Preserving Archives

Archiving and Restoration

Moderator:
Jessica Thompson, Jessica Thompson Audio - Berkeley, CA, USA
Presenters:
Niko Bolas, The Surf Shack Studio - Ventura, CA USA; Germano Studio - NYC, NY USA
Brad Mindich, Founder/CEO Inveniem
Susan Rogers, Berklee College of Music - Boston, MA, USA
Panelist:
Steve Rosenthal, MARS ( MagicShop Archive and Restoration Studios - Brooklyn, NY, USA

Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty - these past few years, we’ve lost too many major recording artists to list. They leave behind their legacy as artists and performers as well as vaults filled with recordings, demos, sketches, unfinished projects, documents, and more. This panel will address the challenges of dealing with the archives of major recording artists. 

Susan Rogers (Berklee, Prince, Barenaked Ladies), Brad Mindich (CEO, Inveniem), engineer/producer Niko Bolas (Neil Young, LeAnn Rimes, The Mavericks), and engineer/producer/archivist Steve Rosenthal (MARS, Lou Reed, Blondie) will share their memories of working in the studio with major artists and discuss the formidable issues around archiving and preservation. They will speak to the technical challenges of identifying and digitizing decades of analog and digital formats, the legal obstacles, and the question of when and how to curate new releases from archival materials.