Tape Op Magazine - Issue #114

Interviews

Paula Salvatore with Patrick Kraus and Ursula Kneller

By Larry Crane

In Dave Grohl's documentary, Sound City, viewers were treated to stories from the vivacious, smart, and funny Paula Salvatore — the manager of Sound City Studios for nine years. But what one might not learn from that appearance is that Paula has since run the famous Capitol Studios for over 25...

Interviews

James Farber: Scofield, Redman, Mehldau, Brecker

By Joseph Branciforte, Reuben Radding

When one thinks of the great recording engineers who have indelibly shaped the recorded history of jazz music, names like Rudy Van Gelder [Tape Op #43] or Fred Plaut might readily come to mind. But if you were to ask some of the most prominent jazz musicians of the last 25 years — artists such as...

Interviews

Kevin McMahon: Appropriate Responses

By Owen Shaer, Zac Meyer

The Middle Hudson Valley of New York State has long been a bastion of creativity, counterculture, the arts, and especially music. While Woodstock is the hippie hamlet famous for lending its name to the legendary festival, as well as as a hub for some of the biggest musicians and artists of the...

Interviews

The Low Anthem: Eyeland & Columbus Theatre

By Cat Laine, Eric M Lichter

I've been a fan of The Low Anthem since hearing their 2007 album, What the Crow...

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

MARCH 2, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Jim Gaines: Huey Lewis, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana

BY JAKE BROWN

"The Heart of Rock & Roll" Certain bands are meant for certain times, and arguably no band better captured the "Hip to Be Square" culture of the roaring 1980s than Huey Lewis and the News. From musical pop culture landmarks like "The Heart of Rock & Roll," "I Want a New Drug," "Heart and Soul," and "Workin' for a Livin'," Huey and the guys fused rock 'n' roll, soul, and new wave into a new sound that legendary producer Jim Gaines helped craft from the ground up, from the band's very first hit "Do You Believe in Love" all the way through the end of a decade-long greatest hits run. Gaines could also be found working side-by-side with late Stevie Ray Vaughan — producing many of the guitarist's most celebrated hits, including "The House is Rockin'," "Crossfire," "Tightrope," and "Life by the Drop." In addition, Jim also worked with guitar legend Carlos Santana on his Grammy-winning, chart-topping Supernatural LP, not to mention also tracking and mixing hits for Steve Miller. Sitting down with Tape Op for a rare interview, Gaines began by looking back over his own career as one of rock's great producers: "I'm a lucky guy. I'm just a hard-working hillbilly from Arkansas, and I've been very lucky throughout my career to be involved with all these great artists. That's the way I look at it."

MARCH 2, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Randall Dunn: Supporting Superstitions

BY JOSEPH TRAINA, ALEX KOSTELNIK

Randall Dunn is creating what might be Seattle's next chapter in the dark and loud tradition of Northwest music. From the Sonics and Jimi Hendrix, to the U-Men and grunge, the Pacific Northwest has a reputation for spawning loud, raw blues. A tireless and prolific man, his discography includes Sunn O))), Earth, Eyvind Kang, Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Rose Windows, Skerik from Critters Buggin', The Cave Singers, Oren Ambarchi, Marissa Nadler, Jessika Kenney, Boris, Akron, Sun City Girls, Midday Veil, Kinski, Faith Coloccia, Jesse Sykes, Black Mountain & Wolves In The Throne Room. Randall draws from his experience with Drone, Metal, Avant-Jazz, Folk and even film soundtracks. He travels deep and wide with the musicians he records. Randall just might turn the page in Seattle's family bible — the part where it rains and rains and Noah starts building that ark...

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

535-LA 500-series Line Amp

BY 535-LA 500-series Line Amp | reviewed by Thom Monahan

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 differential amp, and 2520 op-amp that have been the DNA building blocks inside the company's consoles for decades. The module provides up to 45 dB of gain, and it...

Gear Reviews

AVAA C20 Active Bass Absorber

BY AVAA C20 Active Bass Absorber | reviewed by Andy Hong

I don't know how many unicorns PSI Audio had to milk to fill up this 20'' tall box full of magic. Actually, it's not really a milk box; it's more like a wedge of Swiss cheese. Coincidentally, its multifaceted shape reminds me of the polyhedral dice used in role-playing games about dungeons and...

Gear Reviews

Creative & Unconventional Music Recording Techniques (Book)

BY Creative & Unconventional Music Recording Techniques (Book) | reviewed by Larry Crane

When I interviewed Sylvia Massy almost a decade ago [Tape Op #63], I had no inkling I'd eventually end up in a book of hers, especially alongside much more famous folks like Hans Zimmer, Al Schmitt, Jack Joseph Puig, Bruce Swedien [#91], Geoff Emerick [#57], George Massenburg [#54, #63], Bob...

