Interviews
Mac McCaughan: Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge
by Larry Crane
Mac McCaughan is well known for his 20 years as the front man for the Chapel Hill, NC, band Superchunk, co-owner (with Laura Ballance) of the influential independent record label Merge Records and the...
Interviews
Alan Evans: Playonbrother Studios and Soulive
by Larry Crane
Drummer Alan Evans and his bandmates (Eric Krasno on guitar and Alan's brother Neal Evans on keyboards) have led the funk/jazz trio Soulive through over 10 years of tours, albums and studio sessions....
Let's DIY
DIY Reverb
by Nicolas Collins
In the disembodied world of today's computer-based multitrack mixing, one can spend a lot of time crafting a unifying sense of "space." Despite the dozens of reverb plug-ins and rack devices...
Recording Drums
Drum Recording : Stop the Cymbal Splash
by Chas Ferry, Marcos Lopez-Iglesias
I worked as an engineer and tech at Cherokee Recording Studios for over ten years and was involved in recording sessions at many other major Los Angeles recording studios. During that time I saw the...
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Ben Allen: Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, Puff Daddy?
by Alex McKenzie
When I got the offer to interview Ben Allen I was a little confused at first. I had enjoyed his work with Gnarls Barkley and Animal Collective, but Puff Daddy and the Bad Boy empire? Christina...
Kurt Ballou: Godcity Recording and Converge
by Scott Evans
If you listen to modern hardcore or metal, you know Kurt Ballou's work. Kurt is a founding member of the band Converge and an accomplished, prolific recordist. "Extreme" music magazine, Decibel,...
Gurf Morlix: Rootball Recording in Austin, TX
by Larry Crane
Gurf Morlix likes to produce, engineer, perform, write and even just plain talk about music. It might sound hackneyed to say, but music is his life's blood, the passion that drives his spirit. Born in...
Brad Avenson: Behind the Gear with Avenson Audio
by Larry Crane
For years now I've been bumping into Brad Avenson, a real down-to-earth guy who's been building his Avenson Audio company up with small, ingenious little tools to help us all make better records...
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End Rant
Proprietary Information
by Thomas Day
Forty years ago I began my career repairing industrial electronics equipment. Right out of tech school with a wife and a kid on the way, I worked on precision measurement equipment by day, and played...
Gear Geeking
Gear Geeking #76
by Andy Hong
Longtime readers know that I am a keyboard geek — a QWERTY keyboard geek — and my expectations for the perfect keyboard are hard to satisfy. I demand full-size keycaps throughout, as well...
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UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins
by Universal Audio | reviewed by Neil Mclellan
When I recently wiped the system disk of my primary music computer to replace Windows XP Pro with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, I installed only the applications that I knew I'd be using regularly....
Studio One Pro 1.0.2
by PreSonus | reviewed by
My primary music DAW is now Studio One Pro. When I first saw the advertisement for it, I thought, "That looks cool, but not cool enough to spend the time learning a new DAW. My DAW's working fine." I...
Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie
by Dianna Dilworth(Director) | reviewed by Larry Crane
I would imagine most of our readers are familiar with the Mellotron, a tape-playing keyboard that became popular in the late '60s on songs like The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever." Ms. Dilworth...
PT2-500 mic preamp
by TRUE Systems | reviewed by Craig Schumacher
New at the 500-series lunchbox cafe this week is the PT2-500. TRUE Systems' Tim Spencer has managed to take the clean, full sound of his P2analog (Tape Op #44), create an even more full-bodied,...
Max for Live
by Ableton & Cycling '74 | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner
Cycling '74 and Ableton have introduced a fascinating new version of the Max programming environment tailored specifically for instrument and effect creation within Live (Tape Op #72). Max/MSP and its...
EQSM1 500-series EQ
by S&M Audio | reviewed by Kirt Shearer
Even though the format has been around for decades, there has been an explosion of products in the last few years produced for the 500-series format. About the only thing that hasn't been shoved into...
TT/DB25 patchbay & cabling
by Redco Audio | reviewed by Allen Farmelo
With ubiquitous products like Digidesign's converters (now Avid) having adopted the balanced 8-channel DB25 connector as standard, these jacks have found their way onto all kinds of pro gear. There...
SRH840 headphones
by Shure | reviewed by Brandon Miller
Shure just launched its first line of headphones aimed specifically at music-making applications -the SRH series. The idea's been to fill a growing demand for pro-level gear by an audience that's...
MC Mix, MC Control, and MC Transport
by Euphonix | reviewed by Allen Farmelo
Whether to work with a control surface or not is a personal decision. If you do prefer to have faders, knobs and buttons under hand, the one thing we will all agree on is that the integration between...
Alloy plug-in
by iZotope | reviewed by Dave Hidek
I've been hesitant to write this review, as I'd prefer that no one else know about iZotope's Alloy but me. Being a long time iZotope fan, I was excited to work with their new do-it-all plug-in, and it...