It was at a recent trade show, after a major DAW manufacturer cancelled our meeting, that I realized I was relieved to be off the hook. I always enjoy meeting with this person, and I use and like their products. But I was relieved to not hear...
head-fi: n, audiophile-grade headphone systems.portable: adj, able to be easily carried. The record industry is about twenty-five years into a massive devaluation of its products. This devaluation is not due to some invisible calculus the way, say,...
As we exit the era of digital audio data compression and begin the ascent into higher sample rates for consumer consumption (via multiple platforms, though most popularly Neil Young's PONO system), we are finding ourselves as a community of...
Subconscious Auditory Effects (SAE) is a term I have cobbled together to encapsulate a broad range of phenomena in this barely-studied field of inquiry. An SAE is any measurable effect on a person caused by a sound, or change in sound, that is...
"...from what I have seen, the industry is fatally flawed. Everyone seems to want something for nothing and few are willing to pay for what something is actually worth. Plus, there are thousands of graduates flooding recording studios each year...
Years ago John Fischbach, a well-established and respected producer/engineer, came to my studio to record an album that our mutual friend, Luther Russell, was producing. [See Tape Op #21.] In those days my studio, Jackpot! Recording, was a diamond...
"I sent a package to you several months ago containing some music I asked you to evaluate for me. I respect your background and was hoping that you personally might allow for cutting out a spare hour to do me this favor. Since I never heard from you...
When I graduated from college, I dove headlong into restaurant work in order to survive. I had a degree in Visual Communications and a minor in Art from an un- prestigious college, but near the end of my studies I'd begun playing bass in a band...
Many of us appreciate the need for acoustic treatments, but few really understand some of the reasons behind it all. The problem is acoustics is a discipline of physics, and physics is often enshrouded in math, complex calculations, and...
THE ERA OF HI-RES DIGITAL AUDIO IS HERE I’ve been watching the rise of hi-end digital audio recently, and as I put the individual pieces together over the past year or so a picture is emerging that has inspired me to claim that we are...
CASE ONE: Many years ago I was sent a very complex piece of recording equipment to review. It basically performed one simple function; but its inherent design was the concept that every parameter could be adjusted. Some similar devices I already...
A reader just informed me that APPLE's recent Logic Pro X includes "Drummer", a virtual drummer plug-in. One of the virtual drummers is named "aidan", who apparently cannot find the CAPS key on his virtual MacBook. In Aidan's "Portland Kit" we...
