The Next Track

By Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearnTechnology Music

The Next Track episodes

January 15, 2020Episode #167 - Tuning the Perfect Music Listening Room
Chris Connaker of Audiophile Style renovated the attic of his house and turned it into the ultimate listening room. He then tuned it using amazing speakers, acoustic treatment, and DSP (digital signal processing). He explains how he went about this, and how the room itself is perhaps the most important element in an audio system.
Guest:
Chris Connaker
Show notes:
A New Listening Room Part One
A New Listening Room Part Two: Acoustics, Speakers, DSP
REW (Room EQ Wizard)
DSP - Digital Signal Processing (Wikipedia)
Our next tracks:
Yes: Close to the Edge
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
David Bowie: Heroes
The Clash: London Calling
Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
Brian Eno: Another Green World
The Who: Live at Leeds
Grateful Dead: Live/Dead
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
Special Guest: Chris Connaker.
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36 min
January 02, 2020Episode #166 - Our Year in Music
For the first episode of the new decade - the last one recorded in the previous decade - Doug and Kirk look back on their year in music.
Show notes:
Honkyoku (Kirk's shakuhachi website)
The Zen of Everything (Kirk's podcast)
Rode Procaster microphone
Yamaha AG03 mixer
Episode #147 - Kirk's New Sonos Amp
KEF Q350 speakers
Q Acoustics 3020I speakers
Amazon Echo Dot
Tivoli Audio model One
Episode #162 - Apple's New Improved macOS Media Apps
Doug's AppleScripts
Time Out: We Don’t Give Music Enough Time to Grow on Us Anymore
John Cale: Music for a New Society
Our next tracks:
Chick Corea Trio: Trilogy
Harry Nilsson: Pussy Cats
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
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35 min
December 18, 2019Episode #165 - Christmas Is in the Air
There’s got to be a German word for this. It’s that feeling, that first second, when you heard Jingle Bells in the middle of summer.
Show notes:
Episode #58 – David Weigel on the History of Progressive Rock
Trio Mediaeval: Folk Songs
Bruce Springsteen: Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Do They Know It’s Christmas
We Are the World
Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart
Bob Dylan: Must Be Santa (video)
The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
Apple Music Christmas Playlist
Die Hard
It’s a Wonderful Life
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas
I Wish it Could Be Christmas (article)
The Kinks: Father Christmas
Nat King Cole: The Christmas Song
Emerson, Lake & Palmer: I Believe in Father Christmas
Mannheim Steamroller: Christmas
Ghosts of Christmas Past
Roomful of Blues: Roomful of Christmas
Our next tracks:
Harold Budd: Bandits of Stature
Frank Zappa: The Hot Rats Sessions
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
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35 min
December 04, 2019Episode #164 - Sid Smith on the Life and Times of King Crimson
Sid Smith is the official biographer of King Crimson. He recently updated his book, In The Court Of King Crimson - An Observation Over 50 Years, that tells the tale of this seminal band. We talk with Sid about everything Crimson.
Guest:
In The Court Of King Crimson - An Observation Over 50 Years
Show notes:
DGM Live
Episode #161 - Philip Thomas on Morton Feldman's Piano Music
Episode #97 - Jerry Ewing on Progressive Rock
Our next tracks:
CBGB (movie)
Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
Special Guest: Sid Smith.
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40 min
November 20, 2019Episode #163 - Lewis Shiner on His Novel Outside the Gates of Eden
Lewis Shiner's latest novel Outside the Gates of Eden is a saga that begins at a Dylan concert in 1965, then follows a musician and his friends as they age, up to the present. This novel has a huge scope, with moving scenes about music, and about a generation growing up. (Apologies for the sketchy Skype audio quality.)
Guest:
Lewis Shiner
Show notes:
Outside the Gates of Eden
Episode #28 – Music and Mystery: Author Peter Robinson on Music in His Novels
Why Bob Dylan Matters
Episode #67 – The Grateful Dead’s Legendary 5/8/77 Cornell Concert, with Author Peter Conners
Our next tracks:
Fontaines D.C.: Dogrel
Mother's Finest: Another Mother Further
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
Special Guest: Lewis Shiner.
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33 min
November 06, 2019Episode #162 - Apple's New Improved macOS Media Apps
