his previous lecture-performances on the great Leonard Bernstein, and to edit and mix a new audiovisual version of his lecture on Ludwig van Beethoven. The duo worked with their usual technical team of Dubway engineers; video editor Pascal McGilvray-Guard tackled the video, and Keenan DuBois edited and mixed sound to take the project over the finish line.

You can watch the pieces below, or find more content of Dr. Kogan at the same YouTube channel. Stay tuned for the Beethoven piece! Like all of Kogan’s work, it’s a sensitive and moving look into the mind and music of one of the great masters of the Western canon, and not to be missed.

Dr. Kogan’s programs on the psychological origins of musical creativity in the great composers are presented at prestigious venues throughout the world, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and Rockefeller University, in New York.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor records a history of the restaurant with owner Wilson Tang

Tang and Furton in our Main Floor studios after a full day of recording The Nom Wah Cookbook.

We had the pleasure of hosting the amazing Wilson Tang, owner and operator of the historic Nom Wah Tea Parlor in NYC, to record an audiobook of the upcoming centennial celebration that is The Nom Wah Cookbook. After a hundred years of operation, the storied dim sum parlor has more than enough content to stuff into this book, including recipes, gossip from both kitchen and dining sides of the restaurant, and family legends. Tang was a pleasure to have in the studio, and worked closely alongside Dubway engineer Violette Furton and the top-notch production staff at Harper Collins, to immortalize the history, lore, and–most importantly–the food of Chinatown’s oldest continuously running restaurant.

The book is set for an October release in both physical and audible forms, through Harper Collins and all affiliated distributors. For food lovers out there who can afford to do so, remember to help your local restaurants stay alive during this pandemic! Manhattanites and Philadelphians can support the restaurant (and their stomachs) here or through in-person pickup.

Hall-of-fame sports broadcaster Jim Gray records at Dubway

Twelve-time Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster and author Jim Gray has been hard at work on the audiobook edition of Talking To GOATS: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard, his thrilling look back at a long and storied career in sports. Gray and his team at Harper Collins, alongside Dubway engineer Louis Fisher, have spent many sessions capturing the feeling of the stories he’s collected–stories of, with, and by athletes like Kobe Bryant, Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady, LeBron James, and so many more. The sessions have worked through and around quarantine, finding creative ways to recreate conversations, record production-level voiceover in a remote workflow, and maintain the excitement and joy of a career spent in direct dialogue with some of the world’s most truly exceptional talents.

Old-school readers will find the original hardcopy here; those who prefer headphones can pick up the audiobook soon from Harper Collins and affiliated distributors.

Blackfin mixes upcoming project remotely, at Dubway

We posted recently about a new studio buildout that head engineer Nathaniel Reichman has constructed at his home upstate, and while we can’t share the details with you just yet, we’re excited to announce that the new build is already finding use with production house Blackfin, who will be conducting ongoing remote mixes with Nathaniel through a link with our downtown facility.

Blackfin is an award-winning production company known for gripping true crime and documentary features, television series, and episodes. They’ve had a few excellent years recently, releasing titles like Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, Finding Escobar’s Millions, and Terror In Tulsa: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street. We can’t wait to see this next project come to fruition!

Lead Engineer Nathaniel Reichman on Dolby Atmos monitoring, gear budgeting with goals in mind, and more

Whenever we do a technical deep-dive (or the words “delivery spec” are mentioned in the studios), we call Dubway’s lead engineer Nathaniel Reichman. Nathaniel loves nothing more than really getting into the why of things on a granular level; few engineers get as genuinely excited about things like codecs, error messages, and calibration as he does.

That’s why when Nathaniel posts a long and detailed exploration of how to set up a cost-effective Atmos monitoring rig, we pay attention!

Nathaniel has just recently put finishing touches on his own home-studio/mixing environment, pictured above. From there, he connects to our flagship facilities downtown for remote mixes with clients, or streams audio directly to the clients at their own remote space. This is one of many workflows we’ve implemented this year to make distanced work just as smooth as in-person work, particularly for mixing, editing, and post-production workflows, which almost always required in-person sessions before.

The article also features Dubway’s co-founder Mike Crehore, who helped consult on Nathaniel’s studio configuration and setup of the monitoring B-chain. A B-chain, for the non-engineers, comprises the components of a listening or mixing environment that aren’t recorded, or that tend to change from one listening environment to another–the speakers, amplifiers, and effects units between the recording device and the listener’s ear. Knowing and being confident in the tonal coloration your B-chain adds to a project is an immensely important skill for any mixing or mastering engineer to have, and it’s even more important for cinema and television, where broadcast specifications are tight and workflows are complex. The more speakers involved, and the more specifically calibrated those speakers are, the more difficult this part of the work becomes–and that’s exactly where this article comes in handy.

