For a number of years I've been into sound art and electronics, but never had the cash and space for an ARP 2600. I recently acquired a Korg Kaossilator, a fabulous little dynamic phrase synthesizer, which, for all intents and purposes, now serves as my main musical device. Pocket-sized and touch-operated, the Kaossilator is comprised of 100 sounds: electronic beats, synth chords and pads, squelchy bass tones and the odd acoustic instruments. The Theremin sounds alone are worth the $200 price tag. The fun part is creating 8-beat loops in which you can control the tempo and the scales of the instruments selected. I've already "composed" a few pieces using just the Korg and will most likely start incorporating it into GarageBand or, perhaps, Max/MSP once my visual programming chops get happening. My only complaint is you can't edit or remove instruments/sounds as you layer them or control individual volumes. Still, I highly recommend the Korg for beginners and semi-pros that haven't got a cache of gear and/or software. For standalone equipment, I don't think there's anything really comparable to the Kaossilator, except it's cousin, the Mini Kaoss Pad, which is more for effects.
A hobbyist that was a session drummer in another life (before children), it's limiting to how often I can make music. Drummers have to deal with the confines of noise volumes (the neighbors), the amount of space required and the portability of your gear. Plus, your output is restricted to mainly the rhythmic aspects of music as well as performing in the more traditional acoustic genres. With two small children, I don't get to play with the Kaossilator as often as I'd like, but the one-year-old loves to see and hear it in action. While you can use the sounds to record with in your audio software, you can also just plug in headphones and experience your public transit commuting time diminish exponentially. I've taken it out of the house a few times. It runs on either a 4.5V adapter (not included) or 4 AA batteries (included). I have yet to really clock the amount of time used with just the batteries, but it's been a lot longer than you'd get on a laptop.
iPods are great except for those of us who are required to have hearing protection at work. I'm a Highway Safety Consultant and still do construction. This is the only radio earmuff I have found that has hearing protection and digital tuning. Unlike standard noise-reducing headphones, these provide actual hearing protection from loud noises (the noise reduction rating is advertised as 26 dB). I have owned other radio earmuff models but when you "bump" the channel selector you lose your station. Since this one's digital, I can program the presets. Now I tune in, save my favorite channels, and flip between them. So far I've been using mine at work with a patch cord for the iPod, however, I am going to buy an FM modulator for the iPod so I can go wireless.
-- Scott Newton
Peltor Digital WorkTunes Radio Earmuff
$50
Available from Amazon
When it came to music, I was an old fogie. I had a shelf full of Bob Dylan, Allman Brothers, Brian Eno, and more Bob Dylan. You know, old guy's music. I actually liked a lot of the new popular music I overheard, I was just not up on it. Didn't know what was what. Recently I've found two tools to keep me current with great contemporary music that wasn't just top 40. My iPod is now full of some pretty hip music, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Here's what works for me. At my birthday or Christmas, I request as my only present that my kids, nieces and nephews burn me a disc of their favorite music in the last year, or so. It is an easy gift for them to make, and a great learning experience for me. The few tracks I can't stand, I just delete. The stuff I love I seek out on iTunes to purchase more of. From this I get the fashionable tunes.
This trick actually works even better with kids not your own. When I am traveling overseas I ask students who befriend me to burn me a CD of their favorite local tunes, and boy does this beckon forth some great unknown stuff. I landed some lovely Polish rock this way. I've learned to not be bashful asking because everyone loves to share their favorites. The main thing is to not ask your friends; they think too much like you. Instead you want the "other-ness" from fans in other lands and other generations. In my experience this method works better than following random play lists on iTunes, or random recommendations on Amazon. The winnowing process to burn to a CD is more selective, and perhaps because it is being made for a specific person -- me -- it is, well, more personalized.
My second method is a more automatic version of "what's on your iPod?", yet brings me a wider range of songs. For one or two days a month I queue up David Byrne's Radio Station on the web and listen to his two-hour loop of new, wonderful, delicious tunes. Rock-star Byrne is a professional musical pioneer, admirably eclectic in his taste, yet astutely discriminating at the same time. Over years of listening to all kinds of music -- experimental, indie, international, fringe, classical, pop -- he's heard enough to make some great recommendations. Given his reputation he is constantly asked what he is listening to. In answer he has generously turned his play list into a streaming audio station. When you tune in, you are hearing the music he plays in his office.
Each Radio David Byrne playlist runs a few hours long before it repeats; it keeps cycling the whole month. It's kind of like listening to a 2-hour album over and over again.This gives you a chance to "master" the new music you are hearing. Past playlists have focused on "Icelandic Pop," "Movie sound tracks," "Opera highlights," or, my favorite, "Eclectic Stuff." This month (Feb 08) the theme is "African Fusion Pop" -- Byrne's favorites from two decades of exploring modern African hits.
I listen to each list for a few days as I work, slowly accumulating my favorites. There is a handy Amazon link near the tunes available for download, which makes adding a new song to your own collection a no-brainer. Or you can copy the metadata and hunt for it on iTunes or E-Music, etc. Byrne earns a few cents for each download, which keeps his bandwidth going. Over several years of listening a few hours per month I've gotten a great education in contemporary music. I know Dylan has a satellite radio show, but really, more legends should do this -- stream what you love.
Besides the fact that Byrne's Radio station has introduced me to fantastic artists (sometimes preempting my kids!), I also like the fact that it is demonstrating a workable, legal (at the moment) model for music exploration: Expert + Sharing + Purchase.
After extensive comparisons of the surprisingly small number of inexpensive, quality options for listening to my digitized music on my hi-fi audio system, I went with Roku's very reasonably-priced SoundBridge M1001 network music player. The latest SoundBridge model uses wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi (including WEP or WPA security) to stream music from my hard drive to my stereo. While my stereo set-up is far from audiophile, it still sounds a lot better than my laptop or plug-in speakers.
Following months of ripping the thousands of CDs in my collection, I now have more gigabytes of music on my laptop than even the largest iPod can hold, so plugging an mp3 player into my stereo wasn't an option. I also find it too much trouble to tote the computer from my desk to the other room where my stereo sits to connect it with an audio cable. Plus, then I can't use the computer while it sits tethered up on the shelf next to the receiver.
As a universal jukebox, the SoundBridge gives me convenient access to all my digitized music. It also offers built in search for the countless Internet radio stations out there, which expands my music choices nearly infinitely. The device itself is small and very attractive, and installation was mostly easy. SoundBridge found my home wireless network and connected instantly as soon as I entered the password. The manual is clearly written, and I was able to learn the device's menus and functions pretty quickly. I refuse to use iTunes because it is a system hog on my Windows machine. I rely on WinAmp instead, but the Firefly Media Server (offered by Roku as a free download) works fine, as will the media server built into Windows Media Player. Both server options (and the others detailed on Roku's site) quickly read the tags on my audio files and provide a seamless browsing and searching opportunity, with support for all the playlists I have created, too. Just to be clear, the SoundBridge does NOT connect to a computer's soundcard, so it can't be used to stream the sound from a DVD being played, for example.
