Gear Reviews

Introduced in 1976, the Ampex ATR-102 2-track tape recorder is often cited as the finest tape handler invented. Not limited to one width, users can swap head-stacks and guides, permitting a single machine to handle 1/4'', 1/2'', and even 1'' (when modified) tape. For...

The QWERTY keyboard that I use with my DAW is a fully-programmable Cherry SPOS G86-61410 (Tape Op #56) designed for use with Point of Sale register stations. Any keycode, key combination, or sequence of keys (up to 10 keycodes each) can be assigned to any of the hardware keys, and these assignments...

Past reviews in Tape Op have covered external hard drive storage systems with RAID capability for redundancy in case of drive failure. Even if you're doing daily backups, the loss of one day's worth of audio recordings could be disastrous, and a RAID can reduce the possibility of such a...

Last year, I upgraded the pair of Ultimate Support MS-45B2 monitor stands (Tape Op #49) in my personal studio to the current, second-generation model in Ultimate Support's studio lineup, the MS-90/45B. For months now, I've been planning on writing a review, but I couldn't find the...

Rupert Neve is a name that's been around in the recording world for quite a while now, and it holds a lot of weight. Few names are as synonymous with audio design, but when it came time to release a new series of gear in a new millennium, Rupert Neve Designs made the decision to try something...

I've been using analog synthesizer filters to process audio ever since I bought a PAiA modular synth in the mid '80s, and you'll get no argument from me if you were to say the venerable Moog filter is one of the best sounding filters ever made. So when Moog introduced The Ladder, a...

I have not been excited about a new mic preamp in a long time, especially a solid-state one. You know what I mean? Doesn't it feel like in the last 10 years or so, we witnessed an explosion in the mic preamp category, and now again in the 500-series format, and some of these new products sound...

After years of reviewing gear, I have come to the conclusion that A/B comparisons are not able to tell me what I want to know about a piece of equipment. While I understand the value of A/B comparisons - and have used them for years as a basis for my evaluations - I have come to believe that an...

Monofilter is a useful tool for managing bass frequencies and correcting phase-coherence issues. Monofilter re-aligns and balances low frequencies, resulting in a louder, more focused, and better defined mix, while leaving the aesthetic of the mix intact.

Why do we need to pay attention to bass...

First looks can be deceiving, and the Radial Q3 is anything but what I initially imagined it to be. My first impression upon seeing the 500-series module was of an Auditronics-style 3- band inductive coil EQ, similar to the Purple ODD (Tape Op #77). The physical layout is similar: four knobs, three...

This book presents a large body of knowledge and countless insider-tips from an award-winning commercial audio designer. Before this book, complete information about original audio circuit design was notoriously hard to find. Audio circuit engineering is not taught as a degree in any university. If...

This venerable DAW, which was introduced originally for the Atari ST in 1989, was last covered in Tape Op in 2010 (Tape Op #75); Garrett Haines and I cowrote the Cubase 5 review. For this latest version of Cubase, I asked senior contributor and longtime Cubase user Scott Evans to be the expert...

The Federal AM-864/U was made for the US Army in the '40s and '50s for use in AM radio broadcasting. Like most obscure, vibey pieces of vintage gear, these have recently become prohibitively expensive, and replacement parts are scarce. Moreover, it's nearly impossible to tell which...

Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours sold over 40 million copies, topped charts around the world, and won a Grammy for Album of the Year. Ken Caillat, along with Richard Dashut and the band, produced this album over a span of 12 months in a number of classic studios: Wally Heider Studios (L.A....