Copper


A 1960s Thanksgiving at the Fillmore East

Issue 197True-Life Rock Tales

Halloween had just passed and now it was turning cold. I went to a second-hand antique clothing store and bought a West Point cadet’s winter coat for $15. It was...

Standing Room Only

Issue 197Speaker Stories

Wouldn’t you hate it if you went to the theatre and had purchased your higher-tier seats with guaranteed optimal views of everyone on stage, the sets and even a glimpse...

Pura Fé: Her Ever-Evolving Artistry

Issue 197And Indie for All

No artist springs fully formed into the world. Being creative is a kinetic state, shifting constantly, and not always in linear development. Few singer-songwriters reveal this inner prism more clearly...

Subwoofer Artistry

Issue 197Parting Shot

Thilo Stompler made some of the best subwoofer drivers I’ve ever bought, at his factory in San Diego, California.The San Diego Music and Audio Guild toured his plant in April...

The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society...

Issue 196Featured

The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOCAS) is one of the largest audio clubs in the country. Its membership spans the greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas,...

Table of Contents – Issue 196

Issue 196Opening Salvo

I could feel at the time There was no way of knowing Fallen leaves in the night Who can say where they're blowing? – Roxy Music, “More Than This” In...

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Guitar Influences, Part Two: Keith Richards, Ch...

Issue 196Twisted Systems

Keith Richards, Chuck Berry and…Mike Kagan? Yeah…I know. I can hear it now. Who is Mike Kagan? A legendary American (or British) wizard, unknown to most of the world except...

Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Virtuoso Harpsi...

Issue 196Something Old / Something New

There was never a more promising time than the late 17th century to be a musician in France. King Louis XIV, after all, loved music and dance as much as he...

Sub Missive

Issue 196

Optimizing the bass response of an audio system is well worth the effort, as most audiophiles will attest to. It requires an initial investment of a little time and effort,...

Sow, How's It Sound?

Issue 196Audio Static

  This cartoon was first published in Issue 146.

The Look of Love

Issue 196The Run-Out Groove

    This cartoon was first published in Issue 110.

Now Hear This!

Issue 196Audio Anthropology

  Just don't touch any of my records, thinks dad! From Audio magazine, March 1955.   When the Admiral speaks, they listen!   They went all out on props for this photo shoot. From Audio magazine,...

Thorens' 140-Year Anniversary: Navigating Vinyl...

Issue 196Featured

Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications.   It’s hard to imagine the record player world without Thorens – and yet...

How to Improve Your Sound With Your Mind, Part One

Issue 196Featured

Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio.   Your audio system was supposed to...

Frankie Goes to Hearing Aids: Staving Off Retir...

Issue 196Frankly Speaking

What’s an audio professional’s biggest fear? Losing their hearing. After all, we depend on it to make sonic evaluations, whether we’re an audiophile, equipment reviewer, front-of-house engineer, component designer or...

Mastering Engineer Steve Hoffman, Part Two

Issue 196The Copper Interview

In Part One of this interview (Issue 195), Steve and John Seetoo discussed Steve’s beginnings in the mastering world, his mentors, and some of his favorite projects. The interview concludes...

Agnew Analog's Vacuum Tube Electrochemical Synt...

Issue 196Revolutions Per Minute

 The Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 8001 is a unique electrochemical synthesizer, generating strange sounds through chemical reactions occurring in the built-in reactor cell. The reactions occur by passing an...

Zen and the Art of Sound Reproduction

Issue 196Featured

Most of us squander far too much of our time engaged in “self-talk.” Our minds are continually preoccupied with “what if” scenarios and how to resolve them, even though these...

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part One

Issue 196Natural Born Kessler

Along with many mainstream audio publications and websites, Copper – in fact, more than most – has actively acknowledged and supported the revival in open-reel tape. Its contributors have dug deep into...

Which Way Is Up?

Issue 196Parting Shot

“The sky is both over and under the water?” Gary thought as he stared into the puddle. “What sense does that make?" Street scene in Long Island, New York, August 2023.

Violin Plus Orchestra, Part Two

Issue 196Too Much Tchaikovsky

So many concertos, so little time. When I decided to devote two whole TMT columns to Violin Concertos After Beethoven, my aim seemed clear: sort through a pile of recent...

Sunflower Bean: Veterans of the Brooklyn DIY Scene

Issue 196And Indie for All

Fat Possum Records, the small label that the band Sunflower Bean records for, refers to the threesome as “veterans of the Brooklyn DIY scene.” DIY. That’s Brooklynese for indie. Cute. (Full disclosure:...

Pacific Standard Time

Issue 195The Mindful Melophile

Lester Young provided the inspiration. Miles Davis has been credited with creating the genre. George Shearing and Hank Jones performed it. Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Art Pepper helped popularize...

Goin' to the Bank!

Issue 195Audio Anthropology

This is a fax I received from Les Paul in 1992. In it he answers a series of questions I’d asked him in researching an article for The Absolute Sound in 1991, including...

