Described as "a manual for those on a quest for authenticity, in an age of airbrushed and Auto-Tuned so-called 'artists'," Ian Brennan's book, How Music Dies (or Lives): Field Recording and the Battle...
Gary Rhamy speaks in a booming radio voice, which must come naturally to someone who’s been in broadcasting for so long. He has been recording for over 40 years in Youngstown, Ohio, opening his...
Imagine a studio where they shut the doors 40 years ago and left everything as it was. It's just not possible, right? Think again. Over the last year Nic Jodoin, with partners Brittany and Justin...
Brad Laner is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, engineer, and producer whose discography is as varied as it is in size. Long before he formed the influential band Medicine, he played drums, guitar,...
Walk into studios anywhere in the world and the name Clarence Kane will have preceded you. One of the true greats in ribbon mic repair and restoration, Mr. Kane started at RCA after returning from the...
I remember the first time I heard Lush. Their sound was dreamy, frenetic, layered, and sounded unlike anything I had ever heard before. They were different, but had a strong pop sensibility. When I...
"I'm elusive, even to the people who work for me," Dan Wilson says via phone from an airport-bound taxi, after his management team finally secured a coveted interview slot for me. If the famed...
We’ve all been there. A band that you’re very excited about books time in your studio. They are also excited to work with you in your facility. It’s their first, or maybe second,...
My laptop is a mid-2014 Toshiba Portégé Z30t touchscreen "ultrabook" with an Intel Core i7 processor and a 512 GB SSD. It's plenty powerful enough to run Pro Tools and Cubase; but these...
Warm, rich, balanced, 3D, game changer — if I could fill this review with nothing but pro-audio buzzwords, then I could call it quits right here. But I'll try not to gush too much...
Speakers are hugely important to what we do as engineers. I can hear the collective "Duh!" — as you all read this. This has only recently become a revelatory "Aha" moment for me. I'm...
It has been well over a year since Cakewalk started offering SONAR [Tape Op #107], their flagship DAW, with rolling updates and an installment-based payment model. You can still purchase the software...
So I've been engineering long enough that the entire concept of studio monitors has changed. The ubiquitous, dual 15'', soffit-mounted monitors are not usually the "go to" reference, since smaller...
In 2010, McDSP released the 6030 Ultimate Compressor plug-in [Tape Op #105], which offered ten different compressors in one virtual rack — some original concepts as well as some inspired by...
From the smart folks who brought us the audio-editing and mastering application Triumph, comes a complete redesign of their powerful batch-processing tool for macOS — Myriad arrived not...
Gregory Scott of Kush Audio is not your run-of-the-mill, audio-gear-making man. Everything he builds seems to be conceived out of a need to satisfy some aspiration that he himself is chasing. Sure,...
This rackmount preamp from Hilbish Design is based on the circuitry of Sunn Beta Bass and Lead amps. When I ordered my PB-10 Beta, my original intent was to use it with bass and guitar. But once I had...
It was nearly three years ago that this curious white stompbox, with the Harmonizer trademark name on it, showed up at a Deerhunter gig. One big turnwheel? App-based control? I was skeptical, to say...
The small-diaphragm condenser category is, like all mic types, a crowded one; and these days, finding something special or unique is probably not going to happen. What's interesting in this category...
You can't take ten steps at an audio trade show without seeing a new 500-series preamp. Yet the only one that caught and held my attention at the January 2016 NAMM Show was the Avedis Audio MD7. After...
I've always approached amp models with far more skepticism than any other type of plug-in. Although Universal Audio makes some of my favorite — and to my ears, most authentic —...
The ACME Audio Motown D.I. WB-3 direct box has a pretty nifty backstory. ACME initially tracked down around 50 of the vintage transformers that were used in the Wolfbox, the first passive DI unit,...
In case you weren't paying attention, Gibson acquired Stanton Group in 2011, which includes pro-audio speaker company KRK Systems (who sell more studio monitors than any other brand). Gibson makes my...
