Engineer's Corner: Spotlight on Charlie Pilzer

In this year's newsletters, we will feature profiles of Airshow's engineers, continuing this month with Charlie Pilzer, chief recording, mixing, and mastering engineer and owner of the Takoma Park studio.

Photo by Michael G. Stewart

Sometimes, creative professionals can appear to demonstrate magical powers, and many of Charlie Pilzer's clients can attest to being in awe of what he can do on a console, computer or in a room full of microphones and esoteric stringed instruments. However, as Charlie would be the first to admit, good engineers do more than just display technical prowess. Whether working in the tracking studio or in the mastering suite, Charlie always ends up applying his passion for music-making and his own deep sense of musical intentionality.

Find out how decades of working with musicians has shaped Charlie's approach to recording, mixing and mastering in this month's Engineer's Corner.

Coming Soon: Allyworld at Airshow Takoma Park

Airshow Takoma Park is pleased to announce a big studio expansion! Allyworld, an 800 square feet multi-use performance venue located immediately adjacent to Airshow's current tracking room, is set to open by fall 2015. The space will feature a fully-equipped sound system with audio split for recording capabilities, LED stage lighting, and seating for approximately 50 audience members. It will tie-in directly to Airshow to allow for the tracking of larger bands, choirs, and classical ensembles. Musicians requiring sound isolation will be able to set up on the other side of soundproof sliding-glass doors, and those seeking big percussion sounds will be able to make plenty of noise in Allyworld's 12 feet high, acoustically treated room, designed by Sam Berkow and SIA Acoustics.

"I had always imagined having a larger tracking room at Airshow," says Airshow Takoma Park owner and chief engineer Charlie Pilzer. "Many of our clients have also been asking for a way to do multi-track recording and web streaming of live concerts, in addition to wanting rehearsal space. With Allyworld, we'll now be able to offer those services in a beautiful sounding room."

Allyworld will be available to rent for intimate house-concert style live and speaking events, workshops and more. Check out some pictures of the construction and please like our
Facebook page for future news and updates on Allyworld's opening. (Artist rendering by Richard J. Vitullo / Vitullo Architecture Studio).

Association of Recorded Sound Collections Conference May 27 - 30

ARSC gathers in Pittsburgh, PA this year, and Airshow's Restoration Center will be represented by Ann Blonston.

ARSC membership includes avid obsessive collectors, reissue record labels, audio engineers and academic archivists and librarians, and the conference program deftly spans their priorities. The May 27 pre-conference workshop on planning a grant-funded project will be webcast, too (you can register here). Friday morning's plenary is a talk by Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive entitled "Building Shared Music Libraries." Ann wrote a blog post on the Internet Archive's aggregation service, Archive-It, back in March. Her article describes how the Internet Archive can be used by music collectors to expand the scope and public value of their collections.

If you're attending the conference, look for Ann at Airshow's table in the exhibit area during breaks. Contact her at ann@airshowmastering.com.