http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssDLe3Tlvg0
Les Paul, the inventor of the electric guitar and 8-track died this week.
“Lester William Polsfuss, known as Les Paul (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009) was a musician and innovator, famous for being a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which “made the sound of rock and roll possible.” He is credited with many recording innovations, including overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects, and multitrack recording.” – Wikipedia.org
For more info visit his official website: www.lespaulonline.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 15, 2009 at 7:07 am, filed under hardware, interviews, live performance and tagged 8-track, electric guitar, Gibson, guitar, Les Paul. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taAh1_xIfsk
I found Swayzak by their single I Dance Alone (iTunes link). Later I found the album Some Other Country (iTunes link) to be perfect office work background music. They have released a free Ableton Live pack. It’s a 50MB download available now: click here
“Swayzak is a tech house duo from the United Kingdom that consists of James S. Taylor and David Brown. They live and work in London and released their first 12″ single “Bueno” / “Fukumachi” in February 1997 to much acclaim. It was followed up by the 12″ “Speedboat” / “Low Rez Skyline” to become part of the burgeoning tech-house scene in the UK.” – Wikipedia.org
What does the word “Swayzak” mean anyway? Is it some kind of UK thing?
This entry was written by , posted on August 6, 2009 at 8:07 pm, filed under Ableton Live, interviews, music, sounds, video and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, Swayzak. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Appetite For Self-Destruction is a great new book by Steve Knopper about the crash of the music industry. NPR (National Public Radio) has a 38 minute interview with Mr. Knopper and it’s a must listen for any musician. The interview, which aired on NPR’s superb show Fresh Air was posted yesterday so it’s a fresh look back at all the simultaneous ways the record 
industry blew it. Greed, laughable negotiations with Apple and CD-R manufacturers, and top level execs not listening to their younger underlings yelling “Napster is the future!” are just some of the things that contributed to this spectacular crash. As a musician it maybe painful to listen to because this was once a valid livelihood but it’s time to re-tool the workshop and produce a different product.
“In the sub-sub-genre of books about rock music and the industry, I rank this right up there with classics like “Hit Men” and “The Death of Rhythm and Blues.” We think in terms of “industry,” but through his deftly drawn portraits of industry leaders, Knopper helps us see clearly how we got to here from there: simple bad decision making and a blatant refusal to consider, first, that the world had changed and then a stunning lack of curiosity about how it had changed. Highly recommended. Enjoy!” – Patricia Romanowski, Amazon.com (book review)
The interview is online so head over and listen now: click here
Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age (Hardcover) is available at Amazon for $17.16: click here
photo credit: alwright1
This entry was written by , posted on January 15, 2009 at 7:48 am, filed under business, interviews and tagged book, music business, NPR, record label, Steve Knopper. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
A few years ago when my brother got married I was the best man and has tradition dictates I received a gift for my duties. He handed me a small square box wrapped nicely and when I opened it I was surprised to see an Apple logo. He gave me an iPod Nano. At that time I never owned an iPod or believe it or not even thought I wanted one. I knew they were cool but I was only really listening to music in my studio. For the first few weeks after the wedding the iPod sat in a pile of stuff next to my computer. When I plugged it in iTunes popped up and it synced some music. I remembered reading on a few blogs about TWIT (This Week 
in Tech) which was a “podcast”. Basically a podcast is an audio file you can subscribe to via a special RSS feed from inside the iTunes Store. I subscribed to TWIT, re-synced, put my headphones on and walked to my studio which was about a 10 minutes away. When I got to the studio I was so into the podcast I decided to just keep on walking and listening. Today I subscribe to about 20 podcasts.
Without a doubt the best podcast for pro-audio is Sonic State’s Sonic TALK from Nick Batts and his friends. If you like this blog there’s no doubt you will like Sonic TALK. A few brits, Americans and sometimes a German very politely chat about synths, weird music, live performances and software.
PJ Tracy, Dave Spiers, Nick Batt. Our first moments are spent marveling in the wonders of Ad Jingles and their creation, with blasts from John Parr and Jonathan Hodge, then we discuss the recently announced Moog Taurus pedals reissue. Then a quote from Blixa Bergfeld on Disquiet gets us onto the topic of originality, then we talk about Raysgigs.com – a site where Ray Morrissey lists over 5000 gigs he has attended and made notes on many occasions – a real goldmine of information and impressions. And thats it for this week. – sonicstate.com
Recently they started to record Sonic TALK live. Everyone is invited to listen and join in the chat room for a real time discussion. I’ve been meaning to join in the TALK for a while and I finally remembered the time slot. It was definitely fun in a super geek way. From time to time Nick and crew would check in with the chat room and mention us “on the air”. To listen to this week’s episode: click here
Catch SonicTalk live every Wednesday at 11:00 AM EST. For more info: click here
photo credit: zoomar
This entry was written by , posted on December 4, 2008 at 7:46 am, filed under interviews and tagged iPod, Nick Batt, podcast, SonicState, SonicTalk. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The always busy James Bernard from Propellerhead Software went to LA to interview Bon Harris one of the founding members of Nitzer Ebb. It doesn’t surprise me to hear he’s using Reason to create the music for the upcoming all new NE album. Reason seems to be a center piece in a lot of EBM bands today. It was a happy surprise to hear the bassline Mr. Harris let us have a sneak peak of because it had an old school Nitzer Ebb feel to it. If Douglas McCarthy can get angry enough to put proper vocals on this remains to be seen. I for one really hope the magic returns.
