As Content Manager, Maya writes about gear for zZounds — especially recording and live sound gear. She started plunking on a piano in 1992, and began audio engineering work in 2000. Over the years, she’s fronted bands, trained commercial voiceover actors, assisted on hundreds of recording sessions, and once co-wrote an alt-rock musical. Currently, Maya’s music gig is singing lullabies to her two young children.
For folk-roots rocker Adam Ezra, music is a powerful force for bringing community together. So it’s no surprise that the Adam Ezra Group’s 2017 album Hurricane Wind is an all-hands-on-deck community effort, with some 400 fans playing a role in the production process — not only crowdfunding the project, but actually producing it. zZounds sat […]
When you’re shopping for loudspeakers, you’ll see manufacturers using many different terms and numbers to describe their power handling, or wattage. Read on for help demystifying peak, continuous, RMS and program power ratings! Peak Power Ratings A speaker’s peak power rating is the maximum wattage that its voice coil can handle in very short, occasional […]
Megan Slankard is a California native, while Kenny Martins hails from New Jersey. She’s a guitar-toting singer-songwriter and indie rocker, while he’s “DJ KennyM” — a producer and DJ who gets crowds dancing with two turntables and a Maschine. But although they come from opposite coasts and different musical traditions, Megan and Kenny both rely […]
To reproduce low frequencies accurately, loudspeakers need to be big. It’s why dedicated subwoofer speakers often use large drivers, commonly around 18″ wide for live sound reinforcement, and at least 8″ or 10″ wide in the recording studio. Yet headphones use comparatively tiny drivers — usually no larger than 50 millimeters, and much smaller for in-ear […]
“Class A” refers to a specific amplifier output design. Without diving too deep into electrical engineering, suffice it to say that Class A is the simplest, most basic circuit topology for an amplifier, and the easiest to design with less inherent distortion. Theoretically, you might say it’s a “perfect,” linear amplifier circuit: the output is […]
Attention, home studio musicians: If you’ve already invested in a large-diaphragm condenser mic or two, perhaps it’s time to add a ribbon microphone to your bag of studio tricks! Here’s a beginner’s guide to ribbon microphones and how you can use them to get that smooth, “vintage-style” sound you’re going for. Ribbon Microphones, Yesterday and […]
Fans of QSC loudspeakers had plenty to see and hear at the QSC NAMM 2017 booth, with the debut of the QSC K Cardioid powered subwoofer, plus the new E218SW sub and E215 full-range cabinet in QSC’s E Series of passive speakers. In our video from the NAMM show floor, QSC’s Chris Brouelette gives an […]
Kenny Carkeet has been making music with AWOLNATION — the electronic alt-rock band masterminded by frontman Aaron Bruno — since the project’s inception in 2009. “I’ve been playing with AWOL since the very beginning,” recalls Carkeet. “I met Aaron when he was still kind of creating the AWOLNATION thing…even before this was a band.” The […]
Moog’s Minimoog Model D — back in production for the first time since 1981 — has been making waves among analog synthesizer fans. Among those fans are Greg Spero, touring keyboardist for Halsey, and AWOLNATION’s Kenny Carkeet. Both musicians took a brand-new Model D for a spin at the zZounds HQ. In addition to his […]