Copper


Music audio and other illnesses


On or Off?

Issue 136MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Should you leave your hi-fi gear on or turn it off? Everybody knows, of course: if it’s solid-state, leave it on. If it’s tube, shut it off. A couple weeks...

My Massive Income From Streaming

Issue 128MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Our Paul McGowan asked me to recount the truly massive amount I’ve made from streaming sources. So here it is. But first, while I won’t reveal the figure, I will say that...

On the Baron: Tim de Paravicini, in Memoriam

Issue 127MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

There was a message for me to call Dan Meinwald early this afternoon, December 17th. I didn’t think for a second the news would be what it was. Tim de...

A World Without Keith Jarrett

Issue 126MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

“I even have dreams where I am as messed up as I really am – I’ve found myself trying to play in my dreams, but it’s just like real life.”...

Audio News – Bad and Good

Issue 125MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

This time out, I want to share some audio-related news – both bad and good. First the bad news, and I confess to some embarrassment, because I probably led a...

Projects, Projects, Projects

Issue 123MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

What the hell have I been up to, you wonder? Just kidding, I didn’t expect my recent absence to be noted. But nonetheless, I’ve been involved with three sort of...

The Beautiful Ordinariness of Elbow, Part One

Issue 113MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Throw those windows wideOne day like this a year would set me right. …from “One Day Like This” In ye olden days of 30 years ago, as a writer I...

It's a Lonely World, Redux

Issue 112MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I didn’t set out to be a hired gun, but it occurred to me pretty quickly that this was the likely path to earning a living through music – either...

Waiting for the Black Cadillac, Redux

Issue 111MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Who knows what’s behind our taste? A record that I think persists in its genius (My Life In the Bush of Ghosts) you may find abstract and boring. And that’s...

In My Dreams, Redux

Issue 110MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Sometime in 1995, Bill Bottrell called and wanted me to be on stand-by. He was supposed to meet someone whom he had been putting off, but just in case, he...

Obsessed with Stereo, Redux

Issue 109MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I think about my system too much. I mean, really too much. As I’ve written many times, it was stable for more than 20 years. That’s a really long while in anybody’s...

You Don't Have to be...Redux

Issue 108MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

When I was a kid, my parents had a comedy record called You Don’t Have to be Jewish, which had a couple dozen bits, including “The Presidents.” In “The Presidents,” the...

From Wallkill to Bethel

Issue 93MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

When last we met, I put forth my guess as to one of two reasons Woodstock, despite being the largest music and art festival ever, was also the most peaceful. The...

What Made Woodstock So Different?

Issue 92MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In several years of so very many noteworthy 50th anniversaries, two stand out: the July 20th, 1969 landing of humans on the Moon, and the Woodstock music festival. I admit, what made it...

The Mystery of The Making, Redux

Issue 91MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I never think about how mysterious the process of contemporary record making is, or was, to the people who buy those records. Which, when you think about it, is really...

We All Shine On, Redux

Issue 90MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

49 years ago, in the first international worldwide television broadcast, John Lennon sang to us, “There’s nothing you can do but you can learn how to play the game –...

The Sound Of Music, Redux

Issue 89MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

There’s something I’ve been thinking about for around 25 years; ever since I started working with Bill Bottrell, and he made me aware of how different my sound was. What that...

TONE!

Issue 88MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

A recent conversation ‘twixt Uncle Bill and me: Me: This is great bass playing to me:   TONE! Bill: Yup. Me: I hear many bass players who have shitty tone, and if you...

Oy! More Bass!

Issue 86MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

An ultra-recent debate between Uncle Bill Leebens and myself gives rise to this particular column. I expressed exactly zero interest in a somewhat prominent bass player. Leebens responded: “You don’t...

Noir et Blanc

Issue 84MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In 1983, one of my favorite records was released: Zazou/Bikaye/CY1’s  Noir et Blanc. I thought I might try to tell you a little about it. A collaboration between composer and producer Hector Zazou,...

Real Religious Fervor

Issue 82MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Real religious fervor: what do I mean by using that term, when I’m writing about music? Nominally, I suppose one could take it to mean anything that I like. But...

The Revenge of The White Album

Issue 75MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

By now, you know whether The White Album re-issue is for you.  I’m happy to go on record, so to speak, as saying that most of these Fabs reissues aren’t...

Silence Isn’t Silent, Redux

Issue 73MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Let me tell you about Bernie Leadon. Bernie came to some notice in the late ’60s, as a member, first, of Dillard & Clark, and then of The Flying Burrito Brothers. And...

