Gear Reviews

As anyone who's seen the TV show Portlandia knows, in our little city, the dream of the 1890s is still alive. People cure their own meats, roast coffee, raise chickens in the backyard, and pickle any food item, but they also build their own mics. Self-described bricoleur, Philip Graham, builds...

Summing mixers. They really weren't considered a decade ago, and now it's one of the main product areas that seem to have constant growth and development. Although the debate rages on, many feel that the sonic benefits of analog summing are well worth the extra expense, as opposed to just...

With every recording session, there's one piece of the puzzle that never rests; it's constantly in use, informing every decision that you make - and that's your monitor controller. You'll use different mics, mic preamps, and dynamics processors; switch between speakers; and...

The Grace brothers (Michael and Eben) are well-known for their uncompromised designs. I've been a big fan of Grace since JB introduced me to the Model 101 preamp [Tape Op #27] five years ago, and I've used some "Grace" on nearly all the recordings I've made since then. A...

New Zealand gear manufacturer Buzz Audio is best known for its REQ-2.2 mastering EQ [Tape Op #71], which some have compared to a classic Sontec. This impressive reputation made me curious enough to buy Buzz Audio's top-of-the-line compressor, which has achieved less visibility so far. The...

I have not tried every pair of headphones on the market, but I have tried a lot. I think these Monoprice DJ Style Pro Headphones are the best value out there. Closed-back, high-quality build, great sounding, and strangely inexpensive - I will look no further for tracking headphones. What the heck...

Mike Senior has written about a million things for Sound On Sound magazine, but I associate his name with their "Mix Rescue" column. Each month, he does a "makeover" mix of a reader-submitted song, explaining his decisions and techniques in detail. The column is clearly and...

In the world of boutique audio equipment, the classics are held in high regard. Manufacturers are praised for releasing the most accurate clones of gear from what people now consider to be the Golden Age (roughly anywhere from 1930-1990) but are often looked down upon for trying to improve on these...

Perhaps your car is not worth parking in the garage anymore? Or maybe you've cleared out your basement, deciding to generally complicate your life further by building a recording studio in your home? If you've done any research, you'll find many opinions and methods for creating...

Long considered to be one of the great producer/engineers, Ken Scott [Tape Op #52] has written a wonderful memoir of his career in audio. Starting as a tape op at Abbey Road, he had his first experience behind the board engineering The Beatles and soon moved on to produce David Bowie - hence the...

I bought my first RME product, an ADI-648 MADI-ADAT converter [Tape Op #63] a decade ago, when my primary recording devices were an Otari MTR-90 2'' tape machine, a TASCAM MX-2424 standalone HD recorder [#22], and Pro Tools|HD running on a single-processor Mac G4. Ten years later, my...

I can't believe this boom stand streets for $200, because its quality is far above what you'd expect from an affordably-priced studio boom. I've used plenty of boom stands during the many decades I've been recording music, including modern, high-end models from Latch Lake [Tape...