Roger Curley
365 Hale Kai Kihei, Hi 96753
(808) 463 8194 roger@hipnautical.com www.hipnautical.com
Objective
An Audio Engineer & or Audio Visual Event Technician position requiring someone proven to thrive on the pressure of setting up & operating challenging audiovisual systems and Live Sound Productions with an enthusiastic drive to capture top-notch Audio & Video Recording productions & Advanced presentations for Corporate Entertainment.
Qualifications
Over 30 years experience with every aspect of Professional Production audio recording from world-renowned music production facilities, film scoring 100+ piece orchestral recordings at very high profile scoring stages to running my own professional commercial music production studio with Live Sound mixing & Recorded hundreds of musical acts for over three decades, hired to mix & record many of their live sound shows on important gigs.
Working with Cutting Edge Audio/Video Event Technology is intuitively 2cd nature!
Intimate knowledge of the golden signal path from way back when TUBE compressors & mic pre-amps WERE the state of art.... & still is ;-)
Knowing these vintage equipment characteristics intimately from the hay day of the ‘golden signal path’ gives one who’s ears work these tools of the trade as a way of life a real world understanding of how modern Digital Audio Work stations, Digital Signal Processing & High Tech Audio systems of today are SUPPOSED TO SOUND...allowing a seamless bridge of vintage & cutting edge technologies ;-)
Worked professionally with numerous DAWs including the very first proto type of Pro Tools (which used an Atari computer) & on thru the latest multi core PT HD Accel systems, Sonic Solutions, Cubes Restoration, WAVEs, Wave Lab, Logic Audio, Ableton Live, Presonus Studio One plus many more...& more plug-ins than you can shack a stick at!
Professionally worked with high-end audio gear integrated with custom mainframe servers running DOS, Unix, Linux, QNX RTOS; running decades of Windows & Mac OS versions; built & configured hardware & software on all above platforms as well.
Professionally set up & calibrated major large scale recording consoles in every format from vintage Neve, Trident... computer controlled analog to fully digital control surface for major Film Post-production industry & live events.
At the end of the day it’s not the vintage or sci-fi electronics that make a successful production event... it’s knowing the technology so well that it is 2nd nature so all focus can be used to ensure that all members of the live production are inspired to perform their art like a finely tuned instrument.
Professional Experience Currently
Recently settled into Maui after spending 3.5 years sailing the world’s oceans from California to New Zealand with my wife & young son. We were well received while performing our musical duet all over the pacific islands; my wife plays the Celtic Harp, myself guitars & we both sing. Although performing music here in Maui is personally rewarding, the desire to make use of my audio production skills calls.
Upon arriving here I’ve put together an impressive audio recording set up for both our own personal productions & available for live sound recording & CD mastering.
Being a life long professional musician in many genres including Blues, Jazz, Fusion, Progressive, instrumentals, acoustic adult contemporary & of course Rock & Roll...I’ve gained a rewarding insight into how to make an artist feel unencumbered by technical issues to allow their performance to flourish in any venue weather striving for a great recording in a live recording or a great live feel in a studio recording.
2007 -2011: Sailing Adventures aboard our 51-foot world cruising sailboat
Fully outfitted & wired in over $100,000 of high-end marine electronic gear
& world voyaging support systems.
Used high tech GPS navigation systems & SSB/HAM HF radio Interfaced with electronic computer charts to monitor the weather patterns & safely plot our course half way around the world.
Performed live music through out the Pacific Islands with our own custom sound system.
These worldly experiences round out a lifetime of Technical, Engineering & Production skills providing an ‘even keeled’ approach to all challenges & production solutions ;-)
1987 to 2007 JamLand Studios Los Angeles, Ca.
Owner, Producer & Production Engineer
“Using the tools of science to produce works of art in music production”
Full Production Recording with Analog & Digital editing & CD mastering services. Beginning with the legendary Otari 24 track 2” Analog Tape Recording machine & four acoustically tuned live performance studios; later offering state of the art analog & digital mixing.
Full CD mastering, editing, restoration, sweetening services & production expertise including analog & digital tape recorders, DAWs, over two dozen specialized microphone including Neumann U87 mics, Neve Mic pre-amps, tube compressors, multi-band compressors & limiters with ‘boutique’ Analog to Digital converters to produce astonishing ‘Audiophile’ master recordings for live bands, orchestral & full production album projects.
