The Next Track - A podcast about how people listen to music today

Doug and Kirk discuss the pros and cons of live recordings vs. studio recordings. And, are live recordings really live? "Bravo!" Sponsor: Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes. Make sure your iTunes management tools are updated for latest version of iTunes and for macOS Sierra at Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes. Show notes: * Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol. 19, Honolulu, HI, January 23, 1970 * The Who: Live at Leeds, Super Deluxe Edition * Humble Pie: Performance - Rockin' The Fillmore: The Complete Recordings * ZZ Top: Live - Greatest Hits From Around The World * Hot Tuna: Hot Tuna * Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive! * The Beatles: Live at Shea Stadium 1965 * Yes: Yessongs * Chicago: Live at Carnegie Hall * Grateful Dead: Europe 72 * Allman Brothers Band: At Fillmore East * Allman Brothers Band: Eat a Peach * Deep Purple: Live in Japan * Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same * Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited * Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol.12 (Deluxe Edition) * Bob Dylan: Fallen Angels * Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night * The Beatles: Please Please Me * Miles Davis: Kind of Blue * John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir: Bach, Complete Sacred Cantatas * nugs.net * Live Phish * Dead & Company Our next tracks: * Kirk: Alfred Brendel: Live and Radio Performances, 1968-2001 * Doug: Elton John: 17-11-70 If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

We welcome New Yorker music critic Alex Ross for a long discussion about listening to classical music today. This episode runs a bit longer than usual, but we think you'll enjoy the whole show. "I mix the familiar and the obscure." Sponsor: Master iTunes with Kirk's ebook and save 30% on Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ, the indispensable guide to iTunes. Show notes: * Alex Ross's website, The Rest is Noise * Alex Ross's writings on The New Yorker * Alex Ross's books: The Rest is Noise, Listen to This * The Composers of Quiet: The Wandelweiser collective makes music between sound and silence * Wandelweiser Miscellany Our next tracks: * Kirk: Dennis Johnson: November - Interview with R. Andrew Lee * Doug: Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band: Bongo Rock If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk look at the audio-related elements of this week's Apple product announcement. The headphone jack, AirPods, and Apple Music. "Frankly, I don't listen to a lot of new music. I'm still trying to catch up on a lot of old music." Sponsor: Master iTunes with Kirk's ebook and save 30% on Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ, the indispensable guide to iTunes. Show notes: Correction: When discussing AirPods, we said that they cannot be used with devices other than a Mac, iOS device, or Apple Watch. Since we recorded this show, Apple has stated that the AirPods can be used with any Bluetooth device. However, they only pair automatically with Macs, iOS devices, and Apple Watches. News: * Apple: Jacks Off iPhone 7 * Jabra Revo Bluetooth headphones * Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter * Apple’s AirPod Mistake * Chums Slip Fit 3mm Rope Eyewear Retainer * Plantronics Voyager Legend UC Bluetooth Headset * I Forgot How Bad Apple’s EarPods (not AirPods) Sound * Apple Activates “My New Music Mix” “My Favorites Mix” on macOS and iOS Betas Our next tracks: * Kirk: Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings * Doug: The Carl Stalling Project: Music From Warner Bros. Cartoons, 1936-1958 If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk discuss some news and some music and audio technology history, then examine the best ways to manage and store a digital media collection. Show notes: News: * Rudy Van Gelder, Renowned 'A Love Supreme' Engineer, Dead at 91 - Rolling Stone * Music Technology of the 1970s: A Timeline - Pitchfork Managing and Storing Digital Media Files: * TuneSpan * Drobo * WD My Cloud 4 TB * Synology Our next tracks: * Kirk: Harold Budd: Children on the Hill * Doug: Bis: Social Dancing If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk welcome Sangwook "Sunny" Nam, two-time Grammy nominated mastering engineer. He explains what mastering and remastering are, and we learn a lot about the magic that mastering engineers perform. "All the processing I'm doing is done on the analog side." Show notes: * Jacob's Well Mastering * Sunny Nam's recordings on Discogs * Doug Sax * The Doors on vinyl Sunny Nam's mastering studio. Our next tracks: * Kirk: Blind Gary Davis: Harlem Street Singer * Doug: Frank Zappa & The Mothers: Roxy & Elsewhere