WMG generated $1.84bn in calendar Q4; recorded music subscription streaming revenues jump 10.9% YoYTotal revenue was up 7.1% YoY at constant currency, with recorded music revenues up 6.6% YoY
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Tommy Torres on Truthful Sound, Studio Magic, and KRK ROKIT 8 Gen FiveAsk a casual listener what makes a great song and they’ll probably mention a hook. Ask a producer like Tommy Torres, and he’ll talk about honesty. For Torres, the path from Puerto Rican garage bands to GRAMMY recognition wasn’t just about writing better songs; it was about building an ear that refuses to be fooled by just pretty sounds.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Torres learned music by ear long before he ever learned it from textbooks. Berklee College of Music later sharpened the technical edges, giving him formal training in both production and arranging, but his instincts were already wired for storytelling. Early studio days in New York placed him in the orbit of landmark sessions and legendary artists, and that exposure quietly shaped a producer who understood that great records aren’t just built, they’re felt.

Fast-forward through collaborations with names like Ricky Martin, Alejandro Sanz, Alicia Keys, and Jesse & Joy, plus a shelf of GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY recognition, and you’ll still find Torres focused less on trophies and more on the room where ideas are formed.

His Miami studio isn’t sterile or hyper-minimal. It’s warm, lived-in, and intentionally human—guitars within arm’s reach, a piano ready for late-night melodies, a sofa that invites conversations that accidentally turn into hooks. It’s less “control center,” more creative sanctuary. The kind of place where a chorus can show up unannounced and feel welcome.

And at the center of that space sit his KRK ROKIT 8 Generation Five studio monitors—not because they glamorize the music, but because they refuse to. Torres gravitates toward tools that challenge him, speakers that spotlight the midrange where vocals, guitars, and emotional nuance actually live. He’s not looking for something that sweetens the mix; he wants something that keeps him honest.

That philosophy comes through in the way he talks about them; for Torres, the appeal is accountability. “What I love about KRK is that the speakers don’t lie to me. They don’t try to sound hi-fi or pretty—they make me work," he says. "The midrange is forward, clear, and honest, and that’s where the magic lives for me. I need a speaker that exposes everything so I can make real decisions, not one that hides things behind big bass or hype. With this generation of KRK ROKITs, the balance feels right—it gives me the truth across the whole spectrum.”

It’s a subtle distinction, but it explains why Torres can mix at lower volumes without losing energy, why his tracks translate across systems, and why his productions rarely feel over-polished or artificially inflated. A monitor that flatters can be fun; a monitor that tells the truth helps a song survive the real world—car stereos, earbuds, festival rigs, and everything in between. He’s chasing clarity that forces better decisions.

For listeners, that honesty is invisible but unmistakable. It’s the reason a chorus still hits when the volume drops. The reason a vocal feels present instead of buried. The reason a song carries the same emotional weight whether it’s blasting through speakers or whispering through headphones.

In a music culture obsessed with bigger, louder, shinier, Tommy Torres is doubling down on truth. And somehow, that refusal to sugarcoat the sound is exactly what makes the final record feel so alive.

The post Tommy Torres on Truthful Sound, Studio Magic, and KRK ROKIT 8 Gen Five first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Toybox Tractor: Plywood, Lathe Hacks, and 350W of FunWhen you think of a toy tractor, what probably comes to mind is something with fairly simple lines, maybe the iconic yellow and green, big rear tires, small front ones. Well, that’s exactly what [James] built, with simple, clean lines and a sturdy build that will hold up to driving around off-road in the garden. This Tractor is a great build, combining CAD, metal and wood work, some 3D printing, and electronics.
Starting at the power plant for the build, [James] went with a 350W DC motor powered by a 36V Li-ion battery from an e-bike. The motor turns a solid rear axle he made on a mini-lathe, connected to a set of riding lawn mower wheels. The mini-lathe spindle bore was too small to accommodate the shaft, and the lathe was not long enough to use the tailstock, so [James] had to get creative, using a vice and a piece of wood to make a stand–in tailstock, allowing him to turn this custom rear axle. The signature smoothly curved bonnet was made possible with plywood and body filler, rather than the sheet metal found on full-sized tractors. In fact, most of the build’s frame used plywood, giving it plenty of strength and, once painted, helping give it the appearance of a toy pulled out of a toybox.
This build had a bit of many domains in it, and all combined into a fantastic final result that no doubt will bring a smile to any face that gets to take the Tractor for a ride. Thanks [James] for documenting your build process, the hacks needed to pull off the tough bits along the way in making this fun toy. If you found this fun, be sure to check out another tractor related project.

