Contributor

Thom Monahan

PodMic & PSA1 Boom Arm

Gear Review | No. 133

PodMic & PSA1 Boom Arm

Sep 15, 2019

Unusually heavy for its size and price point, the RØDE PodMic dynamic broadcast microphone feels overbuilt to the very meaning of the word. With an...

H47 Large Diaphragm FET Mic

Gear Review | No. 133

H47 Large Diaphragm FET Mic

Sep 15, 2019

Coming from a family of jewelers in Iowa, and growing up fascinated with small scale measurements and attention to detail, Eric Heiserman became a...

RackBrute

Gear Review | No. 129

RackBrute

Jan 15, 2019

When Arturia introduced a new series of Brute synths and a Eurorack/power supply system at NAMM last year, we had several reviewers asking about...

Shape Twin Active Monitors

Gear Review | No. 126

Shape Twin Active Monitors

Jul 15, 2018

Monitors of all shapes and sizes have always seemed like an extension of the stereo speakers I saved up my paper route money to buy when I was a kid....

U99 Large-Diaphragm Tube Mic

Gear Review | No. 123

U99 Large-Diaphragm Tube Mic

Jan 15, 2018

The boutique microphone landscape was very different 16 years ago, when I bought an original Soundelux Microphones U99 in 2001 — serial number 017....

SU-017 Large-diaphragm Tube Mic

Gear Review | No. 117

SU-017 Large-diaphragm Tube Mic

Jan 15, 2017

The first time I heard the Soyuz SU-017, it was facing backwards. A singer was wailing away into the wrong side of its cardioid-only pattern, and it...

535-LA 500-series Line Amp

Gear Review | No. 114

535-LA 500-series Line Amp

Jul 15, 2016

The API 535-LA is a line-amp module based on the company's venerable 325 booster card. It utilizes the same AP2503 transformer, 2510...

TG2-500

Gear Review | No. 105

TG2-500

Feb 19, 2015

Sometimes, it's right in front of your face, and you just don't see it. You're working with your preconceptions and past experiences —...

SCM25A three-way active monitor

Gear Review | No. 101

SCM25A three-way active monitor

May 16, 2014

At its core, recording, like any creative endeavor, is about us making decisions one-by-one, until they all pile up on each other to form something...

Source monitor controller

Gear Review | No. 91

Source monitor controller

Sep 15, 2012

With every recording session, there's one piece of the puzzle that never rests; it's constantly in use, informing every decision that you...

195 large-diaphragm condenser mic

Gear Review | No. 84

195 large-diaphragm condenser mic

Jul 15, 2011

Bock Audio

So many microphones... I once had a friend tell me, “Every mic, no matter what kind or what condition, will be better than every other mic...

Drumagog 5

Gear Review | No. 84

Drumagog 5

Jul 15, 2011

WaveMachine Labs

Drum replacement software can seem like so much digital voodoo, adding to the “Photoshop-ification” of music production, but really...

Translator inline transformer

Gear Review | No. 83

Translator inline transformer

May 15, 2011

The Translator is an interesting little passive device that purports to add “vintage tone” to your stale signals. It’s a small, bright red, inline...

Passive Link re-amping device

Gear Review | No. 83

Passive Link re-amping device

May 15, 2011

Few pieces of gear prove themselves indispensable to every session — something you’d pick to put first in your bag when you travel, that you can...

Dragon Dynamics Processor

Gear Review | No. 80

Dragon Dynamics Processor

Nov 15, 2010

If you've heard of Steven Slate and his sample libraries, you're aware of one thing; Steven Slate loves drums. All kinds of drums - big...

RPQ mic preamp

Gear Review | No. 73

RPQ mic preamp

Sep 15, 2009

Using a ribbon microphone can be a tricky bit of business. Unlike dynamics that can take anything thrown at them or condensers that can provide...

Analogue ToneBuss

Gear Review | No. 71

Analogue ToneBuss

May 15, 2009

Switching between in-the-box mixing, external summing, and console mixing has been a project-by-project reality in my personal world for a long time...

Jupiter 8V software synthesizer

Gear Review | No. 67

Jupiter 8V software synthesizer

Sep 15, 2008

It used to be that using a soft synth really felt like a compromise. Even with the best emulations, it's always been hard not to think that if...

D-Box

Gear Review | No. 61

D-Box

Sep 15, 2007

Hey kid, wanna make a record? Lord knows how you're going to do it. At home on a laptop, in some studio doing basics, probably to a computer...

A7 active monitor

Gear Review | No. 57

A7 active monitor

Jan 15, 2007

Over the last two years, mixing at The Hangar, John Baccigalupi's studio in Sacramento, I've come to rely on the pair of ADAM P22As that...