I pose a lot of questions to my friend Michael Trei, and whenever I ask one, I preface it by saying, "And here's my dumb question." What I mean is, I am sure the answer is so obvious that everyone except me knows it.
Today I asked two turntable gurus, Chad Stelly of Acoustic Sounds and our own Spin Doctor Trei, "How much should a remastered recording sound like a…
Toward the end of this column, Herb writes, "My current new-production Western Electric 300Bs have strong blue clouds and have worked perfectly since 2021. These Ray Tubes Reserve 300Bs have blue clouds just above the smoked part of their glass; I take that as a good sign."
Is it a good sign, or isn't it? Yes, it's a good sign, but it's worth thinking about why.
When something glows inside a vacuum tube, it's because electrons are colliding with atoms, ions, or molecules. Energetic electrons bump into them, putting them in a higher energy…
Drummer Cindy Blackman Santana sings along to music from Herbie Hancock, Davis, John Coltrane, Tony Williams, and Wayne Shorter to get her creative juices going. "I do that all the time!" she exclaimed. "It's like breathing to me. It's second nature." Blackman Santana was sharing some of the methodology behind her not-so-secret sonic sauce during a Zoom interview conducted just a few hours before she headed out to a soundcheck for one of her other gigs, as the drummer in her husband Carlos Santana's band.
"Listening to the masters influences my playing,…