This FREE plugin syncs your DAW tempo to your heartbeat
Developer Conscious Audio has released HeartSync, a free public beta VST3 plugin for macOS and Windows that maps your real-time heart rate to your DAW’s tempo. The developer reached out to me about HeartSync, and it made me realize that it’s been ages since I’ve seen a plugin concept that feels really innovative. We see [...]
View post: This FREE plugin syncs your DAW tempo to your heartbeat

Blueprints & Layers from LANDR Blueprints serves as inspiration for new song ideas and providing raw materials to sample or extract parts from, while Layers provides creators with professional, mix-ready instrument performances that adapt to a track’s structure, key and tempo.

The IPS Training Weekend 2026 The IPS Training Weekend 2026 will include a whole host of talks led by industry experts, along with spatial audio listening rooms and a number of lounge and bar areas for socialising and networking.

I tried ROLI’s AI Music Coach — the tech works surprisingly wellROLI has officially launched its AI music coach. The new AI assistant, named Roli (of course), is now part of the ROLI Learn app to tailor your music lessons based on your musical interests and skill level.
In an era where the term ‘AI’ feels cheaply tacked onto products for the sake of it, I don’t blame you if you’re dubious. I was, too, when I tried it at NAMM 2026. But, actually, I’m surprised at how useful it seems.
The music coach works in tandem with the ROLI Airwave, a hand-tracking device that, when paired with a synth or virtual instrument, can offer new modes of expression similar to how a Theremin works. In the instance of the ROLI Learn App, the Airwave becomes an essential tool in mastering your hand placement and getting real-time feedback on your playing. It uses infrared camera technology to track the 27 joints in your hands at 90 frames per second. This, ROLI says, means that “it doesn’t just respond to the notes you play but, crucially, how you are playing them.” Plus, when paired with the ROLI Piano, you also get real-time visual feedback on individual keys (although you can use any keyboard or piano with the Airwave).

This all worked impressively well when ROLI gave me a preview. I’m not much of a piano player, but the hand-tracking and visual feedback had me playing a few new songs in no time. A representative for ROLI told me at the time that the AI music coach isn’t necessarily designed to replace music lessons, but instead to help music pupils have better practice sessions at home.
ROLI’s AI music coach also introduces a conversational aspect to your piano lessons. The voice assistant is as you’d expect from a typical AI voice model: placid, encouraging, and just annoying enough to consider turning it off. It does, however, help you better navigate lessons and the app, and it does allow you to talk through your preferences and musical tastes. There’s also support for 40 languages right now.
We’ll be publishing a full review of ROLI’s AI Music Coach in due course, but in the meantime, I’ll say here that it’s an impressive preview of the future of musical instrument education. It’s not, however, readily accessible. A ROLI Airwave is £299, and you’ll need a modern tablet to use the ROLI Learn App — and a subscription to the app starts at £13 a month or £70 a year. Plus, the ROLI Piano is £499.
Current Airwave owners, however, can access a closed beta today, with a public beta open by the end of March 2026. ROLI promises that “the AI Music Coach will be a cornerstone of ROLI’s learning experience.”
Learn more at roli.com
The post I tried ROLI’s AI Music Coach — the tech works surprisingly well appeared first on MusicTech.