If you’re interested in knowing the ins-and-outs of monitoring for your fledgeling Atmos setup, click the link above for the full article on Pro Tools Expert. And if you have questions about our remote capabilities or the types of workflows we can support, give us a call.

John Eder's "To The Manor Borne By Robots" honored at HEAR Now Festival

Featured episode, “Hungover Psychic Insider Trader",” from To The Manor Borne By Robots.

John Eder’s excellent sci-fi and storytelling-focused podcast To The Manor Borne By Robots earned some well-deserved praise recently, netting a Platinum-level nod from HEAR Now Festival 2020. The festival ran in June and describes itself as, “a gathering place where the work of master storytellers is celebrated and shared”, and includes audio content as diverse as sound art, podcasts, radio dramas, audiobooks, and live poetry recordings.

To The Manor Borne By Robots is a deeply artistic form of sci-fi storytelling, working solely through sound and carrying several layers of narrative and drama at all times. Episodes have been recorded at Dubway for years, and often involve sound design as well as voice recording and effects. Dubway engineer Zac Suskevich helmed the sessions for these podcast records, working closely with Eder and cast to capture the sound of the world(s) of the show.

You can check out a clip from the show, and a list of the other Platinum-level winners, at this link. You can also find the show on Instagram at the handle @ttmbbr.

Hay House teams with Dubway for audiobook recording

The publishing and production group Hay House has been busy in the studios in the past month working on an upcoming release with author, seer, and healer Juliet Diaz. The sessions have been recorded by Dubway engineer Violette Furton.

Juliet Diaz is a healer and magic practitioner with a long line of familial antecedent, tracing her roots back to the Taino people of Cuba; in 2018 she was named “Best Witch” by Spirit Guides Magazine. Her work and life are unique in all the best and most curious ways, and while waiting for this current project to come out you can read more about her in this Atlantic article.

You can find a copy of Diaz’s most recent book here and most anywhere books are sold.

“SongCraft Presents: Dom Flemons” named official selection of 15th Annual Macon Film Festival

EMMY-nominated PBS series SongCraft Presents‘ most recent episode included a significant amount of material produced and recorded at Dubway, and we’re thrilled to announce that Good Old Days has been named an official selection of the 15th Annual Macon Film Festival!

The episode deals with the controversial history of Emmett Miller, a blackface-minstrelsy musician who was extremely influential to the sound of country music, specifically Merle Haggard and outlaw country – in the 20th century. The titular song, “Good Old Days,” was written by the show’s host Ben Arthur and noted songwriter Dom Flemons (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), and recorded in Macon’s Grand Opera House. You can read more about Flemons’ feelings on the legacy of Emmett Miller on The American Songster’s site here.

This episode was produced in collaboration with Dubway Studios, who’ve enjoyed a long relationship with the always-interesting Ben Arthur and his myriad projects. Dubway engineers recorded the music on-location, as well as the production audio used throughout the film.

Congratulations to all involved, and best of luck at the festival!

Henry Winkler joins "Bubble Guppies" cast for recent episode

Henry Winkler voices the yeti in Bubble Guppies.

Actor, writer, and comedian Henry Winkler (Happy Days, Arrested Development, Barry) has joined the cast of Nick Jr.’s Bubble Guppies for an all-new adventure! The show, which has been a hit since season one – and which was recently renewed for a sixth season – has been a longtime visitor to our studios, where much of its audio has been recorded over the years. Bubble Guppies has, for years, been recorded by Dubway staff engineer Louis Fisher, in collaboration with Nick Jr.’s amazing production team.

You can read more about Winkler’s role in this recent episode here, as well as find clips.

Dubway welcomes Mike Mazzotta to the team!

We’re proud and excited to announce that video editor Mike Mazzotta will be joining Dubway as our in-house video editor and post-production engineer!

Mike Mazzotta is an award-winning post creative who, over the past 15-years, has edited feature films, commercials, music videos, digital projects for nearly every social media platform, webisodes, and a varied collection of short films. Having worked with NBC News, MTV, Offhollywood, and over a hundred others in since 2007, his work has been seen by millions of people online, and his film work screened all over the world.

We couldn’t be happier to have Mike on our team, and to expand our roster of creatives further into the realms of video editing and post-production. Welcome aboard, Mike.