Mikko Gordon

Interviews

Joe Hadlock

Interviews

Donn Landee

Interviews

David Brown of Soyuz Microphones

Interviews

Sparklehorse's Bird Machine

Interviews

Ryan Hadlock

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 27, 2025 INTERVIEWS
SASAMI

SASAMI: Conjuring the Space

SASAMI, born Sasami Ashworth, has been a sought-after "jack of all trades" in the indie music world since returning to her hometown of Los Angeles following graduation from classical conservatory at Eastman School of Music. From playing in Cherry Glazerr, to touring with Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, Mitski, Japanese Breakfast, and HAIM, to producing records by King Tuff (Smalltown Stardust) and Hand Habits (Fun House), not to mention producing, writing, arranging, and engineering her own genre-bending work, her skills and sensibilities have enlivened an industry that can often feel uninspiring. With her 2022 second solo album, Squeeze, and tours to support it, SASAMI confronted the mostly male landscape of metal and has brought theatrics, haunted house lighting, and playful aggression to both dive bars and arena stages alike. Now based in West Marin, California, she's exploring the poetic language of naturalists as well as Britney Spears's early aughts "guilty pleasure" (minus the guilt) aesthetics as she weaves together new material.

JULY 27, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab: Making Music for Everybody

A compelling Brooklyn-based Pakistani composer, vocalist, and producer, Arooj Aftab's 2021 album, Vulture Prince, brought her voice and music a lot of attention, as well as a Grammy for Best Global Music Performance. Her recent collaboration, Love in Exile, with Shahzad Ismaily [Tape Op #151] and Vijay Iyer, was tracked and improvised live in the studio and is a beautiful work of art that deserves focused listening. She recently chatted with Lisa Machac, of Omni Sound Project, about her path in music and sound.

JULY 27, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Transferring Early Bebop 78 rpm Records

Transferring Early Bebop 78 rpm Records

In the mid-'40s, a new generation of musicians heralded the arrival of bebop. Here's why some of the most exciting jazz performances ever recorded still don't sound good, and how we might be able to fix it. In the long and vast history of jazz, Charlie Parker stands as one of its giants. The saxophonist, known as "Bird," along with trumpeter John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie helped invent bebop in the middle '40s, forever altering the musical language of jazz. A music characterized by fast and complex playing by small groups (in many ways unlike the big band swing era that preceded it), bebop's recorded legacy was truncated by the American Federation of Musicians ban, waged by its infamous president, James C. Petrillo. Petrillo wanted the record companies to pay royalties, and when they didn't comply he enforced a ban on recording for all union musicians, starting July 31, 1942. For this, Petrillo was lambasted from every conceivable corner of the entertainment business. The halt on recording dragged on – in September 1943, Decca and Capitol Records agreed to pay royalties. Over two years after it began, in November 1944, the Victor and Columbia labels likewise capitulated. Looking at the record sales evidence today, it shows that the labels themselves weren't very affected by the ban. In fact, due to the need for product to push, they scoured their vaults and ended up inventing the compilation album in the process. But a certain musical damage entailed – the earliest bebop music was simply never recorded.

COLUMNS

Are You Being Lazy?
END RANT
Gear Geeking w/ Andy...
GEAR GEEKING

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

4DI Quad Vacuum Tube DI

by 4DI Quad Vacuum Tube DI  |  reviewed by Jeremy Wurst

In 2020, I had the pleasure of reviewing the Hazelrigg Industries VDI [Tape Op #48]; Earlier this year, Hazelrigg Industries released their latest creation; the 4DI. In the three years since I demoed the single channel VDI, I’m now working out of a very different studio in a much more dialed-in...

Gear Reviews

BA-1 Analog Modeled Synth Plug-In

by BA-1 Analog Modeled Synth Plug-In  |  reviewed by Ben Bernstein

Baby Audio’s BA-1 is a reimagining of the cultish ‘80s analog synth, the Yamaha CS01, bringing with it some pure and authentic textures that are easy and intuitive to program. The CS01 was routinely used by some of Sweden’s most successful pop producers, and was also a staple of 1990s digital...

Gear Reviews

Benson Studio Tall Bird Plug-In

by Benson Studio Tall Bird Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

In issue #126 I reviewed Benson Amps' stereo Studio Tall Bird Spring Reverb, a wonderful piece of hardware that gets used a lot at Jackpot! Recording. The original Tall Bird has been discontinued, but a new iteration is arriving soon. It "sprang" from the Tall Bird All Tube Reverb, an amp...

Gear Reviews

C-80 Condenser Microphone

by C-80 Condenser Microphone  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

Who doesn’t love Sony microphones? Their reputation is built on the C-37A, C-800G, and the C-38B; all of which deliver. I'd previously reviewed the C-100 series of mics [Tape Op #132] and was impressed by their quality, so I was curious to try out Sony's newest offering: the C-80 cardioid condenser...

Gear Reviews

Carnaby 500 Harmonic EQ

by Carnaby 500 Harmonic EQ  |  reviewed by Scott McDowell

The Carnaby 500 is a groundbreaking audio processor. Hands down, this device is stunning. At first glance, it looks like a three-band EQ – which it kind of is – but it's not like any equalizer I've touched before. When you boost a band, you're only boosting saturation. When you attenuate a band,...