This instrument brings Windows Vista-style, Frutiger Aero-inspired sounds into your DAWHold tight, as we’re gonna give you a real quick history lesson in user interface design… You may or may not have heard of Frutiger Aero, a design style prevalent in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, characterised by the blending of nature with technology in optimistic and utopian themes, often featuring highly vibrant blue and green colour palettes. Think Windows Vista or 7, for example.
That style was broadly replaced by more minimalist themes as we ventured deeper into the 2010s, but there’s a real sense of nostalgia associated with the Frutiger Aero style.

READ MORE: “We sincerely hope this won’t be the last rave at Abbey Road!”: Soulwax will be DJing at Abbey Road’s first-ever rave

That’s why music software company Cradle has unveiled the latest addition to its State Machine series, with an instrument library inspired by all things Frutiger Aero.
Arriving with 200+ mix-ready presets, as well as a custom suite of Frutiger Aero-inspired audio effects including reverbs, delays, modulation effects and smart MIDI tools, State Machine: Frutiger Aero offers producers the “sound of the new millennium” in a single piece of software.
“Some instruments simply give you more sounds. This one gives you a feeling: hopeful, nostalgic, and undeniably dreamy,” Cradle says.
“Whether you’re building nostalgic pop, ambient worlds, game cues, or modern electronic, Frutiger Aero brings the glossy and inviting sounds from the early 2000’s straight into your DAW.”
State Machine: Frutiger Aero is available now for an intro price of $47.50 for a limited time. Regular price will be $59. A 14-day free trial is also available.
Learn more at Cradle.
The post This instrument brings Windows Vista-style, Frutiger Aero-inspired sounds into your DAW appeared first on MusicTech.

“We sincerely hope this won’t be the last rave at Abbey Road!”: Soulwax will be DJing at Abbey Road’s first-ever raveAbbey Road is set to open its doors to ravers for the first time ever, with an all-night party planned for Saturday 21 February.
That’s right – the iconic studio space has announced the world’s first Abbey Road After Hours event, which will transform Studio One into a full-blown rave space. The party will run from 9pm until 2am, and will be hosted by DJ brothers Soulwax.

READ MORE: Inside Abbey Road Studios’ new collection of rare and vintage instruments: “We wanted not just the digital version of this gear, but the original”

Soulwax’s David and Stephen Dewaele were personally invited to curate the evening’s tunes, and they’ll be joined by a slew of special guests. The DJ duo are also planning to debut some new Soulwax tracks, which they will record in Abbey Road’s Studio Two in the days prior. The pair will have full rein of the studio’s vintage gear, and they’ll be cutting each new track straight to vinyl to perform at the inaugural Abbey Road rave.
The evening will also see the Dewaele brothers bringing along their DEEWEE Soundsystem, a unique speaker array based on New York’s iconic disco Paradise Garage. It should be the perfect ingredient to making the evening one to remember.
The first Abbey Road After Hours event will be ultra-exclusive, with a maximum limit of 300 guests. For those keen to get involved, you’ll have to enter a ballot by calling Soulwax’s ‘rave hotline’ on 07886072699. And don’t worry about the cost – if you’re lucky enough to secure a spot, entry is entirely free.

Speaking about the event, the Soulwax brothers say: “It’s hard to say whether we have a perverse or healthy attraction to crazy ideas, that’s for other people to decide, really. So to be approached with a crazy idea is one thing, but to be approached with a crazy idea by the most iconic recording studio in music history is even more attractive. We embrace and accept this challenge and also sincerely hope this won’t be the last rave at Abbey Road.”
Mark Robertson, Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing & Creative, is equally as excited for the event: “Abbey Road After Hours is part of our mission to devise unexpected moments and creative collisions in our house. I’ve talked about hosting a rave for years, so it’s a genuine thrill for Soulwax to accept the invitation to curate the first night – which will include new music that they’ll record here the day before.”
“Studio One has been home to countless era-defining firsts – from Elgar to John Williams – and opening the room to bold new forms of creativity feels both true to our heritage and audacious.”

