All of us have collections of music on cassette tape, vinyl or that recorded under less than ideal circumstances. It is music that we hang on to because it has special meaning or is too good to trash but doesn't satisfy our current standards of audio quality. There are a number of software products on the market that provide the tools to remove the pops, clicks, noise and even the room ambiance and to expand the the dynamic range and improve the frequency content of the sound. Much of the work is done in semi-automatic fashion using presets. Today's powerful processors and real time audio analysis software make near miraculous transformations possible starting with the poorest of source materials. What was once the domain of professional sound engineers and archivist and reserved for material of great historical significance or mass commercial appeal, is now available to users at all levels. Precious memories and personal gems of audio content can be massaged and processed to new levels of audio fidelity and cleaned of annoying noise and recording artifacts.

Signal distribution in the studio has long involved massive amounts of wiring and large patch panels. Analog signal distribution required separate physical channels for every signal. Switching and routing required expensive crosspoint analog switching devices. There was required a constant effort to maintain signal integrity and three wire balanced signals were often employed. The move to digital has made signal integrity much easier to achieve and has even allowed the multiplexing of multiple channels onto a single physical channel. This is often done using proprietary techniques and different manufacturers use different techniques and technologies. Switching and routing still involve expensive proprietary technologies and equipment.

Microsoft has just released a beta version of their Forthcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser. I downloaded it today and began to test drive it to see how it stacks up to the current big five browsers. To test websites I keep current copies of Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome, Apples's Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera and view all sites in all browsers. I use Google Chrome as my default browser because of it's clean layout and blazing fast speed. I found the beta version to be pretty stable but some javascript buttons on certain websites wouldn't work, I can't find a way to enable spell-checking, and when I attempted to write this review using IE9 I lost the text three times because it reloads the page from the server when I would have expected it to be loading a cached copy. I moved back to Chrome for this attempt.

Marshall Amplification, one of the best known names in Rock Music and Guitar Amplification, will be ending their long time distribution agreement with Korg USA. Marshall Amplification will be starting their own branded distribution network in the United States beginning Oct. 1, 2010. Korg USA has been the official United States distributor for Marshall Amps since 1985 when they bought out Unicord, their own United States distributor and the distributor for Marshall Amps since 1964.

Unicord, originally a manufacturer of transformers, had transformers of their own design installed in the Marshall amps distributed in the United States fearing that the original design could not handle the 100 watt power output of the 6550 tubes. The Models that were sold in the United Kingdom used the lower wattage KT-88s. The Unicord transformer design was later adopted by Marshall for all models.

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.

The Tennessean newspaper reported last week that supplies of Gibson Electric Guitars is beginning to dry up due to flooding in Nashville. A plant responsible for the manufacture of 2,500 of some of the worlds best known guitars every day has been shut down by the flooding of Mill Creek that flows right behind the Gibson USA's facility.

The nation's largest musical instrument seller, Guitar Center, anticipates its 214 stores will exhaust their existing stock of Gibson-brand electric guitars "within weeks," according to Phil Rich, vice president of guitar merchandise. Other smaller retailers have already depleted existing supplies.

The company also has production facilities in Memphis; Bozeman, MT; and at least five in China. Gibson declines to specify dollar amounts on the damage but has indicated that production was already oversold and that the plant will not be back to full production until July. Look for supplies of some Gibson models to become extremely thin.

After years in the sound reinforcement and stage amplification business Peavey electronics has announced it's intention to compete in the commercial audio arena. Specifically targeting it's Crest Audio, MediaMatrix, and Architectural Acoustics brands, the new division will be charged with creating a core support and marketing organization focused on these brands. This should make getting timely information and integrating solutions across the brands much easier.

The organization will be overseen by Clive Roberts, Managing Director in Corby, UK and Kevin Ivey, Peavey Commercial Audio general manager, based at Peavey's Meridian, MS headquarters. The rest of the team is composed of long time Peavey employees with experience in the pro-audio brands. Peavey brings considerable pro-audio experience and technology to this new marketing arena and expects to become a formidable presence.

The NAMM foundation released results of their 10th Annual "Best Communities for Music Education" survey. This nationwide survey recognizes schools and districts for their commitment to music education and opportunity. The NAMM Foundation’s mission is to ensure that all children have access to quality music education programs that encourage lifelong participation in music making. In the face of ever more tightly strained budgets, music and arts education has long been an easy target for the budget balancers blue pencil. In spite of these national trends some schools and districts have recognized the complementary nature of music in a well rounded program of educational opportunity and have resisted these trends.

A unique concert took place on April 17 of this year at the Strathmore Hall in Bethesda, Maryland. Showcasing some of Yamaha's latest Disklavier and hybrid piano technology, Frederic Chiu, a Yamaha Piano artist, played the AvantGrand piano and the Disklavier Mark IV CFIIIS. One of the concert highlights was a unique piano duet that was played with Jarrod Radnich who just happened to be located three time zones away in Anaheim California. Jarrod played live on a Disklavier performance reproducing piano which was connected to the internet. At Strathmore Hall an identical Disklavier piano was also connected to the internet and it reproduced every keystroke and pedal press complete with all of the delicate phrasing and nuance of the original performance. In this fashion Jarrod and Frederic were able to perform a coast to coast piano duet in realtime. This performance showcased not only the talents of the two accomplished artists but also the cutting edge technologies of the Yamaha pianos.

Los Angeles, CA, May 11, 2010 — The latest successor to Roland's long line of electronic percussion multi-pads is now shipping. The Octapad SPD-30 features 8 independent Trigger Pads, hundreds of built in sounds, multi-effects and multiple inputs for external triggers and controllers.

Using the latest trigger technology from Roland’s industry-leading V-Drums®, the pads on the OCTAPAD SPD-30 feature an extremely natural and responsive playing feel. The eight separate trigger surfaces provide superior dynamic response, trigger consistency over a pad’s entire surface, and the elimination of crosstalk.

The OCTAPAD SPD-30 includes 50 kits and hundreds of cutting-edge drum and percussion sounds. Powerful onboard effects include 30 types of multi-effects that can be used on individual kits, and Ambience with an Equalizer and Limiter that can be applied to the overall OCTAPAD SPD-30 sound. The Phrase Loop recording feature allows the player to loop recorded sounds in real time, and then overdub additional parts or sounds. With the ability to record three parts per phrase, Phrase Loop is a powerful creative tool for live performance and recording.