Shadow Hills Dual Vandergraph

The Shadow Hills Dual Vandergraph is a 500 series compressor based on their flagship mastering Compressor. This is definitely a case of big things come in small packages as the sound of the Vandergraph can be described as "larger than life". It is fairly easy to use and the compression ratios and fixed attack/release times are well matched.

Compression Ratios     Attack            Release
1.2:1                                    30ms             100ms
2.5:1                                    30ms             500ms
4;1                                       10ms             500ms
8:1                                       0.5ms            250ms

Features:

• Input impedance 20k
• Minimum load impedance 600 ohms
• Stereo
• Fully Class-A
• Discrete audio path
• Discrete gain cells from Mastering Compressor
• Sidechain Filter Matrix from Optograph (high-pass filters - 90,150, 250 hz and bandpass 250hz - 6khz)
• Swiss made discrete attenuators
• Military Spec build quality
• Meets the specifications of the VPR Alliance

Here's a TapeOp review of the Dual Vandegraph.

$1875 at Vintage King.

Building Relationships

Some more insight on life in the music biz from Carlisle's blog:

"No matter what industry you get into, your relationships are what will determine your future. My goals at this point were to be the most reliable, the most available and to create a long contact list. I met a young producer by the name of Hi Tek and he was producing a few songs for an independent rap group called Mood that was signed to TVT Records. He was the 2nd most humblest producer I’ve met up until this point. All he had was an Akai MPC-60, a turntable and some headphones and he was turning out a good amount of beats everyday I saw him. When the album was done, we exchanged contact info and every now and then we’d hear from each other....."

Read the rest of the post here.

JBL LSR4326 Studio Monitors

The JBL LSR4326 has been around for a few years and if my memory serves me correctly one of the first to offer DSP Room Correction. It's always best to work in a properly built and tuned room but for those times when that's not feasible the Room Mode Correction System can be very useful. However, take note it only works for the spot where the calibration mic is placed. So other parts of the room outside of the mix position will not be corrected.

JBL LSR4326 Pak Monitor System Features:

• Bi-amplified monitor with JBL DSP-enabled RMC Room Mode Correction system.
• 6" polymer-coated fiber low-frequency transducer with self-shielded neodymium magnet structure
• 1" soft-dome tweeter with self-shielded neodymium magnet structure and ferro fluid cooling
• 150 watts amplification for LF
• 70 watts amplification for HF
• XLR and 1/4" balanced analog inputs
• AES/EBU and S/PDIF digital inputs
• Integrated processing provides Automated Room Mode Correction, and compensation for speaker-to-speaker placement variations
• Front panel includes output level meter and user controls
• Harman HiQnet network and USB computer interface provide centralized control of entire system from any speaker
• Network cable included

Check out Electronic Musician's review of the LSR4326.
$1098 at Sweetwater Sound.

Chord Detector App for iOS (iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Chord Detector by Martian Storm Ltd. is aimed at musicians of any ability to help you learn to play the tracks on your iPod music library by automatically detecting their chords.
Features:

• Algorithm – select between 3 chord detection algorithms.
• Beat Detection – enable beat detection to reduce the number of chord changes.
• Key Detection – enable to use only detected chords appropriate for the songs key.
• Optimise – reduce the number of chord changes by removing subtle changes.

• Play/Pause – play or pause the track.
• Rewind 30s – rewind the track by 30 seconds.
• Forward 30s – forward the track by 30 seconds.
• Tempo Adj. – slow down the track without affecting the pitch by a variable amount down to 1/4 of its original speed.

Visit the website for more info: http://www.chord-detector.com/
$2.99 on the App Store