All of the set-up and navigation is done with a small infrared remote control that comes with the SoundBridge device. While shaped nicely for my hand, the remote is actually the least impressive element of the system. I find it a bit flimsy and the squishy buttons give little tactile (or aural) feedback, so I may eventually replace it with a universal remote. That said, I am immensely happy with the system, and I'm free to listen to music but still use my laptop wherever and whenever I want.
I've been using an evaluation unit of the recently-released Calisto Pro phone and Bluetooth headset for a few months and absolutely love it. I replaced an old phone in my office and set this system up on my business line; I clip the handset on my belt when I am away from my desk so I don't have to run into my office to pick up from there. It is the details that really matter. The base is compact and elegant, and because the only dock for the headset is in the base unit, you never have to worry about losing the headset. The soft-clip on the phone opens easily and it's placed on the phone upside down, so when a call comes in you can easily glance down and easily read the screen right side up. The handset also has a built-in speakerphone that is just tremendous, both when docked in the base and used remotely. But the headset is so elegantly integrated with the phone (and it has a long voice-tube for a change!) that one hardly needs the speakerphone function. The system can also sync with Outlook and has a bunch of neat extras, like elegant switching among land, VOIP and cellular calls. Though I haven't used them in my office, I have seen these features demo'd. I've yet to replace my cell phone headset with this one, but I really should, as the Calisto Pro headset is much better. However, this would be a terrific product even if it had no headset because of the quality of the DECT-6 protocol, which delivers tremendous sound quality on the handset. Battery life is also very solid, and so is range, though of course the laws of physics still apply and thus it matters where you put the base and what sort of building you are in. Set up is no different from an ordinary cordless phone -- no need to read directions or the like; it is all very self-evident plug-and-play sort of experience. Just plug into the wall jack and plug in the power supply. When a call comes in, picking up the handset is as easy as picking up a traditional phone. All in all, this is the first cordless headset phone I consider good enough for a home office -- and I've been buying cordless headset phones since the mid-80s and have more than I can count moldering away in boxes. Interestingly, Plantronics is the company that built the headset used by Neal Armstrong when he first stepped on the Moon!
-- Paul Saffo
Calisto Pro Hands-Free Phone System
$250
Available from Amazon
This is one of the "games" that will likely get me to finally shell out for Nintendo's DS Lite. The three weeks I spent indulging in a preview copy on a borrowed DS were rather satisfying. As with Electroplankton, you touch a stylus to the screen to create sounds, except in this case you're playing an actual, well, virtual instrument: six-string guitar. You change chords with the D-pad. The stylus can be strummed soft or hard, fast or slow. And the responsiveness was impressive, especially considering you're playing a pocket-sized system. There are note-by-note, karaoke-like instructions for a range of contemporary and classic rock and pop songs. Personally, I enjoyed simply tinkering with chord changes and all the effects.
If you're a musician, this could be a fun, albeit potentially-productive, way to pass a long flight. If you're not a musician, this is a solid way to learn chords and songs by doing, but without investing in an object that will take up space or make too much noise. With Jam Sessions, you can put on headphones and rock out whenever, wherever. Some say gaming -- and the web, too -- causes a disconnect between you and the "real world." That said, playing Jam Sessions inspired me to dig out my retired, old steel string to try out some of the digital ditties I composed while riding public transit.
Here's a video of a decent cover of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin''"; if you know the song, the sound from the game should be pretty convincing (at 00:44, you really get the full effect) -- sl
Tape Op is the only music geek magazine worth buying -- and it's free. Widely eclectic and ever encouraging, the main premise seems to be "Try, and trust your ears." Pro, semi-pro, and DIY info sits comfortably side-by-side. Pros read it, hobbyists read it, some kids read it, all get something from it. Tape Op will give step-by step demos of, for instance, modding a certain low-cost microphone to get more bang for the buck written by a guy who sell his own mics for thousands. Or they talk to a guy with a barn full of home-made analog synths or someone who makes music out of sounds from antique recordings. The mag offers information in all kinds of directions, but it only wants you to do your own thing with it, what ever that is. Tape Op's philosophy: use your ears and twist some knobs, learn all you can, then forget about it. Standards are explained, history is explored first-person, but rules might be thrown out the window. An undercurrent regarding how unrealistic and difficult it is to run a studio coexists with inspiring tales about the pleasure and pride that comes from recording music. The contributors work hard in their own studios and know what they're talking about. A large community of recordists supports contributing articles and a lively online Q and A page (later edited and published). Recent profiles have run the gamut from legendary producers/engineers to seriously indie/outsider recordists; all have a jones for doing what they do their own way.
A recent, typical issue reviewed a mic you can buy for a steal on eBay for $40 and a mic that streets for $7,000. They don't waste time writing slagging reviews; they review only what might be useful to someone on some level. On one hand, you can learn a lot by reading about something you may never be able to afford. On the other, you see that despite how amazing, desirable and beautiful that thing is -- and this where most music mags stop -- you don't really need it. It might be a great tool for someone, but you don't have to need it. Record reviews, written in the same "we like this" spirit, lean indie and outside, but might go anywhere. I always read about something I don't know, but wouldn't mind hearing. It's independently published and paid for by ads from all kinds of audio-related concerns, but beholden to no one, so it's neither slick nor slimy. Other recording magazines often seem to be trolling for sales or hyping an image. Their editorial decisions are suspect, noising on about last year's retreads, repeating a press release, offering the same tutorials you could find in another magazine -- or the library(!). The 'net offers a lot of basic DIY sites you can learn from, but will they print an interview with Rupert Neve, as issue by issue, you learn about the products that riff on his designs? How about talking to Rudy Van Gelder (who recorded all the classic Blue Note jazz) about taping John Coltrane in the living room of his parent's house in New Jersey?
I've been subscribing since 1997-8 when a producer I met turned me onto it. There is absolutely nothing out there like it. Nowadays my job is production manager/soundcheck and rehearsal substitute/backline tech for a three-time Grammy winning artist. I work with and have hired top-notch audio pros and I learn a great deal from them. Tape Op has often given me insight that keeps me apace in our discussions and what I learn from them takes me deeper into the magazine. However, Tape Op also has allowed me to nourish a side-line in sound designing/composing for theatre when I am off the road. When no one's paying me and I'm home with the kids asleep, I record my music or occasionally, friends. That is where the knife really gets sharpened and what I have taken in from Tape Op gets put to the test.
Podcasts are audio programs you subscribe to. You can easily manage your subscriptions through iTunes, but finding great stuff that remains great over the long haul, month after month, is not easy. There's lots of single issue podcasts, but not many programs you'll want to hear on a regular basis.
For the past several years I've been actively auditing podcasts while in my car. I've tried all kinds of stuff -- one time talks, home-made riffs, occasional raves by brilliant geniuses, and regular fragments of broadcast material. I have two criteria: I want to be surprised, and I want to learn.
