Greg Kurstin

Interviews

Jack Antonoff at Home in Brooklyn

Interviews

Phil Thornalley

Interviews

Norbert Putnam

Interviews

Ebonie Smith

Interviews

Maria Elisa Ayerbe

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 10, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Leo Sidran

Leo Sidran: Handed Down

Leo Sidran is an accomplished solo artist, multi-instrumentalist, award-winning music producer, and podcast author. He grew up surrounded by great musicians, producers, engineers, and recording studios via his father, producer/keyboardist Ben Sidran. When he was a teenager, he wrote a few songs for The Steve Miller Band and watched with perplexity as his demos became the actual album cuts on Steve's next record. He went on to win Oscars and a Grammys for productions with other artists that were essentially from the original demos as well. In the spirit of his brilliant The Third Story Podcast, where he interviews prolific creative types and looks for the moments that helped shape their success, I caught up with Leo to get a glimpse into his production ethos, and to track how that may have been shaped. We talked about demos, dancing, eureka moments, gymnastics, and making records in the parlor.

JULY 10, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Recording in Iraq

Recording in Iraq: Capturing Mosul Live

I had been writing and producing music in Los Angeles long enough to question the state of my existence when I got an email asking me to come to Iraq and help record an album to be called Mosul Live. My heart leapt with joy. Finally, a break from gluten-free lunches and vegan ice cream. Finally, a break from young songwriters and various A&R guys not calling me back. Finally, something bigger than the music business. I may as well have been going to Mars. I joyously told my girlfriend about the job offer. She was alarmed by my excitement and we split up shortly thereafter. Some people got visibly uncomfortable when I talked excitedly about going to Iraq to record musicians living under the Islamic State. Some changed the subject to Game of Thrones. I have never seen Game of Thrones. Back in 2013, a poet, translator, and friend named David Shook brought me to Haiti to help with some relief work. I brought my Digidesign Mbox 2 and recorded a great Haitian singer in Port Au Prince. David had now moved to Iraqi Kurdistan, where he was an artist in residence at The American University of Iraq Sulaimani (AUIS). AUIS, under the leadership of author and translator Alana Marie Levinson-Labrosse, was beginning a project to document people living in Mosul during the occupation by the Islamic State (2014 to 2017). They had been recording the spoken word stories of civilians in Mosul and wanted to make an album, Mosul Live, by affected musicians. During the occupation music was outlawed, taken off the radio, and forbidden to be performed in public. In the months leading up to the project I assembled a recording system. I needed a multitrack recorder that was battery powered and could last all day. Some areas would not have electricity, and the areas that did have power experienced outages throughout the day. (Case in point: as my plane was landing in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, I watched a large section of the city's lights go out.) The Sound Devices MixPre-10 was my best option. It would run for 20 hours at a time on two battery packs, and it had eight mic inputs with Kashmir preamps that record to a hard disk/thumb drive. I combined that with a handful of microphones from SE Electronics, and the whole setup fit nicely into an over-the-shoulder Stingray bag made by K-Tek.

JULY 10, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Thomas Jouanjean of Northward Acoustics

Thomas Jouanjean of Northward Acoustics

Northward Acoustics is an acoustics engineering and consulting company based in Brussels, Belgium. Its founder, Thomas Jouanjean, developed his Front-To-Back Control Room and Mastering Suite design in the early 2000s, and he now has constructed some of the finest studio rooms all over the world. Clients include Sterling SoundNew York and Nashville, Skrillex, Brad Blackwood's Euphonic Masters (Tape Op #102), Dave Collins Mastering, and many others. I was lucky to chat with Thomas right before my pal, Adam Gonsalves, had him design and oversee construction on a new facility for Telegraph Mastering in Portland, Oregon. The resulting room speaks to Northward's quality, and, having spent many hours there, I can attest that the design works. I'm humbled when I hear mixes I've done in Telegraph, and it's amazing how other work sounds in the new space.

COLUMNS

What Makes a Great Recording?
END RANT
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
GEAR GEEKING

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

10MX Rubidium Atomic Clock

by 10MX Rubidium Atomic Clock  |  reviewed by Christopher Koltay

One of the things I love about studios is the way they grow over time and the delineations in sound that happen due to gear changes along the way. You hear this all the time; "...then we got a 24-track" or "that's when we got a pair of Coles..." etc. Often this is an adaptation to new technology,...

Gear Reviews

500PRE 500 Series Tube Preamp

by 500PRE 500 Series Tube Preamp  |  reviewed by Eamonn Aiken

Years back, when I installed my console and sidecar, I sold off most of my outboard preamps. I was looking forward to a new era of not having to choose preamps, and instead just getting on with what mattered, like listening to the instrument in the room, choosing flattering mic placement, and...

Gear Reviews

500R8 500 Series Chassis & Interface

by 500R8 500 Series Chassis & Interface  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

Cranborne was not an audio company I was familiar with. When first contacted about reviewing the 500R8, I was immediately intrigued. Here's why: the 500R8 is an 8-slot 500 Series rack and 28-in/30-out high-quality converter USB interface with a built-in discrete analog summing mixer. Standout...

Gear Reviews

6060 Series Subminiature Microphones

by 6060 Series Subminiature Microphones  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

Good things really do come in small packages! Sure, bigger budgets for that record you're working on would be nice, but with all the bragging about crowd sizes, big rockets, big armies, miscellaneous "yuge" stuff, and other nonsense, it's nice to have someone touting the virtues of being small....

