For the last 20 years, Chris Knox's approach to home recording has remained consistently creative and interesting. He has insisted upon approaching the technical limitations of his home studio as a...
My first exposure to New Zealand pop band the Clean came several years after the release of 1990's Vehicle, and I discovered their early singles and EPs after that. While the songwriting on Vehicle...
Looking at the resume of Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie is like reading a who's who of '90s rock: Radiohead, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Uncle Tupelo, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, so on and so forth. I had the...
While puzzling through the intricacies of home recording (i.e. knowing what to do when you can't hear yourself through the headphones), San Francisco's Beulah managed to concoct two LPs of brittle,...
Jack Drag is really John Dragonetti of Boston- sometimes. John put out the self-titled Jack Drag album in 1996, featuring 10 perfect examples of home-recorded 4-track cassette pop. Then a rhythm...
A former co-worker of mine liked to use the phrase "It's a product of excellent quality." If I raved about a new album, a new pair of shoes, or just about anything, he'd say, "Oh, so it's a product...
I'm trying to buy a laptop and whatever other hardware I need to record music at home, and I would really appreciate some help. First off, I play piano as well as electronic instruments (synths,...
We interviewed Phill Brown in Tape Op #12. Over the years he's worked with some of the greatest artists ever, like Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Robert...
2002: Antares introduces the band modeler plug- in and rackmount unit. It is able to process 24 tracks of audio through "group synthesis" and rearrange songs into the styles of the Beatles, Rolling...
Using Pro Tools? Got 888/24s? Does leaving tape behind make you feel creepy? Or does fixing stuff on PT and then putting it back worry you? Heard about the more expensive Apogees? Well get hip to...
Antares Audio Technologies, the software DSP innovator that brought the world the Auto-Tune, has come forth with their latest digital mojo-in-a-box called the Microphone Modeler ($249). Perhaps you've...
At first glance, this collection of 74 VST Macintosh plug-ins might seem like a bit of a novelty. For one thing, it's only $74 retail whereas many manufacturers sell single plug-ins in the $200-$500...
A few months ago, I picked up a Tascam MX-2424 hard disk recorder to supplement my analog multitrack decks. Three reasons convinced me to finally buy a digital recorder. 1. On a number of recent...
Most of the focus of the audio industry goes into making new, innovative products, so it's nice to see someone go after the functional necessity side of things. MAM (Music and More) is a small German...
I'm an old school kinda guy, so when a POD Pro found its way into the rack at my studio I just kept laughing at the idea of really using it on electric guitars - and I usually don't. I've only plugged...
My search for nearfield monitors is temporarily over. I finally stopped reading reviews or looking at ads and took another engineer's endorsement (Bruce Kaphan in San Francisco) to heart and ordered a...
This is a one rack-space device that, as its name suggests, operates as a complete input channel, featuring a mic pre, high and low pass shelving, EQ and compression. And since it was designed by Mr....
The PCP distro is a hoot! Feeding a guitar into more than two amps at the same time can be a drain on the pickup and produce a weedy sound. The PCP device is buffered and fools the pick up that it is...
Have you ever plugged a nice guitar into a good amp and gotten a really nice sound that fell short because it was too plain? This pedal solves that problem. When I think of Bruce Springsteen's guitar...
Ever since I had to return my review copy of the Audio Technica 4047, I'd been feeling that there was a hole in my mic collection. I needed a good quality condenser mic with the sort of pronounced...
"These recordings are outtakes from our first two U.S. albums," states the inner sleeve of this 15- minute CD. I don't know this band, so it's impossible for me to tell if these are simply songs that...
Drums, tuba and... oh yeah, guitar mix together to create a very interesting and enjoyable instrumental sound. Overdubs of other horns, percussion and electronics fill out the arrangements. Produced...
Pretty much everyone reading this magazine should already know their way around Funhouse - it's the quintessential Stooges album - The one recorded live in the studio in LA with the band surrounded by...
This is one of those albums where the material and the production compliment each other so well it's hard to believe that anyone could dream it up, much less actually get it on tape. Here you get dark...
No, there's no goat on here. Instead, we're treated to Danny Barnes (Bad Livers, plus solo) and Pete Krebs (Hazel, Golden Delicious, solo stuff) hanging out at Danny's home studio doing some wacky...
Alejandro has been around, many bands and many heartbreaks later we get a new album. Basic tracks were done with Mitch Easter at his Fidelitorium in Kernersville, NC. The rest was recorded and...
Steve Fisk is a Northwest producer of note, a sometimes member of Pell Mell, one half of Pigeonhed and a procrastinator. We've been waiting 14 years to hear a new record and this is it. Keyboards,...
It's not often that we think of the people who design gear as recording engineers. This CD features a bunch of artists from Duluth, Minnesota, doing Bob Dylan covers - which guarantees that the...
Finally. It has been almost three long years since Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren took a plunge into sonic depths. And now, the duo surface with Consciousness- a welcoming release of ambience of which...
Unlike their previous releases, fixed::context sounds far less microscopically scientific; this time, their approach is noticeably more melodic and even old, but not in a dated sense, like...
Attention: For those in need of a genuinely dense dose of psychedelia then look no further. Just listen. For this particular venture (their first since leaving the Sub Pop label) the trio reverts deep...
