Hi, I’m Barbara Hirsch
Owner and Chief Engineer of Opus I mobile recording
For over 30 years, I’ve recorded thousands of live performances. A long standing member of the Audio Engineering Society, I hold a B.A. and M.A. in Music Composition and worked long satisfying hours at the original modular Moog synthesizer. For several years, I had a classical radio program. I have also worked as a sound designer for theater, have been a college music instructor, and for many years worked as the Recording Technician at the University of California, Santa Barbara Music Library. streaming music required for class listening assignments and helping people find music or books about it.
Philosophy
My philosophy of recording, combined with a profound love of music, make me strive for a particular sound, a particular balance in every recording I do. When one hears music performed live, the energy of the performance, the beauty of the music, the acoustics of the hall, the energies created by the people who have come together to share this common experience with the performer(s), all of this coalesces to create a total emotional and artistic experience.
However, when one listens to a recording, at home or in the car, the entirety of all of that is gone. It is instead simply the performer’s interpretation of the music burned indelibly to that recording, to be played and listened to directly, over and over. The recording engineer thus has had the responsibility of capturing the performer’s energy, the music, and the space around it as beautifully as possible — indeed, I take this seriously!
Over the years Barbara’s environmental commitment has steadily increased. She happily lives and works in a solar powered home, walking and biking except when equipment transport or long distances are needed. Recording and/or listening to music is such a beneficial use of energy, of whatever kind!
Client references are readily available. CDs have been reviewed in Gramaphone, American Record Guide, and others.