Copper


Take 22

Issue 119Opening Salvo

This is my 22nd issue of editing Copper. 22 issues of fun, hard work, passion, power outages, a moment of panic or two and many other feelings. Deadline pressure and...

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Sound Pilot: Interview with Acoustic Design Con...

Issue 119REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

Philip Newell has been professionally involved in audio since 1966. He has done it all, from an apprenticeship in audio electronics while studying radio and television servicing, to doing live...

Patty Griffin: Finding True Purpose

Issue 119OFF THE CHARTS

Sometimes it takes a while to find your true purpose in life. Patty Griffin had just been through a divorce when she decided to try singing professionally in 1994 at...

Israel

Issue 119MUSIC'AL NOTES

Our friend Allan was the Sherriff of Galilee. At least that’s what we called him. In actuality he was a commander in the border police and was often called on...

An Undiscovered Guitar God, a Remake, a Reissue...

Issue 119TO BE DETERMINED

Walter Trout – Ordinary Madness Walter Trout is a blues survivor, and will turn seventy next March. He started playing in the late sixties, and spent the next two-and-a-half decades on the...

Can You Dig It?

Issue 119AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

This ad made you want to groove on a Marantz receiver, man! Circa 1973. Who knew you didn't have to go to school to be an audio engineer? Courtesy of...

It Started with a 45

Issue 119EUREKA MOMENTS

I got my first transistor radio in 1961. It was cheap, made in Japan, and the brand was Lloyd’s — anybody remember that one? I couldn’t wait to listen to...

The Incredible Jimmy Smith!

Issue 119TRADING EIGHTS

When Jimmy Smith was growing up near Philadelphia in the 1930s, he taught himself to play boogie-woogie piano well enough to win a radio-sponsored contest. He discovered the joys of...

Record Store Day – An Alternative Opinion

Issue 119FEATURED

I never really gave much thought to Record Store Day, other than to see it mentioned on the internet here and there over the years, and eventually I would become...

Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Eight: Too Hot...

Issue 119FRANKLY SPEAKING

When I was working at The Absolute Sound as Harry Pearson’s set up man in the mid 1980s through early 1990s, Goldmund was a name at the top of the high-end pantheon....

He is Lemmy, and He Played Rock and Roll

Issue 119EUREKA MOMENTS

I met my friend Ned, a long-haired fry-cook at a British pub in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. He was between college and his next step in life – a toss-up...

Unusual Musical Collaborations and Cameos, Part...

Issue 119DEEP DIVE

In Part One (Issue 118) we covered Stevie Wonder and George Benson, Metallica and Lang Lang, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Adele and Paul Weller. Here we continue to look into unlikely...

Pat Quilter: Sound Reinforcement and Amp Guru, ...

Issue 119THE COPPER INTERVIEW

In Part One (Issue 118) Pat Quilter and John Seetoo talked about the beginnings of Quilter Audio Labs and QSC Audio, the history of recorded sound, non-amplified vs. amplified live...

The Forty Thieves

Issue 119TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I’m sitting with my sister Ellen at an outdoor coffee shop on the ocean in Venice Beach, California, and we’re talking about our dad. Hard to be exact; it had...

Sound Pilot: Interview with Acoustic Design Con...

Issue 119

Philip Newell has been professionally involved in audio since 1966. He has done it all, from an apprenticeship in audio electronics while studying radio and television servicing, to doing live...

Themes From a Summer Piece

Issue 119WAYNE'S WORDS

The Song of the Summer is not an official title. It’s not a Grammy category, not (usually) quantifiable by chart position or mass success. Nor does it have to have...

When Dire Straits Made a Springsteen Record

Issue 119FEATURED

There has been a lot said about the importance of Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was a transitional album for Bruce, taking him from beachside...

Chicago Boogie

Issue 119PARTING SHOT

Summer CES 1993, taken before The Mondial Experience jam session and party. For a few years, former audio manufacturer Mondial Designs would rent a club or big room, supply a...