As a former band member I sometimes wonder whatever happened to all the musicians I've come into contact with over the years. My first business was a real-time cassette duplication company in Burbank, CA called ProSound Audio Labs.  Our racks of 30 Nakamichi MR2B cassette decks

were kept busy with tons of L.A. metal and alternative bands.  The walls had framed 8 x 10 photos of many clients, from rock heavyweights like Ronnie James Dio & Craig Goldy to friends in bands that let us duplicate their demos:  The Miss Alans,  Wednesday Week and Lost Luggage.  From everyone I came in contact with I can name on one hand those who have made a career out of playing music.  

Bass players always seemed to be the hardest to find but I had the privilege with working with three of the finest musicians and people out there:  Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Heidi Rodewald and David Nolte.  All are full time musicians still as far as I know.  I have not spoken to Justin in at least 2 years but with all his gigs from Beck to IMA Robot and beyond I have no doubt he is a busy guy.  He is someone who always had the right attitude and more talent than we deserved.  Heidi is a great player and writer who is currently performing in the musical Passing Strange in NYC with Stew and company.  She has always found a way to let music be her career.  David is another guy who could do whatever was needed.  He filled in on bass for us while we tried to replace our bass player who had quickly fled L.A. after deciding it was not his kind of place.  David has traveled the world with the likes of David Gray & Ray Davies and odds are he is still doing music full-time. 

Personally I made more money playing parties at Clemson University than slogging it out in the Los Angeles clubs.  We were lucky enough to record two demos for A&M Records in studio C at A&M Studios; too bad we didn't make the cut.  We had fun with Jonathan Anderle trying to get things going for us at the label but that record deal we were trying for did not happen in the end. 

Bands starting out in 2007 seem to have more of a chance of getting heard with music production costs being lower and distribution via the web being limitless.  The world of major record labels being the only source for large distribution has definitely changed along with recording budgets.  An artist now can record a decent set of songs and actually make some money without going into a 10 year debt plan.  I did a search at amazon.com for "music business" and the first page had 16 different books on succeeding in that industry, many of which deal with doing in on your own.

It would make a great book if somehow I could interview everyone I've met over the years who  shared the same goal of music for a living..  I know there are some great stories out there.  Odds are many are still involved somehow as producers, staff writers or teachers, etc. while others are 110% removed from that world.  If days ever get longer than 24 hours maybe I'll take on that project....  

"Find one in every car. You'll see." 

Replace "car" with "recording studio" and you will have the Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors. The NS10 monitors are not manufactured anymore but due to intense loyalty the replacement woofers and tweeters are still around.

The woofer part number is  XN542AA0 and the tweeter is XC712AA0. You can order by phone 866-926-1669 or online.

RMG recently introduced the Green Tune Audio Mastering CD-R, a precision-made disc designed for audio mastering. We are currently running a FREE GREEN TUNE promotion that gets you a Green Tune CD-R with every $200.00 in RMG tape you purchase.

Check out our RMG product list and place an order online; we will include a Green Tune disc for every $200 you spend. Be sure to mention GREEN TUNE on your order to take advantage of this deal.

How about buying our favorite single and a ringtone on a CD? Check out this ringle article on CNET.

Some of our pro music clients have purchased Glyph GT keys and other drives for their DJ gigs and recording studios. I saw an article this morning in the Denver Post about a dance music festival, Syklab07, which looks to be a huge event. You have to love a world-class event that does not announce the venue location until the night before it happens. Denver-based beatport is hosting a stage and the performing artists include tons of top names in the dance/electronic genre. Beatport.com has changed the face of music distribution; check them out too.

I did not make the AES show this year but from what I have heard and read is was a success.  I spoke with Richard Wilson, Senior VP Sales and Marketing at Avastor who provided me with some of the show highlights:

AES NYC Oct 2007

A very well attended and upbeat show at the Javits Center in New York City.

Hot new products of interest:

Avastor introduces the HDX1500 QUAD interface SATA drive line.

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Since it is Halloween I thought this article was a good choice for today. The first company I was involved with was a real-time audio cassette duplication facility in Burbank, CA. I remember us making demo copies for Possum Dixon, a unique and really cool band. I was checking in on the old hometown paper this morning and found an article on Rob Zabrecky, former singer and bass player for Possum Dixon, who is now a magician.

Check out the article in the Burbank Leader.

I have to say I am looking forward to seeing the new U2 3D movie...they have been one of my favorite bands since about 1983 (when I was 4 years old..).  Maybe that last part is a stretch but I always wished I had Larry Mullen Jr.'s job.   Hopefully we can see it this weekend in Denver.

Bono, since I know you read this blog daily, please send an autographed pic so I can show my kids where I got my great hair style back in 1985.   Joking aside U2 is still one of the best acts out there!  Now if the Church could crank out a 3D  movie...

Trampled Under Foot recently won the 24th International Blues Challenge.  I found out about this competition after hearing from Steve Lott of Humbucker Studios, a client of ours with a great live sound studio in TN.  He was providing part of the prize package and Encore added a Glyph hard drive to the winner.  I found out last week the winning band, Trampled Under Foot, is out of Kansas City.  Blues and barbecue...what a great city. This is an excellent 3 piece blues band that sounds a whole lot bigger.  Incredible vocals and musicianship by these two brothers and sister...congratulations!  I hope they continue to do well and I'm sure you will be seeing them on the Grammys sooner than later.

A friend of mine turned me on to Pandora.com a year ago; if you are an music fan then definitely check out their site.  You can create your own listening experience and the selection of tracks is really good.  With the wonderful price of FREE you can't go wrong.

