Issue No. 64

Microphones

KM69 small-diaphragm condenser mic

by MercenaryAudioMFG.  |  reviewed by Richard Lloyd

When I was at the last AES conference, I ran into Fletcher of Mercenary Audio, and I saw something sticking out of his shirt pocket. He pulled it out proudly and showed it around. I said, "That's got...

Monitoring

HP60 headphone amp

by PreSonus  |  reviewed by

The PreSonus HP60 solves two of the most common home- studio problems by providing individual headphone mixes for up to six people as well as a convenient talkback system. There are two main stereo...

Consoles/Summing

ZED-14 mixer

by Allen & Heath  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

Some years ago, I owned an original Allen & Heath WZ20:8:2 MixWizard designed for use with an 8-track. It was a major step up from other small-format consoles of the time, both functionally and...

Dynamics, Plug-Ins

CT4 Compressor

by Massey Plugins  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

Massey CT4 is a straightforward compressor plug-in that comes in RTAS and TDM formats. With an uncluttered interface, CT4 has only four controls-compression, makeup, attack, and release-making it easy...

Acoustics

Portable broadband absorbers

by ModTrap  |  reviewed by J. Robert Lennon

Here's a neat solution for solving problems with your recording environment's acoustics. Take two sheets of rigid fiberglass, wrap them neatly in fire-rated acoustic fabric, glue them together to form...

Mic Preamps

HVTP2 & HJFP2 mic preamps

by Hamptone  |  reviewed by J. Robert Lennon

When Andy Hong asked me to write a review of the mic preamps currently-available from Hamptone (the tube-based HVTP2 and transistor-based HJFP2), I got a weird sense of deja vu. Haven't these already...

Dynamics, Signal Processors

Dynamics Toolbox

by Safe Sound Audio  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

You may recall my review of the Safe Sound P1 Audio Processor (Tape Op #53)-a mic preamp, instrument DI, expander, compressor, limiter, and headphone monitor/mixer designed by Robert Campbell,...

Dynamics, Signal Processors

609CA Compressor/Limiter

by Vintech Audio  |  reviewed by F. Reid Shippen

About a year ago, several of my peers were involved in an audio geekfest here in Nashville centered around a shootout between several vintage Neve 1073 modules and a Vintech X73. I wasn't able to...

Media

Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, 2nd Edition

by Bob Katz  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

Larry covered the first edition of this book back in Tape Op #35. But there is so much updated content in this second printing that a second review is merited. The title, Mastering Audio, is clearly a...

Monitoring

Extreme Isolation EX-25 & EX-29 headphones

by Direct Sound  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

If you've read Tape Op over the years, you've probably noticed that one of my pet peeves is headphones. You gotta' have 'em, but they're expensive, and everyone treats 'em like crap. On the other...

Control Surfaces

AlphaTrack control surface

by Frontier Design  |  reviewed by Allen Farmelo

A number of years back, I was tracking a record in a room with a 24-fader Digidesign ProControl and then migrated to a situation with only a keyboard and a mouse. About halfway through the first day...

Mic Preamps

TO-2 mic preamp

by Matrix Audio  |  reviewed by Craig Schumacher

So we were strolling around AES last October and we run into Harley Fine who we met at TapeOpCon 2007. Harley took us over to meet Jim Kaye of Matrix Audio Systems. At his table were three 2-channel...

Mic Preamps

1589 mic preamp

by ALTEC  |  reviewed by Scott Callan

I am a home recordist with a humble 12-space rack filled with affordable (and occasionally interesting) gear. I am also a sucker for anything odd, old, and esoteric... and bonus points for strange...

Microphones

Ela M 260 small-diaphragm tube mic

by Telefunken USA  |  reviewed by

It's funny how the audio industry sometimes seems to go in waves. Four years ago, summing mixers, like the Dangerous 2-BUS (Tape Op #35), were the new thing, and two years ago, monitor controllers...

Media

Cubase 4 Tutorial DVD Level 1

by ASK Video  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

David Hidek and Garrett's positive review of the ASK Video Sibelius Tutorial DVD bundle (Tape Op #62) prompted me to check out ASK's Cubase 4 Tutorial. In short, if you are new to Cubase (or to DAWs...

Microphones

G-Track USB mic

by Samson Audio  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

My wife is a filmmaker, and her primary platform is Final Cut Studio running on a Mac Pro. She is neither an audio engineer nor a gear geek like many of us are. For her current project, she needed to...

Software

r8brain PRO Sample Rate Converter

by Voxengo  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

Voxengo is a company that has been selling digital audio processing tools online since 2002. The r8brain PRO application is a high-quality sample-rate converter for PCM audio. While it's hard to get...

Software, Virtual Instruments

Miroslav Philharmonik Orchestral Workstation (Classik Edition)

by IK Multimedia  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

This plug-in has quickly become a go-to for my clients who ask for realistic string and orchestral parts. It's simply the best orchestral sampler I've heard at this price point. And that's my review!...

Monitoring

Expose E8B active monitor

by KRK  |  reviewed by Jeff Elbel

I've been using a pair of KRK 7000B speakers, driven by a Bryston 3B-ST power amp, as my nearfield monitors for a dozen years. I trust them and know them inside-out, but after working with higher-end...