Specializing in Jazz, fusion, Orchestral, heavy metal, commercial hard rock & also including radio & TV ads & audio for video production work. Offering unlimited production expertise with regard to tracking techniques, vocal coaching, the cool vibe & flow of the magical element of the recording process.
Innovator in such outlandish drum recording techniques using sound isolating kick drum tunnels, allowing a combination inside/outside drum mic’ing with minimal bleed from the rest of the kit. Cotton balls inside toms to reduce ringing as opposed of using electronic signal gates. Innovative room mic’ing techniques using mirrors to bounce sound into mics. Effective use of our own special ‘Bonham’ closet to surprisingly enhance drums with the sound & feel of the legendary John Bonham.
Early pioneer in the sampling of each drum to capture the bigger than life sound of multiple close & room mics then syncing to the individual live drums track with extensive use of triggers, sample playing DAWs & SMPTE time code.
Extensive live sound mixing & recording services.
‘Rules’ of production are just guidelines.
“Thinking outside the box & creating innovated technical & artful productions
are inspired by looking beyond the normal & ordinary. “
1994 to 1997 Tim Jordan Professional Audio equipment Consultants
Professional audio equipment systems Engineer As part of the audio engineering team I was responsible for designing of complex audio/video systems, putting together the expansive high tech equipment, shipping it out to remote locations, installing, calibrating & fully synchronizing the audio & video aspects of major motion picture film scoring & large format mixing situations.
Often setting up & synchronizing several 48 track digital tape machines, with several 24 track 2” audio recording machines, with very numerous multi track mastering decks to 3⁄4” video, digital video systems or film playback interlocked with ‘black burst video references of national & international codex...PaL NTSC....
All of this achieved while thriving on the excitement & pressure of getting it all to work with no down time. A typical 100 pieces orchestra film score could cost between $50,000 to $100,000 an hour, if your gear ain’t workin’ that’s pressure...but with a well oiled technical machine it only creates an exciting & professional work environment in get it right ‘twice the first time’ ;-)
(Leading supplier of Professional Audio/Video equipment to the legendary music & film recording facilities of Hollywood.)
1991 to 1992: Cherokee Recording Studios Hollywood CA
The Legendary history making rock & roll Hollywood recording studio.
As part of the engineering team we were responsible for the construction of each of the world class mixing & tracking rooms, the installation of top of the line pro audio gear, & the smooth running of these high profile recording studios, keeping the sacred vibe happin’ by keepin’ the down time to a non existent level of professionalism.
Vintage Trident A Range consoles were originally built by and for Trident Studios & heavily modified by the Cherokee Engineering staff. Cherokee Studios in Hollywood was one of the early recipients of one of the first production models. David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and Frank Sinatra are among the early artists who first recorded hit records on Cherokee’s first A Range console.
The Trident A Range has attained a near mythical status in the
professional recording industry.
The main mixing studio employed a new state of the art Neve fully automated large format mixing console.
Learned first hand how the big boys recorded major league drums & all types of instruments.
(Among the many accolades, Cherokee is rated #3 on the “Top Tens” list for Greatest Recording Studios of All Time; credited in The Beatles’ producer Sir George Martin’s autobiography as the best studio in America; and has been honored with well over 300 gold and platinum album credits.)
2000 thru 2007: Chace Audio by Deluxe
www.chace.com 201 S. Victory Boulevard Burbank, CA 91502
Senior Post Production Engineer
Responsible for the design & construction of new postproduction recording studio facilities, equipment installation, calibration & fine-tuning of all production related equipment. Fully engaged in eliminating down time by maintaining the smooth operation of over 23 individual mixing & editing suites including the primer theatrical mixing stage The Rick Chace Theatre,
a spacious 850 square foot theatre THX® certified with an AVID ICON D- Control ES mixing surface, JBL monitoring, an 18’ by 10’ screen, Barco DP2K- 12C Digital Cinema Projector, a full array of outboard dynamics and effects processing, and Pro Tools® HD Accel systems...
As a senior post-production engineer & a team player in the engineering department we were responsible for the installation, trouble shooting & maintenance of a wide variety or studio equipment from vintage optical film from the early 1900’s to the state of the art digital audio workstations & all the major, minor & obscure audio video & film mediums ever used in the history of film production.
