Tape Op Magazine - Issue #160 - issue-160

Mike Bridavsky

Interviews

What is Success in Music?

Interviews

Éliézer Oubda

Interviews

Sera Cahoone

Interviews

Jarvis Taveniere

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 16, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Albert Hammond Jr.

Albert Hammond Jr.: More Powerful Than Perfection

BY SCOTTIE CAMERON, GEOFF STANFIELD

As a member of New York City's The Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr. has been owning the downstroke for over 20 years. In addition to his work with that band, Albert has managed to find time to record five solo albums. His most recent, Melodies on Hiatus, is an expansive collection of 19 songs, recorded with longtime collaborator, producer/engineer Gus Oberg, at several spots in the Los Angeles area, including his home studio. (Recent interviewee Tony Hoffer [Tape Op #155] mixed the album.) Albert and I chatted for episode #85 of the Tape Op Podcast, and this is an excerpt from that conversation.

JULY 16, 2025 INTERVIEWS

John Morgan Askew

John Morgan Askew

BY LARRY CRANE, PHOTOGRAPH CRANE

I dropped by to see John's studio, Bocce, and ask him about working with Sera Cahoone (see Sera interview here) and Margo Cilker (see Margo interview here).

JULY 16, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Margo Cilker

Margo Cilker

BY JEN BORST, LARRY CRANE

I caught Margo on Zoom while she was gigging in Bozeman, Montana.

JULY 16, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Matt Parmenter

Matt Parmenter: With an Open Mind

BY LISA MACHAC, LAURA KHALIL

Matt Parmenter is an Austin, Texas-based engineer and owner of Ice Cream Factory Studio, with over 20 years of experience producing, recording, mixing, and mastering music. He's been nominated for a Grammy and won an Emmy for his work with Austin artist Carrie Rodriguez [2018 Lone Star Regional Emmy Award for Audio Engineering]. Matt's studio is known as a welcoming place for both veterans and newcomers alike. Here he chats with Lisa Machac of Omni Sound Project about the history of the studio, his work to create an inclusive space, and his enviable mic collection.

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

BOB Bass Optimized Bias Plug-In

by BOB Bass Optimized Bias Plug-In | reviewed by Larry Crane

As part of the McDSP Analog Processing Box universe (APB-8, APB-16) [Tape Op #134], the BOB Bass Optimized Bias is a plug-in based on the original BOB module from McDSP's 6060 Ultimate Module Collection. The BOB APB plug-in can provide a massive amount of low end around a selected frequency, and...

Gear Reviews

Coil Audio CA-70S Plug-In

by Coil Audio CA-70S Plug-In | reviewed by Matt Anderson

Last year, at least once a week, I heard someone mention Coil Audio. Even a few engineers I knew who never hype gear were straight-up saying, "These are the best preamps on the planet.” My curiosity got the best of me, and I offered to do an extensive video review on the CA-70S and CA-286 preamps...

Gear Reviews

DM6 SeisMic Kick Drum Mic

by DM6 SeisMic Kick Drum Mic | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

Earthworks Audio has always been known as a maker of extremely high-quality microphones, historically aimed at studio use. I have used their mics for years, including the kick drum mic included with their DK7 Drum Kit System. I love that mic. It can be clean and punchy when used in a traditional...

Gear Reviews

Footprint03 Powered Monitor Pair

by Footprint03 Powered Monitor Pair | reviewed by Gus Berry

Many studio monitors are based on what we call "2-way" configurations, featuring a woofer/driver (usually a cone speaker) and a tweeter handling the low and high frequencies, but a growing number of nearfield monitors use "3-way" setups, with a midrange driver handling frequencies between the...

Gear Reviews

Gorilla Midfield 3-way Monitors

by Gorilla Midfield 3-way Monitors | reviewed by Mike Bridavsky

In 2002, during an internship at Electrical Audio in Chicago [Tape Op #87], I was introduced to Bowers & Wilkins hi-fi (consumer) bookshelf speakers being used as studio monitors. Working on them in Electrical’s Studio B was the first time my mixes translated well. I scored a secondhand pair for my...

Gear Reviews

Grandchild 670-500 Compressor

by Grandchild 670-500 Compressor | reviewed by Matt Anderson

There’s an age-old philosophical question in the audio community: “If a Fairchild compressor/limiter falls in the woods and loses over two dozen tubes and transformers, is it still a Fairchild?” Where does innovation end and compromise begin, and is it even worth attempting to pull off something...

Gear Reviews

H44 Ribbon Mic

by H44 Ribbon Mic | reviewed by Chris Koltay

The first thing you see when encountering Alder Audio’s H44 online is their slogan: A Better Ribbon For Less. This statement may seem underwhelming against the backdrop of today's pro audio hype machine – touting plug-ins that turn you into Chris Lord-Alge or sample packs that contain Bernard...

