#144 - 2022 in review, Best Values, new ways to pay and more!

I don't know about you, but 2022 leaves us with a bang...  a slap in the face of reality.  It's time to get back to work in 2023!

The pandemic is over but not without leaving a messy trail, much like a tornado that tortured a town and left it in shambles.  We're rebuilding our lives left behind 3 years ago. 

What does that mean for us at the studio and label?  A few things....  we were able to find a studio repair technician and spruce up the 24 track tape machine. YES!  We found a wonderful new digital workstation operator for Protools, Ariana, and hopefully will train her on our DSD/Pyramix systems.  Tim Jones has recently returned with an exciting program for training home studio operators. Patrick and I released a DXD/DSD comparison test for that small group of people still wondering why we record to DSD.  Miles has not missed a beat on posting at social media 5x a week and we recently welcomed Kasey to help us remotely.

Paypal haters rejoice!  After 8 months of trial and many errors, I think we've finally got the new payment processor (Stripe) to work without being shut down (by Stripe).  Now, you can choose Paypal or Not Paypal to use your credit card for purchases at the store.  And funny enough, that whole messy time became the "kick" we needed to start our new website, The Sound Network (a work in progress to be launched in 2023).

We also spent a year developing a new youtube channel called "Sleep Relax Dream" has features videos of the ocean and nature as I travel up and down the California Coast.  The soundtracks are ambient music we created at the studio.  This is a team effort that brings us at the studio a lot of happiness.

We mourned the loss of many friends and tremendous artists too numerous to mention.  Many mourned the loss of their retirement funds as the stock market and crypto plunged while gas and food prices sky rocketed.  We were no different and took risks to rebuild our community we hope will make sense in 2023.  More recording is certainly planned in 2023.

I will be happy to see te door close on 2022... it's hasn't been easy, but we're hopeful the changes will make sense next year.

Best of 2022......

Best Value of 2022 is Tres Amigos, the Mexican diner in Half Moon Bay.  Fresh squeezed orange juice that would cost more to buy the oranges.

Best Espresso of 2022 is Peet's in Half Moon Bay.  Consistently good and not dependent on who the barista is.

Most Unusual Sesson goes to Chrissy Lancaster - cello played through a loud guitar amp with plenty of effects and enough bass to take down a house. Thank you Kato and Yuri!

If you had any "Best of" moments, leave a comment below or write to us directly.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Cookie Marenco
Founder and Producer
Blue Coast Records and Music