Gear Reviews

Advanced Stand System Accessories

by Advanced Stand System Accessories  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

Back in Tape Op #130 I reviewed the Triad-Orbit reissue of the Starbird mic stand and was very favorably impressed, as have been all the engineers who've used it here at Panoramic House Studios. Since then we've picked up a few more of the Triad-Orbit stands and accessories. I continue to be...

Gear Reviews

Clearmountain's Domain Plug-In

by Clearmountain's Domain Plug-In  |  reviewed by Gus Berry

Bob Clearmountain [Tape Op #84, #129] is responsible for mixing some of rock music's most iconic records and happens to be one of my favorite mixing engineers of all time. So, when I heard Apogee had created a plug-in with Bob that recreates his effects signal chain, I immediately emailed Gear...

Gear Reviews

FrontDAW

by FrontDAW  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

Full disclosure: I saw an introductory promotion offering the United Plugins FrontDAW plug-in for free, so I downloaded and registered it. The promotion has since expired, and the plug-in is now available at its regular price, but that shouldn't stop you from checking it out. You can download a...

Gear Reviews

Model 140NM Plate Reverb High Performance Magnet Assembly

by Model 140NM Plate Reverb High Performance Magnet Assembly  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

I could write 10,000 words about plate reverbs, modifications, reasons I feel these physical reverb units are unique sounding, and why I love the EMT [Elektro-Mess-Technik] 140 that I own. But the people who will need to know about this product either own an EMT 140 (and probably have the same...

Gear Reviews

Modern Mastering Bundle Plug-Ins

by Modern Mastering Bundle Plug-Ins  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

Mastering audio today involves more than just creating loud and exciting stereo music masters. The mastering engineer takes on the roles of quality control, metadata oversight, and of course, producing impressive sounding, competitive audio. The NUGEN Audio Modern Mastering Bundle combines three...

Gear Reviews

Oxford Drum Gate Plug-In

by Oxford Drum Gate Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

For years, I've been tortured by drum gates. First, in the analog realm, where I'd be mixing poorly-recorded tracks (sometimes my fault) and I'd attempt to use gates to add punch and clarity to my drum mixes, only to have them frequently open at the wrong times or pump nasty cymbal wash or hi-hat...

Gear Reviews

PA-5K Pro Drum Mic Kit

by PA-5K Pro Drum Mic Kit  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

MXL has been making affordable microphones since 1998 (the ubiquitous MXL 2001, anyone?). One of their latest offerings is the PA-5K Pro six piece drum microphone ensemble. The kit consists of two CR21 small diaphragm condenser mics (for overheads), two A-5t dynamic tom mics, a 606 small diaphragm...

Gear Reviews

PureConnect GP-1, SK-1, PK-2 Connector Cleaning Kits

by PureConnect GP-1, SK-1, PK-2 Connector Cleaning Kits  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Sometimes it's the lesser heralded, helpful products that catch my eye more than some fancy new compressor or microphone. Stedman's PureConnect connector cleaning kit series – the GP-1 Gig Pack, SK-1 Studio Kit, and PK-2 Pro Kit – offer up 2 mL tubes of CAIG Labs DeoxiT, custom 3/4-inch cotton...

Gear Reviews

Roland Cloud Drum Studio - Acoustic One Virtual Drum Software

by Roland Cloud Drum Studio - Acoustic One Virtual Drum Software  |  reviewed by Will Severin

Everything is on the "cloud" these days and Roland's treasure trove of synths and drum machines are up there too. The Roland Cloud has a wealth of quality plug-in instruments available, but we'll be focusing on Drum Studio - Acoustic One, Roland's cloud-based acoustic drum sample plug-in, the...

Gear Reviews

SpectraLayers Pro 6 Spectral Editor

by SpectraLayers Pro 6 Spectral Editor  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

SpectraLayers Pro is an exceedingly powerful program for restoring, editing, and manipulating audio. I mistakenly ignored this product, classifying it as just another spectral editor. Ultimately, they're all the same right? Wrong. Not only does SpectraLayers Pro offer more tools, but as the name...

Gear Reviews

TF-5 Microphone Pair

by TF-5 Microphone Pair  |  reviewed by Tony SanFilippo

The latest addition to the RØDE microphone line is the TF-5 small diaphragm cardioid condenser matched stereo pair. The mics come packaged in a nice two-tiered box with precision cut dense foam that included the mics, windscreens, really nice clips, and a wonderfully useful stereo bar (more on the...

Gear Reviews

Transformer-Based I/O Card

by Transformer-Based I/O Card  |  reviewed by Anthony Gravino

At this point, it is safe to say that analog tape recording is not going away. Tape machines still have a loyal and enthusiastic user base all around the world, ranging from professional engineers and audiophiles to basement analog warriors. One of the people leading the charge of this analog...

Gear Reviews

V1S Stereo Pencil Condenser Kit

by V1S Stereo Pencil Condenser Kit  |  reviewed by Ed Hickey

Vanguard Audio Labs' latest offering is the V1 small diaphragm condenser microphone. Each mic comes with four interchangeable 22 mm capsules: cardioid, wide cardioid, hypercardioid, and omnidirectional, whether purchased as a single mic or stereo pair. I found the V1s to be great on just about...