Table of Contents – Issue 195

Issue 195Opening Salvo

“When you’re not afraid to do it wrong the first time, you’ll eventually get it right.” I hadn’t seen an inspirational fortune cookie in a while, until I came across...

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Guitarist Enmanuel Alexander Shines With Jazz/F...

Issue 195Octave Pitch

Octave Records is proud to present a brilliant new artist for the label: jazz/funk/post-fusion guitarist Enmanuel Alexander, who is showcased with his quartet on Octave’s latest release, Off the Cuff...

In Memory of Music

Issue 195Sitting In

Music can be a sort of time machine. When I hear The Carpenters' version of "(They Long to Be) Close to You," I am transported back to the family television...

Josh Caterer of Smoking Popes: Get Fired is Sti...

Issue 195Idle Chatter

Josh Caterer is responsible for some of the most emotive, thought-provoking, and generally catchy pop/punk tunes of the 1990s. And while many old sayings still carry a lot of meaning,...

Octave Records Re-Releases Say Somethin’ by Jaz...

Issue 195Octave Pitch

Since its initial release in 2021, Say Somethin’ by jazz trumpeter Gabriel Mervine has been one of Octave Records’ most popular releases. The original limited-edition SACD and vinyl have long...

Steve Hoffman, Part One

Issue 195The Copper Interview

Steve Hoffman is one of the most highly-regarded  mastering engineers in the recording industry, and his discography is a microcosm of 20th and 21st Century music history. The thousands of...

Guitar Influences, Part One: Mike Bloomfield

Issue 195Twisted Systems

I have been asked on several occasions to write about the guitar players who have had the greatest influences on me. While I have talked about this short list in...

Critical Listening at Home: Audiophile High-Fid...

Issue 195Revolutions Per Minute

Meet George Vardis, a retired biologist with a master's degree in food technology, residing in Athens, Greece. George is a sophisticated man with many interests, including sailing, photography, motorbikes, and...

Simple Acoustics, Complicated Spouses

Issue 195Featured

When I was a teenager, I told my girlfriend that I loved her so much that I would die for her. She replied that if I died, her life would...

Violin Plus Orchestra, Part One

Issue 195Too Much Tchaikovsky

Our story begins with Beethoven. (What else is new?) His Violin Concerto (1806) especially, because it’s the poster child for Modern Concertos in so many ways. First, he wrote it...

Lute Music of the 16th and 17th Century

Issue 195Something Old / Something New

One of the defining factors of High Baroque music is the explosion in the number of instrumental pieces being composed. It’s easy to think of the 17th century and earlier as...

Camera Ready

Issue 195Parting Shot

Portrait of Copper's photographer extraordinaire James Schrimpf, made by Alex Lim, Architectural Conservator at Tumacacori National Historic Park. Alex did a series of portraits of Southern Arizona artists for a...

A Sound Pension Plan

Issue 195The Run-Out Groove

This cartoon was first published in Issue 104.

Third Time's the Charm

Audio Static

This cartoon was first published in Issue 130.

Alice Phoebe Lou

Issue 195And Indie for All

At the ripe old age of 17, Alice Phoebe Lou decided she’d had enough of life in her native South Africa. She slung her guitar across her back and headed...

Vassar Clements: Not Just Bluegrass Fiddle

Issue 194Trading Eights

Musicians in one genre are often compared to those in another. But for a fiddler like Vassar Clements, who was equally gifted in bluegrass, jazz, rock, and country, the comparisons...

The Cable Doctor Makes More House Calls

Issue 194True-Life Rock Tales

James Lipton, the host of the TV series Inside the Actors Studio was one of the clients I had the longest, from the nineties up until his passing in 2020. Just like...

Table of Contents – Issue 194

Issue 194Opening Salvo

Beginning next issue, your editor is going to take a little bit of a break. We’ll still be publishing every two weeks, but through the rest of the summer and...

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A Modern Engineering Marvel

Issue 194Audio Anthropology

Beyond cool: a circa 1940s or 1950s EMI Dicta recording – yes, recording – system that used 12-inch floppy magnetic discs. They worked like magnetic tape does, except in disc form. Spotted...

The Musical Instrument Museum: A World of Music...

Issue 194Featured

The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), located in Phoenix, Arizona, possesses 14,000 instruments and other artifacts that are housed in a state-of-the-art 200,000 square foot structure containing 350 exhibits. It is...

Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO: Illuminating the Mu...

Issue 194Disciples of Sound

Five years ago, singer/songwriter Juliana Hatfield embarked on a project that she had thought would be a one-off. She did a tribute record, covering the music of Olivia Newton-John. After...

Bert Lahr in Carbonite?

Issue 194Parting Shot

He's ready for travel through interstellar space. Taken in Trafalgar Square, London.

Dreamin’ Wild: The Movie and the Music

Issue 194Featured

Actress Lana Turner was discovered while drinking a milkshake at Schwab’s pharmacy. Pam Anderson was at a football game when her picture suddenly flashed across the Jumbotron. Justin Bieber’s journey...