LegacyVMP Studio is a high fidelity, legacy sound engineering, home-project studio specifically designed for extracting the exactitude and fullness of the analog sound….

LegacyVMP Studio is a high fidelity, legacy sound engineering, home-project studio specifically designed for extracting the exactitude and fullness of the analog sound from the record groove in the purest sense and with a ‘minimalistic’ approach. The resulting raw digital translations are then prepared for the audio’s authenticity and integrity to its original analog sound by means of a carefully crafted and engineered series of processes designed for restoring professionally the legacy recordings back to their original intent. The studio is built and based on years of building the right components and equipment and developing the processes and ear training to perfect this craft that I call High Fidelity, Legacy Sound Engineering. Its purpose is to revitalize the legacy vinyl sound in a profound way by leveraging today's incredible advances in audio technologies, studio gear and high fidelity equipment(in blended-fashion) and audio restoration tools and for that revitalized legacy vinyl sound to then be repurposed professionally in a myriad of ways.

The beginnings of my interest in this idea of translating something analog-to-digital by digitizing can be traced all the way back to my early college days in the mid-80’s when I took a computer mapping class as part of a Geography degree. It was there that I was first introduced to digitizing something analog. The course involved developing programs written in BASIC computer language that performed the tasks of digitizing and then actually digitizing analog maps using these programs running on an Apple Macintosh computer. That experience turned out to be so profound that I actually switched degrees to an Electronics Engineering Technology(EET) degree that resulted in a very rewarding career for years as a Computer Engineer. But it wasn't until the purchase of my first personal computer for home in 1994 (combined with my career in computer engineering at the time and my EET background, along with an ear for good sound) that my desire to learn more about this notion of generating high quality analog-to-digital audio via a computer began to reach a fever pitch. And by the late 90’s, I had also begun experimenting with audio restoration software as well, such as CoolEdit, in addition to various third party utilities available at the time, to learn how to restore audio via a computer. That experience culminated into the purchase of a Sony 2X CD Burner drive and the successful transfer, restoration and production of a high quality CD containing one of our treasured family home recordings from our family audio tape archive.

And it was also during this time that my passion began to grow into how to make something analog, after being converted to digital, sound the best it can be while staying true to its original intent. This led to the development of two uniquely based digital audio platforms(introduced to me at work) that would go on to serve two purposes - archiving analog music and a video(PVR) recorder - and both centered around producing extremely high quality, authentic digital audio and video from analog sources.

But a significant change was about to happen.....

As we entered into the 21st century, we began to see continued incredible advances in processing power and storage capacity of computers in general, the two ingredients necessary for production-level capacities of digitized analog content and the ability to sustain it. Along with that, prices for this hardware began to drop. And so basically you had the development of the hard drive for PC’s at home reaching the capacity level needed to capture raw audio at the greatest resolution necessary and at the same time becoming affordable, coupled with the music industry’s vinyl resurgence beginning in the mid-2000’s. This period of time marked the beginning of where I am today, not only because of the capacities, availability and prices of home computer hardware in general but also because of the emergence and affordability of professional-grade equipment for home use. And so by 2007, I had the beginnings of my first professional ‘rig’ that allowed me to capture analog audio as it needed to be captured and in a professional manner.

The next seven years settled into a natural progression of building onto something I had started, layer upon layer, with the primary end goal of producing a very high quality, true-and-proper digital sound in replicated fashion from an analog source and then make it sound the best it could be. And there would be several plateaus reached during this time while trying to "perfect the imperfect". The fall of 2014 saw two significant developments - taking to the public(by creating a YouTube channel) what I had been building over the last several years and asking others to 'follow me on this journey' and also the desire to start seeking a professional education in the area of Music Technology to coincide with what I was doing.

While going back to school and eventually earning an AAS degree in General Technology with a concentration in Music Technology from Nashville State (2014 - 2019), I also worked full time at a local record pressing plant as a Plating Technician helping to make the metal parts used for the presses to press vinyl. I was then able to take what I learned in class and at work and apply that at home.

After graduating, I was able to really focus on honing this craft that I knew was then good enough professionally but that could(and probably needed) to serve a greater role. In May of 2020 I was encouraged to take it to the next level by one of my mentors in the industry and so the business was formed in June of 2020 with the official 'Opening' in May of 2021.

The sound characteristics of the record groove(That Legacy Sound) is very authentic to the master tape sound but it also brings with it a well-rounded, rich and warm quality sonically that we believe helps make it the perfect medium from which to translate an analog sound in a replicated fashion. I strive to replicate the authenticity of the sound as closely as possible and as originally intended and mastered by the cutting engineer for vinyl by first, precisely and delicately capturing the raw sound from the groove with an extremely high-yield that remains as neutral and uncolored as possible. That gives me what I need to then shape and prepare it for mastering studios to use as part of their solutions for their final product. All of the processes I implement now are built on an audio-purist philosophy, led primarily by my legacy ear while staying true to audio engineering principles developed during my education in Music Technology and reinforced by the years of training through the experience of being immersed seriously in the craft of high fidelity, legacy sound engineering for the past 15 years or so.

To summarize, the record groove has an uncanny ability to communicate music balance, imaging, and cohesion as part of its overall sound presentation like no other and so what you have is a perfect vehicle with which to present Legacy Music and for it to be heard in a way that is very well suited for it. And for my studio, “…………it’s all about ‘exactness’, measured levels, and staying true to original intent………..”. It’s about producing a professional-level restoration of vinyl-sourced audio files and then producing content that stays true to the original while also preparing it to for mastering studio-level use at the same time. Basically the resulting repackaged digital sound is an analog sound wrapped in a digital container that is very well crafted, with a balanced blend and cohesion that makes for a nicely presented sound.