WSCA - FM Portsmouth Community Radio 106.1 FM and streaming

My friend and WSCA on-air jazz docent Gary Lowe sent me a link to Portsmouth New Hampshire's WSCA FM.  WSCA has a live stream and I am now listening to an Orbital remix at 4pm local.  Great stuff.  Check out WSCA - they need your help!  Send money, PCs, equipment etc.

New CD "The Juggler's Progress" from True Margrit

I met Margrit Eichler at the 2006 AES in San Francisco and have subscribed to her mailing list ever since. Just got her band's new CD today, (which has not left the changer since it arrived here last week!) and it reminds me a little of Zamcheck, from the 70s, and Stormin Norman and Suzy, but not really. Here's an entertaining clip of True Margrit from Youtube.

The Stylophone

World's first vacuum tube ribbon mic - pre WWII

I've scanned in and posted an excerpt from Electronics Magazine of this fascinating article about early ribbon microphones using phantom power and with tube amps on board.  Julius Weinberger  was a well known writer in various hi tech magazines of the day, and this particular gem caught my eye recently.

This article is 75 years old!  It is amazing that nearly all of the advancements in ribbon microphone technology were demonstrated that far back.  The only fundamental aspect that has changed is the ribbon - and the elimination of "foils". And that occurred in 2007.

Here is the link

Bopnique.com

The current front page artwork of Anthony Resta's Studio Bopnique home page, with enough contrast so you can see the music lessons in progress.  It's amazing how photoshop can bring an image out of the fog, making details visible, restoring tonal gradients enough to delineate shape and form.

Old movies have this high contrast look after many years of reprinting. Each successive print loses dynamic range, and eventually the images are all black and white, with no greys.  The Three Stooges sometimes look that way, same with The Little Rascals, if you can find 
them.Visit the liquid centre of the rhythm factory,
the heart of the sci-fi mambo lab

did i turn you on final - dave caira and ajax

WZBC 90.300 MHz FM Newton/Boston

As I type this entry I am listening to the program "Rare Frequency" on my favorite radio station WZBC in Newton, at Boston College.

Ambient, progressive, experimental, unclassifiable.  This is where I discovered Heiner Goebbel's Eislermaterial, P5, Demos of Saturn, and numerous other heady favorites.

From their own website:

"...in 1979 when our broadcast signal became stereo. However, arguably the most important change in WZBC history occurred later that year, or perhaps the following one (depending on whom you ask), when the station changed its format to something called modern rock. The frequency formerly home to James Taylor and his ilk became inundated with innovative new bands which commercial radio would not touch. At approximately the same time, WZBC also began broadcasting more experimental music under the moniker, No Commercial Potential, thus changing the future of WZBC irrevocably. Since the initial format change, WZBC has grown to become one of the most influential and respected college stations in the country"

Indeed!  Tune in on iTunes to Alexandra or Phader at 8am Eastern time on "Melody du Jour" for a selection of gems sure to make your music exploration explode, and stimulate your hunger once again for the new, the innovative, and the ear-opening sounds.

iTunes 9 is an artless disappointment

If you are thinking of upgrading to iTunes 9 and you don't have an iPhone, you might want to wait. The problem is that Apple has changed the color scheme in such a way that viewing iTunes 9 on the glossy screen of the Macbook Pro is nearly impossible unless you turn off all the room lights. I made this mistake and now find I can't go back to the previous version. To all those (including me) who have griped about Microsoft, I can tell you I feel no better about Apple, and find them to be at least as draconian, and more simple-minded than MS. For instance, there are no controls that you can access to change simple items like screen colors and backgrounds.  Amazingly thoughtless, and artless. from a company that depends on those who speak, think and live aesthetics. Or at least used to.

Tim Spencer's New Preamp and Very Cool Shades

True Systems PT2 500 Series Pre-Amp : AES 2009 from On The Mark Media on Vimeo.

FUJICHIA