This Week’s Gear Review

The new XLR to USB converter and mic preamp combo from Blue Mics allows you to connect any XLR microphone directly into your computer via a USB port. It’s a snap to set up and easy to use. It works with Macs or PCs and does not require a driver. Just plug one end of the included six-foot USB cable into your computer and the other into the Icicle combo, then connect your microphone’s XLR cable into the other end of the Icicle, and select the device as your audio input. You’re good to go. The preamp is made mostly of plastic, is surprisingly lightweight, and only has one movable knob. It lights up when connected and supplies phantom power (48 V) to condenser mics. It also has a separate phantom power active light that lets you know when it is on and providing “juice.”

The Icicle features a gain control knob that is handy for adjusting levels with more sensitive mics. In my experience, I was up and recording my fiddle in GarageBand using the Icicle and a condenser mic in less than a minute, and I was quite pleased with the audio quality it provided—nice, strong level, with a clean and clear signal and little hum.
The Icicle also works as a studio-quality microphone preamp, for those who are in need of a lightweight and portable preamp. It won’t give you the depth of a higher-end preamp, but it does provide an inexpensive solution when you only have a USB port available.

System requirements: Macintosh: Mac OSX with USB 1.0 or 2.0 and 64 MB RAM (minimum); Windows: XP Home Edition, Professional or Vista with USB 1.0 or 2.0 and 64 MB RAM (minimum). $59.95. bluemic.com

Lara St. John Goes Polka

Is polka on the rise again? With a shot in the arm from violin soloist Lara St. John, it just might. Polkastra, which counts St. John as a member, has made a pre-release of Apolkalypse Now on iTunes. Recorded on St. John’s Ancalagon label, the album features 20 tracks of oom-pah power matched with polka arrangements of Strauss, Beethoven, and Smetana. “I defy anyone to not listen to this album without grinning like a mad person and/or dancing around the room as though no one is watching,” St. John writes in an e-mail to Strings. “. . . Lawrence Welk or Jimmy Sturr it ain’t.”

St. John explains that the concept for a polka album began as a joke that took on a life of its own. “As it got bigger and better and eventually ended up the record that I, and all of us, have had the most fun making in our lives, we became very serious about creating a great album. We have done so.”

A digital booklet to the album is available on iTunes, and St. John says physical CDs will be available August 11. myspace.com/polkastra

Music@Menlo Lines Up ’09 Offerings

A debut by the Pacifica Quartet and a discussion on the legendary Isaac Stern with Juilliard School dean Ara Guzelimian are just two of the many performances, lectures, and master classes to look forward to at the seventh annual Music@Menlo in Menlo Park, California. Founded and led by artistic directors pianist Wu Han and Emerson String Quartet cellist David Finckel, this year’s festival, from July 17 to August 8, will take on the theme “Being Mendelssohn.” The Pacificas, winners of a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance and named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, will run through Mendelssohn’s complete string quartet cycle in three concerts. musicatmenlo.org

NAACP’s 100th Anniversary to Include Two World Premieres

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is turning 100 years old, and to celebrate the organization has partnered with Meet the Composer for two world premiere performances at its Centennial Convention on July 12 at New York’s Hilton Hotel Ballroom. Spearheaded by MTC board member and educator Rae Alexander-Minter, PhD, the first premiere will be poet Elizabeth Alexander’s words set to music by Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., a leading musicologist of African-American music. The second premiere will feature a multimedia remix of recorded music, voices, and images by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky: That Subliminal Kid. naacp.org/events/convention/100th/index.htm