John Simon

Interviews

John Simon

By Howard Bilerman

The credits add up. Seminal, massively important, and popular works for Simon & Garfunkel, The Band, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and many others were produced by John Simon, yet we rarely hear enough about him. Our pal, Howard Bilerman...

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Christian Krüger & Moonshine Records

Interviews

Christian Krüger & Moonshine Records

By Larry Crane

Someone built a vintage, '50s-style American recording studio in Germany? Or, as Moonshine's owner, Christian Krüger, said when he dropped a line, "I've lovingly recreated the original recording studios of this era, and the sound of the recordings are incredible." Okay...

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Dave Stewart

Interviews

Dave Stewart: Setting Up for the Goal

By Tyler Christensen, Larry Crane

Record producer, songwriter, musician, and singer, Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is a man of many talents and skills. Beyond co-producing all of the Eurythmics' catalog with Annie Lennox, he's produced music for Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Joss Stone, Mick Jagger...

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Vince Clarke

Interviews

Vince Clarke: The Idea and The Song

By Bren Davies, Brian Silak, Brian T Silak
Since 1985 Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell have helmed the group Erasure. Vince also...
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Steve Genewick

Interviews

Steve Genewick: Carry That Torch

By Larry Mah, Gus Berry
A few months back, I stumbled upon a documentary called The Art of Recording a Big Band...
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FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Bella Blasko

Bella Blasko: Creating Space in the Studio

BY D. GOODWIN, LISA MACHAC, D. JAMES GOODWIN

Recording engineer Bella Blasko has worked with bands like The National, Big Red Machine, Feist, and Bonny Light Horseman. Additionally, she earned a Grammy nomination for her work on Taylor Swift's "cardigan" from the album, folklore. She recently spoke with Lisa Machac of the Omni Sound Project about her influences, recording on tour, and her aspirations.

FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Fantastic Negrito

Fantastic Negrito: Taking Left Turns & Pushing Back

BY IAN BRENNAN

Fantastic Negrito's new album, White Jesus Black Problems, is based on the true story of Negrito's seventh generation white Scottish grandmother (Grandma Gallamore), an indentured servant living in a common law marriage with his seventh generation African American enslaved grandfather (Grandfather Courage); in open defiance of the racist, separatist, laws of 1750s colonial Virginia." In this country, we worship billionaires while parts of some cities look like what we'd call the third world. I'm trying to convey what I see when I walk down the street here in Oakland." Born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz in 1968, he released a big budget Interscope debut (The X Factor) as Xavier in 1996. Then, after a near death accident and quitting music for seven years, he was reborn as Fantastic Negrito. He has released five albums under the moniker since 2014, and the last three, including 2021's Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, have won consecutive Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues album.

FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Arthur Rizk

Arthur Rizk

BY SAM RETZER, JACLYN WOLLARD

It's a snowy March morning, and I'm enroute to Corpus Studios in Queens to hang with Arthur Rizk. Arthur's driven up from Philadelphia to chat before he works live sound at the Bowery Ballroom. He was up late mixing, but seems genuinely happy to catch up with the Corpus studio family, who he's been working with on the upcoming Show Me The Body album. With a production style rooted in classic hard rock techniques and deft use of textural sound design, Arthur has quietly become the go-to producer for left of center heavy music in the 2020s. From his home base in Philly to studios around the globe, he's welded his parallel pedal mayhem for the likes of Ghostemane, Kreator, Power Trip, and Cavalera Conspiracy. He's also an emerging king of traditional heavy metal with his own bands Eternal Champion and Sumerlands. We spoke under the glow of Corpus' lovely Berlant tube preamps about bringing calm to chaos, while also working hard to keep the party going. Feature Photo Jaclyn Wollard

FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell: Dirty Knobs & Heartbreakers

BY CHRIS PHELPS, LARRY CRANE

As a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, guitarist Mike Campbell found himself co-writing some of their biggest hits, plus songs for many others like Don Henley and Stevie Nicks. He has also spent a lot of his life in the studio, producing, playing guitar, and writing extensively. With the release of Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs second LP, External Combustion, I got a chance to call him early one morning and discuss studio life, musical inspirations, and how to stay focused.

COLUMNS

GEAR GEEKING by Andy Hong
Gear Geeking w/ Andy...
GEAR GEEKING

Gear Geeking w/ Andy...

by Andy Hong

Ever since the first-generation Apple AirPods became widely available in 2017, "true wireless earbuds" (as the category is called) have become ubiquitous. Now, it seems rare to step into a subway car or join a Zoom meeting without seeing half of the passengers or attendees wearing wireless earbuds....

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

520 De-Esser Dynamics Processor

BY 520 De-Esser Dynamics Processor  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

In our world of recording gear, there are plenty of “classics” when one thinks of compressors, mic preamps, or microphones. However, one particular piece of gear that usually isn’t at the top of anyone’s list of classics is a de-esser – an excellent utility piece of equipment, but probably not...

Gear Reviews

AL95 Ribbon Microphone

BY AL95 Ribbon Microphone  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

I love the sound of ribbon microphones, and I put one in front of a guitar amp nearly every time I record one. I ran across the Samar Audio Design AL95 online, and after reading about it, I had to check it out. When I first received the box sent for review, it was so light I thought the contents...

