Sep/Oct 2017

Welcome to issue #121 of Tape Op.

 
Larry and Garrett Haines at AES

As I work on this issue of Tape Op I’ve just returned from the Summer NAMM show in Nashville, and this will also be the magazine I’ll be handing out at the annual AES Convention in New York in October. When I first began this magazine I’d never been to any music or audio trade shows, and I had no intention of ever doing so. The other recording magazines would have “show reports” featuring new equipment that had been announced or debuted at recent conferences, and this was something I actively sought not to do in the pages of Tape Op. But years ago, when my partner, John Baccigaluppi, came aboard, he soon went to his first conference, Summer NAMM, and immediately made friends and found support for our young publishing venture. Many of the manufacturers whose ads you have seen in our pages over the last couple decades are people we now regard as friends and colleagues. We look forward to seeing them two or three times a year at various trade shows, around the United States and the world. It’s their support that keeps this magazine coming, and keeps it free of charge – so tell them that when you buy their products! If you are actively involved in this field, I would encourage you to visit an AES Convention or NAMM show, meet the people that make our favorite gear, and talk with your peers in this field. I always look forward to learning about new products, picking up recording tips, and getting to see so many of my friends.

Get a free pass to the AES exhibits courtesy of Tape Op:
www.aes.org/events/143/registration/?vip=aes17top
Expires Oct 4, 2017

— Larry Crane, editor

In This Issue See more →

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Columns See more →

End Rant

Social Isolation

by Paul Clark

I’ve spent most of my career in the technology industry, early on as the CEO of a rapidly growing electronics firm, and now as a partner in a company with one of the world’s most...

Gear Geeking

Gear Geeking w/ Andy

by Andy Hong

If you've been making music for as long as I have, I bet that some of the headphones relegated to your "box of broken cans" are in there not because they stopped working, but because their earpads are...

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Gear Reviews See more →

Orbit Turntable

by U-Turn Audio  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

So I was at the studio holiday party a while back. All the kids were looking at the vinyl releases on display. Out of curiosity, I surveyed, "What turntable do you use?" To my surprise, only one...

SR-1A & SR-2N Ribbon Microphones

by Stager  |  reviewed by Adam Monk

There are certain criteria I look for in gear that I choose to use and write about. It has to have excellent value and be useful in a wide variety of situations. Let’s face it. Money is tight...

CM 48T Large-Diaphragm Tube Mic

by Advanced Audio  |  reviewed by Kirt Shearer

It seems like the market has never been more saturated with various types of new recording equipment attempting to emulate vintage gear. Vintage microphone recreations are hot right now —...

Neutron Intelligent Mixing Plug-In

by iZotope  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

If I had to choose a single channel-insert plug-in for mixing, iZotope Neutron would be at the top of my list. Neutron, at its heart, is a multi-module channel strip. It includes four...

Pure Plate Reverb Plug-In

by Universal Audio  |  reviewed by Scott McChane

Plate reverb is undoubtedly my favorite choice for ambience. It’s the agent of antiquity and the steward of soul. Sound is driven into a metal plate, then recaptured as rich clangs and...

Dynamic Spectrum Mapper V2

by ProAudioDSP  |  reviewed by Brad Allen Williams

For reasons that aren’t entirely logical, I find it easier to spend money on hardware than on software. Likewise, sexy products that excel at enhancement and color can often seem more exciting...

ATM350a Instrument Mic Systems

by Audio-Technica  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

The ATM350a is a phantom-powered, small-diaphragm, electret condenser mic with a 12 mm × 38 mm cardioid capsule voiced for close-mic’ing instruments. In many recording...

Automatonism

by Johan Eriksson  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

This is a very cool, free piece of software that implements a modular software synthesizer. If that’s all there was to it, I doubt I’d bother writing this review, as there are tons of...

LYD 48 Active Monitors

by Dynaudio  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

Ah, monitors... I’ve gone through more than my fair share of them over the years in my pursuit to find ones that I feel comfortable working on for long days, and that also translate well so I...

CA-70 PS2 Mic/Line Preamp

by Coil Audio  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

Coil Audio is a company in Lawrence, Kansas, that manufacturers retro, vintage-styled, industrial-looking mic preamps, audio transformers, and accompanying power supplies and chassis. Coil’s...

2264ALB Compressor/Limiter

by AMS Neve  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

The 2264A diode bridge compressor/limiter has been the stuff of audio drool forever. The original model was released in 1974, and aside from some faster attack times and the smaller form factor, it...

E27 500-Series EQ

by Avedis Audio  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

When I bought my API 1608 console [Tape Op #81] almost ten years ago, one of the reasons I was attracted to it was the option to put different EQ modules in it. I had two vintage API 550A EQ modules,...

Apollo Twin MkII Audio Interface

by Universal Audio  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Universal Audio has been refreshing its line-up of Apollo interfaces over the past few years, and now the Apollo Twin compact desktop interface [Tape Op #101] gets what UA is calling a...

MatrixBrute Analog Synthesizer

by Arturia  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

Rather than do the usual review discussing the feature set and my qualitative judgments of how this synthesizer sounds, I'm going to list eight reasons why I think this instrument is one of the best...

 

Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.

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