In the past 12 months I have settled my listening time on three regular podcasts, which I look forward to eagerly. I can heartily recommend all three. They share these characteristics: they are one-hour, weekly podcasts of non-fiction that begin as broadcasts on public radio. I know the whole point of podcasting is to let a million amateur voices bloom, but what can I say? Week after week, what I crave is well-crafted, compelling audible surprises that tell me something I didn't know. That is what you get with these free podcasts. One hour gives time to go deep, weekly gives room to experiment, but doesn't overwhelm the way daily does (I dropped Fresh Air because I couldn't keep up), and non-fiction keeps me learning.
One thing to keep in mind: podcasts are meant to be "subscribed to" as they are delivered, which means getting "back copies" or archived editions of formerly broadcast podcasts may not easy. You may have to either listen to them as streaming audio, or pay for a download.
This weekly broadcast from the BBC in London is a testimony to the benefits of intellectuals and professors. Every week the mumbling host Melvyn Bragg invites three English professors (usually from Oxford or Cambridge) to discuss the most obscure subject of their expertise. They are only too happy to talk about that thing they know more about than anyone. By forcing the eggheads to be succinct, or demanding they restate a concept until clear, In Our Time delivers an incredibly fascinating glimpse into an unknown world in sufficient detail to make the conversation memorable. Imagine a whole hour each on: The Speed of Light; Indian Mathematics; The Siege of Constantinople; Gravitational Waves; The Trial of Madame Bovary; Anaesthetics; Joan of Arc; Ockham's Razor. Those are some of the topics I've heard in recent months. I've learned that the more obscure the subject, the more revelatory detail, and the more it becomes fascinating.
It's hard to describe the innovative audio sensibility in a Radio Lab show. Sounds and speech are layered, cut, remixed, and spot-lighted in a way that could be very annoying, but isn't. Instead these experiments add subtlety, animation, and depth to otherwise talking voices. Each session of Radio Lab takes a broad subject like Placebos, or Forgetting, and explores the idea in sound and words non-linearly, with great intelligence, originality, and daring. They ask hard questions, and keep circling it until they come close to an answer. It's a lot of fun. They also do a wonderful job integrating their website material (links, bibliography, further research) into the hour. You can download past programs as mp3. Start with the Musical Languages show.
True stories about anything. Simply the best thing on radio. Possibly ever. Host Ira Glass has been pioneering the art of telling non-fiction stories for 10 years. He gives each voice time to stumble, pause, or lunge forward. But not a nanosecond is wasted. You hear what happened to people that makes their lives human. Every story on This American Life has an emotional narrative arc, and is often about transformation. Each story is told in an honest, original voice, and will make you cry or laugh. It is not uncommon for people to sit in their cars at their destination in order to hear the end of a story. That was the main drawback of This America Life: I wasn't usually in my car when it broadcast on the radio. Now with the podcast version I catch the three stories -- and their endings -- every week.
Logic is the Photoshop for music. With Logic, an audio software package from Apple, you can capture, process, filter, manipulate, correct, fiddle, compose, edit and endlessly tweak musical sounds to your heart's content. It's not the first music software, of course. Apple's beginner program Garage Band is a hint in the general direction, and Avid's ProTools is the expensive professional competitor to beat. And there are about a dozen other decent audio managing software packages available and in wide use, including a few basic free options. But Logic is gaining a reputation among some pros as the best one for music makers.
I was turned onto Logic by Brian Eno, who like many other musicians, is using it as his primary creative tool. Logic is the software he uses to compose music, and it's what he uses in the studio while producing albums of some the world's best-selling bands. I asked him how it compared to the current professional audio recording program, ProTools, which has become the default in most recording studios, and why he would recommend Logic over ProTools for musicians. Eno said:
I think my main arguments come in three varieties. Protools is a fine system, but it is definitely more orientated towards recording than impromptu creation. It doesn't handle midi as well as Logic does, and in general it doesn't take so kindly to the improvisational way of working which you can adopt in Logic. Most importantly, it doesn't come bundled with all the interesting plug-ins and ready made loops that come with Logic. For instance I created a little song in my hotel room one night [as a gift, posted here] which I could not have done there in Protools. Logic's main strength, until recently at least, is that it is a high quality format (although I have to confess the actual audio difference is increasingly minimal to me).
And this brings me to my second thought. Protools is a stand-alone system with its own hardware and software. Logic is an Apple-owned system. What this means to me is that Logic benefits from every advance that Apple computers make in the evolution of their hardware -- and I think Protools just won't be able to keep up with them. Remember Apple only just bought Logic, and the next version of Logic is expected to be a huge leap forward. I think Protools just won't have the resources to match Apple in that arena.
Last thing: you can carry Logic on your laptop and play, compose, create on the plane, wherever.
Logic, like Photoshop, is a complex, deep, powerful piece of software that will take some time to learn, and will cost you a bundle. But you will never exhaust it. And like Photoshop, which comes in a slightly "lighter" and significantly cheaper version (PhotoShop Elements), Logic also comes in a cheaper lite version called Logic Express. Most folks won't miss the few deleted features in Logic Express, and you can upgrade easily when desired.
StewMac isn't the only catalogue, nor the oldest, but every luthier and instrument repair dude I know has one on a shelf by his/her bench. I've been getting the catalogue for 6-7 years to find and order replacement and upgrade parts. I buy instruments at garage sales and fix them up to give away or use (I play a bunch of lute-family instruments -- own about 10 guitars, a couple of banjos, a sitar, a bandurria, a ukulele).
StewMac carries some really unusual tools and they have the widest selection I've seen: fret files, bridge plate iron, inlay routing jigs, saws for mother-of-pearl and abalone, bushing pullers. They carry specialty glues, hard-to-find woods (Sitka spruce, koa, curly maple, Indian rosewood), laminated paua abalone, pre-sawn wood blanks for mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, and guitars.
If you've busted a hole in your guitar, you can also get the repair supplies, tools, and instructional books/videos to fix it for less than the guy at the shop will quote for doing the job. StewMac put in a minimum order of $30 not long ago, but I still think it's a fair deal.
Nothing compliments a campfire like a harmonica, but if you're looking for a new and challenging pocket noisemaker, I highly recommend the jaw harp. Much like a didgeridoo, you can create trance-inducing vibrations that will annoy some and mesmerize others. On its own, your mouth can learn to make some pretty great sounds, but it's remarkable what can be accomplished with this little doohickey. Just the slightest change in breath and flickering of the tongue shapes the sound dramatically.
The history is part of the appeal. I purchased mine in rural Tennessee, but the harp's roots are deeper than American folk. Some say the instrument was born in Asia and migrated to Europe around the 13th century. Archaic versions of these twangers have been found everywhere from England to the Philippines and Siberia (there are several names, including the "mouth" or "jew" harp, which seemingly bears no connection to Judaism). Pluck and listen, and time travel while plucking some more. When you get light-headed -- and you will -- do take a breather.