Abbey Road’s Studio One has played host to many iconic pieces of history. It hosted the very first global satellite broadcast when the The Beatles performed All You Need Is Love for the world’s first global satellite broadcast in 1967, and it’s allows the sonic worlds of The Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter and more to form. Abbey Road After Hours will be yet another piece of history ticked off – so get down if you can.
Abbey Road After Hours will take place on 21 February. Ring up Soulwax’s ‘rave hotline’ on 07886072699 to enter the ticket ballot. If you miss out, the night will be filmed for broadcast on YouTube on Thursday 5 March.
The post “We sincerely hope this won’t be the last rave at Abbey Road!”: Soulwax will be DJing at Abbey Road’s first-ever rave appeared first on MusicTech.

DSPTone offers new ExoDelay modulation delay plugin FREE for 30 hours
DSPTone has released ExoDelay, a new modulation delay plugin for macOS and Windows, and it’s currently available for free as a limited-time giveaway for Bedroom Producers Blog readers. Before getting into what ExoDelay does, I want to add some context regarding this giveaway. The Giveaway DSPTone reached out to offer ExoDelay as an exclusive freebie [...]
View post: DSPTone offers new ExoDelay modulation delay plugin FREE for 30 hours

Scapegoat Audio Goat DS-2 Turbo Distortion Tonex Pack is available for FREE
Scapegoat Audio has just launched its Goat DS-2 Turbo Distortion Tonex pack and made it available for free download.  The pack is compatible with IK Multimedia’s Tonex pedal and Tonex software.  The Tonex software is a 64-bit only release for macOS (AU, VST3, AAX) and Windows (VST3, AAX). Tonex ($50, down from $200) is a [...]
View post: Scapegoat Audio Goat DS-2 Turbo Distortion Tonex Pack is available for FREE

Inside Abbey Road Studios’ new collection of rare and vintage instruments: “We wanted not just the digital version of this gear, but the original”London’s Abbey Road Studios, the UMG-owned studio that’s home to countless iconic recordings, has vastly expanded its music gear collection. The studio aims to provide visiting artists with a much wider sonic palette and to inspire creativity in anyone making music there.
In an era where much of pro audio gear is digital, Abbey Road Studios is attempting to give musicians and producers access to more ‘real’ gear, some of which might not be familiar to even the most die-hard synth aficionados.

READ MORE: Inside Neumann: The iconic brand is coming after your entire studio chain

