A New Chapter

I know there’s been a long pause between this post and the previous one. I’ve been exceptionally busy, took a long weekend in Big Sky, Montana to ski with some close friends, started a new semester, and moved my office from the AIX studio building to my home. That’s right. I’m typing this post from my home on the west side of Los Angeles rather than my old office. It represents a major change in my daily routine and situation. I’m opening a new chapter on my life.

I started my CD premastering business, the Pacific Coast Sound Works, out of my converted garage in Chatsworth, CA in 1989. With a souped up Mac II, a Sonic Solutions DSP card, some associated peripheral equipment (DAC, PS Audio DAC, Tannoy LGM-12 Speakers), and a small list of record label clients, I launched my non-academic career. And now almost 30 years later, I’ve moved back home in another converted garage to continue my writing, engineering, consulting, and label management. I don’t really relish spending hours in the studio any more — although having access when I need it is comforting.

The catalyst was a request by one of my tenants for additional space. I relinquished my main studios to Ken Caillat and his partners about a year ago. Then the new folks at Brew Media wanted my corner office for their studio lounge, so I moved across the hall. Finally, Hear360 — the new VR/AR audio company located in the middle of the building — tied in with a postproduction company/investor from Toronto and asked if there was any space left for them. I decided I could do without the small office adjacent to their space. I’ve spent way too much time packing and unpacking, loading and unloading, disassembling and assembling furniture over the past month. Even now, my surroundings at home are less than ideal but functional.

Charlie, the family Border Collie, is lying at my feet. He loves having me around all of the time. There’s all the more chance for a walk to the park or time to chase a Frisbee. It’s barely noon and we’ve already had two walks through the rain. Mona, my wife, is less sure given the chaos that I’ve brought from the studio to the house — and the CAT-6 cable snaking its way down the hall to the Time Warner cable modem (wireless just wasn’t making to the new computer room). I’ve settled in enough to get back to working on the book, starting a new semester at the university, and polishing up a few client projects but there’s plenty of setup work remaining.

This morning I drafted a press release about Peter Otto’s (CSO of Comhear) appearance this week on Scott Wilkinson’s Home Theater Geeks podcast. He’s been invited to the Thursday 2 pm slot PST to talk about beamforming and its application to transaural sound reproduction. Peter is a very accomplished individual with skills in software, music, composition, hardware, audio engineering, and music technology. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable person in the area of advanced spatial audio delivery. He’s been the Director of Research & Development in the Sonic Arts group at UC San Diego’s CalIT2, which includes the Spatial Audio Lab (Spatlab — what a great name for a facility!). I strongly encourage everyone to check out his discussion with Scott.

I’m back in the saddle and ready to allocate my time to the numerous things on my plate. The number one focus is getting the book completed. It’s nearing the final stages — although not as quickly as I would have liked.