I too was struck by the mesmerising sound of the jaw harp when I heard Mike Seeger play one. I searched around and finally decided on the Whitlow. At $25, this is a really good buy. It is hand made in America by one guy who learned to make it from the Whitlow guy who originally made them. I also purchased the harp mentioned above, because it is so cheap. But the Whitlow is just so superior I couldn't stand the tinny vibrations and lack of resonance of the cheap one. The Whitlow plays like butter the first time you play it. It resonates for a long time and is really loud. Get the lowest key you can find. I have a low D. You can make some really haunting, low frequency sounds by breathing in and out while twanging.
I've used Etymotic's product for years and the ER-6's offer great audio quality (it's astonishing to hear the clear noise of a pick hitting guitar strings, or a singer quietly breathing during an instrumental), but what's most impressive is just how phenomenal their noise isolation performance is, particularly with blocking low-level noise in airplanes. 34-36 dB, depending on which ear tip you use. They come with foam tips like the UM In-Ear Monitors or rubbery flange tips which are quieter, but may not fit everyone as well. These headphones do better than any of the expensive, battery dependent ANC headsets I've come across, including the top shelf ones I used when I was a private pilot. And they come close to silencing the droning hum of a passenger airliner. The noise isolation is so very good I'd be nervous to wear these while jogging -- you wouldn't hear someone shout a warning at you.
Etymotic has a lot of data about the frequency response range and noise isolation characteristics of their headphones on their website (I'm a neuroscientist, so lots of data makes me feel comfortable). Westone (makers of the UMs) doesn't provide as much detailed information, but from what I gather the UMs, which are a bit more expensive, don't have quite as deep base response -- they go down to 40 Hz while Etymotic's go to 20 Hz. Etymotic also provides data on accuracy of sound reproduction across the frequency range. They demonstrate 90% accuracy for the ER-6, which they claim is the highest accuracy of all in-ear headphones except their own more expensive ER-4 (92%).
I've tried loads of less expensive headsets and a few higher end ones like the Bose X ANC headset and some models from Shure. In my hands the ER-6 vastly, vastly outperforms any low-end stuff -- so much so that it blows my mind that people listen to their iPods with the standard earphones. On the high end, the Bose works well with ANC but terribly when the batteries die -- and its sound reproduction isn't as convincing as the ER-6. The more expensive Shure models are pretty much the same as the Etymotics (I think the Shure E3c is the most direct match up in the product line). There may be some technical advantages one way or the other, but I really couldn't hear the difference. Both companies offer a high-end model, which is substantially more expensive -- in those cases I could hear a very small advantage over the cheaper products, but certainly not enough to justify the huge price difference.
I haven't tried any dual-drivers in general, because many are a chunk more expensive than the Etymotics (about $100). With that price differential I'd expect some to be substantially better in quiet environments, on par with Etymotic's ER-4 line. But the ER-6 still claims substantially better noise isolation than Ultimate Ears, for instance (35 dB versus 26 dB, a massive difference on the log scale). I frequently use my ER-6's on airlines without plugging them into anything, just to quiet things down while I sleep.
One last point: The ER-6 has a relatively high impedance, which means that devices like the iPod won't have enough power to play at extremely high volumes. This has never been a problem with my iPod, because the excellent noise isolation means that lower volumes are preferable. You trade off a little sound accuracy in exchange for low impedance, but for those who prefer VERY loud music, the low-impedance model called the ER-6i would be a better choice (ed.: see below*).
-- Ashish Ranpura
ER-6 Isolator Earphones
$72
Available from ProVantage
These tiny in-ear units sound fantastic, feel comfortable, and do an excellent job of blocking out ambient sounds. When I write, I like to get out of the house and into a coffee shop, where I can enjoy free WiFi, fresh coffee, great vibes, and walls of art. But the main attractions of a public space (other people) can also be their biggest problems (crying babies, the espresso machine or the barista's choice of music). To block the noise, I started wearing high-density foam earplugs, but I like to listen to music when I work. Even with nice headphones, my music was frequently swamped by the house music. The best, relatively inexpensive solution I've found has been a pair of Etymotic ER6i's.
I generally keep the sound level far from loud, but there are times when I'm listening to very quiet passages outdoors, and the ability to crank up the volume at those moments lets me catch nuances that would otherwise get lost amidst birds, kids, and so on. Some spoken-word podcasts seem to reliably dip into barely-audible once or twice per podcast, so I also ride the gain at those times.
The earbuds come with four different types of removable isolators (three are variations on plastic flanges, the other is a nub of high-density foam), so you can find the type that is most comfortable and effective for you. I resisted earbuds for years because they usually make my ears hurt after only a few minutes, but I can wear the ER6i buds comfortably for a couple of hours at a stretch before wanting a break.
It's important to note that the very qualities that make these earbuds so attractive in a coffee shop can be dangerous if you're outside: you may very well not hear a car horn, a shout from an approaching bicyclist, or a piano dropping on your head from high above. These earbuds would be a poor choice for jogging or even walking in the park, but in a safe, stable environment they're terrific.
The ER6i buds are a version of the company's ER6 model, modified for use with portable players in both indoor and outdoor environments. Compared to their predecessors, the ER6i models are offer a lower impedance (making them more energy efficient), and have a slightly modified frequency response, offering a touch more bass and a little less treble.
The buds also come with a convenient carry bag, so you don't have to wrap up the cord tightly, which can put a lot of strain on them and cause internal breakage. Just smoosh them up into the bag and zipper it shut. This almost always keeps them free of tangling.
-- Andrew G.
ER6i Isolator Earphones
$68
Available from ProVantage
Nothing will ruin your guitar worse than drying out: it will warp your neck and crack your soundboard. I have used this humidifier, which rests between the strings, for my classical guitar for the last six years. It is way superior to any other system like the Damp-It, which is just a regular sponge. Before getting this humidifier I had something called the Humitar for a while. You filled it up with water and the material on the surface was always damp through osmosis. It was a pain, rusted the strings and even developed mold. I replaced it with the Planet Waves almost as soon as it was introduced. The Planet Waves model holds more water than a regular sponge, so I only have to refill it every two weeks, and it doesn't leak (note: when I travel, I remove it from between the strings and keep it in the case to make sure it doesn't fall between the strings into the soundhole).
You will also need a hygrometer to go along with this humidifier. As soon as the humidity hits around 45%, I take the humidifier out of the case to avoid over humidifying the guitar, which can weaken the glue that holds the neck to the body and the bridge to the soundboard. I live in Toronto (a dry climate in the winter and humid in the summer), so I already had a room hygrometer and cigar case hygrometer for the room where I store my instruments. Otherwise I would have purchased the sensor made by Planet Waves (see below).
I have long had what guitarists refer to as GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). But even if you have just one guitar and aren't a gearhead, this humidifier will help maintain the quality of your instrument's sound, so it's a cheap and worthy investment. And if you're not a guitarist, Planet Waves (a division of the string makers D'Addario) also makes large and small models for other acoustic instruments.
