Danny Reisch

Interviews

Lindsey Buckingham

Interviews

Steve Lukather

Interviews

Nathan Boddy

Interviews

Stephen Lipson

Interviews

Josh Kaufman

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 22, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Lenise Bent

Lenise Bent: Fascinated With the Process

With over four decades of experience, Lenise Bent has worked in almost every field of audio engineering, from studio recordings, to post-production, to film sound and foley. Lenise chats with Lisa Machac, of Omni Sound Project, to talk about her career, plans for the future, and favorite albums.

JULY 22, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Chad Clark

Chad Clark: Casting a Spell with Beauty Pill

I stumbled across Beauty Pill on Bandcamp while poking around the internet looking for new music. There were a few tracks posted from a forthcoming soundtrack to a play called suicide.chat.room. It was a refreshing break from most of what I had come across that day, and it caught my attention. It was an interesting combination of electronic and acoustic sources, soundscapes, and songs that really captured the emotional space of loneliness and introspection. I went down the rabbit hole, as they say, watching what videos I could find and listening to their available catalog. Their album Describes Things as They Are – recorded while being exhibited in a museum – found itself in frequent rotation (see the online article at <tapeop.com>). I loved the songs, the sounds, and the weirdness of it all. The band's leader and songwriter, Chad Clark [Tape Op #36], and I got in touch. Check out the recent LP, Please Advise and the Instant Night EP that was just released.

JULY 22, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Mark Linett

Mark Linett: Surfing the Sessions

We first interviewed Mark Linett in Tape Op #47 about his work with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Since then he's overseen an extensive amount of The Beach Boys' archives, and with the recent release of Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969–1971, I dropped Mark a line to see how projects such as these get done. We also got the chance to talk about his mobile recording work. Check out this interview on the Tape Op Podcast as well!

JULY 22, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Stan Shaff

Stan Shaff: San Francisco’s Immersive Sound at Audium

Stan Shaff's fascination with the use of sound movement as a compositional tool grew out of his roots as a jazz trumpet player. In 1960, he began staging the first of his live "sound sculptures" throughout the Bay Area. By 1965 he had created Audium, the first – and still only permanent – theater for sound movement, in San Francisco. Audium has grown to include an installation of 176 speakers. Today, Stan's work is being continued on in partnership with his son, Dave, who is also a trumpet player. In Stan's own words, "I have always been possessed by the evocative qualities all sounds seem to have, whether natural or electronic. Sounds touch deeper levels of our inner life, layers that lie just beneath the visual world." It should be noted that Stan's work pre-dated, by almost 20 years, the debut of Dolby's revolutionary "split surround" stereo for cinema in 1978 (tested during the release of Superman, then formally introduced the following year with Apocalypse Now). Audium continues to stage performances every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, year 'round, to sellout audiences.

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Advice That Really Matters
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Gear Geeking w/ Andy…
GEAR GEEKING

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

409 Opto Compressor Plug-In

by 409 Opto Compressor Plug-In  |  reviewed by Chris Hughes

A problem I find with many plug-ins is either a lack or overabundance of controls. I’m either one parameter short of accomplishing a goal, or I tweak functions just because they are available rather than needed. The greatest strength of Mia Laboratories 409 Opto Compressor plug-in is in its ease of...

Gear Reviews

DA 87i DIY Kit Microphone

by DA 87i DIY Kit Microphone  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

Dachman Audio is a New York-based company that began by importing and selecting mic capsules for upgrading, replacing, and DIY, and has now added additional premium capsules using American-made 6-micron gold-sputtered mylar. Dachman’s premier product, the DA 87i DIY Kit, is based on the...

Gear Reviews

dialtune Maple Snare Drum

by dialtune Maple Snare Drum  |  reviewed by Slater Swan

As soon as you get your hands on a dialtune Maple snare drum, you know it’s a serious piece of equipment. At 21 pounds, the weight alone will give you an indication of how sturdy and robust this snare is. Built for high-usage, dialtune drums are designed with a patented system that allows you to...

Gear Reviews

Drum Sound and Drum Tuning (book)

by Drum Sound and Drum Tuning (book)  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

This book, subtitled Bridging Science and Creativity, covers everything that its title implies: How do drums work? Why tune them? How can we record them? What about mixing drums? Author Rob Toulson is a musician, producer, engineer, and professor in London, who also developed the iDrumTune Pro app....

Gear Reviews

Epic 5 Active Near-Field Monitors

by Epic 5 Active Near-Field Monitors  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

The Epic 5 is a fascinating powered near-field studio monitor from reProducer Audio Labs of Laupheim, Germany. Its noteworthy appearance features an anodized aluminum front panel that is trapezoidal and slopes away from the listening position. These monitors would be right at home in the studio or...

