Tape Op Magazine - Issue #107 - issue-107

Brian Reitzell

Interviews

John Rodd

Interviews

The Wrecking Crew

Interviews

Issue 107 - Feature Interview

Interviews

Pete Weiss interviews Pete Weiss interviews Pete Weiss

Interviews

Temples

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 16, 2025 INTERVIEWS

John Rodd (bonus)

John Rodd (bonus): Recording Soundtracks

BY LARRY CRANE

John Rodd might not be a household name, but it's likely you've heard his work. As a recording and mix engineer, he's worked on many film and television scores, including Elysium, Breaking Bad, The Lincoln Lawyer, Son of Batman, In the Beginning, and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. John has also worked on tons of video games, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Kinect Star Wars, and World of Warcraft. Along the way he's recorded and mixed classical, rock, electronica, and jazz from solo voice to huge choirs and from string quartets to full orchestras. This breadth of experience, as well as an ability to handle the stress of intense deadlines and huge sessions, made me curious to find out more about his career. I visited him at his beautiful commercial facility in the Los Angeles area one sunny afternoon.

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

BM9S II subwoofer

by BM9S II subwoofer | reviewed by Eli Crews

I've been using a pair of Dynaudio Professional BM6 mkIII monitors for about four months now in my home mixing setup, and I took to them more quickly and confidently than I ever have to any nearfield speakers. If you asked the Dynaudio engineers why, they would probably tell you that the aluminum...

Gear Reviews

CA-286 mic preamp

by CA-286 mic preamp | reviewed by Brad Williams

21st century perspective reveals that, in many ways, the advancement of recording technology has been chronologically non-linear. Rather than a tidy progression from primitive-to-sophisticated, we could easily characterize the developments as an evolution from one set of priorities to another. The...

Gear Reviews

Colour 500-series analog saturation platform

by Colour 500-series analog saturation platform | reviewed by Scott Evans

We roam the frigid, soulless digital landscape, searching in vain for the analog mojo that was once ours. We buy expensive A/D converters, we compress everything, we emulate tape, and sometimes, we just distort the shit out of shit. I'm down. Whether it's adding subtle hair to otherwise pristine...

Gear Reviews

Colour Box preamp/EQ pedal

by Colour Box preamp/EQ pedal | reviewed by Chris Koltay

The use of effect pedals at the mixing board is by no means a new thing. I remember studio owners thinking I was crazy in the '90s when I patched in a SansAmp Bass Driver DI or BOSS DM-2 Delay pedal on vocals at mix. Then everyone was talking about that Strokes vocal sound and saying it was a Rat...

Gear Reviews

Electronics Concepts, Labs, & Projects

by Electronics Concepts, Labs, & Projects | reviewed by Scott McChane

Just nod your head and pretend like you know what they're talking about. "Of course it's the op amp, not the power supply!" But you really have no idea what they're talking about, do you? If you're tired of being the lost guy in the studio with regards to audio electronics, check out Electronic...

Gear Reviews

H9 Harmonizer

by H9 Harmonizer | reviewed by Andy Hong

At first glance, the H9 Harmonizer can be easily mistaken for a fancy guitar pedal adorned with pretty LEDs. Upon further study, it becomes clear that the H9 is so much more than a stompbox. It's hard to even begin describing all that it can do! First of all, as the legendary Harmonizer name...

Gear Reviews

ISA 828 8-channel mic preamp

by ISA 828 8-channel mic preamp | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Sometimes you need a hammer. Sometimes you need a Leatherman. Then again, maybe you need eight hammers with a folding torque-wrench attachment plus bottle openers on each. Um. What I'm trying to say is that this eight-input mic preamp from Focusrite does a lot of heavy lifting for my studio,...

Gear Reviews

Lyra 2

by Lyra 2 | reviewed by Garrett Haines

Prism Sound is best known for their world-class digital converters. A few years back, the company released the Orpheus FireWire interface. Soon, new members were added to the family — Atlas, Titan, Lyra 1, Lyra 2 — all eschewing FireWire in favor of USB. Both Lyra models incorporate the audio path...

Gear Reviews

Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers

by Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

In releasing this hardbound book, the folks at Ableton have continued to highlight their company and product as "the DAW that's different." It's hard to imagine any of the other major players in the DAW landscape even considering a project like this, but for Ableton, it seems like a natural fit....

Gear Reviews

Model 14B tube compressor

by Model 14B tube compressor | reviewed by Jesse Lauter

The AES Convention is one of the more entertaining and overwhelming events in our little universe of audio. I flew out to Los Angeles for the conference this past October and walked the convention floor several times over to mostly familiar sites. One booth caught my eye and eventually my ear....

Gear Reviews

SONAR Platinum

by SONAR Platinum | reviewed by Alan Tubbs

The new SONAR that replaces SONAR X3 will be the last one ever — no more numbered editions according to Cakewalk. But that doesn't mean that this is the last release you'll ever need. Cakewalk is dropping the numbers and no longer following a software cycle of major and minor releases. Instead,...

Gear Reviews

Splice MKII FET compressor

by Splice MKII FET compressor | reviewed by Dave Cerminara

The Splice MKII is an 1176-style FET compressor in a 2RU-height rackmount chassis. The original Splice, which is no longer available, was a 500-series module. The roomier faceplate of the MKII rackmount unit allowed Serpent Audio to incorporate additional features. The result is a fresh take on one...

Gear Reviews

Tank Driver 500-series spring reverb interface

by Tank Driver 500-series spring reverb interface | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

Prolific inventor Laurens Hammond was granted a patent for the spring reverb in 1939, and in the decades that followed, Hammond incorporated this novel artificial reverberation device in the organs that were being sold to the many small churches throughout the U.S. that were notably not...

Gear Reviews

Tweaker side-chain shaping compressor

by Tweaker side-chain shaping compressor | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

There's gear that does its job in technically proficient and sometimes even colorful ways. In the capable hands of skilled producers and engineers, the gear brings to life the instruments and sounds that run through its electronic pathways. And then there's gear that is musical in its own right —...

Gear Reviews

VT1000 vacuum tube tester

by VT1000 vacuum tube tester | reviewed by Steve Silverstein

Several pieces of gear in my studio experienced vacuum tube failures. After I found myself spending money for maintenance and parts, I realized that I would benefit from learning more about tubes and how to maintain tube gear. My friend Pat Kaufman, who fixes amps at Main Drag Music in Brooklyn,...