Interviews
Dr. Daniel Levitin: This is Your Brain on Music And Songs
by Larry Crane
A few years back I was turned onto a book, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. This excellent tome undertook explaining music, how we perceive it, where it comes from and...
Women in Audio
Leslie Ann Jones: Automatt, Capitol Studios, Skywalker Sound
by Marsha Vdovin
The audio business is deeply personal for me, as it is for many of us. When I first met Leslie Ann Jones in 1991, I was thrilled to finally meet a female engineer. To see a woman in the boys'...
Women in Audio
Working with Leslie Ann Jones
by Richard Barone
Going into the studio as an artist, there's nothing I look for more than magic. When producing someone else's music I get deep into the mechanics of "how", but when it's my own tune, voice and guitar,...
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Bruce Botnick: The Doors, MC5, Love, Pet Sounds
by John Baccigaluppi, Larry Crane, Jason Hiller
As we wind our way through the crazy world of recording music and learn more, sometimes we look back and suddenly realize just how great some records we'd taken for granted actually sound. One day...
Ken & Josie Hirsch: Behind The Gear with Orphan Audio
by John Baccigaluppi, Larry Crane
Ken Hirsch has had a varied career in live sound, studio recording, product support and electronics. These days he and Josie, his wife and partner, head up their original company, Orphan Audio, along...
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End Rant
Cooking with Gas
by Larry Crane
Over the last few years I've gotten back into cooking at home. Partly this is because we moved from Portland, Oregon to a small town in the desert with few restaurants, but also it's a great "hobby"...
Gear Geeking
Gear Geeking #74
by Andy Hong
Cascade Microphones (cascademicrophones.com) sent Tape Op a number of ribbon mics to evaluate, so when JB and his crew at The Hangar were asked to set up a remote studio for Devendra Banhart's new...
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Gear Reviews See more →
V-Studio 100 portable music studio
by Cakewalk | reviewed by Alan Tubbs
One might think that Cakewalk's latest hardware collaboration with Roland is the little brother of the V-Studio 700 (Tape Op #72). After all, it comes with a new, "light" version of Cakewalk's...
Pop Filter 375 DS
by The Hook | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
A good pop filter for cutting vocals is one of those easily overlooked tools in the studio. Often an afterthought, a good one makes a great mic even better -and an average mic sound okay. A crappy pop...
CL1mk2 2-channel compressor-limiter
by Vintagedesign | reviewed by Pete Weiss
Over the years, there have been a variety of tried-and-true compressor/limiter circuit types. For example, VCA was used in the classic dbx 160, FET in the UREI 1176, electro-optical in the Teletronix...
DR-100 portable solid-state recorder
by TASCAM | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner
TASCAM has a new entry into the increasingly crowded handheld recorder market -the DR-100. This new unit has a number of clear advantages over TASCAM's less expensive (and slightly less bulky) DR-07...
VSC-2 Quad Discrete Compressor
by Vertigo Sound | reviewed by Matt Foster
Germany-based Vertigo Sound's first product to market is the VSC-2 Quad Discrete Compressor. The quad part relates to the four VCAs within the VSC-2 and not the number of channels it can process, as...
Single-coil guitar pickups
by Kinman | reviewed by Allen Farmelo
When people come to me to record, I always have guitars and amps that I know sound great mic'ed up and ready to go. Guitars have to have great tone, playability, solid intonation and -if I can achieve...
Pro VLA II
by ART | reviewed by Garrett Haines
ART's Pro VLA (Tape Op #37) is one of the best compressors ever made at its price point. You can pick one up new for under $400. It's an electro-optical compressor with a 12AX7 tube gain stage. You...
Logic Pro 9
by Apple | reviewed by Andy Hong
Dana Gumbiner and I both took on Logic Studio for this issue. Dana's opinion follows mine. -AH When Apple unveiled Logic Pro 8 (Tape Op #63), the high-performance audio engine that was the highlight...
sE4400a large-diaphragm condenser mic
by SE Electronics | reviewed by Andy Hong
I don't think I've ever started a mic review by introducing the accessories first. But given the innovative design of the shockmount included with the sE4400a, I can't help but get that out of the way...
APC40 Ableton Performance Controller
by AKAI | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner
Akai Professional and Ableton have co-developed a new comprehensive MIDI performance controller for use with Live versions 7 or 8 (Tape Op #72). The APC40 introduces a new breed of USB-MIDI devices...
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Music Reviews
Remastered CDs (2009)
by The Beatles | reviewed by Jeff Slate
I received my copies of the new remasters of The Beatles' catalog in the midst of the media frenzy that was 9/9/09. After all the hubbub died down and I'd had time to think about it, I realized there...
Music Reviews
Have a Holly Raleigh Kidsmas
by Various Artists | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
Every year Jeff Carroll at Bluefield Mastering sends me a really cool comp CD of Christmas music from Raleigh NC area artists that usually gets to me about three days after our Nov/Dec issue has...
Music Reviews
Throw Me Away
by The Mumlers | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
I was fortunate to work with The Mumlers on their last album, Thickets and Stitches, doing some pinch-hit vocal overdubs before frequent Tape Op contributor Thom Monahan mixed the record at The...