In 2011 an artist by the name of Gotye rose to international prominence on the back of his song, "Somebody That I Used to Know," from his third album, Making Mirrors. Wouter "Wally" De Backer is...
As far as I can reckon, albums that Michael Wagener has produced, engineered, or mixed – including Mötley Crüe's Too Fast for Love, Skid Row's Skid Row, Metallica's Master of Puppets,...
Dan Molad may be best known as part of the band Lucius, or for his current solo release as CHIMNEY, but he's also been involved as a producer, collaborator, and musician with a lot of interesting...
Chip was one of the best and hardest-working session guitar pickers/ producer/engineers that Nashville has ever seen. But he was even better at being a granddad, family man, and a Christian. Nashville...
Technician, musician, and recordist Stephen Masucci has been a friend of Tape Op for many years, helping set up interviews and turning us on to some great people. His band, The Lost Patrol, has been a...
Chris Breest is an entrepreneur and jack-of-many-trades. He is the CEO and founder of Plymouth Rock recording studio in Plymouth, Michigan, plays music with BandB and other groups, works as a music...
German composer and performance artist Christina Kubisch has created electronic and acoustic music for installations since the '70s. Her work focuses on finding sounds where no one expects, and her...
After 32 years of attending, visiting, and helming many studio recordings, I've come to recognize the impact that guests dropping by can have on a session. In Tape Op #73 I described my take on...
In 2012, I wrote about the P-touch PT-1290 label maker in “Gear Geeking” [Tape Op #90]. I've printed countless self-stick labels with the P-touch, using its mini QWERTY keyboard and...
I do a fair amount of video scoring on tight deadlines, which often makes tracking drums impossible. As a result, I find myself employing drum plug-ins pretty regularly. I've been using a few other...
Manley makes audio gear in Chino, CA, for audio enthusiasts and audiophiles. In the same manner that drivers who love to drive (and have lots of money) drive Aston Martins, audio professionals who...
I must admit that I have never been a huge fan of the 500-series format. I have spent too much time repairing my friends' racking frames, usually due to the voltage regulators frying, and I always...
I'll admit that when I first tried Limitless, I found myself totally frustrated with its countless features and information-heavy graphics, when all I was trying to do was use it as a basic limiter....
The Brainworx bx_console N, E, and G plug-ins are predicated on accurate digital models of the channel strips from Neve VXS, and "British" E and G Series consoles. Clearly Brainworx are avoiding use...
Part of publishing Tape Op involves going to the NAMM show every January. It's nice to see our friends there, and there's always a lot of gear to look at, but honestly a lot of it is pretty much the...
With most pro audio gear, there's never enough control right where the gain-staging starts to get interesting. The upper range of the operating levels of a circuit is often where full-bodied...
SONAR [Tape Op #116] is dead, long live… which DAW? The shutdown of Gibson-owned Cakewalk sent thousands of users looking for a new DAW. It may be that SONAR's demise has been grossly...
In all honesty, the original SPL Transient Designer [Tape Op #21] was one of the first pieces of analog hardware that really blew my mind. The first time I played around with one, perhaps fifteen...
Yes, I'm a bit biased. I'm a fan of CruzTOOLS' solid line of problem-solving musical instrument tools. I own and use one of their Guitar Player Tech Kits [Tape Op #69] (awesome for general guitar tech...
I've been using Line 6 gear since the company's inception, from the original POD, to the rackmount POD Pro [Tape Op #22], to the later-generation POD XT Live pedalboard, which I...
As we all know, it's a new "personal listening" world out there. The majority of consumers, especially younger ones, listen to most of their music on earbuds or headphones, instead of full-range...
After focusing on making microphones for 50 years, our Australian friends at RØDE have just released the AI–1 single-channel, high-resolution (24–bit, 96 kHz), portable...
Twenty years ago, Royer Labs unleashed the "now classic" Royer R–121 mic [Tape Op #19], and (along with AEA) helped point digital-weary engineers back towards the welcome old-school sound of...