If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk take a look at recent news in the music and audio world. From audiophile utility poles to iTunes news, from record stores to car radios, this news and views episode keeps you up to date on what matters in music listening. And Kirk gives an update on his first Pearl Jam listening experience. "For $10,000 there better be a powerful placebo effect." Show notes: News: * Pearl Jam: Ten * A Gift for Music Lovers Who Have It All: A Personal Utility Pole * Records' rebirth fueled by older music obsessives, not young hipsters * Ch-Ch-Changes in the Physical Music Retail Landscape * A Couple of Work and Movement Scripts * iTunes Gets a Splash of Color * iTunes 12.5 and iOS 10 Music App to Add Lyrics to Song Playback * Ultravox: The Island Years * Wim Martens: a man of no fortune and with a name to come * Talking Heads: Fear of Music * Hugo Ball * Honda Civic 2016: A case study of the disappearing radio Our next tracks: * Doug: ZZ Top: Rhythmeen * Kirk: Grateful Dead: Dave’s Picks Volume 19: Honolulu Civic Auditorium, HI, 1/23/70 If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk welcome back Chris Connaker to discuss music streaming services. Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, or another; which is right for you? What are the pros and cons of the various streaming services? "I have never heard a song by Pearl Jam." Show notes: News: * Apple Is Finally Making iTunes Better for Classical Music * Dislike is a New iTunes 12.5 Track Property Streaming music services: * Pearl Jam * Qobuz * Apple Music * Spotify * Tidal * Pandora * Roon * Pearl Jam: Ten Our next tracks: * Kirk: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Organisation * Doug: Daryl Hall: Sacred Songs If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk discuss iTunes and AppleScript. This was bound to come sooner or later, since Doug is the AppleScript ninja. We look at what AppleScript does, and discuss more than a dozen of the most useful AppleScripts to use to manage your iTunes library. "AppleScript does not run on Windows, and Windows does not run in my house." Show notes: News: * New Pink Floyd box set covers the early years: 1965 - 1972 * Pink Floyd copyright release: 1965: Their First Recordings * Everything you need to know about playing music with AirPlay * Classical Music Needs More Silence * Listen Different: Add Silence to your iTunes and iPod Playlists * High-Resolution Silence iTunes & AppleScript: * Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes * Artist - Name Corrector * Remove n Characters from Front or Back * This Tag, That Tag * Search Replace Tag Text * Proper English Title Capitalization * List MIAs * Super Remove Dead Tracks * Music Folder Files Not Added * Move Playlists to Folder * Playlist Manager * Find Album Artwork With Google * Save Album Art as folder.jpg * Embed Artwork * Re-Embed Artwork * PDF Adder * View Cached Music * Copy Tag Info Tracks to Tracks * A Space Between * Download FAQ and Video * Windows Solutions? * Bill Nelson's Artisanal Music Our next tracks: * Doug: Roomful of Blues: Live at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel * Kirk: Bill Nelson: All That I Remember If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Doug and Kirk welcome back Andy Doe, digital music consultant, to discuss myths and superstitions around audio: cables, breaking in hardware, digital audio, and more. But first we discuss classical music playlists on streaming services. "Hooray, good for you, you have magical bat ears." Andy Doe. Show notes: * Andy Doe * Proper Discord Classical music playlists: * Here’s What’s Wrong with Classical Music on Streaming Services (Part Whatever) Audio myths & superstitions: * Articles on Kirk's website about hi-fi magazines writing about audio equipment * How Hi-Fi Magazines Write about Cables, Part 7: An Audiophile Shelf * IsoAcoustic speaker stands * Mastered for iTunes Our next tracks: * Kirk: Bach: Lute Works (original version for ten-string guitar), Stephan Schmidt * Doug: Rolling Stones, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

