Val Garay

Interviews

Val Garay

By Jonathan Saxon

Producer/engineer Val Garay is best known for his work on albums by James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Toto, Kim Carnes, Seals and Crofts, Jackson Browne, and The Motels. Interestingly, he comes from a show business family. His father was an entertainer who was close friends with Errol Flynn, Max Baer...

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Erik Wofford

Interviews

Erik Wofford: Explosions in the Sky, Bill Callahan

By Courtney Chavanell, Daniel Couch

Erik Wofford owns and operates Cacophony Recorders in Austin, Texas, and has worked with artists such as the Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky, My Morning Jacket, Bill Callahan, The Octopus Project, and Grupo Fantasma. Eschewing formal music training, he's developed an intuitive approach...

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Alistair Chant

Interviews

Alistair Chant: John Parish, M. Ward, PJ Harvey

By Maria Mochanacz, John Parish

In 2001, Alistair Chant's band, Actual Size, were signed by Gut Records and used money from their record deal to build a recording studio in Bristol, UK, which would eventually become Toybox Studios. In 2003, Ali began engineering and producing full time and Toybox started to become a popular...

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Mateusz Wozniak

Interviews

Mateusz Wozniak: Behind the Gear with PSP

By Bartlomiej Frank
VintageWarmer was one of the first "must have" plug-ins for digital recording....
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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

MARCH 3, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Ben Hillier

Ben Hillier: Depeche Mode, Blur, Elbow

BY NICOLAY KETTERER

Producer/engineer/songwriter Ben Hillier's work ranges from indie guitar bands to synth-driven music. He's produced the last three Depeche Mode records, singer/songwriter Nadine Shah, Blur's Think Tank, Elbow's Cast of Thousands, Graham Coxon, Doves, and The Futureheads.

MARCH 3, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Gavin Lurssen

Gavin Lurssen: Mastering with a Master

BY LARRY CRANE

Mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen has been behind the console since 1991, won three Grammys and one Latin Grammy, and runs Lurssen Mastering — one of Southern California's busiest facilities. He's worked on records like Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand and the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways, as well as with clients like Ben Harper, Queens Of The Stone Age, Eric Clapton, Miranda Lambert, Rickie Lee Jones, and Elvis Costello. The fascinating Lurssen Mastering Console app/plug-in recently came out, via IK Multimedia, and was developed with Gavin and Reuben Cohen of Lurssen.

MARCH 3, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Jerry Boys

Jerry Boys: Buena Vista Social Club, R.E.M., Wilco

BY LARRY CRANE

Starting in 1965 at Abbey Road Studios, Jerry Boys wound his way through many of the UK's finest studios, including Olympic, Sound Techniques, Sawmills, and Livingston. He also has travelled all over the world making records. And on that path he worked on albums with Buena Vista Social Club, R.E.M., Sandy Denny, Toumani Diabaté, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Shadows, Yehudi Menuhin, the Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, Steeleye Span, Level 42, Everything but the Girl, Ry Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, John Lee Hooker, Ali Farka Toure, Shakira, Olivia Chaney, Omara Portuondo, and The Kronos Quartet. I've long considered him to be one of the best, and most versatile, engineers in the world, and we had quite a fine chat on a sunny day in London.

MARCH 3, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Mateusz Wozniak (bonus)

Mateusz Wozniak (bonus)

BY BARTLOMIEJ FRANK

The following is extra conversation from our feature interview with Mateusz Wozniak .

COLUMNS

END RANT by Larry Crane
Twenty Years of Learning and Growing
END RANT

Twenty Years of Learning and Growing

by Larry Crane

Looking back, it seems like I've always been recording something. When I was very young there were a pair of small Sony reel-to-reel recorders floating around our house — previously used by my parents to send audio letters back and forth while my Merchant Marine father was at sea. I soon found...

GEAR GEEKING by Andy Hong
A Good Sidechain EQ Might Be Cheaper Than You Think
GEAR GEEKING

A Good Sidechain EQ Might Be Cheaper Than You Think

by Andy Hong

The band E was in my studio recently. Thalia Zedek (Come), Jason Sanford (Neptune), and Gavin McCarthy (Karate) are all extremely dynamic performers, but even during quiet moments, their instruments can sound huge. I was happy with the tracks I had captured, but I couldn't quite get the mix to...

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

10DCF compressor/limiter

BY 10DCF compressor/limiter  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

BAE has been making high quality gear in Los Angeles since the '80s, when the company's initials referred to the name of original owner Brent Averill, and Brent got his start racking vintage Neve 1073 modules and 1272 line-amp cards. As the recording industry turned towards the digital realm and...

Gear Reviews

2-BUS+ analog summing w/onboard tone processor

BY 2-BUS+ analog summing w/onboard tone processor  |  reviewed by Thom Monahan

Do people still argue about analog summing versus in-the- box mixing? I'm sure somewhere in Internet-world, the flames are still raging. I can see both sides of the long- running argument, but it's kind of like pontificating on hiking. It's great to talk about how nice places are, but at some...

Gear Reviews

545 Optical Disrupter

BY 545 Optical Disrupter  |  reviewed by Scott Evans, Brad Boatright

In 2014, SonicScoop ran a good article detailing a few engineers' go-to mix-bus chains. I was surprised to see the substantial pile of plug-ins and outboard units (though nearly all plug-ins) that everyone strapped across their 2-bus. I expected more "I leave that for the mastering engineer"...

