The concept for Straight Ahead Records' sound is the result of many years of listening to recordings from the beginning of high fidelity sound, to the advent of stereo recordings, and to the present. Over these fifty years, many recordings stood out, capturing a realism and naturalness that moved you into their environment with the sense that   you could touch the instruments. This elusive magic that some recordings have is not at all easy to create. The problem lies in the delicacy and complexity of an audio signal and how subtle losses or distortion in a recording affect the credibility of the environment that is presented to the listener. These factors of clean natural sound and a plausible environment are essential to capturing the essence of being there as it is happening. This is what Straight Ahead Records is all about.

Technically, to achieve our goals, my engineering staff at Bernie Grundman Mastering (Hollywood, Ca) developed a studio with custom proprietary electronics for optimizing quality. Generally speaking, our signal path uses a unique shared electronic circuitry that enables us to use multiple microphones but with less overall electronics than in any other system currently being used.

The music is recorded and mixed live to achieve the most spontaneous interaction between the musicians and to attain a purity and naturalness of sound that is rarely found in current recordings. We feel that fewer steps, with very little signal manipulation, are essential to this goal.

These recordings are truly for anyone: The discriminating listener, to those that simply love great music. Stewart and I wish you great adventures in listening.

-Bernie Grundman