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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
High fidelity: Inside John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone analog studio
"There are a lot of records that I love that clearly have a Pro Tools imprint of them that just sound like sh**," answers John Vanderslice, excitedly. Though that last part really goes without saying. If there's anything about which the musician isn't passionate, we certainly haven't discovered it during the hour or so we've been at his Tiny Telephone studio. Talking to Vanderslice is less a conversation than it is immersion therapy in musical enthusiasm. "And these are great bands," he continues. "I actually refrain from being specific because I often know the people that have recorded them, that have mastered them. These are bands operating at the prime of their career. This represents two or three years of their creative thinking and their work, and they're making a five-minute decision to record on this medium versus this medium. It isn't cheaper or more expensive. It's a tragic decision." Of course, anyone with a passing familiarity with Vanderslice will happily tell you there's one subject about which he's particularly passionate. And indeed, we're currently standing in one of the last remaining shrines to the dying art of analog recording, housed in a shed-like building in an enclave of artist spaces at the end of a quiet San Franciscan side street. When we first arrived, a bit on the early side for a Sunday morning, the former Mk Ultra frontman was beaming beneath a patch of blue dye on platinum-blond hair. It's an expression that won't leave his face for the duration of our stay, even when the conversation turns to Pro Tools, something of a dirty word around the 1,700-square-foot studio, which boasts Wurlitzers, Hammonds and grand pianos. There's an ancient harpsichord, a 1976 Neve 30-channel board, reel to reels and a room full of tape. It's a bit like stumbling into Phil Spector's bomb shelter.