Gear Reviews

BC501 stereo bus compressor

BY BC501 stereo bus compressor  |  reviewed by Don Gunn, Scott Evans

Last summer, I invited myself to Panoramic House, John Baccigaluppi's studio in Marin County. I was thinking about buying a new mix-bus compressor, and Panoramic had a few I wanted to audition. Plus, really, I just wanted to see the place. And holy shit, it is glorious! For a crazy low rate, you...

Gear Reviews

BP40 large-diaphragm dynamic mic

BY BP40 large-diaphragm dynamic mic  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

One of the last things I think about when hearing the term "broadcast mic" is actual broadcast application. I have never done a podcast or worked at a radio station. Broadcast mics are typically large-diaphragm dynamic mics, tailor-made for announcers and DJs. They have extra shielding and are...

Gear Reviews

bx_console 1.0 plug-in

BY bx_console 1.0 plug-in  |  reviewed by Joseph Lemmer

Brainworx bx_console sent me down a rabbit hole. This plug-in is not just a digital model of an analog channel strip; it is the paradoxical digital door to the zeitgeist of analogism. Let me explain: Analog audio devices are made of electrical components, like resistors and capacitors. Every...

Gear Reviews

Effect Integrator interface pedal

BY Effect Integrator interface pedal  |  reviewed by Dave Cerminara

The Effect Integrator pedal is a quick and easy way to introduce your favorite guitar stompboxes into your mic signal chain. As a former FOH guy and constant pawn-shop pedal peruser, I decided to give the Effect Integrator a whirl to see what it could offer on stage and in the studio. Anybody...

Gear Reviews

GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer

BY GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer  |  reviewed by John Hong

I literally had to hide my Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer under the couch, safe from view. This unassuming piece of gear (it only sports a few buttons and five main foot controls), started taking over my life — 15 minutes just to "test out" a new sound design became 2 hours and 15 minutes later....

Gear Reviews

IsoGtr DI, re-amp, and splitter

BY IsoGtr DI, re-amp, and splitter  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

Brad Avenson is great at packing a lot of hi-fi functionality into the smallest possible, heavy-duty aluminum cases. His latest product aimed at guitarists and studios is a "remix" of his IsoDi. At 3.3'' × 5.25'' × 1.4'', it's about the size of most standard direct boxes, but it does much more....

Gear Reviews

Issue #1 (magazine)

BY Issue #1 (magazine)  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

It's pretty awesome to stumble across a quarterly print 'zine that's "dedicated to increasing visibility for women working in live and recorded sound." Women in Sound is the product of editor Madeleine Campbell, a young recording engineer working in the Pittsburgh area. Issue #1 features Heba Kadry...

Gear Reviews

Origin condenser mic

BY Origin condenser mic  |  reviewed by Brad Williams

While Great Britain's legacy of recording gear manufacturing is rich, it's mostly been devoid of condenser microphones. Although many historic capacitor mics have roots in Germany or Austria, they've been manufactured in Eastern Europe, Australia, Japan, China, the United States... but not the UK,...

Gear Reviews

Ozone 7 & Ozone 7 Advanced plug-in suites

BY Ozone 7 & Ozone 7 Advanced plug-in suites  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

Ozone 7 is a sizable update to the already feature-rich Ozone mastering suite of plug-ins. The standard version of Ozone 7 includes three new functions, while the Advanced version has seven. Vintage Limiter pulls the "tube" mode found in earlier versions of Maximizer and gives it its own module....

Gear Reviews

P-87 condenser mic

BY P-87 condenser mic  |  reviewed by Francisco Botero

Mics can make the ordinary extraordinary. Mics are the lenses through which we show the listener the picture of what and how we see the world. Along the years, there have been many different iterations of mic design. Some have survived longer than others, not only physically but also in our...

Gear Reviews

Reference Mono Gold condenser mic

BY Reference Mono Gold condenser mic  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

To most audio engineers, Manley Labs is best known for its rack gear. But Manley also makes mics. The Reference Cardioid and Reference Gold are hand-built tube mics suitable for critical recording applications. The Reference Gold is available in Mono and Stereo variants, with the only meaningful...

Gear Reviews

SY Programming (technical paper)

BY SY Programming (technical paper)  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

Every rare once in a while, I stumble across something on the Internet that is so unique, overlooked, and vital, that I feel I need to point it out to somebody. SY Programming is one of those finds. Written in 2002 by Mr. Janßen, it's seemingly a how-to guide on programming the Yamaha SY77, an...

Gear Reviews

VLA 500 Optical Compressor

BY VLA 500 Optical Compressor  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

Since around 2002, those in the know have held secret appreciation and employed covert application of the ART Pro VLA and Pro VLA II compressors. These 2RU-height, tube-based, optical compressors found themselves at home on rock drum and vocal buses, taming harsh transients and imparting their...

Gear Reviews

Workhorse SixPack 500-series frame

BY Workhorse SixPack 500-series frame  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

Here's another product from Radial Engineering that has much more to it than meets the eye. At first glance, the Workhorse SixPack has the same form factor as any other six-slot 500-series frame with a carry handle, like the API Lunchbox, the product that defined this popular format. But if you...