‘Is the cloud mature? It’s been around for so long – way before people started calling it the cloud. I, personally, can’t wait for people to stop calling it the cloud.’
And there we were, ready to get excited about yet another 21st century technical revolution. So much for this ‘cloud’ thing that’s all lined up to change the way we work and play…
I used to drink in a pub in Cambridge called the Free Press. I liked it.
In trade publishing, an ‘ad rich’ environment equates to a more free editorial agenda than an impoverished one. When ads are scarce, magazines may be afraid to publish critical or conflicting stories – from editorial comment and product reviews to advertisers’ competitors’ press releases – for fear of losing essential revenue. The question here is: who needs who the most?
‘It was one of the greatest experiences of my life – we’d throw little vocal challenges at each other, and this game of one-upmanship resulted in some beautiful vocal renditions. We are really proud of the results. I wish people could see how much fun we had.’
You couldn’t ask for a better commendation for live studio recording. But how many of today’s recording studios are able to support a live session?
Hired by Lord Doberman, the richest man in the world, Anode Enzyme moves into Mollusc Hall as resident genius. Here he discovers the formula for worldly success – mediocrity.
If it was meant to be an entertaining contention when cartoonist John Glashan penned it in his Genius cartoon strip in the late 1970s, it has become a truism for the majority of today’s music charts.
I owe a debt to conversations I have had with recording studio designers.
Their work requires them to be expert in an unusually wide number of fields – from the obvious areas of acoustics and equipment, to interior design and psychology. Add music biz anecdotes, and many would make great after-dinner speakers. It was a studio designer who put me wise to the problem of a ‘good enough’ audio chain.
It was all so good... then suddenly it became a first class, impedence matched, wi-fi enabled, 192kHz nightmare.
I was on the verge of the idea that would become the talk of my generation. Then the shadowy figure of the Health N Safety Sheriff busted in and ruined everything. It’s all going horribly wrong (I think Jeremy Clarkson is in here somewhere) then an alarm rings...
Mixing anecdote with hard-won wisdom is something Robbie McGrath does as effortlessly as mixing the biggest bands of the past 40 years.
Today his audience is a group of students that he is encouraging to become the next generation of live sound engineers. But where McGrath is upfront about getting into the business by being in the right place at the right time, they don't yet realise how lucky they are...
A recent Facebook discussion on the state of popular music making threw out an interesting benchmark – the ratio between ‘shit’ and ‘the shit’. Let’s call it S/TS. If that’s reminiscent of signal-to-noise (S/N), it’s no accident.
Much of the blame for the swing towards the ‘S’ end of the scale was assigned to major record labels. The rest came technology’s way.
When did you first meet Kevlar? Think carefully, your answer may betray a lot about your past.
If it was sometime around 1976, you were either enjoying the finer points of cutting-edge reference loudspeaker performance or reading spec sheets in the hope that you soon would be. If you were five years ahead of the audio boys, you were more likely risking your life for country or cash.
Look up! Clouds are gathering over the internet. Some may have silver linings. Others are most certainly storm clouds.
These clouds are computing clouds – cloud computing. If it’s a new term to you now, it won’t be for long. These clouds will change the way you use your computer and the way you use your music, video and photo libraries. Forever.
The characteristic noises of death and destruction are contrived by nature to be unpleasant. If their cause is indifferent to their creation, then our ears ensure that we read them as alarming, even terrifying.
Certainly, this was the case with many of the records released in the wake of the introduction of CD. The sound of corporate exploitation, combined with artistic apathy, was as excruciating as it was depressing.
Fast-and-Wide Blog
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Music and Obsolescence: An Index of PossibilitiesAs a Tyrell Corporation Nexus-6 replicant, Blade Runner’s Roy Batty had a predetermined life span of just four years – and he wanted it extended. Remonstrations...Read More...
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Our Infatuation with SaturationWhen professional digital audio made its entrance, the limitations of early technology combined with the excitement of some advocates made it a soft target...Read More...
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Controlling InterestThe very first synthesiser I owned was a Moog. And my second; and my third. I still have two of them, a Micromoog and Minimoog, but sold the third, an...Read More...
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Sport in Absentia: The Sound of the CrowdSo sport is back, in part, but fans are presently unwelcome at the matches being played – unless you count the cut-outs that the likes of Brighton &...Read More...
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The Last Seat in the HouseWe were just a few days into the UK coronavirus lockdown, when a copy of The Last Seat in the House: The Story of Hanley Sound arrived on my doorstep....Read More...
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Knocking Back CoronaWith only 13 countries presently likely to be remaining Covid-19 free, the live music and club industries worldwide have taken a heavy blow. The games...Read More...
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Après MidiWhen it appeared in 1983, Midi changed my life – as it did for countless other keyboard players around the world. Like any revolution worthy of...Read More...
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evolution: Sennheiser’s revolution Pt.2Having explored the thinking and story behind the evolution concept, Sennheiser’s exclusive show-and-tell session in London gave the floor to the a handful...Read More...
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evolution: Sennheiser’s revolution Pt.1‘Twenty years ago, a question was posed: should Sennheiser continue to produce dynamic microphones? Our prices had gone up and our profit had gone down...Read More...
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The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal RemainsReleased in March 1967, ‘Arnold Layne’ was the first of eight singles from the fledgling Pink Floyd that year. Fifty years on, and with an unassailable...Read More...
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Making Waves: Cause and Effect in Kit ReviewsSharing time and a couple of bottles of Asahi with another former pro audio magazine editor in the bar of London’s Metropolis Studios recently, the...Read More...
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The Heydays of PhaseSometime around 1975-76 I wanted an MXR Phase 90 for my Wurlitzer electric piano – I wanted what the ‘real’ keyboard players of the time were using....Read More...
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The Vibe RevivalWith the ambition of the first Leslie emulation pedals finally fulfilled, the story of the Shin-ei Uni-Vibe has come full circle. In its wake we have phasers,...Read More...
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Second Screen Sports: Off Tube, On TargetMy local pub has a split personality. Or, maybe, it’s more like a secret identity – a single location but with two roles in life. For some of us,...Read More...
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Sound of Story: Chapter 3I once read that smell is our strongest associative sense. I’ve since tried to establish the relative ability of our other senses to evoke memories...Read More...
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Flange Theory: How I Miss My MistressIt seems to have become a common misconception that guitar fuzz boxes and distortion pedals predate more eloquent effects, such as phasing and flanging. OK,...Read More...
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