Gear Reviews

ETHOS Broadcast Microphone

by ETHOS Broadcast Microphone  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

Recently, I reviewed Earthworks Audio's USB broadcast mic ICON [Tape Op #142] and stated in so many words that it looked and sounded incredible while being easy to use. Since my initial review, I've used it almost exclusively for interviews and voice-overs. Not long ago, Brendan Connors reviewed...

Gear Reviews

EXTC-Stereo Effects Reamper

by EXTC-Stereo Effects Reamper  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

This new box from Radial has saved my bacon. I’ve become a bit of an effects pedal hoarder, with a desktop pedalboard rig that has grown to an unwieldy size and become somewhat of a staple for me in sound design and mixing. Most of these pedals run through a 6-channel loop switcher, allowing me to...

Gear Reviews

Fold 1.1 Distortion Synthesis Plug-In

by Fold 1.1 Distortion Synthesis Plug-In  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Here’s a new affordable, CPU-friendly, and intuitive distortion and saturation plug-in available for both Windows and Mac environments. Fold is from US-based indie developers Delta Sound Labs, and features a wealth of wavefolding and saturation sound design options (ranging from bit-crushed...

Gear Reviews

GT-1000CORE Guitar Effects Processor & USB Interface

by GT-1000CORE Guitar Effects Processor &amp; USB Interface

The Boss GT-1000CORE is mainly marketed as a new cornerstone for a guitarist's effects pedalboard, but its compact form-factor and advanced functionality make it an exceptional desktop recording and production interface. Connecting it via your modern guitar amp's effect send/return by using the 4...

Gear Reviews

ID700 Vintage Digital Synthesizer iOS App

by ID700 Vintage Digital Synthesizer iOS App

We’re truly living in the golden age of digital synthesis. I’ve said this before, but I’m bored with skeuomorphic, digital recreations of vintage analog synthesizers such as the Minimoog, although I do own and use quite a few of them! What I find much more interesting is some of the recreated and...

Gear Reviews

Legacy of Rock Superior Drummer SDX Expansion

by Legacy of Rock Superior Drummer SDX Expansion  |  reviewed by Liam Nelson

Let me start by saying that I am a firm believer in “real drums,” and I’ve spent countless hours tracking and mixing them. The main thing I’ve learned is that everything matters. I can get good sounds in my little project studio near home, but for anything with a budget I’m heading to the best room...

Gear Reviews

Pollock Stereo Optical Compressor

by Pollock Stereo Optical Compressor  |  reviewed by Matt Anderson

Raise your hand if you like gear that sounds colorful and big. Funnily enough, a lot of early engineers would have killed for sounds we take for granted these days, the clean ones that might seem boring and lifeless. In an attempt to evolve, we made leaps from tubes and tape to chips and computers....

Gear Reviews

RedNet R1 Desktop Remote

by RedNet R1 Desktop Remote  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

Focusrite continues to grow its professional line of studio products by introducing the RedNet R1 desktop remote source selector and monitor controller for their Red range of interfaces. Building off my previous review of the Red 8Line interface [Tape Op #143], the RedNet R1 provides for a...

Gear Reviews

Royal Q & Royal Mu APB Plug-Ins

by Royal Q & Royal Mu APB Plug-Ins  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

A few months after releasing the MC-3 multi-band compressor plug-in [Tape Op #142] for APB (Analog Processing Box) users, Colin McDowell and the rest of the McDSP crew introduced the Royal Q Equalizer, and the Royal Mu Compressor and Limiter. These are powerhouse plug-ins utilizing the best of the...

Gear Reviews

Template Mixing and Mastering (book)

by Template Mixing and Mastering (book)  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

It wasn’t until a few years ago, that I finally built my own mixing template for mixing in the box with Pro Tools. I based it on workflows I’d built up in the analog realm, with the goal of reducing repetitive tasks I’d come across while setting up mixes. When this book came along, I wondered how...

Gear Reviews

Timeless 3 Delay Plug-In

by Timeless 3 Delay Plug-In  |  reviewed by Dave Hidek

FabFilter has a reputation for taking common effects plug-ins, such as compression and EQ, then elevating them to new, mind-blowing levels of utility and complexity. I’m used to thinking, “I didn’t know I needed that!” when watching their overview videos. With Timeless 3, FabFilter has done it...

Gear Reviews

Tupe Plug-In

by Tupe Plug-In  |  reviewed by Gus Berry

Goodhertz is on a mission to help give your recordings vibe and character, and they’re doing a stellar job with the plug-ins they’ve put out so far. Tupe is another brilliant addition to their roster. The name comes from adding Tube + Tape: two things most musicians and producers can’t get enough...

Gear Reviews

UT FET47 Microphone

by UT FET47 Microphone  |  reviewed by Dan Knobler

The allure of a classic microphone design is powerful, and the emotional tug of a modern clone, that closely resembles its forerunner is undeniable – probably more valuable than many of us would like to admit. On top of that, it can be hard to tell between manufacturers whose aim seems to be “Let’s...