Copper


Happy Musical New Year!

Issue 101Opening Salvo

Numbers have been on my mind lately: 97, 98, 99, 100 and now Issue 101. Yet I’d been completely nearsighted about the fact that 2020, just around the corner, is...

Read more

Domestic Harmony

Issue 101AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

Les Paul and Mary Ford in their native habitat. Audio Engineering, May 1953

John Meyer Interview, Part Three

Issue 101THE COPPER INTERVIEW

To recap from Part One (Issue 99) and Part Two (Issue 100): John Meyer is a pioneer in the field of sound reinforcement. Meyer Sound equipment is used by a who’s who of artists,...

My C-24, Redux

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 101MUSIC

In one of his Paul’s Posts (“Capturing Air”), Paul McGowan mentioned my AKG C-24, and I thought I would try to describe the mic, and how it’s been changed. First of all:...

In and Out at WAMS and Getting WARM

Issue 101TRUE-LIFE RADIO TALES

Station Seven: WAMS-AM The seventh radio station in my career was back at WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware where I had been previously successful. What a homecoming. I loved the beautiful...

James Lee Stanley: Musical Survivor

Issue 101FRANKLY SPEAKING

Every now and then I’m going to write about artists who deserve wider recognition. I can think of no one more deserving than James Lee Stanley. Since 1972 the singer-songwriter-producer-recording-engineer-actor...

Queen of the Salons

Issue 101FEATURED

A Paris Salon, drawing by Adrien Moreau (1843-1906) She was considered to be the Queen of the Salons; a great beauty and the “unchallenged sovereign of sophisticated Paris…the most distinguished...

Re-Examining Pink Floyd in the Post-Roger Water...

Issue 101TO BE DETERMINED

This issue, I’m focusing on a single release, Pink Floyd’s The Later Years, which is a sprawling 18-disc box set that covers the band in the years following the departure of...

Sublime Moments

Issue 101FROM THE SWEET SPOT

I was cutting into a mango last night – it was a small variety known as Champagne, one that I have been smitten by for years. Its curvy shape can...

Mythical Stature: Gentle Giant, Part One

Issue 101FEATURED

Gentle Giant, possibly the most musically and instrumentally diverse group in all of progressive rock, actually had its roots in rhythm and blues. Like so many UK youth in the...

An Ode to Cassette Tape - Part One

Issue 101REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

I still remember how, as a very young boy, I had to handle a 7-inch record with both hands and I still could barely manage to put it on the...

Beethoven Plus One: Songs

Issue 101TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, the single most influential figure in the history of Western music. His intense focus on individual expression and...

Hugh Masekela, Jazz Legend

Issue 101TRADING EIGHTS

Some artists get a helping hand exactly when it’s needed. Hugh Masekela, a black South African, was given a trumpet at age 14 by Rev. Trevor Huddleston, who taught at...

Tina Turner: Finding Her Own Voice

Issue 101OFF THE CHARTS

Tina Turner is a textbook case of a talented woman finding her own voice by freeing herself from an abusive man. Born in 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, she became an...

Seeing Stars

Issue 101PARTING SHOT

The Star Wars Death Star looming? Fear not, it's just the top of a pressure-treated fence post. Photo courtesy of Rich Isaacs.

Thoughts on Hi-Res Music and Audio – An Insider...

Issue 101FEATURED

Let me start by saying I have deep respect for all music and audio lovers and their various points of view. There is nothing in my experience more personal or...