What's New: Almost Summer Edition

New gear, a new wall, a bunch of new releases - that's what's new at Coast Mastering! 

We are continuing to settle into our new studios in Berkeley and promise to hold an open house soon. Both rooms are now equipped with the SPL Iron Mastering Compressor. We all demoed this compressor and loved it so much that we not only kept our demo unit, we bought a second one. We also built an equipment hallway between the stereo mastering room and the archiving room. Equipment hallway!!

Way back in March, the whole Coast team went to SXSW.  Michael Romanowski joined fellow mastering engineer, Gavin Lurssen, and mix engineers, Tony Maserati and Mark Needham, to discuss the current climate of mixing and mastering. Jessica Thompson gave some tips on preserving music for DIY labels and indie musicians, along with Burger Records' Sean Bohrman and Indie PreservesRice University's Norie Guthrie and Scott Carlson. And Piper Payne recorded bands at the Balanced Breakfast showcase including the Soft White Sixties, the Down and Outlaws, and The Go Ahead. Did we also eat breakfast tacos? Yes, we did! (Shout out to Vegan Nom taco truck!)

Michael Romanowski was honored to master Phife's Dawg's posthumous release "Nutshell," with beats by the late J Dilla. Download at iTunes and 50% of the proceeds will benefit the American Diabetes Association and the National Kidney Foundation. He also mastered Steven Cravis's new record Cloudwalker - available as Mastered for iTunes in addition to the usual formats - and Melody Parker's lovely new release Archipelago.

Piper Payne mastered the new Abbot Kinney EP The Night, Erin Honeywell's upcoming release Speak Love Truth, and Lake Lady's Better Day, all of which are garnering excellent reviews. Coming on July 1st, do not miss the new Beautiful Machines album Bridges. You can also get this one on vinyl later this summer. Kendra McKinley has a few sneak peeks of her new album up, as well. Check out the Bay Bridged debut of Party Mask.

Jessica Thompson is almost finished digitizing an archive of nearly 100 analog tapes dating from the mid 1950s to late 1970s. These tapes hold recordings of powerful live performances by blues greats, candid after hours jam sessions, political rallies and studio sessions. With any luck, we'll see some of this material released in coming years. Jessica also mastered Awalom Gebremariam's Desdes for Awesome Tapes from Africa and had the extreme pleasure of mastering her first - hopefully not last! - zombie themed bluegrass song for The Tumble's debut album Almanac.

We're planning a Grand Opening Party / Open House at Coast Mastering for July. Stay tuned for details!