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Mr. Toad's Staff
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Tardon Feathered - Mastering Engineer, Customer Service, Video Director, Web Photographer...
Tardon Feathered is the senior staffmember and person most likely to get asked if he is (the ficticious) Mr.Toad. Is it merely a coincidence that "Tardon" is almost an anagram of "Mr.Toad"? - Yup... just a coincidence.
Tardon's role here at Mr. Toad's is nebulous at best. He could most accurately be described as Mr. Toad's' Whipping Boy, but more conventional descriptions include President, CEO or Director. His primary responsibilities include mastering, videography, photography and fearless leadership.
As always Tardon keeps recording the Opera - even producing a DVD of the program's "La Boheme" in summer 2002. He's produced numerous low-budget music videos that you'll never see anywhere (but the joy is in the making). Future plans include a TV game show pilot, a feature film and a DVD release of his original music (finally).
Tardon is honored to have been asked to moderate the Tape Op Conference 2003's Mastering Panel. As the moderator, it is Tardon's responsibility to propel and focus the esteemed panel of mastering engineers to discuss "The Art and Science of Mastering in the 21st Century". A good time is guaranteed for all, so come on down. It's in Portland OR, May 30th-June 1st.
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Mark Edwards - Engineer, Minister of Technology
Like many of us at Mr. Toad's, Mark started as an intern--bright eyed and impetuous--with his eyes on a position as second audio engineer. And while his engineering skills are formidable [check out the recent Knodel CD from Spongebath Records], he has made himself truly indispensable as Mr. Toad's resident Minister of Technology. It is Mark's aggressive software research, advanced web-savvy, and (until recently) caffeine intake, that keeps Mr. Toad's from being sliced to ribbons by technology's fierce cutting edge. Look for him wandering from office to office, extolling the virtues of the new VR software upgrade, excitedly pointing out why his new MPEG configuration rules, and cursing the day Windows ever hit the market.
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Ben Adrian - Mastering Engineer, Recording Engineer, Computer/Web guy
Indianapolis, 1995; Ben Adrian buys an 8 track reel to reel machine to record his own bands because he's just a DIY kinda guy. That same year he gets his first computer job. After five years of recording a ton of bands for almost no money and learning various computer skills he moves to the bay area.
In the east bay Ben tries running a small studio out of a practice space while also working (and getting laid off from) various computer jobs for "the man." After meeting former mastering engineer Marvin Humphrey, Ben weaseled his way into Mr. Toad's doing both audio engineering and a multitude of computer tasks.
In his spare time he rebuilds tube amps, watches film noir, and plays in rock band Replicator.
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Tom Byrne was born again in March 1997. That was the year he decided to pursue in earnest his passion for video production, joining forces with SF's Illuminated Media. He found his niche producing music videos for Bay Area artists. His knack for the conceptual caught the eye of a team of scouts from Toadophile Records (Mr. Toad's sister company), and a one-man video department was born. Since then he has made smash videos for Toadophile bands, Liar, Land of Thin Dimes, & Applesaucer. He also wrote and directed episode 1.0 of Toadstool, the ongoing promotional serial for Toadophile Records. Tom performs nationally as a dancer, stand-up comic, and percussionist. He is the featured 'samplemaster' of Mr.Lucky featuring Phantasmix 2000. He is currently scripting his first feature-length film; the 4th episode of his multimedia serial cabaret, My Son, theMummy. This upcoming April, he will perform with Bay Area dance group, SWITCH, in Mexico City. Tom is considering cloning himself in the interest of time management.
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About Mr. Toad's