https://otrstudios.com/founder

https://www.facebook.com/cookiejmarenco

https://bluecoastmusic.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bluecoastrecords

If you’ve ever traveled all the way around the world in order to meet your neighbor, or learned a valuable life lesson by taking the long route, then this is the story for you. Over the past 4 decades, hidden away in the hills of my tiny hometown in Belmont, California lies OTR Studio. It’s a full functioning ultra-high-definition recording studio that rivals any in the world. At the studio, Gold Record Selling Artists, Grammy Winning Musicians and Academy Award film companies come to work with one of the rare gurus of sound. It took me 20 years of living in New York to realize I had a world class haven at OTR Studio to record in my own home town.

Some people play instruments, like how I play the cello and trombone, some find new ways to invent instruments like DJ Qbert and his turntables and some rare talents, create and play the studio itself. Cookie Marenco makes her vintage mixing board and her stacks of sound signal processing modules into her personalized instruments. Her sensitivity to sound, experience in mixing and ability to pull and produce the best performances out of many artists is akin to a concert pianist feeling the touch of the keys to bring the most precise and dynamically beautiful music into real life. There’s a reason many music legends such as saxophonist Charlie Parker’s drummer Max Roach, the pianists Brad Mehldau, Jon Jang, the late great Chick Corea and major companies like Lucas Films and Sony all come to Cookie to fine tune their recordings. I came to record the podcast interview and we ended up creating an entire album. It is my honor to learn and share in real time, the evolution of audio in the highest possible fidelity, with Cookie Marenco.

If you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to hit the subscribe and like buttons, connect with us on IG, TiKTok and your favorite platforms to stream audio and video. We also have a Patreon page links in description, where you can subscribe to and support and receive exclusive content and merch including the album of chill out music we created at Cookie’s studio called “Sweet Sleep Meditations”. You won’t regret it.

Welcome back to #UpgradeMe. It’s a podcast about the never ending self improvement journey, ideas and life hacks to help you level up and the people who make it happen! Hosted by Dana Leong, a 2x Grammy Winning Musician, a US Music Ambassador and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

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