The career of Jimmy Douglass is incredibly interesting. Coming up at Atlantic Records in the early '70s, he learned the ins and outs of studio life on the fly while observing masters like Tom Dowd and...
As the music director for Bruno Mars, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga, Jeff Bhasker eventually parlayed a keen musical sense into a successful production career, with credits on iconic records by Kanye,...
Alvin Lucier is one of the most influential composers in the post-John Cage era. Having authored over 172 pieces for film, theater, television, and dance companies, it is fair to say that he is...
North London-born Chris Carter has had an extraordinary 50-year career in music. While working as a visual artist and sound engineer for various television stations in England, he extended his...
The Miami-based songwriter, producer, and fashionista known as Suzi Analogue lives with synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes one sensory pathway (i.e., hearing) to influence another...
As creative people in the music industry, many of us fail or succeed based on our credits. The music we work on and the artists we engage with often define our value to others in this field. Gebre...
One of the original founders of Eventide Clock Works Inc, Richard Factor has seen a lot of changes in the world of audio and electronics. Eventide’s time-based effects units were some of the...
Last year I bought The Beatles’ super deluxe 50th anniversary box set edition of The BEATLES (commonly known as “The White Album”). The new mixes that Giles Martin [Tape Op #103]...
Recently, I was recommending a soldering iron to a Tape Op contributor who was excited to start fixing cables on his own. I suggested the Weller WLC100 40Watt Soldering Station weller-tools.com....
Oh lord, he's reviewing rack screws. I'll make it quick: these are some nice rack screws! The pilot point makes them much easier to start than the hardware store screws I've used forever, and they're...
I've been a Maglite man since I was in college. They are built to be dropped, don't die under most rain conditions and the beam-focus feature has always been useful, especially for tasks like finding...
If you’ve been following my reviews in Tape Op, then you may have already read my reviews of several virtual software instruments based on the original Synclavier hardware synthesizer [Tape Op...
When Arturia introduced a new series of Brute synths and a Eurorack/power supply system at NAMM last year, we had several reviewers asking about them. Thom Monahan is an experienced analog synthesizer...
Note: I was using this product and was so excited about it, that I wrote this review. Then as I was finishing it up, I remembered Tom Fine already reviewed it a few issues back [Tape Op #124] –...
This latest soft synth moves in a totally new direction for Arturia as it’s not an emulation based on a vintage hardware synth (that’s been their stock in trade for over a decade) –...
I’m really digging these lightweight and discovery-laden plug-in bundles from Native Instruments; the fun-to-cost ratio is highly disproportionate! Each of these packs features three 64-bit...
When I reviewed Synclavier V [Tape Op #118] last year – https://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/118/synclavier-v/, I ended the review by saying that the software didn’t include any of the...
Iowa-based Sioux Guitars has been making very cool, very colorful, and very rock ‘n’ roll guitars, amps, and pedals since 2007. I have long admired their stuff from a distance –...
I will start with the bold statement that I feel solidly qualified to weigh in on Avid’s latest control surface offerings, the Pro Tools | S3 and the Pro Tools | Dock, having purchased the very...
The Michelangelo is a discrete, Class A, all tube, full-stereo equalizer with Jensen input and output transformers. Each unit is hand-made in Texas on a first-come-first-served basis. Go ahead and...
Here’s a surprisingly powerful new analog synth developed in collaboration with Roland and US-based synth designers Studio Electronics. This little box is the first of what Roland calls its...
Elysia, just over a decade old at this point, boasts over a dozen hardware products and more than a half-dozen plug-ins in its catalog. Their flagship Alpha Compressor and its plug-in version are...
This is a future-proof controller that’s really more of a studio “director” or “headmaster-in-charge of all things bleepy-bloopy” – not your grandad’s MIDI...
I've followed DIYRE since reviewing their Colour 500 Series analog saturation platform kit [Tape Op #107], and they've been busy. They've released three or four new kits since 2015: a Colour mkII with...
The original Fireface UFX has been the centerpiece of my mixing studio and mobile recording rig for nearly eight years. The unique feature that sold me on the original UFX was its built-in DURec...
As an engineer in my mid-40s, Eventide is one of those iconic companies I grew up with. First seeing gear ads in magazines and studio shots, and then hearing stories about Brian Eno [Tape Op #85] or...
Here's a 24-bit, 192 kHz audio interface that's a ridiculous bargain at this price point. The Studio 1824 has plenty of analog and digital I/O, plus an 18x8 DSP mixer with low-latency monitor mixing....
Yes, I'm with you. Do we really need more Neumann U 47 and U 48 clones in the market? Apparently the Slovakian company FLEA Microphones thinks so, and has produced a pair of solid-state mics that they...
We unfortunately live in an age where many of the tools we use are poorly made, disposable, and destined or even designed to end up in a landfill. As a studio owner and working engineer, I enjoy the...
I was first introduced to Vanguard Audio several years ago by an industry veteran who would periodically tell me about "a microphone that was still in development..." and that "...I would not only be...
Variable-mu compressors are renowned for their soft, gooey compression. A few of the heavyweights that come to mind are the Fairchild 660, RCA BA6A, and Gates Sta-Level. All of these come with a hefty...
A single microphone that allows you to digitally emulate famously expensive mics of yesteryear and today at a fraction of the cost? It reminds me of the advent of guitar amp modeling, and how far that...
I've had one of these chairs forever. Its design is simple; a triangular cushion, a pneumatic cylinder to adjust height, and a 5-wheel base – no arms. No back. There are tons of saddle chairs on...
I've been considering a new hardware compressor for my drum bus, and the Drawmer 1978 compressor has recently intrigued me. It's a stereo FET compression design with many extra creative features...
If you are newer to audio production, you may have asked this question – and if you are a veteran of audio production you have absolutely been asked this question – "What preamp should I...
Universal Audio – knock it off, already. We could probably end this review right there, and most existing Universal Audio/UAD users would get the point: the release cycle from this company is...
First introduced in 1994, the 801 series eight-channel mic preamp set a standard for quality, value, and unique design that still resonates in all the excellent products that Grace Design now offers....
Since API introduced the 1608 [Tape Op #81] discrete analog recording console a little over a decade ago, it has become something of an industry standard in its class – highly respected for its...