Abbey Road’s Mark Robertson (Head of brand, marketing, and creative) and Jack Lintorn (Artist relations manager) were among those in charge of acquiring the new instruments and effects.
Speaking on the storied Abbey Road, Mark tells us: “Obviously, we have a lot of vintage gear that was designed and built here by the EMI engineers — vintage microphones and also a lot of old keyboards, from pianos to organs. People love exploring, and it’s a driver for them to come. But we’ve known for some time that there are other things that we would like to add to the collection to really enhance that offering.”
The long list of new gear spans the coveted and the classic. But stand out models include 16 synthesisers and seven vintage drum machines, including iconic synths such as a Roland Juno-106 from 1984, a Minimoog from 1974, Roland Jupiter synths, and drum machines including the Roland TR-707, 808, and 909. Oh, and a LinnDrum. Several pieces have been previously owned and used by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Adrian Utley of Portishead.
Image: Rob Jones
When asked about the process of sourcing such unique gear, Jack says he “developed a list over about 18 months of the stuff we’d like to get. We had help from [vintage gear specialists] SoundGas; Tony at SoundGas helped us source the Minimoogs, the Jupiter-4s, the 808s — all these big pieces of kit, which we knew were fundamental to have in Abbey Road now. A lot of gear is retrofitted with Kenton MIDI.”
Crucial to the creation of the list, Jack says, was the community of resident producers and artists at Abbey Road. “I thought it would be great to make a real creative playground that artists could really just dive into and take into the studio. We worked with the artist community, speaking to the likes of Kid Harpoon, Two Inch Punch, and Jordan Rakei, to get their opinions. By the end of that process, there was a list of about 100 pieces of equipment, both vintage and future-facing.”
The new gear isn’t just stored in back rooms either; it’s out for people to use. As Jack explains, “In the Gatehouse studio, we’ve now got a six-tier synth rack, and we filled it with a treasure trove of synths. We’ve got drum machines on there as well, so you can go into that space now, and really just plug and play. Through speaking to artists, we found that it was something they were very keen on”.
Image: Rob Jones
In such a trove of gear, we wonder which instrument is the most obscure. “It’s a Japanese synth called the Suiko ST-50 Poetry Trainer,” reveals Jack. “They’re really rare — they’re called a poetry trainer because they were used in Japan to go along with poetry recitals. Someone could be a poet, and they would play this instrument alongside the recital. So it has amazing sound effects like the sound effects of a Koto and amazing old synth pads.”
Abbey Road has also been having a shakeup of the way its spaces are organised, as Mark explains. “We’ve got a space outside Studio 2 that used to have tape machines in it. We’ve cleared that, so a lot of the gear is now on display, and people can come and pick things up and hopefully feel inspired by things they might want to try and take into their session.”
“There’s also 40 guitar pedals”, chimes in Jack. “We’ve got the Chase Bliss, the Holograms, the Earthquaker Devices. Before a session, you can go and get your pedal board, pick the pedals you want, and take them away. There’s all the SOMA gear in there — we’ve got the Terra, the Lyra, Pulsar, and Super. We’ve never had these accessible before.”
Since its recent introduction, the newly expanded hardware collection has already proved a firm favourite at the studios, Mark promises. “People have been grabbing it, both artists and engineers. It’s been a bit crazy, but actually really rewarding and sort of validating.”
Image: Rob Jones
Jack adds, “It’s only been a few weeks we’ve had it all out — it’s lovely to see the engineers being so excited, especially in the corridor, they stop, and there’s an OmniChord that they start playing. It’s stuff which we haven’t had access to before, so it’s really exciting. And the Moogs and the Junos have already been used in sessions. The pedal boards have been really useful as well.”
Mark concludes by stressing the idea behind the endeavour. “We wanted not just the digital version of [this gear], but the original. It was important to us to find things that had some pedigree.”
Abbey Road’s purchase of all this gear is the single largest investment it has ever made in new creative tools. Is the company looking for a big return on its investment, or to just turn the place into a museum of synth relics?
“We’re thinking about Abbey Road’s place in wider popular culture and how we make it more accessible to artists: ‘How do we build perhaps the truest home for music making, a place where people can come and create?’”
The post Inside Abbey Road Studios’ new collection of rare and vintage instruments: “We wanted not just the digital version of this gear, but the original” appeared first on MusicTech.

Google’s Gemini app has surpassed 750M monthly active usersGoogle revealed a significant milestone for it's Gemini app, announcing over 750 million monthly active users as it competes with ChatGPT and Meta AI.

LaMonte McLemore (September 17, 1939-February 3, 2026)Engineer/Record Producer Bones Howe and Harvey Kubernik Interview on The 5th Dimension   

LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of The 5th Dimension and a longtime celebrity and sports photographer whose images appeared in publications including Jet magazine, died Tuesday morning, Feb. 3, at his home in Las Vegas surrounded by his wife of 30 years and family. He was 90. LaMonte died from natural causes following a stroke suffered several years ago.

With The 5th Dimension, McLemore helped bring a polished, genre-blending sound to American pop and soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, scoring era-defining hits including “Up, Up and Away” and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” The group won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year twice—first for “Up, Up and Away” (1968) and again for “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” (1970). Both recordings were later inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame (“Up-Up and Away,” 2003; “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” 2004).

The “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” medley topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks in the spring of 1969, becoming one of the signature recordings of its generation. Other mega-hits included the Number 1, “Wedding Bell Blues,” and the iconic “Stoned Soul Picnic,” amid seven Gold albums and six Platinum RIAA-certified singles. In 1991, The Original 5th Dimension received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Born Sept. 17, 1935, in St. Louis, Missouri, McLemore served in the United States Navy, where he trained and worked as an aerial photographer—an early chapter in what became a lifelong parallel career behind the lens. He later pursued professional baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system, one of the first African Americans to participate, before settling in Southern California and turning his attention to music and photography full time.