-- Mark Chow-Young
Planet Waves Acoustic Guitar Humidifier
$9
Available from Amazon
This device works with any FM radio to turn your PC or laptop into a small, localized stereo FM radio station. We use it to broadcast music to stereos and radios around our house (it has a range of about 10 meters). Rather than opt for a Squeezebox or another steaming media appliance like the LinkSys WMA11B (which we tried), we found the Rocket FM to be a much simpler, cheaper solution that still has superb sound quality.
It works with PC or Mac and it's USB-based so it doesn't need batteries like a lot of the other devices out there. The Belkin TuneCaster and TuneCaster II aren't too bad - and they are platform independent -- but the sound quality is not as good and they do require batteries. The Griffin iTrip is a version specifically for the iPod, but it's just for the iPod, so it isn't useful around the house. The Rocket FM really is the best no-frills home tunecasting device I've found.
Music playing simultaneously in every room of your house is a luxurious experience, and decidedly different from a song playing in a single room. Music in a room is a dim, blurry sonic echo if you're not in front of the speakers. But music everywhere is an environment that envelopes you as you go about your day. Of course to get this experience, you could run speaker wire to a second room and connect up a second set of speakers, but that's not the same enveloping sonic goodness of a whole house system.
Used to be whole-house music systems were only for the very rich. You needed a rack of amplifiers (two channels for every room), a pre-amp, switcher, control unit, and then in-room controllers either hand-held or built into the walls, plus cabling from the speakers in each room homerunned back to the equipment, which probably needed its own closet because there was so much of it, it was so loud, and so hot. Crestron, Niles and others have made good money catering to this rarefied market. But the systems are pretty bespoke (there is no standard OS, the equipment is not interchangeable, you need an installer to set them up, you had to destroy walls to run cables, etc.), they were inherently less reliable than mass produced equipment, and they were, as I said, so expensive (as in $20-50K and up for equipment alone, plus design and installer time in addition) that only the wealthy could afford them. Oh, and none of them can connect to the consumer music server standard that we all use and love -- iTunes. That's right, they all use proprietary or non-Apple servers.
That was then. But now if you want a whole house music system, you have a much lower cost, more reliable, and more functional alternative: Sonos. It isn't cheap, but it's a lot cheaper than the previous bespoke solutions. It's dead easy to install -- literally anyone can do it. It connects seamlessly to the iTunes music library, as well as giving you access to internet radio stations. And it's just completely thought out. Sonos is one of the two best consumer electronic products ever created, the other being the Garmin Nuvi.
Sonos comes in two flavors: with and without amplifiers. Either can connect via ethernet or wirelessly to your computer with its iTunes library (you can also use other libraries if you want). The Sonos unamplified units -- smaller than an Apple Mini -- mate with amplifiers (or receivers) you probably already have that are connected to speakers. The Sonos amplified units (think the size of a big old family bible) drive speakers where you don't already have amps. Both type of units talk to each other via a mesh network. You can lash up to 32 of the beasts together if you're so inclined. The sound across the entire network is in perfect sync. (Airport Express, in contrast, has a limit of, I believe three units, because it can't handle the data in way that can keep the units delivering the sound simultaneously without lags). And the fidelity is exemplary -- I rip all my music to Appleloss, and every room is playing music as if the CD is present, not ripped to a server at the other end of the house.
How easy is it to set up? You can install the software and set up half-a-dozen of these units in an hour. Once installed, the systems are rock solid. And if you ever have problems, online and telephone support is conscientious, even exemplary. You get the feeling they really want you to have your system working right, and for you to be happy.
You can control the whole system from your computer, selecting music and playing it in one, all, or a combination of rooms, at different volumes for each room. For instance, you can play different music in each room; or you can play music from your iTunes library in one room, or an internet radio station in another, etc. A better way to control the Sonos system is with the Sonos wireless handheld controller, which has a scroll wheel like the iPod and a color LCD screen which provides all the functionality of the Sonos computer software. You don't need one per room -- per floor is more like it.
Sonos is a lot cheaper than the old bespoke whole house system. Two unamplified players with one handheld controller will run you $1000. You still need an amp and speakers for each player. Or you can buy two amplified players (and the amps are decent 50W units) and one controller for $1200. Each extra controller will run $400, each unamplified player $350, and each amplified player $500. And Sonos has a deal with Rhapsody where you can subscribe to their million song library for $10 a month (sound quality is only mediocre MP3, but being able to sample virtually all current releases for ten bucks a month is pretty compelling).
Sonos: Not cheap, but an entirely more affordable luxury than whole house music systems used to be.
More than an entertaining tale about the birth of the iPod (which it is), this book is a 12-horn hallelujah chorus celebrating how this "perfect thing" is propelling music from the past into the future. What's perfect is not Apple's porcelain white gizmo, but the new roles and ways of music. Veteran tech writer Steven Levy explores this new "always on" culture with intelligence and ease.
-- KK
The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness
Steven Levy
2006, 272 pages
$17
Available from Amazon
Sample excerpts:
As The New York Times' music critic Kelefa Sanneh put it, "Obscure ain't what it used to be... it's getting harder to find any music at all that's hard to find."
*
Ive believes that a key to that Zen-like goal was the color of the original iPod. The subject of the iPod's glossy white polymer finish is something so deep that it reduces the normally articulate Ive to fits and stutters. ..."If you just think from an Apple point of view, we started out as the color company" -- here he is talking about the first iMac, which added color to what had been the drab beige prison of computing -- "and then we came out with these sort of unapologetic, perfect white products."
*
Now Jobs was reflective again. "The iPod is three years old next month," he told me. "When we started this, nobody really knew what it was, and people that did really didn't believe it would be a big hit. And when we were trying to do the iTunes Music Store, it was" -- he paused, groping for the phrase -- "such an uphill battle. Everybody in the industry [thought it wouldn't work]. It was almost impossible. And to see it blossom into what it's become, and to see U2 performing at our event, it was just --" He stopped, and an extremely rare moment passed when Steve Jobs was at a loss for what to say next. "I'm trying to think of the word," he finally said. Another long silence. "I don't have a word," he concluded, obviously moved, giving an Academy Award level performance, or both. He gave a long sigh. "When they were on," he continued, "I was sitting next to one of my close colleagues at Apple and I socked him on the leg really hard and said, 'We're going to remember this for the rest of our lives.' That's how I felt. It was really great."
Similarly, the music industry will remember iPod for the rest of its life. However long that is.
*
Every time a song arrives in this musical DNA shop, an analyst will devote twenty to thirty minutes of intense concentration to identifying as many as four hundred distinct variables, or "genes". Just to capture the emotional metrics of the singing voice, there are thirty-two variables-- things like timbre, vibrato, pitch, and range. "Any voice can be understood as the combination of these genes," says Westergren. When this system is applied to all the instruments as well as the traits of the song -- tempo, amplitude, etc -- the analyst produces a precis. if done right, says Westergren, another analyst can look at and virtually play the whole song in his or her head. More to the point, using this Music Genome Project, you can automate what a disk-jocky does to customize a set according to your tastes.