Pandora describes itself as "radio from the Music Genome Project". 

There is also a video section which I have yet to check out. 

I've been meaning to send out a big congratulations to Stew and Heidi for 7 Tony nominations for the Broadway show Passing Strange!  I have not seen them in awhile but from what I hear they are doing great in NY.  Heidi and I used to play in a band many moons ago called Electric Lash and later Experience Leland.  She is a tremendously talented songwriter, singer and bass player; I am very happy to see some long overdue success.  NY is probably a little different from the days in "beautiful downtown Burbank".   Good luck at the Tony Awards!

Avastor HDX Pro AV hard drives are found in recording studios, TV & film production facilities and even on the road with artists all over the world.

The new Avastor SDX series of drives offers the quality of Avastor with a ProSumer price; this opens up the hard drive storage line to multiple businesses and home users.  We are seeing the photography market adopting the Avastor SDX drives.  Consumers looking for a lower-priced drive but still want dependability are also turning to Avastor.

Please visit EncoreDataProducts.com for more Avastor information. 

As a fan of those great bands of the 1980's and 1990's I wanted to mention a re-release of a Wednesday Week CD "What We Had".  This version offers tons of bonus tracks and is available from Collector's Choice Music.  Originally released on Enigma Records it is now available again! 

Wednesday Week's website has what has to be the largest collection of band members for any group...ever.  I was lucky enough to play with them for a few months and really enjoyed the experience.  All key members (not me) went on to multiple projects and are doing well in all areas of music and theater.  

Buy a copy today from Collector's Choice Music.

CC Music has a huge selection of product from bands you won't always find everywhere else.

I had the pleasure yesterday of speaking with Ron Powell, owner or Vista Audio Productions, Inc. in Florida.  I could tell right away his experience and attention to detail is why clients keep coming back.

His services include recording, digital audio enhancements, duplication and more.   If you are in the market for quality work definitely visit Vista Audio Productions for information.  

Encoredataproducts.com sells a lot of RMG open reel analog tape to studios, bands and more all over the U.S.  Analog recording is alive and well these days; people can still appreciate the wonderful sound of analog recording.  I was digging through my CD collection the other day and came across a compilation CD Closet Pop Freak (PopPsycle Records PY-CD1, 1996).  This CD has some great tracks that still sound great 10+ years later.  I don't know for sure but odds are it was tracked and mixed to analog.  After listening to "Retro Girl" by The Andersons! I had to play it again.  Looks like the Andersons! are still putting out music.  The Andersons includes Robbie Rist who is also known as Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch; since he is probably beyond tired of people mentioning this please disregard this sentence.   Also on the compilation is a track by Cockeyed Ghost, fronted by Reseda's finest Adam Marsland.

I love much of the new stuff coming out today but since all I seem to hear at home is the Jonas Brothers (pretty amazing group of guys too) I like to dig into my collection too.  I was happy to find the Closet Pop Freak still around.  There are tons of great bands out there...don't only trust your radio!

Well...we don't actually have any but I will be happy to sign any Ringo memorabilia with my name once the 20th of October rolls around.  Please include return postage so we can ship it back.

I guess it can be tough being so famous.  The Beatles were great but personally I would vote for The Lopez Beatles.

I recently set up my ION TAPE2PC recorder to archive all my old demo tapes from those great band years.  My first company was a real-time audio cassette duplication facility in beautiful downtown Burbank, CA and I have to say the tapes have held up well.  I have had a blast hearing songs I don't remember recording at all; especially a 10 song live session we did in A&M Records Studio C way back in 1995.  That was a lot of fun and a little crazy trying to generate 10 great performances in a very short time.  One demo done at Master Control studio in Burbank has the world's best bass player Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Nine Inch Nails, etc.) on it.  Justin has done very well I think because not only is he an excellent musician but he is also one of the easiest people in the world to work with.  

Anyway...cassettes are pretty much dead which I understand but it is great to know tapes dating back to 1989 still hold their audio.  Hopefully all the digital formats will work in another 15 years too.

On to business:  Encore Data Products is offering a great VISA Gift Card promotion in December.  Be sure to check out the site and stock up!  We have great pricing on Glyph and Avastor hard drives, tons of school-related headphones and a whole lot more.

Visit EncoreDataProducts.com.

VH1 and MTV.  I actually used to watch these stations when a. I had time and b. when they showed music videos.  All the reality stuff is not my thing except for a couple of shows.  Behind the Music was interesting at times; I guess there in enough interest to bring it back.

I used to love watching Bands Reunited.  Probably because I remember the bands the first time around...  I'm hoping someone will bring that one back too; there were tons of bands over the past 20 years who could get back together today and sell some music.  Maybe the clothing is a little bit bigger but the 80's and 90's had some great songwriters.  

How about a Reunited Bands Reunited?  Get Dramarama on the road again!   Don't get me wrong; there are some great bands now whose members were not even born in 1985.  I get bombarded with the Jonas Brothers at my house and they can write some great pop tunes.  Since I lived in L.A. during the hair band metal years of the late 80' and early 90's I know from working with a lot of the sunset strip bands there is definitely a comedy show waiting to happen around that scene.  I was not a metal musician but did make many cassette demo tapes for artists.  Forget the CD-R demos...they were $25 each when first introduced!  How about a Shout! bands reunited; Loren Robinson is one of the nicest guys I ever met.  He sold me a bunch of Nakamichi MR2B cassette decks to get the first business off the ground.  Lions & Ghosts, Naked Soul, Wednesday Week,...the list could go on for awhile.