Grindstone Music Aims To Record Finest Moments In Nature

PULASKI, NY – The soundtrack of our lives consists of a myriad of sounds, some pleasant, and some not so much.

When the music is sweet and memorable we want to be able to play it back over and over, hopefully from a recording that is pure and accurate. The goal of Pulaski’s Grindstone Music entrepreneur Bob Marino is to create recordings of the highest quality possible, so that these fleeting moments of sonic perfection are able to live on and on, and can be shared and appreciated by many.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered many music venues and postponed performances, the creative minds at Grindstone Music have seen this impediment as an opportunity to branch out and begin new ventures, recording the stunning sounds of the natural world and bringing these soothing aural landscapes to those who might have difficulty accessing the remote locations where the audio is captured.

Marino got the recording ball rolling by capturing his children’s school band concerts on videotape. This led to an effort to create high fidelity recordings of these events, abling the band to begin a fundraiser.

“I was seeing my children’s concerts through the lens of a camcorder, and I thought that setting up microphones and capturing a high quality recording might be a better way to preserve these performances,” Marino recalled, looking back on the early days of the enterprise. “I cut my teeth, so to speak, by recording school performances and the LaVeck concert series sponsored by the Pulaski Congregational Church.”

The onset of the pandemic brought the live performance of music to a temporary halt, so Marino applied creative thought to the possibility of recording other sounds, the audio landscape of the natural world, including a sound that is becoming more and more difficult to find in our ever developing world, the sound of silence.

“I attempted to capture silence, visiting places that should be very quiet, such as the Pigeon Lake Wilderness of the Adirondacks, but my sensitive microphone picked up sounds that my ears missed, the sound of distant vehicles, or the drone of motorboats crossing a lake.”

The reality of human progress is altering even remote locations.

“Our quiet spaces are disappearing.” Marino said.

These recording sessions led to another idea, the audio documentation of the sounds encountered while hiking in the wilderness. Marino and his son Leo set out to create recordings that would allow a person facing a disability to experience the wilderness in an intimate way.

“The morning chorus of birds, from about one hour before daylight into the first couple hours of the day provides a plethora of incredible sounds,” Marino said. “A person that is visually impaired, or someone that does not have the resources to get out into the wilderness might use these recordings to experience nature.”

There has been of course a learning curve associated with creating high quality recordings.

“Multi-microphone recording requires some experience and experimentation,” Marino said, recalling the early days of capturing the LaVeck performances. “I started off with my microphones in the balcony, and eventually ended up positioning them on the stage.”

Along with the improvement in technique comes an upgrade in equipment.

”I’ve invested in some very sensitive microphones, which will allow me to create recordings in very high fidelity,” Marino said.

Marino said he plans to resume recording a variety of musical performances.

“I will be recording anybody that wants to share their music,” Marino said. “This all began with my interest in attending concerts that allowed taping, and over the years developed into a passion for recording and distributing the gift of music.”

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