Over the last few years, I've seen TJ's name show up repeatedly on some of my favorite artist's albums: Wilco, Sonic Youth, Beth Orton, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Loose Fur, The Rapture,...
Legendary producer/engineer Chris Tsangarides [pronounced tang-uh- reed-ez] opened his studio, The Ecology Rooms, a few years ago. Located on the southeast coast of England and perched atop the famous...
Belfast's Oh Yeah Music Centre is a 14,500 square foot complex, an assortment of variously shaped and sized rooms over three floors. It is a place of intriguing sonic possibilities —...
For all of the benefits computers bring to the modern recording studio, wrist health isn't one of them. The repetitive motion typically required to operate music software using a mouse and keyboard...
About an hour's drive across the Netherlands from Amsterdam sits the city of Oosterhout. In Oosterhout is where you'll find RMGI, Recordable Media Group International, one of two places in the...
Sufjan Stevens is awesome and punk. You might not know it by listening to his albums — they're feats of orchestration, arrangement and craft that have the power to sweep you right the eff up...
For the last two and a half years I've been working on archiving the recorded works of my late friend and stellar songwriter, Elliott Smith. His family entrusted me with the job of backing up all of...
How many of you have a USB or FireWire device-hard drive, effects processor, control surface, keyboard controller, whatever-sitting on your desk or console with a cable awkwardly sticking straight out...
With so many EQ plug-ins on the market, the question remains, what's different about PSP's brand-new bundle of four high-quality equalizers? Well, the models are inspired by not only the sound of...
Over the past few years, Mojave Audio has established itself as a manufacturer of quality, affordable microphones with their MA-200 (Tape Op #55) and MA-100 (#62) tube mics. The MA-201 fet is the...
On the Spanish isle of Majorca, in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, there lies a luxurious recording studio and production facility named Calma Estudis, who recently made available for free...
So, what is this Twin-Finity bit all about? It's the "two, two, two mints in one" preamp-tube and solid state! This is the perfect preamp for those who want it all, but can't make up their minds....
Lately, I've been working on a project tentatively called The Greatest Small-Diaphragm Mic Shootout of All Time, so I've been testing a veritable truckload of SD mics-Neumann, Gefell, Schoeps,...
Control room monitors are a tricky thing. They need to really perform to allow us to hear the nuances in the mixes we obsess over. At the same time, they need to help us deliver a mix that will...
This is the only ear wax removal method I have tried that is both safe and effective. Ear wax is my least favorite bodily secretion, especially because it affects hearing. I get a lot of it. (No, I...
I've owned a GRAMMA isolation platform (Tape Op #34) for six years now. It's a 23" x 15" MDF deck covered in Ozite fabric (the stuff you find lining car trunks), sitting on two rails of Auralex...
This handy item is a USB bus-powered instrument DI with integral headphone monitoring that's about three-quarters the size of an SM57. On one end of the anodized-aluminum housing is a 1/4" jack that's...
Over the holiday season, I added a handful of new software instruments to my audio arsenal, including M-Tron Pro (an update to GForce's well-known M-Tron plug-in). M-Tron Pro includes both standalone...
Several months ago, I noticed the Dramastic Audio Obsidian compressor on the Mercenary Audio website. The units had not shipped, so I had little to go on. After a while, I started to think it was just...
My first lesson in audio mastering consisted of reading the documentation included with an early standalone version of T-RackS 24 that I purchased in 1999. The manual read like a "mastering for...
I have been looking for a fully-sweepable EQ for two channels of our API 1608 console that sounds as good as the classic stepped API 550 EQs. I prefer the sound of stepped EQs in general, but...
I've never been one to jump to the last page in a book, and I generally don't like to hear what happened at the end of a movie before I've seen it, but in some cases (like an opera or a good Broadway...
Steven Wilson (also of Porcupine Tree) presents one of his many side projects here, No-Man, a 22-year old collaboration with singer/songwriter Tim Bowness. The music is melancholy, layered and...
When I interviewed John and his engineer Ryan Hewitt for Tape Op #61 in February of 2007, they were in the middle of making this record. Between John's touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and...
For sake of honesty I should confess that I recorded a few songs for Transistor Radio, M. Ward's 2005 album, and I consider Matt a friend even if our busy schedules make hanging out difficult! But one...
This is a reissue of the first album by the group of former U.S. G.I.'s with the tonsure haircuts who baffled audiences in Germany with their droney garage rock with weird lyrics and noisy guitar...
I grew up near a magical town in the foothills of California called Nevada City. Back when I was in high school we'd see Jonathan Richman walking down the street or Gary Snyder reading his poetry, and...
Remember the fun interview Thom Monahan did with Björn Yttling in #65? He and his famous whistling band (with Peter Morén and John Eriksson) return with their fourth album. It's catchy,...
You may remember Melvin as the thoughtful bassist (with a back catalog and history to die for) whom we interviewed in issue #54. Here he unleashes an inspired mix of African music, hip-hop, Brazilian,...
Al Perry has a long history in the Tucson, Arizona, music scene, with his slightly off-key take on country music and songs from his heart. On this EP he traveled up to Phoenix with his three piece...
Since we last talked to Scott Bomar for Tape Op 44 he's done the soundtracks for the movies Hustle and Flow and Black Snake Moan as well as opening up his Electraphonic Recording Studios in Memphis....
