TASCAM DR-680MKII field recorder used for click/backing track playbackAn interview with PUFFY’s bassist, Hiroharu Kinoshita.The TASCAM DR-680MKII is a 6 channel mic/line input portable multitrack recorder with digital input that allows simultaneous recording of 8 tracks in 24 bit/96 kHz. It is needless to say that with its compact and robust body, this model is nowadays well-known and loved by field recording professionals and amateurs. At the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, while conducting

Monterey, CA - July 2017… Held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in June 1967, the three-day Monterey International Pop Festival was the first great rock festival and helped kick off the late 1960s music scene, the Summer of Love, and much that followed. From June 16 to 18, 2017 -exactly 50 years to the day later - "Monterey International Pop Festival Celebrates 50 Years" brought two of the same artists (Eric Burdon and The Animals and Booker T., albeit without the MGs) and man

Phoenix, AZ — April 2017… As any audio engineer will testify, recording a live performance is not for the faint of heart. It’s a world rife with unpredictability, from the environment to the spontaneity of the performance itself. And within that world, even fewer engineers dare to tread into the realm of symphony orchestras and acoustic performances, where the demands are even more pronounced.Jim Stern has been happily inhabiting that world for more than 30 years. The owner of

Mountain View, CA—October 2016… Wizdom/moForte’s GeoShred virtual instrument for iPad is both a serious musical instrument and a whole lot of fun. A fusion of development partner Wizdom Music’s Geo Synthesizer user interface and moForte’s stunning modeled guitar and effects chain, GeoShred lets you perform impressive guitar-like parts, as well as things no guitarist could ever play. To test and further develop its groundbreaking app, the moForte team sought a quali

Doylestown, PA—September 2016… When you hear their music, you know immediately that brothers George and Geoff Hazelrigg are fine classically and jazz-trained musicians. The Hazelrigg Brothers’ trio sound is primarily acoustic, and although their overall style has recognizable roots, it is a product of an unusual musical background. George mostly plays piano with the trio but he started out as a harpsichordist. Geoff plainly has studied the masters of upright bass but he, too,

Montebello, CA—August 2016… Sonicreef’s Looptunes for iPhone® and iPad® is a very cool app that lets you create loop sessions on the fly and then manipulate and shape them with a multitude of parameters, all in real time. It’s a fun way for musicians of any skill level to quickly create beats, play along with a loop session, or jumpstart their compositional efforts. To assess his app’s sonic output properly, Sonicreef creator Peter Thom needed to hear it wi