McLemore co-founded The 5th Dimension in Los Angeles, joining Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, and Ron Townson. Known for his warm bass vocals and easygoing presence, he helped anchor the group’s sophisticated harmonies and modern pop sensibility, which broadened the palette of soul and R&B on mainstream radio. They appeared on major television variety shows of the era and toured internationally, including a 1973 State Department cultural tour that brought American pop music behind the Iron Curtain.

Outside the recording studio, McLemore built a distinguished reputation as a photographer, with work spanning entertainment, sports, and editorial portraiture. His images captured many of the defining figures of 20th-century popular culture, and he contributed photography to Jet magazine over the course of multiple decades.

McLemore and The 5th Dimension also reached new audiences in recent years. Their musical performances were featured in Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary ‘Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),’ which revisited the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and its enduring musical impact.

In 2014, he co-authored with Robert-Allan Arno the autobiography From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension: A Life Fulfilled in Baseball, Photography, and Music, reflecting on a career that moved effortlessly between the stage and the camera.

Statements

“All of us who knew and loved him will definitely miss his energy and wonderful sense of humor.” - Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.

“Proverbs 17:22 states that "A joyful heart is good medicine…" Well, Lamonte really knew my prescription! His cheerfulness and laughter often brought strength and refreshment to me in difficult times. We were more like brother and sister than singing partners. I didn't realize the depth of my love for Lamonte until he was no longer here. His absence has shown me the magnitude of what he meant to me and that love will stay in my heart forever,” said Florence LaRue.

"As a childhood friend to me from St. Louis, Mo., he will certainly be missed," shared bandmate Billy Davis Jr.

"Lamonte loved music and was always so generous, making his photography studio available to us in our early years before the hits started,” said Marilyn McCoo.

Survivors

McLemore is survived by his wife, Mieko McLemore, his daughter Ciara, (adopted) son Darin, sister Joan, and three grandchildren.

Services

A memorial service and celebration of life will be announced at a later date.

For more information on The 5th Dimension, forever5thdimension.com, 5thdimensionlive.com, 

In 2008 I interviewed the legendary sound engineer and record producer who guided and produced the epic 5th Dimension recordings. He will turn age 93 this March.  

A 2023 article in Sarasota Magazine, a Florida-based publication headlined a profile on Howe, “How Bones Howe Helped Shape America’s Pop Music.”

During 2008 I interviewed Bones Howe. Portions of our conversation were published in my book Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon.

Dayton “Bones” Howe, a soft-spoken, jazz-loving, Southern gentleman, came to Los Angeles from Georgia in 1956. He quickly settled his rail-thin frame (hence, the nickname) behind the mixing console at Radio Recorders Studio, serving under principal engineer Thorne Nogar on some the young Presley’s breakthrough hits. 

Over the next decade, Howe became one of the most celebrated engineers in the music industry, working on albums by Ornette Coleman, Jack Kerouac and Lenny Bruce as well as recording a parade of Top Ten singles from Timi Yuro, The Mamas & Papas, and Johnny Rivers.

Howe then produced The Association, The Turtles, The Monkees, and The 5th Dimension. The West Coast sound was as much a product of his panoramic vision as it was the worship of cars, girls and warm summer breezes.

With his 1968 partner, television director Steve Binder, they set Elvis Presley off on a personal journey that bordered on a career resurrection.

The result was Elvis…The ’68 Comeback Special. 

In the early 1970s, Bones would engineer and co-produce Tom Waits’ Closing Time.  

Howe and The 5th Dimension are not in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That’s a Shonda.

Interview excerpts from my 2008 interview with Bones Howe.  

Johnny Rivers had discovered The 5th Dimension who were originally known as The Hi-Fi’s in 1966 to his Soul City label done with Imperial Records. Howe produced Rivers also inked Jimmy Webb to his music publishing house and produced The 5th Dimension’s “Up Up And Away,” a Webb tune that Howe engineered.

