Award-winning sound engineer Cookie Marenco had so much to offer audiophiles that it was hard to know where to start. Each day at 11 and 4, she is presenting live acoustic recording sessions with a host of different solo performers, duos and trio, complete with discussions on how to download files. Cookie promised that the recordings would be available for downloading from
www.bluecoastrecords.com/freedownloads within 24 hours.
Key to this live-download miracle was the presence of Gus Skinas of the Super Audio Center. As a key participant in the early development of DSD, Gus was fully equipped to show how the Sony PlayStation 3 can play DSD data files. Each show day at 1:30pm, Gus is giving talks on how to download the data, burn the DSD files to disc, and play them on the PS3 and other gear equipped to handle them.
The recordings are mixed straight to 96/24. A stereo mix is also being recorded on the Sonoma DSD workstation. All mixing is done using DSD encoding, without resorting to conversion to PCM.
At the other end of the packed room, one set-up was showing how to audition and download both 44.1/16 and 96/24 music from a host of artists. In addition to Blue Coast's own recordings, such as vocalist Jane Selkye (pictured with her appropriately blue guitar) and her bass-playing husband, Chris Kee, Cookie was selling music from the Valence label and over 50 indie artists.
Even on a Friday morning, 30 people packed the room for Selkye and Kee's performance. Demand was so great that the song was repeated to another packed crowd of 30.