Gear Reviews

AMS DMX Digital Delay & Pitch Shifter UAD Plug-In

BY AMS DMX Digital Delay & Pitch Shifter UAD Plug-In  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Hailing from 1978, and peppered throughout several classic recordings in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the AMS DMX 15-80 S was the world’s first microprocessor-controlled, 15-bit digital delay and pitch shifter; a rack-mounted combo wonder box with a sinusoidal VCO for modulation effects. The UAD plug-in...

Gear Reviews

BiG SiX Mixer

BY BiG SiX Mixer  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

Solid State Logic, better known as SSL, boasts a four-decade history of producing leading products for commercial studios, broadcast facilities, and live sound. However, SSL has recently directed their attention towards project and home studios, and they’ve seriously upped the ante of modern studio...

Gear Reviews

Blank Patch Bay Labels

BY Blank Patch Bay Labels  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

If you have a single rack space 1/4-inch patchbay from the likes of dbx, Behringer, Samson, or Neutrik, you understand the challenge of marking things clearly. Nashville’s Trace Audio has an inexpensive solution in the form of peel-and-stick labels. Custom cut according to model, the white patch...

Gear Reviews

Crystalline Reverb Plug-In

BY Crystalline Reverb Plug-In  |  reviewed by Dave Hidek

BABY Audio is quickly developing a reputation for boiling plug-ins down to their essential components and reshaping them into concentrated, powerful production tools. With their newest release, a sleek reverb plug-in called Crystalline, they’ve reinvented the algorithmic reverb wheel, drawing...

Gear Reviews

DACport Pro DAC & Headphone Amp

BY DACport Pro DAC & Headphone Amp  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

CEntrance’s DACport Pro is a portable tool designed by people who understand the needs of working engineers. Laptop audio outputs offer up questionable quality – assuming your maker deigns even to include one. One of the engineers here at Treelady Studios swears by a USB stick that combines DAC and...

Gear Reviews

Duet 3 Interface & Dock Accessory

BY Duet 3 Interface & Dock Accessory  |  reviewed by Scott McChane

Fourteen years ago, Apogee Electronics released their original Firewire Duet [Tape Op #65] – arguably opening the floodgates for one-knob desktop interfaces that focus on portability and ease of use, with high-quality conversion and built-in preamps. Many other manufacturers have followed suit with...

Gear Reviews

FiDef JENtwo Psychoacoustic Processor Plug-In

BY FiDef JENtwo Psychoacoustic Processor Plug-In  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

This is a new one. FiDef is a psychoacoustic process MAAT licensed from FideliQuest LLC for inclusion in thEQblue (which is a sweet EQ – but that’s a different discussion). Now available as a standalone plug-in, FiDef JENtwo is available without the EQ. First, I’ll summarize the formal explanation...

Gear Reviews

MagicVerb Reverb Plug-In

BY MagicVerb Reverb Plug-In  |  reviewed by Dan Knobler

There is absolute magic contained in the plastered walls of classic studios’ echo chambers. I’ve been lucky enough to make many records at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, which has two wonderful tall and narrow chambers. I’ve run everything through them. I’ve climbed into them with acoustic...

Gear Reviews

Mic-Pre 4T 4-Channel Preamp

BY Mic-Pre 4T 4-Channel Preamp  |  reviewed by Brendan Connors

I recently moved into a new control room, and because of this much of my gear, interface, monitoring, and general workflow changed drastically. My new mantra was to scale down the physical footprint of my overall setup, but I still needed some robust preamps that would serve me well in a variety of...

Gear Reviews

MS-Series Mic Slipcovers

BY MS-Series Mic Slipcovers  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

You know the scenario: You’ve mic’d up a whole band, did the first day of tracking, and are shutting down for the night, coming back tomorrow for more takes. There are over 25 microphones placed all over the studio to capture various instruments. As we should know, these microphone elements – be...

Gear Reviews

Plugin Bundle 1 Instrument Reverb Plug-Ins

BY Plugin Bundle 1 Instrument Reverb Plug-Ins  |  reviewed by Brian Bender

Texture still seems to me to be the hill on which the battle between us analog Luddites and the digital future is raging. Though digital emulations are now, broadly, pretty good and getting better, sitting next to an actual device and its digital kissin’ cousin has almost always reinforced my bias...

Gear Reviews

Really Good Rejects (film)

BY Really Good Rejects (film)  |  reviewed by Gus Berry

Attention guitar nerds: A new documentary by Alice Gu premiered at SXSW this year that spotlights Reuben Cox, the man behind Old Style Guitar Shop in Los Angeles. Reuben is responsible for developing the coveted rubber bridge guitars that have recently been made popular by artists such as Blake...

Gear Reviews

True Mid/Side Plug-In

BY True Mid/Side Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Every stereo mix has a phantom center, or middle channel. This “mid,” includes any audio that is not panned (or recorded) exclusively to the right and left “side” channels, and creates a center image in a mix between the speakers. In typical mixes of popular music styles, the mid channel will...