Gear Reviews

DAW-specific Backlit Keyboard

BY DAW-specific Backlit Keyboard | reviewed by Andy Hong

Last year, I was recording the upcoming album from Exit Verse (ex-members of Karate, Chisel, Brokeback) at MINBAL in Chicago. Most of the time, the band wanted to keep the lights off in the live room. Late in the day, when the sun was close to setting, there was just enough natural light in the...

Gear Reviews

Endless Summer Pedal Spring Reverbs

BY Endless Summer Pedal Spring Reverbs | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

I love reverb — all types and on all sorts of instruments. Over the past few years, I've enjoyed using spring reverbs on my mixes. They bring a unique and sometimes unpredictable flavor to a mix. Demeter makes a great spring reverb [Tape Op #109]. Audio Kitchen made one for Billy Bush that I covet....

Gear Reviews

Great British Recording Studios (book)

BY Great British Recording Studios (book) | reviewed by Larry Crane

I think a lot of Tape Op readers have been waiting years for a book like this. Howard Massey is the author of the Behind the Glass series and co-author of Geoff Emerick's Here, There and Everywhere [Tape Op #57, #55]. For his new book, Howard documented the history of classic British recording...

Gear Reviews

IRON Mastering Compressor

BY IRON Mastering Compressor | reviewed by Jessica Thompson, Michael Romanowski, Piper Payne, Garrett Haines

Soon after longtime Tape Op writer Garrett Haines, owner of Treelady Studios, sent me a detailed review of the SPL IRON compressor, Jessica Thompson, former Chief Mastering Engineer at The Magic Shop, contacted me to offer her opinions too. I always look forward to Jessica's contributions, and...

Gear Reviews

Lola Headphone

BY Lola Headphone | reviewed by Andy Hong

In my review of the Blue Mo-Fi headphone [Tape Op #105] last year, I stated that it was the most innovative headphone I'd ever seen. Lola is the new, younger sibling of Mo-Fi. It shares the same custom-made 50 mm drivers and overall design of its older sibling, but its feature set has been slimmed...

Gear Reviews

PhantomFocus eChair

BY PhantomFocus eChair | reviewed by Andy Hong

Carl Tatz is an award-winning studio designer best known for his PhantomFocus System [Tape Op #82], a wholistic approach to optimizing all aspects of a monitoring system in order to achieve the best performance from the speakers, the room, and ultimately the engineer. To that end, his company, Carl...

Gear Reviews

Stratus Broadband Ceiling Cloud

BY Stratus Broadband Ceiling Cloud | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

Primacoustic has been making high-quality sound-control products since 2000. I have owned a pair of Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizer speaker-isolation platforms [Tape Op #62] for many years now, and I love them. I had recently upgraded the acoustic treatment in my new mix space, and things were...

Gear Reviews

StudioLive 16.4.2AI Digital Mixer & Audio Interface

BY StudioLive 16.4.2AI Digital Mixer & Audio Interface | reviewed by Eric Tischler, Andy Hong

Contributing writer Eric Tischler reviewed the original StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixer and interface for us in 2010 [Tape Op #80]. Eric loved the mixer enough that he swapped out his analog Harrison console and Otari 2'' tape machine for a StudioLive 24.4.2 and laptop. A couple of years ago,...

Gear Reviews

Trio6 Be Active Monitors

BY Trio6 Be Active Monitors | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

There are many important components of an audio chain. You save your pennies to get a nice mic, a new preamp, perhaps some different flavors of outboard gear; or if you work in-the-box, maybe you collect plug-ins. Congratulations, you have begun your journey on the path to a gear acquisition habit...

Gear Reviews

VTMP-2B Tube Preamp

BY VTMP-2B Tube Preamp | reviewed by Larry Crane

Name me any boutique, high-end, tube preamp that has been on the market for over 30 years. That's right, Demeter's VTMP is the only one that's been around that long. I remember using one in a local studio over 17 years ago, and while not having enough time to properly evaluate it, I recognized that...

Gear Reviews

ZAOR Studio Furniture

BY ZAOR Studio Furniture | reviewed by Scott McChane

ZAOR was founded in 2014 by Italian master piano-builder Michele Zullo. His company's product line of stylish, modular, studio furniture came to my attention just this year via Simon Côté of Audio Plus Services, ZAOR's new North American distributor. Among ZAOR's suave offerings, the Miza Griprack...