I bought a Nintendo GameBoy DS just to play this game. Designed by the legendary Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, this little gem allows you to draw music. I have always wanted to make music, but I never mastered an instrument. This tiny thing is that wondrous instrument. It lets me construct harmonic and melodic sounds in pictures. The joy of making my own music instantly and visually is intoxicating. Computer-assisted music making is nothing new. What's simply fantastic here is the utterly beautiful and ingenious interface that Iwai-san has devised, and the ease and fun it provides.
To make music I take the little Nintendo touch-screen stylus and drag around cute little sprites on the screen (it's supposed to be for kids). Musical notes in the shape of single-cell organisms bounce around between them. These "electro-plankton" jump, swim, ricochet, wiggle, and ripple sounds. By arranging the cells in different patterns, under different environments, I can direct them to play interesting melodies and rhythms. But since these little sprites are creatures themselves, they have a little bit of their own action. The music is co-created. The sound is never random noise, but coherent in some strange way. It's a visual and audible treat. When I play with it I feel good. That's all it does. However, I know of a few musicians who use this game for their professional music, almost like a sketchbook. You can export tunes from it via the speaker port. Yet, Electroplankton is not a general purpose music machine; the style of sounds it generates is limited to an underwatery ambiance. It's closer to art than a game. But it is a strangely endearing toy, perfect for sonic doodling.
-- KK
Electroplankton, for the Nintendo DS
$70
Available from Amazon
You can spend a lot of money on an acoustic guitar these days and end up with an instrument that doesn't improve with age, either tonally or aesthetically. With CNC machines and other robotic aids, assembling a decent instrument is no longer the exclusive province of the master luthier. Now that any idiot can do it, any idiot does, and the results vary wildly. I don't know how any beginner is expected to choose wisely from such a tawdry lot and end up with something worth passing on to their kids.
I've owned and played professionally close to a hundred fine instruments in the 35 years I've been playing and I've ended up being something of an accidental Martin collector. When people ask me what they should buy for their first guitar, I tell them to go straight to their nearest authorized Martin dealer and get a OO-15 or an OM-15. (The OM-15 is no longer in the Martin catalog as of 2003 but is still available used; I just saw one on eBay for $495). These all-mahogany instruments are an absolute steal in today's wacky market. They are spartan versions of Martin's multi-thousand dollar OO and OM models, offering the same playability but without the Nashville flash. Simple, honest, great-sounding, great-looking guitars that can take a beating and will last a lifetime -- all for a less than a grand. I bought my OO-15 new for $700 with a Martin hard case, and my beloved OM-15 slightly used for $550 with the same case. The OM-15 is slightly larger, with a wider fretboard suitable for fingerpicking styles and/or larger hands. Both instruments have a characteristic "airy" sound from the mahogany top, making them particularly well-suited for recording. They don't boom, nor do they crackle; they hum with a satisfying balance, strummed or fingerpicked. The satin-finished mahogany is lower maintenance than the softer spruce tops, and minor dings disappear in the dark chocolate-colored grain patterns. By the way, the "O" in both names refers to Orchestra, not the number zero, so say "oh-M".
I'm in research mode, interviewing experts for my book. I had been using an Olympus mini-cassette recorder, and wasn't too unhappy with it, but a few years ago professional journalists convinced me to try out a solid-state digital recorder. I settled on an early Olympus Digital Recorder and it's been pure delight. There are many more models to choose from now. Each is solid state and essentially a small capacity MP3 player with a built in microphone.
The advantages over the mini-cassette: 1) Ultra-tiny and light, it's truly pocket size, only as long as your finger, but twice as fat. It's only weight seems to be the two AA batteries. 2) Digital sound; the built-in mike is fantastically keen and sharp. I usually don't need the lavaliere mike I used to use with the analog machine. 3) No tapes. I can get up to five hours in this little thing; other versions can get 11 hours. 4) Easy download. After each session I merely plug it into the USB port and it dumps the recording to my hard disk. (Has a nice MacOSX version!). 5) Best part, the files are easily scannable, and bookmarked on my computer. I find I can more readily zip back and forth through an interview to find the parts I want, rather than have the whole affair transcribed. 6) But if I want to, the files are easily transmitted to transcribers via email or the web. No more packaging up tapes. 7) Lastly, the audio files can be easily posted for general archival purposes on the web or elsewhere.
Downsides: Olumpus does not record in MP3 but its own compressed format. It's more compressed than MP3 and so files are easier to email, but you have to convert them if you want to share them openly.
I carry mine in my bag, next to a Radio Shack itsy bitsy lav mike for extra sound quality in noisy rooms.
There are many Olympus models, some as low as $32, but those don't have a USB plug -- they are listen only. The cheapest one that has a USB outlet to move the digital files is, I believe, the 960PC for $80. But this model does not work with the Mac for some strange reason. The least expensive Olympus model I found that will work with the Mac is the DS-2, which goes for about $100.
None of these models remain in production long.
-- KK
Olympus Digital Voice Recorder
VN 960
$80
Available from Amazon
This is one of those tools that I've been using for so long that it's just become a small part of my life.
For some odd reason, I often find myself in need of sounds of all sorts to plug a particular hole in a project. Just as stock photos are a great tool for designers and multimedia creators, sounds can be used to quickly set the mood or form transitions between disparate elements. Whether physical sound effects ( e.g. crickets, birds, gunshots, explosions, doorbells, everything under the sun), more creative effects (zips, zonks, beeps, and wooshes), and instrumental music of all kinds and emotions, Sounddogs is the perfect source for sounds of all kinds. Most effects are in the $3-$5 range, making it reasonable to collect sounds for multimedia projects, theater, and the ever so fun practical joke. The sounds themselves are delivered as CD-quality AIFF or WAV files right after you order; no shipping delays. You can browse through the entire catalog and listen to low-quality full-length previews of everything. It's truly addictive (and useful)!
-- Zach Lipton
[Sounddogs also offers background and mood music, and CDs by mail order. --CP]
Available from Sounddogs
Free audio browsing; cost for downloading a CD-quality clip varies from $2 to $10.
[Intrigued by this succinct summary, I went digging and found some oddly lyrical reviews of the Buddha Machine. Its nine variants of "soothing" electronic ambient sound--perhaps better described as ambient music--fade from one to the next. A line output allows connection to a stereo system. Supposedly Brian Eno bought eight of them. --CP]
Once all music is available online, for free, what's a musician to do? House concerts are one alternative. Instead of plying a circuit of poorly-paid bars, clueful musicians can now rely on their fans to organize, promote, and pay for small, intimate, private performances in their homes and other non-traditional venues. Fans win, and performers win (by earning more). This slim book explains to both fans and musicians how this new system works.
-- KK
The Complete Guide to House Concerts
Nyree Belleville
2003, 120 pages
$15
Available from Amazon
House Concerts: They're folk presenting
By Tom Neff
This is a pretty good online introduction to the house concert scene. Great start for fans to locate a house concert, and for musicians to set up one.
