Interviews
John Wood: Techniques in Sound
by Larry Crane
Allan Taylor, John Wood, Dave Mattacks, and Pat Donaldson at Sound Techniques, recording Cajum Moon's self-titled LP, Fall 1975. If I look at my record collection, there are so many favorites...
Interviews
Joe Boyd: Roots of Rhythm
by Ian Brennan
Having produced classic albums for Nick Drake, Richard & Linda Thompson, R.E.M., and Toots and the Maytals, amongst others, Joe Boyd [Tape Op #60] is arguably the most renowned, living, roots...
Interviews
Jeff Jones: The Jedi Master
by Ian Brennan
@ Scovil Productions, Norwalk, CT Jeff “The Jedi Master” Jones has been an engineer and producer for music and films in New York City for over 40 years. Starting out as a teenager in...
More From This Issue See more →
John “Spud” Murphy: Filling in the Frequencies
by Steve Silverstein
While I only casually follow British music magazines like The Quietus and Uncut, their frequent championing of the band Lankum caught my eye, and upon hearing the 2023 album, False Lankum, they...
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: At Tonal Park
by Sam Retzer
What happens when you combine the rhythmic backbone of Fugazi veterans Joe Lally (bass) and Brendan Canty (drums, Tape Op #12) with the soaring heights of James Brandon Lewis’ sax, and douse...
Fred Thomas: $30 and Ingenuity
by Carolyn Zaldivar Snow
There are too many bands Fred Thomas has touched in his 30 years of touring. Ask him for a count on projects, and he'll tell you he doesn't keep track. The end of 2023 saw Fred's departure from...
Sponsored
Columns See more →
End Rant
Ignore These Rules
by Larry Crane
After the internet came along and made sharing of information easier, I noticed an interesting trend. Maybe it's because of that misguided impulse of "doing it the right way" that beginners attempt to...
Sponsored
Gear Reviews See more →
P422 Fairuz EQ Plug-In
by Pulsar Modular | reviewed by Matt Anderson
Pulsar Modular never seems to disappoint when it comes to unique and colorful designs. I’ve always kept it pretty simple when it comes to EQs. I have one main software plug-in that is surgical...
HEDDphone TWO Headphones
by HEDD | reviewed by Andy Hong
"Wow, I don't feel like I'm listening to headphones. They sound so open" were the universal reactions from mastering engineers at Infrasonic Sound and students at The Blackbird Academy that I...
SOLO VLA Compressor
by ART | reviewed by Tim Pratt
I’ve been a longtime user of Applied Research and Technology (ART) hardware, as have most of my engineer friends with home, project, and professional studios. I remember many of my early-2000s...
705P 7 Series Monitor
by JBL Professional | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield
There are so many choices when it comes to studio monitors these days that I often forget that one of the original names in that space is JBL. For years, JBL was the monitor found in many of the best...
EF-P2 Spring Reverb Pedal
by Echo Fix | reviewed by Larry Crane
Maybe it was my childhood fascination with The Ventures, but I've always been a fan of spring reverb devices in the studio. I have four rack-mount spring units (Demeter [Tape Op #21, #109], Benson...
013A Ambisonic Mic
by Soyuz | reviewed by Matt Anderson
I’ve loved everything Soyuz has made so far and own many of their mics, but ambisonics seemed like an odd direction for them. When Soyuz announced the 013A Ambisonic Mic, I began doing more...
TAPE APB Plug-In
by McDSP | reviewed by Larry Crane
Here's another new plug-in that comes included with McDSP's APB ("analog processing box") units (APB-8, APB-16 [Tape Op #134]). In case you don't know what APB processors are, they're 8 and 16-channel...
32Cpre+ 500 Series Preamp
by Harrison | reviewed by Tim Pratt
If you’re of a certain age (mid-40s/50s), you probably remember sifting through and being raised on the records of your parents and/or siblings. Such listening sessions probably included the...
Taped Spaces Reverb Plug-In
by half light | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
half light is Mitchell Schneider and David Riddle. Taped Spaces is their first full plug-in (they’ve also made some Kontakt instruments), but they’ve been playing music together for over a...
Smooth Operator Plug-In
by Baby Audio | reviewed by Daniel Ryan Morse
I recently discovered that my mixes sounded a bit thinner than I wanted because of a buildup in presence frequencies (4 to 6 kHz). Looking for a cure, I turned to Baby Audio’s Smooth Operator...
T10S Active Subwoofer
by ADAM Audio | reviewed by Daniel Ryan Morse
I’m nearing the end of a search for a new monitoring setup in my small home studio (aka spare bedroom). I fell in love with the ADAM Audio A7Vs [Tape Op #153] and a matching subwoofer Sub10 MK2...
SD-series Mics & Hemisphere Plug-In
by Universal Audio | reviewed by Mike Kosacek
The boxy, rectangular shapes, light grayish-white painted bodies, and contrasting black windscreens of the new dynamic microphones in Universal Audio Standard Series – SD-3, SD-5, and SD-7 with...
Songzap iPhone DAW App
by RT60 Ltd | reviewed by Larry Crane
A pocket DAW app for your iPhone? Sure! Songzap is built for creating and capturing song ideas. Professor Rob Toulson and Dr. Mike Exarchos developed this app, and Rob wrote the excellent book Drum...
Motion Filter Plug-In
by Denise Audio | reviewed by Larry Crane
In the fall of 2023, Baby Audio acquired Denise Audio, a company with an awesome line of deceptively-simplified plug-ins. Motion Filter is their reworking of Denise's The Sweeper, a digital motion...
PSP Flare Compressor Plug-In
by | reviewed by Larry Crane
Touted as “a new kind of psycho-acoustic compressor,” PSP Flare can apply a huge amount of compression to a stereo or mono source, and do so without immediately veering into nasty...
SideMinder Max Plug-In
by Raising Jake Studios | reviewed by Larry Crane
Billed as a "Spectral Dynamic Stereo Width Maximizer," the SideMinder Max plug-in works on stereo tracks to adjust the width of a signal at different frequency ranges. I reviewed the original...
Linda Perry: Let It Die Here (film)
by Don Hardy, director | reviewed by Larry Crane
In Tape Op #143, Dawn Landes interviewed Linda Perry, one of the most successful producers and songwriters of the last 30 years. In this documentary, Don Hardy captures Linda in action, writing and...
Tom Mic
by Lauten Audio | reviewed by Mike Kosacek
Drum-specific mics have been around for some time, but innovative companies such as Lauten Audio are still finding ways to improve them. Recently unveiling the Snare Mic [Tape Op #159] to bring out...
ARC Studio
by IK Multimedia | reviewed by Scott McDowell
ARC Studio is an easy-to-use acoustic room correction tool, and one of my favorite recent studio upgrades. Set up is relatively simple; while it does require a computer for the calibration, once...
Electronic Perspectives (book)
by Tom Rhea, author | reviewed by Larry Crane
Subtitled "Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments," this is a treat of a book. From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Tom Rhea wrote 52 columns for Keyboard magazine called "Electronic Perspectives." In an era...
ORIA Interface & Monitor Controller
by Audient | reviewed by Adam Kagan
I was extremely excited to see Audient – the British audio manufacturer that makes everything from budget-conscious USB interfaces to large format recording consoles – debut the ORIA...
AS78 Dual Peak Limiter
by AudioScape Engineering Co. | reviewed by Brian Tarquin
Well hell, let’s face it – who doesn’t love a good sounding 1176? It’s one of my favorite compressors! Everything – vocals, guitars, bass, drums, percussion, and sax...