Howe took over the group’s musical activities. Howe selected material from the Webb, “Carpet Man” and “Paper Cup,” and scripture from the Laura Nyro songbook: “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Sweet Blindness” and even cut Nyro on an attempt on “Save The Country.” 5th Dimension also waxed the anthem, “California Soul” by the immortal Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford team.

Excerpts from my 2008 interview with Bones Howe.  

“I produced ‘Windy’ by the Association and went to number one and made ‘Never My Love’ which also went to number one. Johnny Rivers called me up. I had been the engineer on the ‘Up, Up and Away’ album. He asked me if I would be interested in producing the Association. ‘Yeah!’ And he said the first thing was that I’m to do an album with Jimmy Webb called ‘The Magic Garden.’ ‘He wants to do a big orchestra.’ ‘If you’re willing to pay for it, I know what to do. We will go into the big studio at United and record the tracks there and I’ll put the voices.’

“The album really didn’t have a single in it. From one record to the next I began to find things that could get played on the radio. Jimmy wrote these beautiful harmonies. He was the hippest songwriter in town. All of his songs have major sevenths and major ninths. All those altered chords like you find in jazz. So that was what I thought was very attractive. He also wrote beautiful melodies. It was find doing those things with Jimmy. Somebody once introduced themselves to me ‘You’re Bones Howe. You work with Jimmy Webb.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How does he sleep with all that music in his head?’

“I was actively working with music publishers. I heard Laura Nyro’s ‘Wedding Bell Blues’ on KHJ radio ‘cause Bill Drake the RKO programmer liked the record. Then I saw Laura at the Monterey festival in 1967. I thought Laura was amazing and it was almost jazz what she was doing. Laura was different. She had some L.A studio musicians with her at Monterey like Hal Bline who also worked with Johnny Rivers. I did a session with her on ‘Save The Country’ with her. Clive (Davis) called me and asked me if I would do it.’ She wanted to do it very badly and she wanted to use the West Coast rhythm section. So, Clive flew her out and we did it. She was a dear woman and I really loved her. She would play me stuff on the piano and I would just be bits and pieces of stuff and I would keep saying, ‘Finish it!’ R&B radio stations played ‘Stone Soul Picnic.’ It was a number one R&B hit. I kept mining the Nyro and Webb mines. I kept finding stuff I loved and it got easier when we got rolling on it.

“On The 5th Dimension it was Hal Blaine on everything. And Joe Osborn. I discovered Joe doing those Johnny Rivers records with Lou Adler. Mickey Jones was the drummer on the first Rivers sessions. And Joe Osborn. He played the bass the way I thought, as a jazz player, rock ‘n’ roll players should play the bass. Joe and Hal together were together and really the lock and the feel. Those guys were just amazing together. And then Dennis Budimir and Tommy Tedesco jazz guys. That’s kind of how I built a rhythm section. A lot of it was conversation. I always started my session in the room. The lead sheets would go out but I always started with the guys and stood out there with them as they ran the first tune. I hated the disembodied voice that came from the control room to the floor telling everybody what to do.

“The 5th are in New York and somebody had given them tickets to see ‘HAIR.’ They told me about an amazing song called ‘Aquarius.’ ‘We can do that song and it will be a big hit.’ I listened to the song and felt it wasn’t a whole song. I went to New York with my wife Melodie and we went to see HAIR. I’m watching this thing unfold and I realize ‘Aquarius’ is simply just like an introduction to the show. It doesn’t go anywhere. And then in a pair of shorts comes down sliding on a wire and they sing ‘The Flesh Failures.’ A downer of a song talking about civilization is going to hell. But then the chorus ‘Let the sunshine in.’ 3 bars being repeated. ‘Oh shit! That’s how we do it.’ But I couldn’t do this until I got permission from the music publisher. I went to United Artists who had the copyright. I played the two things for The 5th Dimension and then told them we will do the chorus at the end.

“With the 5th Dimension I also had Bob Alcivar, a vocal arranger on the team. We worked close together. He would help me find the keys for the singers to do the songs and coax them vocally. He found ways to help them. Bob would sit at the piano with each member and teach them their part. A huge asset. He made a tremendous contribution and I couldn’t go forward with any song until he figured out what key we would do that these guys could sing it in. That was a partnership we had with the things that we had.

