Review: JBL SRX800 Series

What a self-powered speaker should be. Do you remember a time when a 15” and horn speaker weighed a lot, felt really solid, and went really loud? If you’ve forgotten what this was like then the SRX815P is here to help remind you, but with a modern take on the design. JBL makes a range of…

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TOOLBOX Review: AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-R70x OPEN BACK HEADPHONES

I’ve probably reviewed Audio- Technica headphones once too often in recent times, and I promise this will be the last instalment for a while. But I haven’t been able to resist having a quick chat about the Japanese company’s new ATH-R70x open-backed reference model. It’s only just hit the streets, and surprisingly, it’s the first open-back model ever made by the company. They’ve made…

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How I started the Bathurst Bike Riot of 1980

Well it wasn’t me alone. Grub had a lot to do with it. I collected him and the bass player from Littlewing at their place in Five Dock. We loaded their stage gear into my production truck, a Ford F350, and we drove the three hours out west over the mountains to Bathurst. It was…

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The Mill Report: MP3s – SCOURGE OF THE AUDIO WORLD

By rights, no-one should even remember the MP3 format by now, any more than people can remember Betamax or Hi-8 tapes in the video industry. Somewhere along the line the audio industry was sold a miserable lie that has all but poisoned our capacity to advance the hi-res digital cause. It’s time we woke up from…

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My Favourite bits of kit

As some of you may know, I freelance as an audio guy in a number of different fields. Not surprisingly I’ve bought a bit of equipment over the years to further this pursuit. Looking back at the choices I’ve made, it’s funny the things in which I choose to invest. Some of them were poor choices, but…

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Music Pirates Set Sail While The White Guys Got Fat

The CD revolutionized profits at the big labels in the 1980’s. Suddenly the A&R guys were less important, signing and recording new acts was eclipsed by the simpler profits that sloughed into the bank from re- releasing existing material. As CD tracks required a lot of storage for each minute played, the white guys who…

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LISTEN HERE: RANTING, RAVING & MONEY WORTH SAVING

When it comes to audio production, one thing is certain; there are no rules. And for that we can thank people like Geoff Emerick of Beatles fame (amongst others). He used to break rules on a daily basis: put mics close to drum kits, feed line-level signals back into mic preamps, man-handle spools while the analogue…

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Review: MA Lighting dot2

Standby for conversion dot2 is a new lighting control platform from MA Lighting. It is designed to offer many of the same functions as you’ll find on a full MA 2 console, but with a user interface which is easier for users who’ve not previously used the platform to navigate. How MA has achieved this is…

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METAL FOR MELBOURNE

The gig was called Metal for Melbourne – a celebration of Heavy Metal music from eight bands who would have won prizes as Spinal Tap clones, but in this case they weren’t intending to be funny! I made sure I packed my ear plugs for this one! What is it with metal bands? A bigger…

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Roadskills: Blur

Blur, one of the most successful British bands of the last twenty-six years, visited Australia for Splendour in the Grass and a whirlwind tour that was all a bit of a …. well … blur. It has been eighteen years since Blur last played to Australian audiences. Now reunited as a four-piece band, they returned…

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Review: BOSE F1 System

Flexible array loudspeaker system    Bose is a company that has kind of always done things its own way. The F1 system is no exception to this – I literally can’t think of anything on the market today which is remotely similar. Our test system comprised the F1 Model 812 flexible array loudspeaker with the optional F1…

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Roadie Loyalty Costs – Ron Clayton Tells

RON CLAYTON has written a book about being an Australian roadie through the golden era of rock. It is a gloriously unfiltered tale, with references to aboriginals, homosexuals, nuns, groupies, blondes, the disabled, and of course sex and drugs. Being self published you can do this. But more importantly it is a historical novel, probably more than he intended. ‘It’s a Roadies…

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