Interviews
Dennis Herring: From Timbuk 3 to Modest Mouse
by Tim Lee
Interviews
Chris Eckman: The Walkabouts & Working with Victor Van Vugt
by John Bosch
Chris Eckman has been chief songwriter and guitarist for Seattle band The Walkabouts for 20 years. The band's sound has evolved over time as Eckman's collaboration with co-founder, vocalist and...
Behind the Gear
Real World Studios: A behind the scenes tour
by Jeff Touzeau
Real World Studios is an icon in the studio business, recognized internationally for its innovative architecture, high technology standards and, of course, its association with founder Peter Gabriel....
Interviews
The Elusive Frank Lacy: Dennis Herring: The Elusive Frank Lacy
by Tim Lee
Interviews
Victor Van Vugt: PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Beth Orton and...
by John Bosch
On a bone-cold day I rushed up Varick Street in lower Manhattan in an effort to be on time to interview a certain producer with stellar credentials, a man whom I had volunteered to interview with...
Behind the Gear
David Josephson: Behind the Gear with Josephson Engineering
by Walt Szalva
David Josephson, of Josephson Engineering, builds microphones that are innovative, interesting and downright great sounding. We talked about digital audio, cheap mics and the future of microphone...
Columns See more →
End Rant
Words I do not Understand
by Larry Crane
On a daily basis I come across many words used in the recording world that have no meaning to me or have lost any meaning they might have once had. These words come out of clients' mouths, from...
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Gear Reviews See more →
MondoTraps bass traps
by RealTraps | reviewed by Andy Hong
In Tape Op #36, I reviewed the panel traps that RealTraps used to manufacture out of wood. In issue #38, Larry Crane reviewed RealTraps MiniTraps, which performed so well (while being easy to ship)...
Alesis 3630 Modification Kit.
by Black Lion Audio | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
Unlike the article we published in Tape Op #45, which outlined a very simple mod for the 3630 compressor, this kit is a complete overhaul. Considering the low initial cost of the compressor and the...
Proscreen XL pop filter
by Stedman | reviewed by Larry Crane
You may recall my positive review of the Proscreen 101 in Tape Op #23. Since then, I've used my four Proscreens (I keep buying more!) on many sessions, packed them in my luggage when recording...
33 1/3 book series
by Continuum | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." I've heard this quote attributed to everyone from Igor Stravinsky and Thelonius Monk, to Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, and Elvis Costello....
Reverb 2016
by Eventide / Princeton Digital | reviewed by Adam Kagan
We have reached a point, more than 20 years into the digital revolution, where vintage digital is being sought after almost as much as vintage analog. This is especially true in the area of reverbs....
22 47 vacuum-tube mic, CEMC-6 solid-state mic
by Peluso Microphone | reviewed by Henry Robinett
I wrote a review in Tape Op #44 about the Peluso 22 251 vacuum tube condenser. I was very impressed. So impressed that I wanted to check out the whole line. John Peluso, the great guy that he is, sent...
VMP-1000e mic preamp
by Sebatron | reviewed by Henry Robinett
The Sebatron VMP-1000e is a really-cool tube mic preamp. It's kind of its own thing (thank goodness), and it doesn't seem to be a clone of anything. It has a very warm tone-great for guitars-and...
MaxCom Dual Compressor
by BBE | reviewed by Garrett Haines
I get a lot of letters asking "what should I buy next?" I'm hardly ever in a position to give such advice. But I also get questions like "what's a good starter compressor?"- which is a bit easier to...
SheetBlok Sound Isolation Barrier
by Auralex Acoustics | reviewed by Andy Hong
The live room in my recording studio has lots of natural light (see www. kimcheerecords.com/articles/studioacoustics/ for photos), much of it from two skylights. When we first built out the studio, we...
SE-BB1 Bova Ball spherical condenser mic
by Sage Electronics | reviewed by Joel Hamilton
The folks that make this really cool, great sounding microphone may just be the nicest people I have ever dealt with on the phone, period. That instilled confidence from the moment I called up Sage...
SE2200A large-diaphragm cardioid condenser mic
by SE Electronics | reviewed by Andy Hong
$300 (street) buys you a fantastic-sounding, large- diaphragm condenser, complete with suitcase and shockmount? Unbelievable! I recently recorded four songs with Chris Colbourn (Buffalo Tom) and...
Pro Tools Clinic: Demystifying LE for Macintosh and PC
by Mitch Gallagher | reviewed by Garrett Haines
A guy I know is migrating to Pro Tools from another application. He asked me if I had any suggestions for a primer. Unfortunately, it seems like everyone and his dog has written a book on Pro Tools...
?Tonic percussion synth plug-in
by Sonic Charge | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner
The MicroTonic (or μTonic) is a VST drum and percussion synthesizer plug-in for Windows (98 or later) or Mac OS X (10.2 or later) that works with any host application compatible with VSTi 2.0...
ANF-10 passive studio monitors
by ADAM | reviewed by Scott Craggs
It was five years and one issue ago when I reviewed the Event 20/20 monitors (Tape Op #18), and they've been my mainstays ever since. I raved about them then, and I still like them, but after doing...
23500B microphone bar
by K&M | reviewed by Garrett Haines
A microphone bar is a device that allows you to mount two or more mics on it. It usually looks like a metal tongue depressor with threaded mic mounts on each end. Replace a standard mic clip with the...
TranzPort
by Frontier Design | reviewed by Jeff Robbins
A 150-foot snake. I bought it on Craigslist about a year ago. I thought it would be great for mic'ing up drums in my living room or backyard, vocals in the bathroom, or a string quartet in my garage....
2488 Digital Portastudio
by TASCAM | reviewed by Andy Hong
The first multitrack I recall owning was a TASCAM Porta One cassette 4-track. My brother and I bought it sometime in the early-80's, along with a spring reverb and a cheap dynamic microphone. A lot...
VL-S21 compact monitors & subwoofer
by TASCAM | reviewed by Andy Hong
Despite the fact that I'm an übergeek, I only recently installed foobar2000 on my primary desktop machine in my home office so I can listen to all the various audio files that I have stored on...
Rubicon 6a Active Ribbon Monitors
by Samson Audio | reviewed by Kyle Bittinger, Bryan Cord, Ramsey Tantawi
We've been big fans of ribbon tweeters for a long time here at WMBR Radio, especially after having reviewed the ADAM P11A's in Tape Op #33. So when we received a pair of Samson Rubicon 6a's for...
EN-VOICE MK II
by MindPrint | reviewed by Jeff Robbins
The popularity of tube-based audio gear has grown with the popularity of digital recording. One look around your local music mega-center and it seems like half of the pro-audio, keyboard, and guitar...
DTC double channel strip
by MindPrint | reviewed by Pete Weiss
MindPrint has recently unleashed a few nifty devices of the "channel strip" variety, and the DTC (Dual Tube Channel), designed with the help of award-winning Euro guitarist Thomas Blug and Hughes...
The Art of Digital Music
by David Battino & Kelli Richards | reviewed by Larry Crane
When we interviewed Alan Parsons last year, he asked if we could shoot a photo of him for a book for which he'd just done an interview. I happily emailed him one of the digital pictures I'd taken of...