SeriousFX
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[taken from a post made in a thread about Michael Jackson's unreleased music. I moved it here as to not totally derail the topic]
Way back in April of this year, I managed to get in touch with archive director Toby Seay via email and talked about the possibility of visiting Drexel's vault of Sigma Sound tapes. At first I was shocked, because I assumed the vault was closed off to anyone who wasn't some kind of professional archivist/mixer (I'm a complete novice at mixing music), but after a while I eventually managed to schedule a visit for May 17th. My mom and sisters tagged along, mainly as a way to destress them after a harsh college semester.
After a two-hour drive to Philly, I arrived at Drexel, where I met Mr. Seay himself. He ushered us into the archive, where I saw tons of tapes strewn across many shelves. I was already studying what little pictures and videos we had of the room, but nothing could've prepared me for seeing these tapes up-close and personal.
There were tons of tapes, all ordered in the year, day, and month they were recorded. Entire albums worth of tapes were stacked next to each other, some released (Rena Scott, Collins and Collins, First Choice) and some unreleased (Pockets, Patrice Hawthorne). There were even masters for obscure singles (such as The Angels and Experience Unlimited), but the real meat and potatoes for the vault were the many, many tapes containing completely unreleased tracks. Some were from people we all knew, such as David Bowie and Stevie Wonder, but more than often not they were from complete unknowns (the attempted comeback single by prog-rock group Good God, some tracks by a 90s group named Life, etc.).
Many different kinds of tapes were present. There were 2" tapes (16/24 track), 1" tapes (8 track and 32 track), master/slave tapes from the 2" tapes, 1/4" stereo tapes featuring mixes, album masters, and demos (I even got to listen to one by Levert), and even DAT tapes. Some 2" tapes contained live shows by Pieces of a Dream and Patti LaBelle, both done around the mid '80s, while several other tapes (2", 1", and 1/4" alike) contained commercial spots for Kodak and AT&T, among other companies.
Mr. Seay allowed me to listen to various tracks, from 16trk pre-overdub tapes of Instant Funk songs to an entire 24trk obscure single by a band named Raw Silk (NOT the New York band, but a different one from California), all the way to a Philly Groove tape featuring unreleased Ben Aiken and First Choice songs. Seay was quite possibly one of the nicest vault curators I've ever seen, and when we brought up the idea of a second visit in October, he was more than happy to oblige (I'll have to get back to him about that on September).
By the time we left an hour and a half later (I wanted to stay longer, but parking laws dictated we had to leave by 4pm), I'd taken enough pictures to fill up my entire camera roll. Over 330 pictures were taken, depicting the vault in all its glory. My wonderment at seeing a tape vault in person knew no bounds.
If you got any questions about my visit, feel free to ask me.
Way back in April of this year, I managed to get in touch with archive director Toby Seay via email and talked about the possibility of visiting Drexel's vault of Sigma Sound tapes. At first I was shocked, because I assumed the vault was closed off to anyone who wasn't some kind of professional archivist/mixer (I'm a complete novice at mixing music), but after a while I eventually managed to schedule a visit for May 17th. My mom and sisters tagged along, mainly as a way to destress them after a harsh college semester.
After a two-hour drive to Philly, I arrived at Drexel, where I met Mr. Seay himself. He ushered us into the archive, where I saw tons of tapes strewn across many shelves. I was already studying what little pictures and videos we had of the room, but nothing could've prepared me for seeing these tapes up-close and personal.
There were tons of tapes, all ordered in the year, day, and month they were recorded. Entire albums worth of tapes were stacked next to each other, some released (Rena Scott, Collins and Collins, First Choice) and some unreleased (Pockets, Patrice Hawthorne). There were even masters for obscure singles (such as The Angels and Experience Unlimited), but the real meat and potatoes for the vault were the many, many tapes containing completely unreleased tracks. Some were from people we all knew, such as David Bowie and Stevie Wonder, but more than often not they were from complete unknowns (the attempted comeback single by prog-rock group Good God, some tracks by a 90s group named Life, etc.).
Many different kinds of tapes were present. There were 2" tapes (16/24 track), 1" tapes (8 track and 32 track), master/slave tapes from the 2" tapes, 1/4" stereo tapes featuring mixes, album masters, and demos (I even got to listen to one by Levert), and even DAT tapes. Some 2" tapes contained live shows by Pieces of a Dream and Patti LaBelle, both done around the mid '80s, while several other tapes (2", 1", and 1/4" alike) contained commercial spots for Kodak and AT&T, among other companies.
Mr. Seay allowed me to listen to various tracks, from 16trk pre-overdub tapes of Instant Funk songs to an entire 24trk obscure single by a band named Raw Silk (NOT the New York band, but a different one from California), all the way to a Philly Groove tape featuring unreleased Ben Aiken and First Choice songs. Seay was quite possibly one of the nicest vault curators I've ever seen, and when we brought up the idea of a second visit in October, he was more than happy to oblige (I'll have to get back to him about that on September).
By the time we left an hour and a half later (I wanted to stay longer, but parking laws dictated we had to leave by 4pm), I'd taken enough pictures to fill up my entire camera roll. Over 330 pictures were taken, depicting the vault in all its glory. My wonderment at seeing a tape vault in person knew no bounds.
If you got any questions about my visit, feel free to ask me.