Known as the Sonic Sorceress, composer and synthesist Lisa Bella Donna has a talent for fusing the esoteric with the technical. Working from a remote Appalachian home-base, the composer’s days...
About ten years ago, New Jersey-born producer and songwriter Jennifer Decilveo pivoted from a degree and career in finance to begin a life in the Los Angeles music scene. Since then, she has...
With a list of credits and Grammy awards with artists such as D’Angelo, The Roots, Kamasi Washington, Common, Angélique Kidjo, Alicia Keys, and Jon Batiste, one might assume Russell...
A fascinating person, Blake Morgan is a songwriter, producer, engineer, studio owner, recording artist, music rights activist, and the owner of ECR Music Group, an independent record label. Living in...
Releasing his first album in 1982, Steve Roach has continued to make hundreds of records in his personal Timeroom studios over the years, while also touring his music. Additionally, he produces...
There is an old saying: “Only back up what you can’t afford to lose.” As musicians and audio personnel, I believe most of us can’t afford to lose any of our product (aka...
One of my favorite records of 2024 to date is Phosphorescent’s Revelator. It's a beautifully recorded album, featuring Matthew Houck's timeless songwriting and lyrics plus gorgeous...
I do a fair amount of one-on-one remote "teaching," many times working with folks running small studios, as well as a wide range of home setups. It's always fun to face this educational challenge, as...
As we all know, aging ears and sustained exposure to high SPL (sound pressure level) can lead to permanent hearing loss, chronic tinnitus, or both. I’m at the point in my music-making endeavors...
As an audio professional, I'm often asked by friends who record podcasts at home for microphone recommendations. So, I was excited when I got the opportunity to review Audio-Technica's new AT2040...
Congrats! You have a solid collection of mics and mic stands, a battery of plug-ins, a few pieces of outboard gear for that extra special sauce, a great pair of monitors and stands, and even some...
We've all grown far too accustomed to the head puckering, bass muffled, ear-smushing, insulated fake spaciness of crappy small speakers strapped to our skulls masquerading as headphones. I've been...
If you’re just making a few edits on open reel tapes, or attaching a leader to tops and tails, it won’t kill you to cut off a piece of leader tape from a spool. But there are times where...
I’m always reluctant to review speakers. It’s hard to do client work on unfamiliar monitors. My room was tuned for my current nearfields over ten years ago, and since then I haven’t...
I’m an EQ guy and always have been. When I began working in studios, the debate was whether or not to EQ to tape or wait to EQ when mixing. Fuck that; get the sound the way you want it when...
The name of this magazine is Tape Op, and we know that lots of people still love working on analog tape machines. We also know that there are a lot of people who have never worked with tape machines...
Pearl Microphone Laboratory is one of the longest-running and oldest microphone manufacturers in the world. Their former production manager, Bernt Malmqvist, has been building quality microphones...
Those of us who have tried mixing music in Dolby Atmos understand the challenges of learning a new skill. Some of those challenges lie in creative dilemmas, such as “What should go in the...
The need for flexibility is paramount in many recording situations, and affordably meeting that need is a challenge. Fortunately, Roswell Audio’s Mini K67x cardioid large diaphragm condenser mic...
For most live performers, the days of wedge floor monitors are a thing of the past. IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) have become the new standard for stage monitoring, and for good reason. A monitor engineer...
apTrigga has been around since 2004 (and it was good back then!). In 2015, apulSoft released a full rewrite of their sample trigger plug-in that included AAX support, which I grabbed immediately and...
When I was managing Jackpot! Recording Studio, I was fascinated by Tape Op editor and studio owner Larry Crane’s approach to gear-buying. The studio is mostly made up of new equipment with a few...
With mottos like, "You're doing nothing wrong" and, "Nothing is wrong with your mix," Head Voice arrived last fall as a mission statement and an "audio recording zine focused on creativity." Founded...
I've had the opportunity not only to sing and play into many sought-after microphones, but I've also been able to use even more mics on artists and instrumentalists as a producer and engineer. I...
Proclaimed as "an adaptive tone shaper," Bloom is a new plug-in by oeksound, known for the handy tone-fixers Soothe2 [Tape Op #138] and Spiff [#137]. I constantly use Soothe2 to fix tracks that have...
Folks, please label your patchbays: Not with a paper key that sits on top of the bays, not with a PDF on your computer, but with labels on the patchbays. For years, I made labels using a carefully...
With the subtitle "A Practical Guide to Becoming and Succeeding as an Audio Engineer and Producer," the goal of this book should be obvious. But where many books of this ilk usually fail, this book...
The Soundcraft Notepad-8FX is an entry-level mixer that seamlessly connects as a USB 2.0 interface to your laptop, tablet or phone. It has two mic/line XLR combo input jacks (one of which has a...
Some 24 years ago, my pal Craig Alvin [Tape Op #137] found out that one of Tchad Blake's [#133, #16] ubiquitous mix distortion devices was the Shure Level-Loc. Level-Locs were Shure's attempt at a...
It’s clear that TASCAM made no compromises when designing the Sonicview 24XP digital recording and mixing console. While its virtually endless features should make it attractive to seasoned...
The Louder Than Liftoff [Tape Op #122] Silver Bullet mk2 plug-in is my new favorite in the box processor by a wide margin – and that’s kind of hilarious, considering that my trusty...
Pulsar Modular’s P455 MDN Sidecar plug-in was designed in conjunction with engineer Marc Daniel Nelson. Although there’s definitely some API style inspiration involved, they’ve taken...
At the last few pre-pandemic AES conferences I attended, my brief conversations with David Bock centered around his opinions about the classic microphones that were built incorrectly. Most of his...
I’ve loved listening to music in headphones since I was a child, but I’ve come a long way from those flimsy freebies that came with my yellow Sony Walkman. As an adult, I’ve spent...