Gear Reviews

Copperphone AV20 Microphone

by Copperphone AV20 Microphone  |  reviewed by Joel Hamilton

It has been more than 20 years since I got my first original Copperphone microphone and wrote a review for Tape Op about it [Tape Op #42]. I fell in love with that microphone the moment I heard it, and I have used it on hundreds and hundreds of recordings since. Not to mention, I have put that...

Gear Reviews

FLEA ELA M 251 Tube Microphone

by FLEA ELA M 251 Tube Microphone  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

The original Telefunken ELA M 251 tube-powered condenser mics were made for Telefunken by AKG in the early '60s – when Neumann had pulled their U 47 distribution from Telefunken – and were somewhat similar (circuit and component-wise) to AKG's popular C12 mics of the time. The 251 has long been...

Gear Reviews

Herchild 670

by Herchild 670  |  reviewed by Dan Knobler

It’s a good time to be an enthusiast of the classic Fairchild limiters of the past. Not all that long ago, there were no mass-market reproductions of the Fairchild 660 or 670, and only a smattering of less-than-convincing plug-ins. Nowadays, we have an abundance of hardware and software options to...

Gear Reviews

Hiding in Plain Sight (book)

by Hiding in Plain Sight (book)  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

This fun little book is an 8-inch square, 16-page, hand-illustrated history of – as the subtitle says – "Studios of Seattle & Tacoma" in Washington State. Of the nine, I've worked out of three of these spaces and personally have a great affection for the SeaTac recording scene. Author Jackson Long...

Gear Reviews

Imperium NG Monitor Controller

by Imperium NG Monitor Controller  |  reviewed by Tony Vincent

As a writer, I try to be as transparent as I can when reviewing a piece of gear. I also feel compelled to include a bit of a backstory that shares what initially lead me to doing the review. Many know that I moved my studio, SoundShop370, from Manhattan to South Nashville a couple of years ago....

Gear Reviews

KD1 Kinetic Drive APB Plug-In

by KD1 Kinetic Drive APB Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Built to work only with the McDSP APB ("analog processing box") units (APB-8, APB-16) [Tape Op #134], the KD1 Kinetic Drive is a plug-in that uses this interesting system. The APB essentially is a one space rackmount box that attaches to your computer's Thunderbolt and audio interface's clocking in...

Gear Reviews

Newton Channel Preamp/EQ/Compressor

by Newton Channel Preamp/EQ/Compressor  |  reviewed by Alan Tubbs

A new, affordable, single rack unit channel strip, Rupert Neve Designs' Newton Channel isn’t a stripped-down version of their Shelford Channel [Tape Op #118] or a direct replacement for the more complex and discontinued Portico II Channel (which I own and reviewed in issue #82). The preamp in the...

Gear Reviews

PSP auralComp Multichannel Compressor

by PSP auralComp Multichannel Compressor  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

For those of us who have dived headfirst into immersive mixing (Atmos or Sony 360RA), there comes a vexing moment where we realize that there is no simple way to apply bus compression for the mix glue we’ve become dependent upon in stereo. In an Atmos mix, our groove elements may be assigned to a...

Gear Reviews

PSP stereoController2

by PSP stereoController2  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

There are many stereo field processors out there, but they are usually simply fixer tools or effects processors. Among the effect types, most of them do only one thing – meaning if you don't need that approach the plug-in is not applicable. Purchasing too many plug-ins to cover my main production...

Gear Reviews

Push 3

by Push 3  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

The new Push 3 is finally here! I've been an Ableton Live DAW [Tape Op #143] user since version 1, and was an early adopter of both of the first two generations of Push hardware, so I was eager to test the surprising spec and feature bumps of the 3rd-gen Push 3, Ableton's grid-based...

Gear Reviews

ROXi & REX High Fidelity Mic Preamp Pedals

by ROXi & REX High Fidelity Mic Preamp Pedals  |  reviewed by Geoffrey Knecht

During most of my adult life, the use of stompbox effects with my trumpet or my voice was frustrating, inconvenient, and unreliable, or some combination of these issues. I've wasted hours, days, and weeks playing around with various setups; Lo-Z to Hi-Z adapters, loop pedals with XLR inputs, vocal...

Gear Reviews

Syntrx II Analog Synthesizer

by Syntrx II Analog Synthesizer  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

The first-generation Syntrx from Latvian synthesis maestros Erica Synths was a fantastic "reimagining" of the 1972 EMS Synthi AKS. The original Syntrx was a highly desirable analog synth with a limited production run of 1056 units (and a premium price tag of $3029 USD). Erica is back with the...

Gear Reviews

UF1 Advanced DAW Controller

by UF1 Advanced DAW Controller

At some point, we all have heard enough of the never-ending “analog vs. digital” debate. It’s getting harder to argue when the digital side of recording continues to get better sonically. Even guys like me that started in the early 2000s have seen a massive evolution, as of late. Let’s face it,...

Gear Reviews

VSX Headphone Mixing System

by VSX Headphone Mixing System  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

I watched and waited for over a year before I finally purchased the Steven Slate Audio VSX headphone mixing system. VSX is a set of over the ear, closed-back headphones and accompanying software (to use via your DAW) to “listen” in various virtual rooms and spaces. Some of the virtual rooms are...