by Betty Yu and Molly McCrea
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — The countdown is on for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. Amid the glitz, neon lights, and rock ‘n roll glamour in Las Vegas, a little mystery will finally be solved. The world will finally get to find out who won one of last year’s Grammy Awards.
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The category “Best Immersive Audio Album” got pulled from last year’s ceremonies.
“The reason we didn’t have it last year – it was put on pause,” explained mastering engineer Michael Romanowski of Coast Mastering.
The Academy put this category on pause last year because of the pandemic. The delay had to do with how immersive albums are recorded and produced.
“You actually plan the record for immersive and have the musicians take their places around an array of microphones. And every song the musicians change where they were,” said recording engineer Leslie Ann Jones.
Leslie Ann Jones is Director of Music, Recording, and Scoring at Skywalker Sound in Marin County and is legendary in her field. Michael Romanowski heads up Coast Recording in Berkeley. The two are up for last year’s “Best Immersive Audio Album.”
Immersive audio albums are produced in all kinds of different formats.
“They require different speakers in different places and some different playback mechanisms,” noted Romanowski.
Immersive audio is different from surround sound, or other traditional formats. In order to correctly judge this category, and perform due diligence, experts in a committee listen to all of the nominated works in the same room, with the same setups.
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But the highly contagious coronavirus prevented the group from gathering indoors and listening for long stretches of time.
“Honestly the way to keep the integrity high of the award was to postpone it until the group could get together,” said Romanowski.
“Then when you sit and listen to it, you can hear it that way exactly the way it was recorded,” added Jones.
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When the committee finally got together, the members judged not only last year’s, but this year’s nominees. On both lists: Michael Romanowski. He is also nominated for Alicia Keys’ album “Alicia.” He could end up with two Best Immersive Audio Album Grammys.
“I’m completely humbled that I’ve been recognized for a craft that I take a lot of care and seriousness to” said Romanowski.
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As for last year’s nomination, Jones and Romanowski are up for their work on the immersive recording “Soundtrack for the American Soldier.” The artists: the U.S. Army Field Band.
The band is headed up by Col. Jim Keane. He knew from a previous visit that he wanted to record at Skywalker Sound. About 60 plus soldiers crammed into the massive sound stage to record the album.
“As we were recording at Skywalker, we recognized this was something historic in the sense of quality,” said Keane.
One track on the album is “The Jedi Steps & Finale” from the film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
“When we started playing “Jedi Steps” at Skywalker, it was absolutely magical. It was just straight-up unbelievable,” said Keane.
From the sound stage, he could see the studio filling up with people who wanted to see who was playing the iconic Star Wars composition.
Keane and the band members are thrilled with the nomination. The colonel will be on hand to hopefully receive the Grammy.
“We wanted to kind of shout from the hilltops about how incredible the recording was going to be and then it was,” Keane.
Jones and Romanowski are also up for another Grammy but in a different category: “Best Engineered Album, Classical.” The nominated work is for “Chanticleer Sings Christmas” from the San Francisco-based acappella men’s chorus Chanticleer.
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Music’s biggest night can be seen live only on CBS and Paramount+. The 64th Annual Grammy Awards is Sunday April 3rd beginning at 5 PM PT on KPIX 5.
Source: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com.