-- KK
Sample Excerpts:
What is a house concert?
The definition's flexible, but generally, it's a show that's presented in someone's home, or a nearby private space (barn, backyard, shearing tent, you name it).
* Usually, but not always, the audience capacity is smaller than at a coffeehouse or club.
* The money collected usually (but not always) goes straight to the performers, with no "profit motive" on the presenter's part.
* Often, but not always, house concerts are conducted "by invitation" (for practical reasons we'll get into later), rather than as "public" concerts like a club or concert hall.
* Often - again with exceptions - there is little or no "sound system" - performers play and sing acoustically, unless someone needs a little amp for their keyboard.
* Refreshments, if any, are usually either a "pot luck" brought by the listeners, or provided by the hosts using a bit of the gate receipts.
* Sometimes - but definitely not always - the performers get a meal and/or lodging with the presenters as part of their compensation.
-- House Concerts, Tom Neff
*
The bottom line for traditional venues isn't pretty. The basic bar gig pays between nothing and $300, unless they're hiring a big name band that will sell a lot of expensive tickets and alcohol to their audience while they are on stage. The standard cafe either sets out a tip jar or pays you $100 for three to four hours of singing your heart out. And it may be difficult to sell CDs, simply because people have already spent their money on drinks. What's more, sometimes you get the sense that the audience would really appreciate it if you and your music would stay out of their way while they talk and have a good time.
Ready for some good news? You can make considerable more money with alternative venues and have a much better time while you're at it! If you play a house concert with 50 people and a $20 "donation" per person, you are guaranteed to go home with $1,000. And since house concerts are a practically perfect place to sell CDs, you may sell to 50 percent of the room or more, and at $15 per CD you stand to make an additional $375. If you have more than one CD, this figure will likely be even higher. Not bad for a night where all you have to do is show up, eat a delicious meal, and give a concert to a room full of captivated, music-loving people.
*
I'll be frank with you here. Almost every single great thing that has taken place in my music career has been because of a really dedicated fan. An unbelievable two-week tour of Brazil was set up for me by a fan. I played on nation-wide TV shows, got lots of airplay, was outfitted by clothing sponsors, played at the very best venues in the country, and experienced two of the best weeks of my life, all because of a fan believed in my music.
Want more? Because of a fan, I played a show with Crosby, Stills & Nash and Carlos Santana on the same night. The fan set it up. He sold it to the concert promoter. He made it happen. All I had to do was show up and play.
What about setting up tours across the country? Yes, my fans have rented out venues or hustled the owners to lend it to them for the night. They have gone on to get amazing press, print up tickets, set up venues, and make it possible for me to play sold-out shows to hundreds of people in towns where nobody has ever heard my music.
*
At the end of every house concert, at least one person will approach you because they want to set up a concert with you at their house. And once people find out that Susie is going to host one, many more will want to show you off to their friends and family too. Before the night is through you will be in the lovely position of adding several names and numbers to your house-concert file and following up with them to book a firm date for each show.
When you play bars or cafes, it is frequently a struggle even getting the booker on the phone! With house concerts, you are constantly juggling plenty of gig offers, which come with guaranteed money, a guaranteed audience, and a minimum of hassles. What could be better?
-- The Complete Guide to House Concerts
A great kit will allow you to make something you probably wouldn't make any other way. You are given all the parts, and then you assemble and finish. Musical instruments, with their exactness, fit into that category for me. Years ago I used this kit to make a simple dulcimer. It was easy to build, and beautiful to behold and hear.
-- KK
Black Mountain Dulcimer Kit
Hourglass Spruce, Model 56
$123
Available from Amazon
This is the best capo on Earth. The unique one-way cam lets you adjust tension in tiny increments with a squeeze. Unlike every other capo I've used, it can apply enough tension to cleanly fret the string without bending it sharp. Works on acoustic and electric instruments equally well. Build and finish quality is absolutely superb. The G7th capo is a brilliant piece of gear for the discerning guitarist.
-- David MacNeill
G7th Capo
25 Pounds (about $50)
Available from Amazon
Travel with your ears. This comprehensive, massive (700-plus pages), and recently updated two-volume guide to global song covers the planet, from Norwegian fiddlers to Filipino folk rockers. It's all here: what kind of music is out there, where it came from, who is playing it, and where to get it. Feeling stuck? Open up this book at random, order a CD, and enter another way of seeing.
-- KK
Rough Guide World Music
Vol. 1: Africa, Europe, Mid East
$18
Available from Amazon
Vol. 2: Latin and North America, the Caribbean, Asia & the Pacific
2000 (2nd edition),Vol. 1, 736 pages, Vol 2, 720 pages
$18
Available from Amazon
Sample Excerpt:
Indonesian Pop
Moluccan Moods Orchestra
(Piranha, Germany). If you haven't heard of the Moluccans since they held up Dutch trains in the 1970s, give this disc a listen. Traditional songs arranged in laid-back style with exciting percussion, keyboards, saxophone and flute.
Zambian Pop
From the Copperbelt...Zambian Miner's Songs
(Original Music, US). In the "African Acoustic" series, eighteen interesting-to-beautiful songs by the mine camp entertainers of the copper-belt that straddles Zambia and southeastern Zaire, field-recorded by ethno-musicologist Hugh Tracey in 1957.
Albanian
Famille Lela De Permet
Polyphonies vocales et instrumentales d'Albanie
(Indigo/Harmonia Mundi, France). Beautiful and approachable songs and instrumental music from the Permet and Korce regions of southern Albania. Wailing and sliding clarinets give this music an enchanting mournful sound.
Fill your iPod with something different. I don't mean more indie rock or the latest in hip-hop or electronica. I mean Norwegian jazz, Zaire club house, slide guitar from India, Russian underground, Ethiopian acid pop.
An awful lot of great world music can be easily had from the usual sources, including Amazon and iTunes, but most of the rest of the world's local music has very small audiences and must still be "imported." This source specializes in esoteric import CDs of traditional and contemporary world music not found on Amazon, iTunes and the like. This is the far end of the "long tail" music scene.
Marimba Magia - Papa Roncon and Grupo Katanga - $17.99
From the town of Borbon, in the Esmeraldas district of northern Ecuador, Pap� Ronc�n is a living legend. He plays the marimba and the guitar; he is a singer and a dancer. He makes musical instruments. He lives the folk music of the region. Joined by Catalina Mina Quintero on bombo and kununu, Grupo Katanga makes music that is essential, rough and irresistible.
Discopolis (Radio Three) - Various Spanish Artists - $17.99
An interesting and personal collection of what is going on in the ever so vaguely defined roots music scene in Spain, put together by Spanish Radio 3's DJ Jos� Miguel L�pez.
The Mirrors of My Soul - Rim Banna - $18.99
The Palestinian singer who gained global recognition as part of the Lullabies from the Axis of Evil project returns with a Norwegian band with a decidedly 'pop' recording of Palestinian songs. It veers from emotionally charged, sparsely arranged to full-tilt pop-rock, and has the huge advantage of not allowing a drum machine within 4000 miles of the studio. As Arab pop goes, this is thoroughly unique.
