My new albums were released digitally overnight!
More info:
The music is also available in HD FLAC form (24 bit + 88.2 kHz).
PS:
We also uploaded HD FLAC versions of our binaural surround sound album Up Close and my solo album One Guitar to the ListeningLounge.
On 22. April SSRI will release my two new albums. The music on these two albums is quite different, but one melody is present on both, as a bridge connecting the albums and a way to demonstrate the approach I took on each album.
Here are a few photos documenting the photo shoot for the three-oh-five cover.
Drawing the three-oh-five logo on the window:
The above photos are by Diane Small and the location was Shibui, Richard Yaski’s sculpture garden in Little River, near Mendocino, on the Northern Californian coast.
And here is the finished cover:
Yesterday our monthly (in reality more like 8-10 times per year) newsletter was sent out to our mailing list. The recipients received “secret” links and can listen to one song from each of the two new albums that are officially dropping in mid-April.
If you would like to be on that list in the future, you can sign up here.
I posted a few new images in my photoblog. They were taken at sunrise in Carmel, on the day of our concert there on February 13th.
I have always been a fan of headphones. We have been using in-ear-monitors on stage since 1994 and I have used Stax headphones when I work on an album for almost as long. Over the years I have accumulated quite a few headphones for listening to music when I am not in the studio.
But, I have a new favorite way to listen, and I have used this new setup a lot in the past six months, while I am finishing two albums to be released by SSRI this Spring.
This is it:
I put ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec – 16bit/44.1kHz) files on my iPhone. I bypass the iPhone’s digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and headphone amp by plugging the Lightning-to-USB cable into the ADL X1, a Japanese DAC + headphone amp. Finally I connect the Audeze LCD-2 headphones to the X1 and enjoy great sound. One can also plug a USB cable into one’s computer and in that case the X1 will work with files up to 24bit/192kHz.
The LCD-2 headphones sound really natural to me. I don’t hear the unnatural boosted highs and bass that so many headphones push out. The bass is rich, but not flabby or tubby. The treble creates a clear and beautiful image, but without that biting brightness that fatigues the ears, and the mid-range is luxurious. I can listen to these headphones for hours, and have many times. My new absolute favorite pair of headphones!
It is not exactly a cheap setup – I have seen prices for the X1 range between $399 and $645 and the LCD-2 seems to go from under a thousand to around 1,200 – but this can easily become a person’s only stereo system. These days I can’t imagine spending many thousands of dollars on a regular, non-portable, hi-fi system. Mobile is the way to go, I think, and with this setup I am not sacrificing anything!
