Two Industry leaders Pass

Eugene Czerwinski founder of Cerwin-Vega died on Aug. 6, 2010 at the age of 83. A former Aerospace Engineer, he began making waves in music and audio with the development of the first solid state hi-fi amplifier in 1957. It delivered an unprecedented 125 watts of output power. He earned an Academy Award in 1974 for the development of the twin 18 inch Sensoround sub-woofer for the release of the Movie "Earthquake". He will be remembered for his mastery of the art and science of engineering and for his affection for superb bass reproduction.

Keith Barr founder of Alesis died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 61 on Aug. 24, 2010. Having left school at the age of 16 he became a largely self taught master of electronic design. He co-founded MXR Innovations with Michael Laiacona (founder of Whirwind USA) and Terry Sherwood in Rochester, NY. He later relocated to Los Angeles to be closer to the music industry and the semiconductor industry. There he founded Alesis, deriving it's name from the phrase "Algorithmic Electronic Systems". Their launch product was the first "affordable"($799) digital reverb. Alesis later moved recording studios into the digital age with their ADAT digital 8 track recorder.

Two Notable Pianos Make News

A piano played by Mozart has been discovered. Originally, built in 1775 the Fortepiano is one of eight known examples built by Christian Baumann. It is believed to be the piano that Mozart would play when he visited Strasbourg in eastern France. A vintage painting in Vienna, Austria also shows Joseph Haydn playing what well may be the very same piano. If the linage can be verified the Fortepiano could well fetch millions of Euros.

A newer piano played by a no less famous an individual came up for auction on Aug 14th in Memphis, TN. Elvis Presley's famous white Knabe piano that took center stage in his music room in Graceland from 1957 to 1969 was offered with a starting bid of $500,000 and an estimated value over a million, it none the less attracted no bidders. Blame it on the economy?, perhaps, but it could well be that it is ust not worth the $500,000 starting price let alone the cool million.

Abbey Road Studios Gets a New Digital Front End

Abbey Road Studios of Beatles fame has purchased four NTP DAD AX24 Converters that will serve as mike preamps, digital converters, and MADI encoders. These four 8 channel AD/DA converters will feed Abbey Road's Pyramix digital audio workstations. They will be used primarily for location recordings and offer ultra low noise analog preamps, high quality 24 bit digitization, and MADI (Multichannel Audio Digital Interface) encoding in a single package, greatly simplifying setup and take down. Long gone are the days of multitrack tape and sound on sound recording that gave some of those great Beatles albums their magic.

And Pearl River Gets a New Name

Pearl River Piano Group America of Ontario, CA has officially change their name to American PR Musical Instruments, Inc. The change comes as the company seeks to expand beyond their current offerings of acoustic and digital pianos. They currently also distribute pianos under the Ritmüller name. Offices, personnel, phone numbers, and support services will all be unchanged. The name change is to more accurately reflect the full range of musical instruments that they will now be offering in North America.