About this latest edition

Many moons ago while still in college I created a website for my father Louis. Since then I've managed to convert many of his recordings over to digital.

In this updated and revised edition of the website I've redesigned the site and shared some of his recordings. I hope you enjoy the music I've uploaded. If there's anything you wish to share or any feedback you'd like to give, please contact me here. Contact

Thanks,

-Conor Browne

Converting Recordings to Digital

Wanting to preserve his recordings, I first set about converting his published recordings to digital. I located an audio studio in Chicago (my home at the time) to convert his L.P.s over to CD. Ideally these would have been converted from the original masters but all available to me at the time were the records themselves.

The majority of his published recording were Irish ballads and popular songs made famous by John McCormack. I knew there was so much more he could and probably should have recorded so I went looking for whatever private recordings I could find.

Cassette Tape Recordings

First up was a medium more familiar to me, a large array of miscellaneous cassette tapes from the 80's and 90's.

Sifting through the collection of tapes at home I was able to pull out various recordings we'd managed to tape off the radio through the years.

I'd like to say this was an easy project but most of our tapes numbering over a 100 were interjected with rehearsal recordings, tapings of myself and my sister as kids, documentaries off the radio etc. etc.

Reel-to-Reel Audio Tape Recordings

Next up was a box of reel-to-reel audio tape recordings from the late 60's and 70's. I managed to pickup a reel-to-reel player pictured to the right. Thankfully most of the audio reels had remained in tact and all that remained was to cut and splice the recordings out. My father told me some of these recordings were taken stage side with others taken from off the radio. The quality of the recordings varied dramatically but thankfully some were preserved quite well.

Linking the player to my computers sound card and audio software I managed to salvage some recordings. I sent off some of the better quality recordings to be professionally converted but disappointingly there wasn't really any difference from my own. Perhaps in the future I can try another service in the hope of better results. Of course it could just be that the recordings have deteriorated too much, after all some had been sitting around for 40 to 50 years.

Private Record Recordings

Last but not least I've started to convert his private recordings from the 40's and 50's. From his earliest recordings made when a boy soprano to those recorded with Kitty O'Callaghan. Most of these are old 78 discs; pre-vinyl made of shellac and stacked in boxes in the attic. Not having a record player at home up to the job (or stylus for that matter) I acquired the setup shown in the picture below.

The first step was to clean the records many of which had mildewed from years of lying untouched. Still crackly and noisy after cleaning I had them cleaned further ulrasonically at a local audio studio.

So far I've just started to transfer the first of the discs with more to follow ... The remaining discs contain the following (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ave Maria, Bird Songs at Eventide, Catari, Hear My Prayer, I Hear You Calling Me, Irish Festival Singers Bing Crosby Show, Isle Of Beauty, Is Life a Boon, Love Could I Only Tell Thee, Moira My Girl, O Sole Mio, Open the Door Softly, Serenade from Fair Maid of Perth, The Short Cut to the Roses, 'Tis the Day).