Since starting on classical guitar around 2000, Diego has become a multi-instrumentalist at heart, but specializes in keyboards and electronic instruments. A sometimes member of various At the Drive-in-adjacent El Paso-based bands, Diego fell out with the scene/sound and does his own things now. He’s worked as a staff writer for the zZounds Blog and a product specialist at zZounds for well over 10 years. If you ask Diego’s significant other, his true talent is cooking.
Understanding Musical Tempo
Welcome to Beat Connection, a series dedicated to promoting modern and vintage dance styles the only way we know how…by providing you a musical starting point to help you create that beat. In our previous post, we showed you what constitutes a song, providing you a basic structure you can use to arrange beats into songs. […]
The Elements of a Song
Welcome to Beat Connection, a series dedicated to promoting modern and vintage dance styles the only way we know how…by providing you a musical starting point to help you create that beat. Last time we showed you the way around grid notation – essential info for understanding your way around drum machines and recording software. Today, we go forward […]
Beat Connection: The Beat Composer’s Cheat Sheet
Welcome to Beat Connection, a series dedicated to promoting modern and vintage dance styles the only way we know how…by providing you a musical starting point to help you create that beat. Today, we go back to the beginning. In plain terms, we’re outlining how what you see in a drum machine translates to what you’ll find in […]
Jaki Liebezeit and CAN: A Look at Krautrock’s Human Drum Machine
With the news of Jaki Liebezeit’s recent passing, what better time than now to take a look back at his influential body of work? Let’s begin where it began. “Communism, anarchism, nihilism” — those were the powerful words rumbling through Jaki’s head in 1968. Christening the band CAN — a move away from their original name Inner Space — […]
The Record Player’s Guide to the Turntable
What’s more surprising than the revival of the vinyl record market? The revival in people not knowing what a record player or turntable is, what the things on it do, or how they work — or that record players and turntables are, in fact, the same thing! If you fit this description, don’t fret: we […]
Leonard Cohen Dead at 82
If we know anything about these times, it’s that sacrifices — whether earned or unearned — are coming. Leonard Cohen’s whole life was one moved by sacrifice. He was the first of his generation of Polish-Jewish immigrants to look for a better life in Quebec, Canada. Born into a middle-class family in 1934, his upbringing […]
Knobcon 2016 Recap and Gallery
Here are a few things you’re likely not to read often: thousands descended last week on the great city of Schaumburg, Illinois for a three-day convention full of unique synthesizer companies and aficionados. I may be overselling the event itself, but Knobcon holds a legitimately unique scene you won’t see anywhere else. So, what is Knobcon? Here’s a definition from […]
Beat Connection: Reggaeton
Welcome to zZounds Beat Connection. Beat Connection is a series that examines modern and vintage dance styles by providing you a musical starting point to get you going in that direction. Today we shift our focus to the tropical-tinged dance music of Puerto Rico: Reggaeton. Reggaeton holds this fascinating distinction of being both a completely […]
Aphex Twin’s Cheetah at Summer NAMM
Already a few hours into our coverage of Summer NAMM day 1, we were met with this cryptic tweet from record label Warp: New Product Demonstration pic.twitter.com/6EaUqOBmww — Aphex Twin (@AphexTwin) June 23, 2016 Out of the blue, we were caught trying to figure out if this was another put-on by the ambient music master […]
