Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Billy Bush has made his love of music and technological curiosity into an already storied career. He has been a record thief, guitar tech, Butch Vig [Tape Op #11] and Garbage's utility wizard, producer, engineer, and, more recently, one of Rick Rubin's first call mixers. We sat down at his studio, Red Razor Sounds, in Los Angeles to talk path, process, production, and philosophy.
Denver, Colorado, is a better place for the tireless audio work of Bob Ferbrache. I tracked him down in 2012 at his home/studio to learn more about his history. Bob worked on records by Blood Axis, Human Head Transplant, Wovenhand, 16 Horsepower, Soul Merchants, Changes, The Czars, and Slim Cessna's Auto Club. Soon after our talk Bob left the music industry, closed his Absinthe Studio, and left Colorado for New England. Bob's mark on Denver's music scene should not be forgotten.
Nashville has long been considered the capital of country music. Owen and Harold Bradley helped make that possible when they opened the Bradley Studios in the '50s, in the heart of Music Row. After adding on the Quonset Hut Studio, they ushered in a style of country music that crossed over in the pop markets, with songs like Patsy Cline's "Crazy," Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry," and Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet." When Columbia Records bought the studio in the 1962, the hits continued with artists like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. I had the opportunity to talk with the current studio manager, Luke Gilfeather, as well as drummer Kenny Malone, bassist and producer Norbert Putnam, and engineer Lou Bradley, to discuss the history of the studios and the Nashville music business in general. Kenny Malone has been a session drummer since the '70s and continues performing and recording today. Norbert Putnam was a member of the original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, as well as the "Nashville A-Team," before switching to producing acts like Joan Baez and Jimmy Buffett. Lou Bradley started working at the old Columbia Studios in the late-'60s until they closed in 1982.
For years Rob Chiarelli and Chandler Bridges have worked, together and separately, producing and engineering records for the likes of Will Smith, Madonna, Pink, Janet Jackson, J-Lo, Christina Aguilera, P- Diddy (Puff Daddy), Aaliyah, and Johnny Mathis. Along the way they decided to start selling microphones and more. Why? We had to know!
The AMS Neve 1073 DPX is a dual-channel preamp/equalizer in a 2RU-height rackmount chassis. With vintage Neve 1073 strips fetching more and more coin, and dependable techs becoming harder to find, I was curious to see how a modern (and presumably more reliable) alternative would hold up to the...
The hardware Curve Bender from Chandler Limited is a $5,590 two-channel EQ based on the circuitry of the historic EMI TG12345 consoles. I had one and loved its sound quality. Opening its chassis revealed hand wiring, custom transformers, and premium components throughout. The deal-breaker for me...
The original Cloud Microphones CL-1 Mic Activator [Tape Op #85] has been an indispensable tool for me ever since I first discovered it (ironically enough, through a Tape Op review). The Cloudlifter CL-Z is basically a CL-1 on steroids, and it solves the one and only tiny gripe I had with the...
Over the years, PreSonus has impressed many of us with its consistency in offering a wide range of essential products for the price-conscious, and the Eris MTM Studio Monitor series certainly follows in this tradition. The Eris E44 and the Eris E66 models, the latter of which I'm evaluating here,...
These days, pro audio's end products often live in the "Headphones World." The home stereos of the past have been supplanted by the mobile devices of today. Fewer listeners have full-size speaker systems, and much listening is done through various grades of "personal monitoring," be it earbuds or...
Don't you just love things that are simple? Aston Microphones believes that reflection filters should be simple — easy to use, lightweight... and purple. Since the introduction of the SE Electronics Reflexion Filter in 2006 [Tape Op #56], reflection filters have become more visible in studios —...
While there are more new microphone models being manufactured now than ever before, most of them will never attain the classic status (nor hold the resale value) of an older Neumann U 47, AKG C 12, Telefunken Ela M 251, or RCA Type 44. But, there are a number of companies, including Bock Audio, who...
Paul Edwards of Edwards Audio Research came to be a manufacturer the honest way. That is, he needed a good mic preamp for his vintage Altec 639A dynamic/ribbon mic, so he set about to build one with some help from several highly qualified audio engineers. He asked Bill Bruins to design the LE-10...
When I plug in a piece of gear (or use a plug-in) I want to be inspired. Sometimes all I need is a little mojo to pull me out of a stall or tailspin. Phase-linear EQ and transparent gain are just fine — and of course play a role in music recording — but at the end of the day, I just don’t want my...
Meris may not yet be a household name in pro audio, but its team of three have put in plenty of time developing products and designs for companies like Strymon and Line 6, and working creatively for companies like Disney and Sony Pictures. Currently, Meris produces a line of 500-series modules,...
How about some sexy Italian desktop stands for your sassy French monitors? Oui — I mean sì. In a previous issue, I reported on Italian studio furniture manufacturer ZAOR and its fabulous Miza Griprack [Tape Op #114]. Now I’m here to tell you about the Miza D-Stand. Decoupling the monitor from the...
Whoa. Ableton has delivered a major upgrade/revision to their innovative Push controller [Tape Op #97]. This new version sports a ton of new features, including a vastly improved display with enhanced mixing feedback, stellar new sampling workflows, and much better pads and buttons. Additionally,...
When Crane Song told me it had a new converter that was a step up from the one that I raved about in my review of the Crane Song Avocet II monitor controller [Tape Op #103], I was excited and confused. How much better could it be? I love the sound of the Avocet II and its ultra-low-jitter...
The RADAR hard-disk recording system has been around for longer than any other turnkey digital multitrack currently in production, giving it the stability and pedigree that no other HDR has. iZ Technology has always been RADAR's developer and manufacturer, but the product was originally sold under...
According to Sam Phillips, if you weren't doing something different, you weren't doing anything at all. When he opened his Memphis Recording Service in 1950, Phillips was "looking for a higher ground, for what I knew existed in the soul of mankind." He ultimately found it, but it was a long and...
Back in the day, when I was running a commercial recording studio, my best front-end setup was a two-channel Gordon Instruments preamp [Tape Op #67] to Lavry Engineering LavryBlue A/D converters, and then out via S/PDIF to a Digi 002 [#33]. To get the sound to the musician's headphones, I used a...
The multichannel Radial Engineering Space Heater rackmount mixer and single-channel Space Heater 500 module (for 500-series frames) are analog distortion units that offer tube distortion and transformer saturation from actual tubes and transformers. The rackmount version is set up as four stereo...
Five years ago, I reviewed the original UE Pro Reference Monitors [Tape Op #83], in-ear monitors (IEM) that were co- developed with Capitol Studios. I liked these a lot and continued to use them for on-the-road reference listening. Along the way, these IEMs apparently gained more acceptance with...
I'm a big fan of the iPad for virtual instruments, especially soft-synths, and I use my iPad in the studio much more than instrument plug-ins within my DAW. I like the at-your-fingertips interface of the iPad, as well as the affordability and stability of the many great-sounding synths available...