Interviews
Andy Partridge of XTC: The Wasp Star Interview
by Curtis Settino
I saw XTC live on November 23, 1980, at the Masonic Temple Auditorium, Detroit, MI, USA opening for The Police. The only problem with the show was that I had no idea who XTC was. I remember a...
Motown & Memphis
Roll, Jordan, Roll: A conversation with legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson
by Philip Stevenson
Somewhere on the thorny road to legend, hotel recording genius (and Eric Clapton victim) Robert Johnson wrote, "This stuff I got'll bust your brains out." While he may have been referring to...
Interviews
The Ex
by Heather Mount
It made sense that in the summer of 1999, the 10th anniversary show of the current line-up of The Ex took place in Amsterdam and included Shellac as well as a host of great experimental Dutch...
Interviews
Death Cab for Cutie: Home Production Tricks
by Bryan Bingold
Death Cab For Cutie attacked me when I heard their first album, Something About Airplanes. I was floored by the melodies, and the overall sound of the entire album. Their first album was constantly...
Interviews
Visual Ideas in the Recording Studio
by Oz Fritz
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the db of David Bottrill: Transatlantic Aural Architect
by Roman Sokal
At any given instance in time, David Bottrill partakes in one of three activities. He is either submerged in the realm of slumber, routing signals on a recording console or is seated in an airplane...
Phill Brown: Recording Zeppelin, Sly Stone, & more at Island Studios 1970
by Phil Brown
We just released the audiobook version of Phill Brown's amazing studio memoir -- Are We Still Rolling? -- which has stories about recording Hendrix, the Stones, Zeppelin, and countless other music icons. We've been releasing one story a day to...
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Recording Recipes #11: Megaphones
by Curtis Settino
Mixing Tips & Tricks
by Pete Weiss
When I first sat down to write this piece I was a bit apprehensive. Over the years there have been countless magazine articles on mixing techniques and tips. I kept thinking, "Man, every Tape...
Top 10 Recording Tips
by Barry Rudolph
#10 ALWAYS DOCUMENT THE RECORDING SESSION IN SOME WAY. Take numbers, mic placement, effect settings, date of recordings, song titles, artist and writers names, reel numbers, BPM and SMPTE Song Start...
Some 4-Track Cassette Tips
by Leigh Marble
Here's two routing tricks for cassette 4-tracks: 1) When recording, bypass the channel mic inputs and instead use line or aux inputs whenever possible. This can audibly increase the clarity of the...
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End Rant
A Mono Proposal
by Larry Crane
Audio reproduction formats have been in flux since the first cylinder spun over at Edison's workshop. The mechanical "horn" system of playback, used on those early recorders and 78 players, gave...
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Gear Reviews See more →
SR-202W Reverberation Amplifier
by Pioneer | reviewed by Steve Silverstein
Pioneer seems to have designed this unit to add spring reverb to a home stereo. It uses RCA connectors and aesthetically matches Pioneer home stereo components of the era. While it lacks professional...
Spark XL
by TC Works | reviewed by Barry Rudolph
Following on the heels of Spark 1.5, Spark XL is a new version for Pro Tools users who would like to use their TDM plug-ins inside of Spark. Spark 1.5 is a stereo, real- time audio editor with...
Audio Buddy, DMP2
by Midiman | reviewed by Rich Hardesty
One thread that runs quite regularly through the PC-based recording newsgroups I monitor involves mic preamps. Not, so much pertaining to "which ones sound the best?" but more often- "uh, what do they...
VFM Mixer
by Trident | reviewed by Steve Pogact
When studio recordists think of Trident, they envision the classic English console, a stately oak trimmed board, eleven feet long, suitable for the world's great studios and costing many tens of...
EZ- Bender Guitar string- bending device
by Epiphone | reviewed by Pete Weiss
About five years ago I was one of the many folks who "rediscovered" the late Clarence White's super-cool faux- pedal steel guitar techniques with the Byrds and very much wanted to install a...
R-121 Ribbon Microphone
by Royer | reviewed by Steve Albini
The Royer microphone couldn't have come at a better time. With every electronic company in Christendom exploiting the availability of Chinese condenser mic capsules (and entire microphones) for OEM or...
386 Dual Vacuum Tube Preamp
by DBX | reviewed by Rob Lodes
More and more the computer is becoming a part of the studio. In many studios it has even replaced the tape machine. Because of this many companies are putting a lot of effort in to creating tools for...
VSM 1
by CAD | reviewed by Larry Crane
Several years ago I was looking around for a tube mic for my studio. There were very few "non-vintage" offerings out there, and I ended up buying a used Manley Cardiod Reference mic, which I never...
VS-880EX digital multitrack
by Roland | reviewed by Sam Coomes
My interest in recording doesn't go much beyond recording myself and or my own band. Consequently, my studio is not intended to be useful to any other customer beside myself. I have been involved in...
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Music Reviews
Fontanelle CD
by Fontanelle | reviewed by Larry Crane, Roman Sokal
Fontanelle, a Portland, Oregon, quartet which includes orphaned Jessamine offspring Andy Brown and Rex Ritter, paint a bipolar musical landscape that is both soothing and sardonically ominous in a...
Music Reviews
self-titled CD, self-titled CD
by Rumah Sakit, The Halifax | reviewed by Dewey Mahood
Recently I've had a few conversations with musicians about the difficulties of getting all your ideas finished when working in the studio on a tiny budget. Since indie releases generally can only...
Music Reviews
Parallelograms CD reissue
by Linda Perhacs | reviewed by Steve Silverstein
The CD reissue of Linda Perhacs's Parallelograms illustrates that a CD mastered carefully from a vinyl pressing can still sound great. More importantly, it returns to print a beautiful...
Music Reviews
“Sex is the Triangle for the Perfect Square” 7”
by Beautiful Skin | reviewed by Steve Silverstein
The prominent use of synthesizers tends to overshadow other common tendencies on new wave records. While Brooklyn duo Beautiful Skin rely very little on synthesizers, they probe far less obvious...
Music Reviews
The Beginning CD
by Jandek | reviewed by Steve Silverstein
Ready for the House and Later On CD reissues The mysterious figure known only as Jandek started lo-fi home recording in 1978, long before anyone thought of using those words. The Beginning marks his...
Music Reviews
Listen Compute Rock Home LP/CD reissue
by Bruce Haack | reviewed by Steve Silverstein
Even with the recent reissue of Bruce Haack's 1971 Columbia album The Electric Lucifer, his innovative approaches to home recording and electronic sound generation remain unfortunately overlooked....
Music Reviews
Mastica ‘99 CD
by Mastica | reviewed by Roman Sokal
Mastica are a culture all of their own. And something as experimentally cabalistic as this trio could only originate in Austin, Texas, a creative culture that is equally as magical. Their premier...
Music Reviews
s/t CD
by Saint Low | reviewed by Dewey Mahood
This new outfit led by singer/guitarist Mary Lorson (of spunky popsters Madder Rose) play breezy tunes rife with gorgeous melodies and a smokey lounge mood. The down-tempo vibe of Lorson's songwriting...