Tape Op Magazine - Issue #152 - issue-152

Tegan and Sara

Interviews

Tegan and Sara

By Pamela Littky and Sadie Dupuis

Tegan and Sara Quin released their first record, Under Feet Like Ours, in 1999, and in the decades that followed they've since touched on every pop sub-genre that excites them – punk, folk, EDM; sometimes all at once. The twin sisters started writing songs on their guitars as teenagers, but...

John Plymale

Interviews

John Plymale: No Right or Wrong Way

By John Plymale + Mike Benson, Larry Crane, John Benson

Years ago, I met John Plymale at one of our TapeOpCon events. He currently lives in Norfolk, Virginia, and has helmed amazing projects including the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Superchunk, and the Meat Puppets. Recently John produced the album Steadman's Wake for one of my favorite bands from North...

Metric

Interviews

Metric

By Justin Broadbent, Roman Sokal

For over 20 years, the Toronto, Canada-based intellectual alternative pop/rock group Metric have been perking up listener's ears with daring and blissfully created music. Fronted by singer/keyboardist/lyricist Emily Haines and guitar and synth wizard Jimmy Shaw, the group are international...

Clarke Rigsby

Interviews

Clarke Rigsby: A Varied Career

By Larry Crane

A longtime staple of the Phoenix recording scene, Clarke Rigsby runs Tempest Recording out...

Xenia Rubinos

Interviews

Xenia Rubinos: Regaining Spirit

By Geoff Stanfield, Michelle Arcila

Xenia Rubinos could just as easily be on a bill with Flying Lotus and The Boredoms as she...

The Boxmasters are…

Interviews

The Boxmasters are…: Billy Bob Thornton & J.D. Andrew

By Connie Thornton, Connie, Larry Crane, Bella Thornton

You might be most familiar with him as an actor, but Billy Bob Thornton has been playing...

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

MARCH 12, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Gaelynn Lea Tressler

Gaelynn Lea Tressler

BY PAUL VIENNEAU, IAN BRENNAN

Gaelynn Lea is one of the most original musicians and songwriters working today. She also happens, by chance, to be a wheelchair user. Incredibly prolific, she has released three solo albums, as well as six collaborations with various groups in the past decade. Hailing from northern Minnesota, she has developed a unique fiddle style by playing the violin like a cello. Her latest project is providing the score for the Broadway production of Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga.

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

4055 Kick Drum Mic

BY 4055 Kick Drum Mic | reviewed by Henning Svoren, Scott Evans

Denmark’s DPA Microphones have a decades-long history of manufacturing precision, accurate condenser microphones. My first DPA encounter was in Denmark, recording Copenhagen’s excellent group, Town Portal. We used a Bruel & Kjaer (DPA’s predecessor) 4011 on guitar, and it blew our minds. Suddenly,...

Gear Reviews

5254 Dual Diode Bridge Compressor

BY 5254 Dual Diode Bridge Compressor | reviewed by Anthony Gravino

Over the past two decades, Rupert Neve Designs has been known in the recording community as a company that creates and builds a wide variety of high-quality pro audio equipment found in studios worldwide. I have used many of their units and always felt they sounded excellent, so I was excited to...

Gear Reviews

BiG Stereo Image Processor

BY BiG Stereo Image Processor | reviewed by Don Gunn

SPL is back with a new 500 Series module called BiG, cleverly sub-titled “Stereo Image Bigger Maker” (yes, really!). Given that it is a stereo unit, the BiG takes up two slots in a 500 Series rack, but all controls are singular and adjust the left and right channels simultaneously. On the surface,...

Gear Reviews

BOOM USB-C Interface

BY BOOM USB-C Interface | reviewed by Scott McChane

“Thank you for choosing Apogee! For complete set up instructions and software downloads...” You’re welcome, but I’ll skip all that, plug the USB-C cable in, open Pro Tools, and see what happens. Okay, that worked (class-compliant). Next, I can just plug in a mic (front) and headphones (back), push...

Gear Reviews

Chassis Kits

BY Chassis Kits | reviewed by Brad Allen Williams

DIY recording gear isn’t always easy or cost-effective. Electronics chops are one thing, but few people have the means to do metal fabrication, powder coating, and silk screening. One-off custom fab jobs are prohibitively expensive, and a homespun look of Hammond enclosures, step drill bits, and...

Gear Reviews

DOPAMINE Enhancer Plug-In

BY DOPAMINE Enhancer Plug-In | reviewed by Dave Hidek

Overloud Audio Tools’ DOPAMINE is a recreation of the renown Dolby 361 A-Type noise reduction module, and the slightly lesser known, but still well-loved TEAC AN-180 (which utilized Dolby B-Type noise reduction). While these original tools were built to reduce noise, engineers loved to use the...