Gear Reviews

Live 12 Suite

by Live 12 Suite | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

The importance of organization, functionality, and preparedness is central to the work we do when making music with/for others. From my perspective, DAWs are getting more comprehensive and less specialized. Most modern DAWs (digital audio workstations) can help with every stage of music creation,...

Gear Reviews

Loudspeaker Design Cookbook

by Loudspeaker Design Cookbook | reviewed by Larry Crane

For those that don't know, Vance Dickason has been the editor of Voice Coil Magazine ("the monthly periodical for the loudspeaker industry") since 1987, and the author of the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook (LDC) volumes since 1978. LDC is "the world's most popular book on loudspeaker design." With its...

Gear Reviews

MDR-MV1 Headphones

by MDR-MV1 Headphones | reviewed by Scott McDowell

A few months ago, I was hired to work on the audio engineering team at a production camp put on by Sony. One of the events at this camp was a demo of Sony’s immersive audio tools, and this was my first experience with their MDR-MV1 headphones. Sony’s immersive audio team has been pushing hard to...

Gear Reviews

Mercury 666 MKI Limiting Amplifier

by Mercury 666 MKI Limiting Amplifier | reviewed by Larry Crane

The single-channel, three rack space Mercury 666 MKI is inspired by the Fairchild 666, a later cousin of the Fairchild 660/670 limiters. Unlike those units, the 666 was a hybrid solid-state and tube design. Mercury took that concept (and some characteristics of the original 666) to create something...

Gear Reviews

MR3eq 500 Series EQ

by MR3eq 500 Series EQ | reviewed by Dan Knobler

As noted in my review of their new 32Classic console [Tape Op #159], in the of classic records, Harrison Audio had just as formidable a studio presence as console standard-bearers like Neve, MCI, API, and SSL. By the mid-‘80s, Harrison Audio had pivoted almost entirely to film and live sound, but...

Gear Reviews

Recirculate Echo Plug-In

by Recirculate Echo Plug-In | reviewed by Larry Crane

Former Eventide coder/engineer Dan Gillespie, who runs Newfangled Audio (distributed by Eventide), has developed some pretty wild plug-ins. We've reviewed the fantastic virtual synth, Generate [Tape Op #140], and the Elevate mastering suite [#133] before, and now he takes on a tour of what he...

Gear Reviews

Scarlett 4i4 Interface

by Scarlett 4i4 Interface | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

We live in a time where ADC conversion is quite good. I remember when our studio was first getting into digital recording, the sonic differences between analog to digital/digital to analog converters were extremely noticeable. We did listening tests on various units and found huge differences –...

Gear Reviews

Sling-Shock RSM-Series Shock Mounts

by Sling-Shock RSM-Series Shock Mounts | reviewed by Larry Crane

Anyone who owns a few large diaphragm microphones has likely seen the common trouble with many shock mounts – failing elastic or rubber bands that cause the mic to droop, clamps that don't securely hold mic bodies, bulky sizes that get in the way of placement, pivoting joints that slip or are hard...

Gear Reviews

Stick Station

by Stick Station | reviewed by Mike Kosacek

For drummers, while playing it’s sometimes a challenge to change between brushes, sticks, and mallets. Of course, studio magic allows us to do that with punch ins, but if you are tracking live with a band that’s usually not an option. Fortunately, now we have the Stick Station from Bopworks...

Gear Reviews

Subloom Kick Drum Plug-In

by Subloom Kick Drum Plug-In | reviewed by Larry Crane

Ostensibly a drum mixing tool especially built for kick drums, Subloom is one of those plug-ins based on a mixer's workflow, specifically Jesse Ray Ernster [Tape Op #151], and combines several functions in a single "two-channel" GUI. When I look at my own plug-in chain for kick drum mixing, I...

Gear Reviews

V120 Monitor Ceiling/Wall Mounts

by V120 Monitor Ceiling/Wall Mounts | reviewed by Don Gunn

In what might possibly be the sexiest review ever published in Tape Op, let’s talk about monitor mounts! I was recently in need of upgrading my Atmos monitoring, and I required a better solution for the four height speakers mounted on the ceiling of my studio (I mix Atmos in a 7.1.4 configuration)....

Gear Reviews

Vocal Reverb Plug-In

by Vocal Reverb Plug-In | reviewed by Scott McDowell

Call me an AI pessimist, but my initial reaction was lukewarm when I considered trying out the Vocal Reverb plug-in from Antares Audio Technologies. Haven’t I already got enough reverbs? How is this new one going to win me over? Once I dove into it, I realized it was challenging me unexpectedly,...