Doug and Kirk spend a half hour or so discussing Apple's new apps that replace iTunes on the Mac. They rant, they praise, they shrug, they laugh, and they reminisce on what was, while imaging what could have been. It was a very good year.
Show notes:
The iTunes Guy column on Macworld
CarPlay Crashes Constantly in My Car
The iTunes and Everything Apple forum on Audiophile Style
Kirk's new book, Take Control of macOS Media Apps
Poll: What Do You Think of the New macOS Media Apps that Replace iTunes?
In Praise of the iTunes Column Browser
hierarchically /ˌhaɪəˈrɑː.kɪ.kəl.i/
Search Results to Playlist AppleScript
Join Together
Most Recent AppleScript Updates
Our next tracks:
Dietmar Berger: The Manchester Gamba Book
The Pretty Things: Greatest Hits
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
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33 min
October 23, 2019Episode #161 - Philip Thomas on Morton Feldman's Piano Music
Episode #161 - Philip Thomas on Morton Feldman's Piano Music
Philip Thomas has recorded a 5-CD set of all of Morton Feldman's music for solo piano. We discuss with him one of the most interesting of 20th century composers and the unique nature of sound in Feldman's works.
Guest:
Philip Thomas
Morton Feldman Piano box set on another timbre
Show notes:
Episode #155 - Running a Small Record Label: Another Timbre
Morton Feldman (Wikipedia)
David Tudor (Wikipedia)
American Sublime - Morton Feldman’s mysterious musical landscapes (Alex Ross in the New Yorker on Morton Feldman)
Our next tracks:
Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble: Officium
XTC: Black Sea
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
Special Guest: Philip Thomas.
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35 min
October 09, 2019Episode #160 - Golden Years
Ginger Baker has died, and we reflect on older musicians and how they keep on performing, even without any new material, until their golden years.
Show notes:
Ginger Baker obituary (The Guardian)
Beware of Mr. Baker
Episode #143 - Too Old to Rock 'n Roll
Cream Farewell Concert (YouTube)
Town Hall / Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Steve Hackett: Selling England by the Pound Cruise
Episode #24 – Composer Timo Andres on Contemporary Classical Music
Our next tracks:
Orchestral Manoeuvers In the Dark: Souvenir
Mike Oldfield: Five Miles Out
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
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28 min
September 25, 2019Episode #159 - Has Lossless and High-Resolution Audio Finally Come to the Masses?
Amazon announced a new lossless and high-resolution music streaming service. Has high-res music finally come to everyone? We talk with Chris Connaker, of Audiophile Style, to try to understand Amazon's logic.
Guest:
Chris Connaker: Audiophile Style, Superphonica
Show notes:
Amazon Music HD
Amazon Launches Amazon Music HD (and Lies a Lot)
Apple's Mastered for iTunes; now called Apple Digital Masters
Amazon's press release, with the quote from Neil Young
Book Review - Neil Young's To Feel The Music: A Songwriter's Mission to Save High-Quality Audio
Episode #38 – New in Audio at the Consumer Electronics Show (where we discuss MQA)
Our next tracks:
Franz Schubert: Piano Trios Op.99 & 100
To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales (Discogs info)
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
Special Guest: Chris Connaker.
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34 min
September 12, 2019Episode #158 - What We Did this Summer
Doug and Kirk discuss some audio-related projects they carried out this summer, new Sonos gear, streaming audio in the home, the iTunes visualizer, and more.
Show notes:
My New Vitsœ Shelves Have Freed Up Space in My Office
Rams (documentary about Dieter Rams)
Kef Q150 speakers
Q Acoustics 3010i speakers
Kirk's comfy chair is an older model from this brand, similar to this style.
Sonos Move
Sonos One SL
Sonos Port
Sonos Connect
Kef LS 50 wireless speakers
Netgear Orbi mesh wi-fi system
Episode #136 - Breaking Up with iTunes?
Episode #145 - The Future of iTunes Redux
Episode #152 - Flogging a Dead App: Is it Really the Death of iTunes?
Sculpting Time - The Andrei Tarkovsky Collection
Three Dog Night (Wikipedia)
Our next tracks:
Tarkovsky Quartet: Nuit Blanche
Three Dog Night: Captured Live at the Forum
If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.
Support The Next Track
30 min

About The Next Track

From the publisher's feed

Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn discuss music and musicians, and how we listen to music, whether it be analog or digital, downloaded or streamed, audio, or video.