Gear Reviews

EL9 Mike-E Preamp & Compressor

BY EL9 Mike-E Preamp & Compressor | reviewed by Tony Vincent

I’m gonna come clean right out of the gate: I’m a big believer in Empirical Labs [Tape Op #33]. I have owned at least one EL8 Distressor [#32] in my personal studio since 2009, and it continues to be my first-choice hardware compressor many times over. So, when I had the opportunity to review Dave...

Gear Reviews

KNS8402 Headphones

BY KNS8402 Headphones | reviewed by Scott McChane

The makers of the pro audio market’s most popular entry-level studio monitors, KRK, have entered round two of the headphone game with their new closed-back KNS6402 and 8402 models. Over 15 years ago, KRK sent its original 6400 and 8400 headphones to Tape Op’s publisher and studio owner, John...

Gear Reviews

M908 Monitor Controller

BY M908 Monitor Controller | reviewed by Don Gunn

Grace Design has been making some of the most respected preamps and monitor controllers for nearly 30 years (and since has branched out into acoustic instrument preamps and processors). Their latest flagship monitor controller, the m908, is a multi-channel beast that goes far beyond the stereo...

Gear Reviews

Mark Howard, author

BY Mark Howard, author | reviewed by Roman Sokal

Having recorded some of the planet’s top musical artists, such as U2, R.E.M., Daniel Lanois [Tape Op #37, #127], Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, and Lucinda Williams, engineer/producer Mark Howard [#134] is well equipped to give us a glimpse into the process of capturing music. Subtitled, The...

Gear Reviews

Matthias Fuchs, author

BY Matthias Fuchs, author | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

There have been several beautifully designed and written coffee table books published in the last few years that focus on music gear, including guitar pedals, modular synthesizers, microphones, and more. Yet, despite the increasingly crowded field, Matthias Fuchs has managed to find a niche and...

Gear Reviews

NDH 30 Headphones

BY NDH 30 Headphones | reviewed by Tom Fine

Back in 2019, I reviewed Neumann's first foray into headphones, the closed-back NDH 20 [Tape Op #132]. At that time, its parent company Sennheiser was still in the consumer headphone business. Now they've sold that business. The new strategy seems to be: Sennheiser for live-production headsets and...

Gear Reviews

NTH-100 Headphones

BY NTH-100 Headphones | reviewed by Tom Fine

Long a well-reputed maker of microphones, Australian company RØDE has jumped into the crowded, but red-hot headphones market with both feet. The NTH-100 'phones are closed-back and designed for efficient operation with a 32 ohm impedance rating (meaning it doesn't take much to drive them, and even...

Gear Reviews

Reamp Station Re-Amper/DI

BY Reamp Station Re-Amper/DI | reviewed by Gus Berry

As of this summer, I have been mixing fully in the box and loving it. Part of my new mix setup, however, does include two Radial Reamp Station boxes. This allows me to send audio to my guitar pedals quickly – or to an amp head (located in another room, inside a custom-built iso box thanks to my...

Gear Reviews

Solo6 ST6 Active Monitors

BY Solo6 ST6 Active Monitors | reviewed by Dan Knobler

Reviewing speakers is a funny game. As engineers, perhaps we pick up on how to evaluate monitors in a new listening environment and how to work within the limitations of those conditions – but more than anything, I think we collectively just know when we enjoy listening to music on a set of...

Gear Reviews

THE BUS+ Bus Compressor

BY THE BUS+ Bus Compressor | reviewed by Chris Short, Garrett Haines

There is an entire market segment devoted to bus compression. While there are some unique designs in circulation, the concept and function is usually based upon the compressor module found on large format SSL consoles. While the Oxford-based company offers rack and 500 Series versions of the...

Gear Reviews

Volt 476P Interface

BY Volt 476P Interface | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

The Volt 476P, Universal Audio’s latest in their line of low-cost-yet-high-quality USB-C audio interfaces, is the flagship of the Volt fleet. It has the same essential features as its little brothers (Volts 176, 276 [Tape Op #148], and 476) but differentiates itself with four analog preamp inputs...

Gear Reviews

Wet Reverberator Plug-In

BY Wet Reverberator Plug-In | reviewed by Garrett Haines

Neunaber Audio (pronounced “new neighbor”) is an Orange County, California, company best known for its effects pedals. However, it’s no ordinary pedal boutique. Founder Brian Neunaber holds two patents, a master’s degree in electrical engineering, and has developed technologies for several...