Have you ever wanted to set up your own home media server? Doug and Kirk discuss the pros and cons of doing this, and explain how to set up a Mac mini as a media server. Show notes: Discovering new music: * Apple's Mac mini * OS X Server * I wish there was an iTunes Server * WD My Passport 4 TB portable hard drive * Carbon Copy Cloner * Change Screen Resolution on Headless OS X Server * Sonos * Plex * The Merchant of Venice, by the Royal Shakespeare Company * Apple improves iCloud Music Library matching, ditches copy-protected matched files for Apple Music users * VNC Viewer * The best way to watch media on the new Apple TV: iTunes Home Sharing vs. Plex Our next tracks: * Doug: Jeff Beck, Loud Hailer * Kirk: Emerson String Quartet - Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn welcome NPR and Rolling Stone music critic Will Hermes. We take a brief stroll down memory lane, then discuss music discovery: how does a music critic, overwhelmed with choice, discover new music. "For me to just become a nostalgia merchant; as a writer, and as a music fan, not interested." Show notes: Discovering new music: * Will Hermes' website; his writing on Rolling Stone; his reviews on WNYC; All Things Considered * Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, by Will Hermes * NPR Music * Uncut Magazine * The Wire * Pitchfork * Rate Your Music * Other People * Listen to all ten albums from Brian Eno's Obscure Records label * Day of the Dead * Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan * Rock Family Trees Our next tracks: * Kirk: Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians * Doug: Johnny Thunders, So Alone If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn discuss spoken word recordings. How to get them, how to manage them, and how to listen to them. And we discuss how the history of recording started with recordings of spoken word content. "Like a Victorian call center." Show notes: Spoken word and audiobook recordings: * Key dates in the history of audiobooks * Walt Whitman reading four lines of America * James Joyce reading from Ulysses and Finnegans Wake * JRR Tolkien reads from The Lord of the Rings * Audible.com, Audible UK, free trial with two free audiobooks * Librivox: free, public domain audiobooks * Join Together, Mac app that splices multiple audio files into one * Ripping and Playing Audiobooks Our next tracks: * Doug: Fleetwood Mac, The Boston Box * Kirk: Arkangel Shakespeare, and King Lear on the iTunes Store If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn analyze the rumor that Apple is planning to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone, and then discuss how people organize music by genre. "No matter where we steer this thing, we always end up driving down inelegant boulevard." Show notes: The headphone jack rumor: * An iPhone without a headphone jack? No way! * On the Recurring Rumor that Apple Is Getting Rid of the iPhone Headphone Jack * What’s the Logic Behind Apple’s New Headphone Jack? * Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter Headphones with lightning connectors: * Philips Fidelo M2/27 * Audeze EL-8 Titanium Organizing music by genre: * ID3 version 1 genre list * Gracenote’s genre list * How the Over-Genrification of Music Is Bad for Listeners and Musicians * Here’s How Messed Up Apple Music Metadata Is (List of iTunes Store genres in a comment to this article) * YouTube Users Are Reinventing The Way We Classify Music – vocativ Our next tracks: * Doug: Where There's A Will There's A Way: The ABC-Dunhill Recordings By Bobby Whitlock * Kirk: Bach, Goldberg Variations (1981), on Glenn Gould: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn welcome special guest Chris Connaker who runs the Computer Audiophile website to discuss high-resolution audio. What are the pros? The cons? Is high-res for you? "Is high-resolution worth it? There really is no definitive answer to that..." Show notes: The Computer Audiophile website High-resolution audio: * Episode #3 – Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know about Audio File Formats * Gimell Records, John Taverner - Missa Corona spinea * Why do CDs use a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz? * Hdtracks * JRiver Media Center * Fiio X7 portable audio player * roon * The Dark Art of Mastering Music – Pitchfork Our next tracks: * Kirk: Roadies * Doug: 2, Mudcrutch If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn take a quick look at the new features coming to Apple Music, and then discuss how we listen to music with headphones and speakers. What's the best kind of headphones? When should you use speakers? Why not use both (not at the same time, of course)? Show notes: News: * A Brief Overview of New Features Coming to Apple Music Headphones and speakers: * Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Studio Headphones * Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones * AKG K 240 Semi-Open Studio Headphones * Sony MDRV6 headphones * Sony STR-DH100 receiver * Jabra Revo Bluetooth headphones * Bose 201 speakers * Denon PMA 720AE amplifier * Focal Chorus 705v speakers * Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 * IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R155 speaker stands * Mackie MR mk3 studio monitors * Sonos PLAY:5 * Yamaha R-N301 network stereo receiver Our next tracks: * Kirk: The Drop, Brian Eno * Doug: The Ventures, The Ventures A Go-Go If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.