Thriving in these challenges we were kept on our toes with our innovated ‘in house’ designed & built specialized optical film reading pre-amps with proprietary image correction software programs to revive & restore old classic movies & deliver the vintage audio complete with
‘never before heard’ clarity in stunning real time 24 bit 96k resolution ready to be remixed into the current surround sound formats with unlimited original sounds tracks from individual orchestra sections, new orchestral enhancements & modern improved Foley & special effects.
(Chace Audio by Deluxe is a full-service audio post-production facility. Since 1984, Chace has earned a reputation as a world leader in the field of soundtrack restoration, preservation, and 5.1 / 7.1 mixing. Their broad range of services are designed to support the growing demand for high quality motion picture soundtracks in theatrical presentation, domestic/international broadcast, and home video/digital entertainment systems as well as to provide the vital preservation, restoration, and migration of sound from vintage formats.
Chace Audio by Deluxe provides complete audio post-production services. With a dedicated team of specialists in both historic material and cutting edge technology.)
1997 to 2000: Otari Professional Audio
Senior Audio Systems Engineer
Responsible for international product support, installation, calibration, Troubleshooting & upgrades for a wide array of leading audio recording equipment spanning several decades of technology. Brought in to maintain a vast empire of critical studio recording equipment, Otari lead the industry with their 24 track 2” tape recording systems. This was a fast paced, ‘shoot from the hip’ engineering tech work mission that had all the suspense & drama of being put in the hot seat & expecting miracles in the way of getting over worked technology to again reliably be the workhorse of the industry.
All of this while installing, the world’s largest format digitally controlled analog mixing systems, by customizing three, 300 input 24 buss fully computer automated recording consoles into one huge, three man ultra large format mixers, installed in the world’s leading film mixing studios in Hollywood with over 900 inputs & 72 mix busses :-O
When Otari headquarters made the monumental move to Chatsworth Ca. I was included in an all star cast of industry professionals include the best of the best in design, sales, manufacturing, marketing... all bribed & flattered to become the last ditch effort in maintaining the Gold Standard Image of the leading Pro Audio Manufacture in the industry.
A total new, state of the art digital post-production mixing console was envisioned, designed & brought to the market to again do what Otari had made legendary...providing magnitudes more functionality at a fraction of the cost.
For over 40 years, Otari has been a leading manufacturer & Gold Standard of professional audio products for the music recording, broadcast, post- production, film and live sound markets, of products such as; analog and digital recorders, mixing consoles, plus high-speed industrial audio and video cassette loading and duplication systems.
1984 to 1990 IT&T Gilfillan Radar Systems Van Nuys, Ca.
SYSTEMS WIDE Quality Control TESTING ENGINEER
Responsible for the thorough integration & testing of complete multi million dollar advanced military radar systems. Trouble shooting system failures down to the circuit card to repair at component level utilizing highly specialized advance electronic equipment technologies.
Awards
ITT Gilfillan OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD DEC 1984
ITT Gilfillan ACHIEVEMENT AWARD January 1989
For initiative & dedication in assuring the successful completion of a high level program which allowed the company to capture crucial billings.
1985 to 1987
(Worked two full time jobs in my eager youth ;-)
Harlequin Recording Studios – Northridge Ca.
Helped in studio construction, equipment installation, calibration & technical maintenance, assistant engineer to major music producers & ‘in studio’ instructor for the early ‘Dick Grove school of recording’; not long after became a staff-recording engineer for two years.
Learned cutting edge & innovated recording techniques by aspiring legends.
Maintained & heavily modified a ‘Sphere’ console
& a custom hand made ‘Stevens’ 24 track 2” recorder.
1981 to 1984 Teledyne Systems Company
(Produced specialized military computers, guidance systems and test equipment for aircraft, multi staged rocket launching vehicles and space satellites.)
Research & Development Electronic Engineering Technical Specialist
Worked with brightest engineering minds in Aero Space industry developing new technologies, designing new guidance system computers for multi staged rocket & the Space Shuttle launching vehicles. One of my responsibilities was to build custom made, multi tasking proprietary guidance system computers for Space.
Education:
Associate Science in Electronic Engineering Technology
Florissant Valley College, St. Louis Mo. 1981
(Please contact roger@hipnautical.com for full detailed version of my Professional Audio & Studio & Aerospace Engineering Experience including shipboard engineering & Captain responsibilities)
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