This sweetly intuitive program for ear-playing musicians slows down the tune without altering the pitch and/or plays the tune in any key you like. Crooked & complicated melody, complex ornamentation, blistering speed? With this you can tune it to your instrument, slow it down, isolate the tricky parts, put them on loops and play along with them over and over until you get it right. And marvel at how inventive and agile your favorite jazzmen/fiddlers/pipers/bluesmen/etc could and can be. If you play like this, I need say very little more: this is our wet dream, as big an invention as written music or the phonograph.
Works directly from the CD drive, or with any MP3/AIFF/Wave/AAC/M4A files on your HD, iTunes friendly, originally written for the Mac, now available for Windows as well. Download the demo, and see how it works; I believe you'll agree that the $45 price is an excellent value. I used to pay much more for those clunky old Maranzes that were nowhere near as useful, and then broke.
This cool tool has opened a whole realm of hard tunes to me. It's that social thing -- you need to play with people who are better than you, but you really don't want to waste the patience of good musicians by making them to go over that tricky part for you *again.* It's relaxing to let the machine do the machine work, and relaxing makes for good music.
The program is frequently upgraded, and upgrades are always free. (There's a note about "major upgrades may entail a slight fee", but the OSX version was free to people who'd bought classic.) A couple of times I had to email for help and was fixed up immediately apparently by the program's author, a Swedish musician and programmer named Rolf.
RadioTime is a web-based interface to the vast invisible world of sound publishing -- music, talk, news, sports, journalism, and non-fiction stories -- or what used to be called "radio."
These days you can get "radio" over the web at your convenience and in your preferred format: live in real time, downloaded, or archived. Just about any respectable station will provide some of their programs over the internet. However RadioTime aggregates the full schedules of 5,000 commercial and public radio stations and provides a uniform web-based interface to their schedules and your preferences of how and when you'd like to hear them. Like a TiVo for radio, you can browse, sort and shift the universe. You can use RadioTime to program your RadioShark, or you can simply program RadioTime to record certain select programs to your computer, or even better, drop them right into iTunes. It's then an easy hop into the iPod for playing in the car (which is how I like to use it since I am never driving when This American Life is playing on the radio.) Their web-based guide is free; to record from it they charge a $39/year subscription.
What's the difference between RadioShark and RadioTime (other than one is hardware and one is software)? If you want to time-shift or migrate to your iPod only one or two locally broadcast radios shows, then your best bet is to pay up front and plunk down your money for a RadioShark, which you can program once and thereafter pay no fees: the free radio model. A RadioShark is also great for the 50% (as of 2005) of all radio broadcasts which are still NOT bit-streamed, including many talk shows, certain sports events and so on. It's a cheap way to record the free radio you can hear -- but only what you can hear.
You can't hear much locally. Most of the great radio made will not reach your RadioShark, but it will come through RadioTime. There are 36,000 radio stations world-wide streaming some part of their programs. Only a tiny sliver of all that is produced is aired in one locale. In fact only a tiny portion of all the material produced in American public radio will play on your local station. Whole rivers of great stuff -- music, stories, interviews, talk, sports -- are flowing by invisibly. A monthly subscription to RadioTime will record your favorites, but also make visible and manageable this sonic tide, an entirely new territory. Indeed, on first entry the amount of audio material, much of it excellent, is overwhelming. I am reminded of the early web; so much so fast. RadioTime is in the first days of figuring out how to navigate through this immense hidden library (much greater than the world of TV and video); their actual launch date is March 2005. BTW, you don't need to pay RadioTime to benefit from their aggregation. You can explore and play (but not record) simply by registering.
In fact if your tastes tend toward the intellectual, then you might consider the Public Radio Fan base, which is a great index to all the public radio programs on the air. This heroic treasure is compiled and maintained by the OTHER Kevin Kelly (!). Dip into it to discover some amazing interviews, stories, and reportage that never makes it to your local station. You can then download or stream at will, or use RadioTime (its database is incorporated into RadioTime) to schedule regular recordings.
What I have wanted for some time is TiVo for the radio. The Griffin RadioSHARK is it. It's a $70 USB device that plays, pauses, and records live radio on a Mac or PC.
I want the convenience of being able to listen my favorite shows on my own schedule. If I get interrupted, I want to be able to pause the program. More than that, I want to be able to schedule recordings in advance, and I want to listen to them on my iPod. The RadioSHARK obliges.
I kept expecting something to go wrong, but nothing did. Setup was a snap, and reception was good. As I was going away for the weekend, I programmed it to record "Prairie Home Companion" and "This American Life", two of my favorite shows. When I came back, there they were. There is even an option to add a scheduled recording to an ITunes playlist, so as soon as I synched my iPod, I could take them with me.
One nit: You have to enter the date, time, station, and duration manually as there is no integrated program guide (though there is one you can get online at RadioTime.)
If you want a cheap one-way ticket into global folk music, a path that continues a long way, you want the Alan Lomax Collection Sampler disc. For a few dollars you can buy the best of a national treasure. In the 1950s folklorist Alan Lomax began the systematic field recording of folk songs in the US, Europe and the West Indies. His microphone picked up sea chants, dance reels, peddler calls, hymns from the American Deep South, calypsos, Negro spirituals, and a dizzying variety of European folk styles (which are not at all what you'd expect--they sound oriental and medieval).
Lomax's peerless enthnomusic archive was until recently difficult to access. Now Rounder Records has reissued his collection as a massive forty-CD series, The Alan Lomax Collection. The quantity and quality of this achievement is vast and world-class.
For most humans, the Sampler is a good start--an amazing, ear-tickling gathering of thirty-seven pieces of highly evolved, but sadly ephemeral, culture. Further wonderfulness can be found in the other forty discs dedicated to say, Prison Songs (two volumes), or the ballads of black cowboys known as Black Texicans, or the sacred harp music of white Baptist churches. Boredom will not be a problem; Epiphany will be likely.
-- KK
The Alan Lomax Collection Sampler
1997
$17 Rounder Amazon
A Romance singer in Asturias, the most mountainous province of Spain. Austurians sing the classical romances (ballads) of central Spain, retaining lyrics dating from the fifteenth century.
Excerpt:
Day after day I turned up ancient folk song genres totally unknown to my colleagues in Rome. By chance I happened to be the first person to record in the field over the whole Italian countryside, and I began to understand how the men of the Renaissance must have felt upon discovering the buried and hidden treasure of classical Greek and Roman antiquity. In a sense, I was a kind of musical Columbus in reverse. Nor had I arrived on the scene a moment too soon. --Alan Lomax, from the inside booklet of "Folk Music and Song of Italy; A Sampler"
I'm such a wimp when it comes to exploring pop music I don't know. This great idea helps a bit: about 100 leading pop musicians recommend their all-time favorite artists and albums, and why they
