SoundStage! Xperience | SoundStageXperience.com

Details: Pulse!

January 2023

Harrisonburg, Virginia, is a city of 52,000 in the Shenandoah Valley, about two hours from Washington, DC. Roughly an hour from Charlottesville, Virginia, where you can visit Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, and another Jeffersonian attraction, the University of Virginia, Harrisonburg itself is home to two well-established colleges: James Madison University and Eastern Mennonite University. James Madison is a public university of over 21,000 students, while EMU is private and has about 1200 students.

Details: Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

January 2023

If there’s a psychiatrist out there who wants to delve into the connection between weather and music, I’d be happy to lie on your couch. Deep in my Canadian psyche is the need to hear extremely buoyant–yet-meditative instrumental jazz on late-autumn days. Pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1973 album Solo Concerts: Bremen / Lausanne is the ideal way to scratch that itch. That stems from the first time I saw Jarrett in concert: a crisp, fall night in 1975, which gave way to an exceptionally snowy morning. I woke to it with his music still in my head.

Details: Pulse!

December 2022

It was the year live music was supposed to be back. And it was, in some senses—although pandemic-related restrictions continued to play havoc with musicians’ travel and festival schedules, and artists continued to reflect on the theme of “What the hell just happened?”

Details: Curator

December 2022

Andy Partridge, the chief songwriter and coleader of the band XTC, has a chip on his shoulder about being from Swindon, a city of 233,000 in Wiltshire, about 70 miles west of London, England. In 2016, he explained why to an interviewer from Louder: “To the English, anything that comes from Swindon must have comedic value. And I think it’s held us back terribly.” He went on to say that if the band had been American, or even came from the northern city of Manchester, birthplace of many great English groups, it would have been held in higher esteem. “We were f**king brilliant,” he asserted: “One of the greats.”

Details: SoundStage! Encore

November 2022

Dolby Atmos is a new surround-sound format that uses objects instead of channels to place sounds around the listener. The result is a far more immersive listening experience that can scale from small to large systems far better compared to what traditional surround-sound formats can provide. In this video, PMC chief technical officer Oliver Thomas describes the Dolby Atmos mixing studio the company has set up in London, then brand ambassador and mix engineer Heff Moraes describes what Dolby Atmos is, how it works, and why he’s so excited by the potential it provides. As Moraes says in this video, “Dolby Atmos is a really exciting, new way for consumers to hear and experience music in a completely different way.” Watch and find out what the fuss is about.

Details: Download music

November 2022

Out of Your Head Records OOYH 017
Format: 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV download

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Indigenous culture of all forms is gaining prominence, particularly in Canada—a country that is in the midst of a process of “truth and reconciliation” with its Indigenous Peoples. In the past, Indigenous musicians from the continent many call Turtle Island, like Link Wray and the members of Redbone, were rare; today, young artists like The Halluci Nation, DJ Shub, and others are receiving widespread exposure.

Details: Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

October 2022

Most of us shift between multiple media sources as we move through our day.

As a creative resource for several marketing agencies, I’m immersed all day. I spend a lot of time developing video scripts, reviewing motion graphics and proposals for accompanying music, and editing presentations. The rest of the time, when I’m writing, I like to have a soundtrack to match the task and my mood. And then, there are all those music videos and bits and pieces of video from artists’ electronic media kits to keep track of, as well.

Details: Download music

October 2022

Blue Note Records 0602445659920
Format: 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV download

Musical Performance

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In September, at a New York City event to promote his new autobiography, Rolling Stone cofounder and longtime publisher Jann Wenner responded to a question posed by host Bruce Springsteen: Who did he regret never interviewing for the magazine? Wenner didn’t hesitate: “Leonard Cohen.” After a pause of a few seconds, he added: “And Elvis.”

Details: SoundStage! Encore

September 2022

Amadeus Meitner is a DJ and a fan of electronic music. He is also the son of legendary audio-designer Ed Meitner, who founded EMM Labs and Meitner Audio, two brands that make world-class digital-to-analog converters, as well as other high-end hi-fi electronics.

Details: Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

September 2022

Jimi Hendrix turning 80. It’s unfathomable, of course. Would he be dipping into hip-hop? Playing his hits in casinos? To quote one of his later compositions: Who knows?

Details: Curator

September 2022

Spirit is not exactly a forgotten band. Two of its songs, “I Got a Line on You” and “Nature’s Way,” have been constants on classic-rock radio playlists. Beyond those tunes, however, the typical rock fan probably hasn’t heard much from a group whose first four LPs rank among the best of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Perhaps Spirit’s eclecticism ended up limiting its appeal. At times its music could be pegged as progressive or hard rock, but it also included elements of jazz, folk, and even classical music. For all its ambition, Spirit wrote memorable songs that should have led to a much larger following.

Details: Pulse!

September 2022

Woo-hoo! You made it through the recording process, but your work’s not done yet. Now you have to take all those separate tracks and turn them into something other people can listen to—and, ideally, something they want to hear. This process is called mixing or mixing down. The mixdown stage can seem daunting at first, especially when you have many tracks to mix. However, with practice, it’s not that big a deal on a modern digital audio workstation (DAW). It’s easier if you’re also the person who did the recording—you’re already familiar with the tracks, and you were probably working on the mix during the recording. But that’s not essential, and for this column I’ll be assuming that someone else recorded the tracks. The same principles apply to both situations.

Details: Download music

September 2022

Irabbagast Records 021
Format: 24-bit/44.1kHz WAV download

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

By rights, tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon should be as well known to jazz fans as peers Chris Potter, Mark Turner, or Joshua Redman. A 44-year-old Chicagoan who moved to New York City at the turn of this century, Irabagon won the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in 2008, played alongside guitarist Mary Halvorson—one of the most-lauded jazz performers of the past decade—and has been a member of trumpeter Dave Douglas’s high-profile quintet for a number of years. Irabagon has a highly recognizable sound, impressive technique, and a broad scope of musical expression, as demonstrated on 13 albums under his own leadership. Yet, he continues to stay just under the radar of many listeners.

Details: Art+Tech

August 2022

Vintage hi-fi components may be having a moment, but design-conscious dwellers of contemporary homes likely prefer a sound source that matches the aesthetic of their Miele steam oven and Minotti seating system. If your chic downtown apartment is more sleek finishes than the period wood of my 130-year-old abode, the super-clean look of the Totem Kin Play Tower stereo speaker system ($2250 per system in US or Canadian dollars) will likely appeal to you. My review sample was in the company’s Satin Black finish, and with the grilles removed, the two 5″ soft-dome woofers on each speaker gleamed. Each speaker also has a 1″ soft-dome tweeter.