The Freeze Band: A Restoration Story
The Freeze Band: a restoration story
Originally posted on mikekonopka.com on August 20, 2022
In 2022, my dad turned 70. I wanted to do something special.
In the 1970s and 80s, my dad played in a band called The Freeze Band. He sang, played guitar, and wrote songs. They performed all across the Southwest (Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado). In 1978, they recorded a full-length album that was a fixture in our home growing up.
As music moved into the digital age, we tried to keep up. But converting a vinyl album to digital using a simple record-to-computer setup never captured the true quality. It was grainy. Incomplete. We always wished we could hear it the way it was meant to sound.
Rediscovering the masters
For his birthday, I decided to find the original master tapes and have the album professionally digitized.
Luckily, my parents had kept in touch with Roger Schmidt, the original recording engineer. I reached out in February 2022 and Roger still had the original 1/2" 8-track tapes. But there was a catch: they were over 40 years old, fragile, and likely only playable one last time.
It was now or never.
Enter Mike Konopka
I needed someone who specialized in restoring and digitizing analog recordings. That's when I found Mike Konopka, a first-call music mixer and audio producer who's worked with:
- The Kinks
- Wilco
- Maren Morris
- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
- Crowded House
Mike had recently restored The Kinks Archive, and he agreed to take on our project.
The process: tape baking and transfer
Roger shipped the tapes to Mike. Here's how the restoration worked:
- Tape baking: Mike baked the tapes to counteract hydrolysis, the moisture damage that turns 40-year-old binder sticky and unplayable. Baking drives the moisture back out and stabilizes the binder long enough for one clean pass.
- Track transfer: For each reel, he created eight separate DBX-encoded 24-bit / 48kHz WAV files from the original 1/2" 8-track masters.
- Flat transfer: Mike transferred all audio tracks flat (no EQ, compression, or processing) so The Freeze Band could mix and master as they wished.
Gifting the music back
By March 2022, the project was complete.
Instead of waiting for his actual birthday, I gave my dad the digitized album early so he could reconnect with his bandmates, Roger, and the music itself. One member, Kim Dimmer (drums, percussion, vocals), had sadly passed away in 2014. This restoration was a tribute to his drumming.
Keeping the music alive
I hope these digitized tracks live on well beyond this moment, preserving the sound and spirit of The Freeze Band for generations.
Listen to Lonnie Miller's Freeze Band Mixes:
Credits
The Freeze Band
- Tom Luxem – Guitar, Vocals
- Lonnie Miller – Bass Guitar
- Marty Schlemeier – Pianos, Flute, Vocals
- Dave Miller – Lead Guitars, Vocals
- Kim Dimmer – Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Additional Credits
- Paul Christophanelli – Organ, Clavinet, Synthesizer
- Recorded at: Sunrise Soundworks
- Engineer: Roger Schmidt
- Produced by: The Freeze Band & Roger Schmidt
- Cover Design: Mimi Yanta
- Photography: Robert Zessis
- Technical Advisor: Rex Leonard
- Audio Restoration: Mike Konopka, Thundertone Audio
Special thanks to Paul Christophanelli, Cindy Staab, Gena Wade, Jim Messerli, and especially Al Ryan.
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