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Most baby boomers can hum the tune of the Beatles' classic, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in a handful of notes. It might take longer to recognize Halvorson's joyous, angular version. A master of jazz phrasing, guitar technique, avant-garde discourse, and effects pedals, Halvorson bends the Beatles song to her 21st century will…

Halvorson: Sometimes I'll use a slide to make buzzy types of sounds, but generally I don't treat it. The pitch-bending thing is a Line 6 Delay Pedal.

Micallef: Were you already involved in experimentation when you arrived to study at Wesleyan?

Halvorson: That's where I got into more experimental music, at Wesleyan. I went there not intending to major in music, maybe take a few music classes. When I started college, I was probably playing more straight-…

Halvorson's engineer on Artlessly Falling, and on several of her previous recordings, is Nick Lloyd, owner and engineer at the label Firehouse 12, which he cofounded with brass player Taylor Ho Bynum, another Anthony Braxton protégé. Lloyd's other production/engineering credits include albums by Bynum, Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, and the Kronos Quartet. Lately he's been collaborating with composer David Lang, cofounder of Bang on a Can. Lloyd is also a musician, a Hammond B3 specialist who has played on recordings by The National and Taylor Swift. I asked…

Such systems evolved into such relatively popular units as the Sony PCM-F1, used with the matching SL-2000 VCR for many amateur and professional recordings, and Technics even introduced a PCM console recorder with a…

One small difference concerns sampling rate. The 1630 is set to CD standard 44.1kHz (or 44.…

Sony specifies a tolerance of +0.5, –1dB for the PCM-1630's overall record/play frequency response; when measured with emphasis off, the result was a fine +0.2, –0.9dB from 10Hz to 20kHz (fig.1 shows the infrasonic response from 0.125Hz to 50Hz, fig.2 shows the response from 1kHz to 26kHz). The anti-alias filter came into effect above 20kHz; at 22kHz, for example, the output was already 50dB down. Considering the minor nature of the variations in frequency response, there is unlikely to be an audible effect.

To measure the record/replay frequency response, the machine was run at the standard 48kHz sampling rate without preemphasis. It held to a +0.1, –0.35dB tolerance from 20Hz to 20kHz (fig.12), while the –0.5dB points were wide at 2Hz and 22kHz. In record "monitor" mode, the response was a little tighter at ±0.15dB. The brickwall filter point occurred at 24kHz. Channel matching was excellent, typically within 0.1dB, while channel separation exceeded 95dB over the audible range.

Description: Two-channel, rotary-head, self-contained digital tape recorder (does not require a separate tape transport). Sampling frequency: 48kHz (will also record/replay at 32kHz and replay at 44.1kHz). Quantization: 16-bit linear. Data transmission rate: 2.46Mbits/s. Subcode capacity: 273.1kbits/s. Modulation system: 8–10 conversion. Error correction: Dual Reed-Solomon. Frequency range: 2Hz–22kHz. Dynamic range: greater than 96dB. THD at 0dB: 0.005%. Wow and flutter: <0.01% (weighted peak). Tape speed: 8.15mm/s. Writing speed: 3.133m/s. Head-…

Jon Batiste is something of a throwback. He's the music director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert whose easy drawl counters Colbert's caustic ire. In that gig, he brings smart piano jazz into the homes of millions, but it's not just in the musical stylings that he's a throwback. Batiste is a talented musician, an easy-on-the-…

Sarah Vaughan was the supreme jazz singer. Smoky lows, silky highs, precise articulation across five octaves, a keen connection with a lyric, boundless harmonic inventiveness, and a sense of swing, which swayed and simmered, front and center, always. Later, Vaughan…