Wild About Harry, Redux

Issue 71MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

[Having recently brought up J. Gordon Holt, it seems only fair that we bring up Dan’s memories of the other giant of American audio writing–-Ed.] Some time ago, I wrote,...

Paul Kantner Is Dead, Redux

Issue 69MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

[Following the recent death of Jefferson Airplane lead singer Marty Balin, it seemed appropriate to revisit Dan’s meditation on the passing of another Airplane band member—Ed.] He died on Thursday, January...

You Better Think

Issue 66MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Try to imagine. I had discovered music only the previous year — discovered it, in the sense of getting how good it could be. I was 10. I had been...

Listening, Not Hearing

Issue 59MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

A few days ago, I was lying on my couch, reading a book online from the Los Angeles Public Library (The Holy, by Daniel Quinn). On the hi-fi system played...

Mix A vs. Mix B

Issue 57MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In the dark, dim past, on a dark and stormy night, Bill Bottrell would rant to anyone who would listen (usually just me) about Mix A and Mix B. As...

My Helios

Issue 55MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I’ve been asked a couple times about the recording / mixing console I own (with a friend). So I thought I might write a little about it. Helios began at Olympic...

Sandwiches of You

Issue 54MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

A couple issues back, discussing the NAMM convention, I mentioned Kevin Godley and Lol Creme in the context of their invention: The Gizmo. I thought I might write a bit about them...

The Big Rock Show

Issue 53MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Some friends of mine have been putting on a big rock show annually for the last few years, under the name Wild Honey, as a benefit for the Autism Think Tank ....

What Is a Bass? Part 4: Electronic Guitars

Issue 50MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I want to wrap up this attempt to answer the question of what goes into a bass (a question only asked by one person) by talking a little about the...

What Is a Bass?

Issue 47MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I’ve been contemplating this topic for a little while, although my reticence to finally put it to “paper” must be some kind of sign that I’m a genuine writer…. Anyway,...

Why Doesn’t My System Sound Better? (Or: A Neur...

Issue 45MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

By any objective measure, it sounds incredible. But you know how people like us are: obsessive to a degree that’s way past the point of fault. Maybe I’m romanticizing how...

Brothers In Arms

Issue 44MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

While I’ve been contemplating my next piece, I’ve been thinking about my last one, and about the man who introduced me to audio, my father. I would be very much...

Meetings With Remarkable Men, Part 3

Issue 42MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In the previous two articles, I wrote about encountering Jack Casady and Phil Lesh as a teenager. Of course, I could write pages and pages about the influence of my father (and my brothers)....

The Great Wall

Issue 39MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In the early 70s, the Grateful Dead were the most interesting organization in rock music. To the world outside of San Francisco, they may have seemed a “Warner Brothers act”...

Net Neutrality

Issue 37MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Net Neutrality – the Why, but mostly the Why Not Today, July 12th, I’ve received a dozen emails with subject lines like “Today we save the internet”, and “One Day...

Whistling Down the Wire

Issue 36MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Paul McGowan’s recent column brought something to mind that I’ve been thinking about a bit lately. Wires — and the nightmare of reviewing them; and more specifically, why I’ve never wanted that...

It Was 50 Years Ago....

Issue 34MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

… a couple days ago. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, and the world has been changed ever since. Certainly MY world is entirely different. It wasn’t only Sgt. Pepper,...

It's a Lonely World

Issue 22MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I didn’t set out to be a hired gun, but it occurred to me pretty quickly that this was the likely path to earning a living — either that or...

Waiting for the Black Cadillac

Issue 21MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Who knows what’s behind our taste? A record that I think persists in its genius (My Life In the Bush of Ghosts) you may find abstract and boring. And that’s...

In My Dreams

Issue 18MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Sometime in 1995, Bill Bottrell called and wanted me to be on stand-by. He was supposed to meet someone whom he had been putting off, but just in case, he...

Two Kinds Of Hits

Issue 16MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

We have a hit. We’ve been hit. Both are true. Everybody wants a hit record; everybody. It’s money, it’s acknowledgment, and it means more work, all those things. The  Tuesday...

The Mystery Of The Making

Issue 13MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I never think about how mysterious the process of contemporary record making is, or was, to the people who buy those records. Which, when you think about it, is really...

The New Old Way

Issue 11MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

We can all remember those moments when everything in our systems comes together --- when everything just WORKS. The last time I recall it happening with real clarity was when...