Learn About Wally’s Alter Ego
Hello,
Welcome to Wally’s weekly BLOG! This week I thought I would share a little about my past from the world of Recording & Audio Visual events. For those who are just joining us, this is what my alter ego does for a living, or day job as we call it. For starters I embarked on this path back in 1989, where I apprenticed in a recording studio called The Tracking Station. After a year as an apprentice under Robert Troy, musician, producer, audio engineer, and great guitarist. Where he taught me more than you can imagine, including what is now the old fashion way because of digital, I was editing reel to reel tape with a grease pencil and a razor blade. I worked on and off for a year at the studio. At the same time I was getting my feet wet in live recording with Primeau Productions, where I worked with Ed Primeau, who also had a major impact on my life and I learned a ton from. Years move on and I attended Full Sail University receiving my degree in Audio Recording and Production in 1993. After college I worked briefly with the Florida Philharmonic until I took a gig for a couple months in a studio with Issac Hayes. Great Man!
We will jump ahead now to 2001 where I found a position as an Audio Visual Tech, for ITA at a full service hotel working with Marc Higginbotham. This brought me into contact with all kinds of clients, most of whom were corporate based, but I did handle some music gigs as I eventually moved into the Directors seat. Then my career moved into a little more freelance work at Stoney Creek Studios with Jeff LaDuke. Here I worked on everything from music sessions to voiceover editing for audio books and online trainings. I became his second engineer and even worked a session for Crosby, Stills, and Nash for a mastering project. My wife and I were their guest at a concert that night! One of the biggest things we did was handing the Rochester Michigan Christmas parade. We were in charge of sound for three stages including live broadcast and Santa’s float. A couple years were bitter cold with wind chill in the negative numbers. Jeff like many others had a big influence on my life and I learned a ton from him. You see we lost Jeff this past year and this week would have been his birthday. I miss him!
I have to mention another man I met through Ed Primeau / Floyd Wickman; this is none other than the best motivational speaker ever to grace the stage, Zig Ziglar. Working a yearly live show from time to time with Ed and Floyd who were both great friends of Zig’s. You see where I am heading with this is a couple years or so I was the lead audio engineer. I would always go down to the convention hall long before anyone else in the morning and get the lighting perfect with some soft ambiance music, making it nice and inviting for the guests to come and enjoy their continental breakfasts. You see Zig knew this and liked it, so he would come down shortly after me and we would sit and talk in a place called the greenroom, backstage. I don’t even think Ed or Floyd knew we did this. We lost Zig back in 2012 but his advice from our short times chatting has always remained with me.
I could go on and on with all kinds of stories from over the years as I did jobs from coast to coast. If you want to hear more of them drop me a note in an email to let me know. But I wanted to honor these people who have helped bring me to the success I am today as an Audio Visual Director for OnSite Audio Visual, and to let everyone know there is always a story behind the man or woman who lives behind the curtain.
Enjoy some of the pictures from my career and have an excellent week,
Wally T.
Visit Wally’s site for more information.
#wallytyoung #Timetravel #selfpublished #Audiovisual
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