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Publications The 4-Track

Out-of-print Book Report: “Making 4-Track Music,” John Peel (TRACK pub., 1987)

Download a seven-page scan of some interesting hardware on offer in “Making 4-Track Music,” Track Publishing 1987: DOWNLOAD: 4trackMusic_JohnPeel Includes advertisements for Yamaha MT2X, DX100, and RX17 drum machine; Akai MG614 four-track machine, Tascam Porta2 4-track, Fostex 160, the Boss Micro-Rack series (RDD-20 delay, RPS-10 pitch shifter, RCL-10 compressor, RRV-10 reverb, plus a ton more), […]

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Concert Sound Guitar Equipment Publications

Out-of-print Book Report: “Professional Rock And Roll” (1967)

Download a six-page excerpt regarding ‘the sound system’ from “Professional Rock And Roll” (Ed. Herbert Wise, Collier, 1967): DOWNLOAD: Professional_Rock_And_Roll_Excerpt Very much along the lines of “Electric Rock” (1971)  and “Starting Your Own Band” (1980), “Professional Rock And Roll” (h.f. “PRR”) is especially interesting in that it was published a mere three years after The […]

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Guitar Equipment Publications

Out-Of-Print-Book Report: “Electric Rock,” Richard Robinson 1971

“Electric Rock” (Pyramid Communications, 1971, 224pp) was written by Richard Robinson.  It’s a small paperback volume, mainly text, which offers an assessment of hundreds of the guitars, basses, amplifiers, and PA equipment that were available to the American public in 1971. There is also ample text devoted to basic explanations of subjects such as ‘What […]

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Publications

Out-of-print Book Report: “Starting Your Own Band” (1980)

Ah salad days. Making noise with some high-school bros and/or chicks maybe you were on the “wheels-of-steel” or maybe you were the one who pushed ‘RECORD’ while others were in the lights Good days. “Starting your own band” (h.f. ‘SYOB’) was published in paperback by Weekly Reader Books of Middletown CT in 1980.  It’s the […]

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Publications

Book Report: The Ultimate HiFi & Listening Rooms

Wow would you take a look at that pile. Been thinking about Japan a lot lately; it’s impossible not to, what with the coverage of the horrific events suffered there by so many.   As I type this, NPR is reporting that the official death toll has just passed 10,000.   I attended a public magnet school […]

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Uncategorized

Out-of-print-book report: Magnetic Recording (1948)

Not sure where I came across this obscure volume.  Written by one S.J. Begun, then VP and chief engineer of recording-tech pioneer Brush Development Corp, ‘Magnetic Recording’ (h.f. ‘MR’) was completed in June 1948 and published the following year by Murray Hill Books. There is a lot of information in this 235pp volume; the best […]

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Early Electronic Music History Publications

Out-Of-Print-Book Report: History Of Music Machines (Smithsonian)

Came across this obscure volume in a rubbish bin several years ago.  Published by Drake Publishers in 1975 and billed as being ‘Prepared By The Smithsonian’ (No author attributed), “(The)History Of Music Machines” (hf. ‘HOMM’) is a b&w hardcover gift/coffee-table book which presents a fairly interesting survey of the history of reproduced sound.  Several copies […]

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Guitar Equipment Publications

Out-of-Print-Book-Report: “The Guitars Friend” 1977

Download a thirteen-page excerpt from “The Guitars Friend” (no author credited), Quick Fox publishers, ISBN# 0-8256-3072-X: DOWNLOAD: GuitarsFriend_Elec   Billed alternately as a ‘Catalog’ and a ‘Guide,’ “The Guitars Friend” (h.f. “TGF”) is a charming artifact of the late-hippie-era.  From the self-description offered in the book, TGF began as a mail-order catalog begun by former […]

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Connecticut Audio History

Rock Scene mag c. 1980 presents: The Connecticut Rock Report

Do YOU think Ted Nugent is sexxxy? “ROCK SCENE” was a musician-oriented newsprint rag published out of Bethany CT from 1973 – 1982.  Now, Bethany is a sorta non-place just north of New Haven perhaps most notable for its Book Barn.   So the fact a new-wave/punk-loving magazine came out of here back in the day […]

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Early Electronic Music Publications Technical

Suicide Manual

In NYC in the mid-seventies, an electronic-based band arose amongst all the guitar punks, a band that was known as much for their confrontational post-beatnik vocals as for the strange and intense sounds that emanated from their famously homemade electronic sound equipment.  A band who has become, in the decades since, one of the few […]