“On ‘Aquarius’ during production, Bob Alcivar went, ‘There in different keys! How are we going to get these things together? ‘We’re gonna hook them together like two trains.’ We will record them separately and I will find a way to put them together with Hal Blaine on drums. I mixed it and put it together. We put strings and horns and stuff on it and put it together. It was more like building and architecture.

“When I was an engineer, I was there to serve the producer and the music. I never lost touch of that. By the time they were done I could sing along with every record I made. I suppose what I did was that I did what I was told except I found ways to do it but I thought benefited the performance of the musicians in the studio. And I made suggestions like putting the girls on one side and the guys on the other side on Mamas and Papas. That sort of stuff. ‘Let’s do it this way and see how it works.

“Those became concrete formats. And when I started working at Studio 3 at United Western, I invited that rhythm set up. Because what I found out is that if you put the guys close enough together, they’ll play better. And not only that, the sound will be better. Because the sound doesn’t have to travel as far to the other microphone. It’s all about an ensemble sound.   

“The best record made during the whole era was ‘Pet Sounds. And in the case of Brian Wilson, it was a whole room full of people playing together. Brian was a different kind of music maker. Way ahead of everybody else where he was. He was so far ahead he wasn’t in the race. Brian had the vision and brought the musicians together and write the charts. And poor Chuck Britz, the engineer, had to figure out how to get all that sound on the tracks. Chuck’s influence. Those records are amazing, including the sound.

“And I remember going in when they were recording Pet Sounds and having to wade through all of those musicians, two drummers, seven guitar players, pianos. And Bill Pittman and others filling in the spaces in between. And Chuck in that little room, and it had a lot to do with it because everyone had to be close together so there was nobody spread out and there wasn’t a time lag from one place to another. It was everybody was hearing the time at the same time. And so, getting that on the tracks and mixing them with Brian was really part of putting the paint on the canvas.

“And with Brian, like Spector, Brian liked to mix in mono. They were made to play on the radio, which was mono. And they were made to sound good on the radio, which was mono. I had to pull over on the side of the road on Barham Boulevard one night when I heard Phil’s ‘You Lost That Loving Feelin’’ for the first time. That was the first record that kind of nailed me down. ‘Oh Jesus…’

“I didn’t get to know Phillip until later ‘cause he was working at Gold Star and I was at Radio Recorders and then I went to United. I knew who he was. I met him a couple of times. And then in 1966 he called me up and was doing a Tina Turner album and wanted to do the whole orchestra live and [engineer] Larry Levine at Gold Star couldn’t do it.

“So, Larry called me and asked ‘Do we think we can do this at Studio A at United?’ ‘Absolutely. I did four or six tracks on that Ike and Tina Turner album, including ‘A Love Like Yours Don’t Come Knockin’ Everyday.’ Larry came over and clued me in on how to set up the wall of sound tape reverb echo and all that stuff. 

“I had worked with Ike and Tina at Studio B at Radio Recorders and Ike used to pay in cash. Ike had the girls and he paraded the girls. I liked Ike. He was a good guy and I had a good time working for him.

“I had done surf records with [producer]Lou Adler on Jan and Dean, and before that I recorded the Hi Lo’s with Clark Burroughs and that’s how I found him to do the Association’s’ ‘Never My Love’ and ‘Windy.’ Those are his vocal arrangements. I did record a lot of vocal groups when I was at Radio Recorders but they were more traditional vocal groups. But the Hi Lo’s. I knew them and the Four Freshman from my jazz days. So, these kind of harmonies were very much what I was into.”   

(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love.

Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 they wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble. 

Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) will be published in mid-February 2026 by BearManor Media.

Harvey spoke at the special hearings in 2006 initiated by the Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation.

In 2017, he appeared at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in its Distinguished Speakers Series and as a panelist discussing the forty-fifth anniversary of The Last Waltz at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles in 2023).The post LaMonte McLemore (September 17, 1939-February 3, 2026) first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

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