Keep up with NE here: www.nitzer-ebb.de and myspace.com/nitzerebbmusic
This entry was written by , posted on November 21, 2008 at 4:08 pm, filed under interviews, music, Propellerhead Reason, song writing, video and tagged interview, James Bernard, Nitzer Ebb, Propellerhead, Reason, video. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Nylvi is a new site about to launch from a group of Norwegian’s who recently moved to Berlin. They have
been getting to know the city and its scene visiting labels and other music tech companies. I would say Nylvi has some similarity to the Discogs Marketplace but with much added style and extended functionality. From talking with Nylvi I see they understand social media and data portability which appeals to me as an online music seller. I think they are one to watch.
They visited my studio last month and today I recorded a short interview with Thomas who you can see in the photo above (left):
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Visit them at Nylvi.com
This entry was written by , posted on October 2, 2008 at 12:24 am, filed under interviews and tagged Nylvi, records, Vinyl. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Here’s a great video visit to Daptone Records studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Co-founders Neal Sugarman and Gabriel Roth show you around their music making fun house. If you ever wished you could find new soul records produced the way they used to be this is the place to check.
Everything at Daptone is analog except their one single digital piece: a CD player! Incredibly they even edit without computers using good old fashion razor blades and tape. I really like how they floated a floor for a sound proof room using tires and used clothes.
Visit Daptone Records: click here
This entry was written by , posted on September 30, 2008 at 1:54 am, filed under business, interviews, video and tagged Bushwick, Daptone Records, studio, video. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPMvj_xejg
Here’s a guy who spent more time in front of a microphone than probably anyone you know. Don LaFontaine was “the movie guy”. He is the voice you hear in countless movie trailers saying, “In a world full of…”. Don passed away on Monday at the age of 68.
“Donald LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voice actor famous for recording over 5,000 movie trailers and (according to his website) over 350,000 television commercials, network promotions, and video game trailers. His signature voice was perceived as being both ominous and sonorous. His nicknames included “Thunder Throat” and “The Voice of God”. He became identified with the phrase “in a world…”, which has been used in movie trailers so frequently that it has become a cliché. He also parodied this cliché several times, most recently in a commercial for GEICO insurance.” – Wikipedia.org
I remember seeing a documentary about his work and noticed he had his own home studio. Over the period of his life he was a recording engineer, film editor, producer, and writer. He was also known to take the time to send fans personalized voice recordings. I wonder if he had a favorite microphone.
For more info: www.donlafontaine.com
This entry was written by , posted on September 3, 2008 at 2:58 am, filed under interviews, video and tagged Don LaFontaine, vocals, voice. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Inside Digital Media is a series of interviews by Phil Leigh. I like his content because it’s a view of net media with a heavy business swing. This week he interviews Tim Westergren the founder of Pandora and Chris Wallace of The Super Group.
Sales of recorded music in the United States are nowabout 30% lower than when Shawn Fanning introduced Napster in 1999. Sales in the physical form (e.g. CDs) are down by nearly half. There is little doubt that the Internet has been a “game changer” for the record label business.
In this audio program we explore a couple of ways that the Internet can add revenues. One is already generating more money for the industry and promoting new artists. The second appears to be an idea whose time has come. – insidedigitalmedia.com
To listen to the interviews: click here
photo credit: eszter
This entry was written by , posted on August 27, 2008 at 7:33 am, filed under business, interviews and tagged business, Chris Wallace, Inside Digital Media, pandora, Phil Leigh, radio, Tim Westergren. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.
Paul Mawhinney’s has a 50 million dollar record collection. I always imagined there must be people with insanely huge vinyl collections. I personally have 5000 records in storage all mostly from the 80s. My favorite 12″? A German edition of Depeche Mode’s “Leave in Silence” on clear vinyl.
Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world’s largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.
This is the story of a man and his records. I hope you enjoy it. – veryapeproductions.com
So are you still hording a giant record collection? Do you have any records that are crazy expensive collectors items?
This entry was written by , posted on August 21, 2008 at 1:08 am, filed under interviews, video and tagged 12inch, Paul Mawhinney, records, Sean Dunne, video, Vinyl. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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