Tape Op Magazine - Issue #161 - issue-161

Jennifer Decilveo

Interviews

Jennifer Decilveo

By Brantley Gutierrez, Meredith Hobbs Coons

About ten years ago, New Jersey-born producer and songwriter Jennifer Decilveo pivoted from a degree and career in finance to begin a life in the Los Angeles music scene. Since then, she has collaborated with a multitude of artists, including: Amos Lee, Anne-Marie, Beth Ditto, Bat for Lashes, Ben Platt,...

Russell Elevado

Interviews

Russell Elevado: The Importance of Sound

By Benjamin Chambers, Larry Crane

With a list of credits and Grammy awards with artists such as D'Angelo, The Roots, Kamasi Washington, Common, Angél...

Blake Morgan

Interviews

Blake Morgan: Tracking, Not Recording

By Larry Crane, Taylor Teeple

A fascinating person, Blake Morgan is a songwriter, producer, engineer, studio owner, recording artist, music rights activist, and ...

Steve Roach

Interviews

Steve Roach: Time Becomes Nothing

By Frank Beissel, Larry Crane

Releasing his first album in 1982, Steve Roach has continued to make hundreds of records...

Lisa Bella Donna

Interviews

Lisa Bella Donna: On Parenting, Vinyl, and Patching Birds

By Jaclyn Sosnowski, Carolyn Zaldivar Snow

Known as the Sonic Sorceress, composer and synthesist Lisa Bella Donna has a talent for...

Are You Backing Up?

Interviews

Are You Backing Up?

By Mike Kosacek

There is an old saying: "Only back up what you can't afford to lose." As...

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

SEPTEMBER 1, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Mixing Phosphorescent’s Revelator

Mixing Phosphorescent’s Revelator: with Dave Cerminara

BY DAVE CERMINARA, MATHEW HOUCK

One of my favorite records of 2024 to date is Phosphorescent's Revelator. It's a beautifully recorded album, featuring Matthew Houck's timeless songwriting and lyrics plus gorgeous arrangements. I was hooked the first time I heard the title track. I recently picked up a copy of the vinyl LP, and as I was reading the credits I noticed that the album was mixed by Tape Op contributor Dave Cerminara, so I thought I'd drop him a line and find out more about the mixing sessions. -JB

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

AC1STB94 Splicing Tabs

by AC1STB94 Splicing Tabs | reviewed by Garrett Haines

If you’re just making a few edits on open reel tapes, or attaching a leader to tops and tails, it won’t kill you to cut off a piece of leader tape from a spool. But there are times where I’m doing a lot of edits, such as repairing failed splices on post-baked stock or setting up several reels for a...

Gear Reviews

apTrigga3 Sample Trigger Plug-In

by apTrigga3 Sample Trigger Plug-In | reviewed by Scott Evans

apTrigga has been around since 2004 (and it was good back then!). In 2015, apulSoft released a full rewrite of their sample trigger plug-in that included AAX support, which I grabbed immediately and have used regularly since. I realized this plug-in has never been reviewed here, and I wanted to...

Gear Reviews

AT2040 Podcast Mic

by AT2040 Podcast Mic | reviewed by Danielle Goldsmith

As an audio professional, I'm often asked by friends who record podcasts at home for microphone recommendations. So, I was excited when I got the opportunity to review Audio-Technica's new AT2040 hypercardioid dynamic podcast microphone, as it's designed to fit the needs of content creators on a...

Gear Reviews

Bloom Tone-Shaping Plug-In

by Bloom Tone-Shaping Plug-In | reviewed by Larry Crane

Proclaimed as "an adaptive tone shaper," Bloom is a new plug-in by oeksound, known for the handy tone-fixers Soothe2 [Tape Op #138] and Spiff [#137]. I constantly use Soothe2 to fix tracks that have issues, and it gets a lot of use on my remote mixing jobs, so I was curious what Bloom would be. At...

Gear Reviews

Groove Anniversary Edition DAC/Headphone Amp

by Groove Anniversary Edition DAC/Headphone Amp | reviewed by Scott McDowell

I’ve loved listening to music in headphones since I was a child, but I’ve come a long way from those flimsy freebies that came with my yellow Sony Walkman. As an adult, I’ve spent weeks at a time earning a living in audio while primarily clocking my hours in cans, and I've learned the hard way that...

Gear Reviews

HD 490 PRO Plus Headphones

by HD 490 PRO Plus Headphones | reviewed by Scott McChane

We've all grown far too accustomed to the head puckering, bass muffled, ear-smushing, insulated fake spaciness of crappy small speakers strapped to our skulls masquerading as headphones. I've been escaping into under-engineered closed-back headphones since I bought my first copy of Pink Floyd's The...

Gear Reviews

Head Voice (magazine)

by Head Voice (magazine) | reviewed by Larry Crane

With mottos like, "You're doing nothing wrong" and, "Nothing is wrong with your mix," Head Voice arrived last fall as a mission statement and an "audio recording zine focused on creativity." Founded by musicians Donovan Quinn, Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), and James Toth (James & The...

Gear Reviews

iRender Binaural Monitoring Plug-In

by iRender Binaural Monitoring Plug-In | reviewed by Adam Kagan

Those of us who have tried mixing music in Dolby Atmos understand the challenges of learning a new skill. Some of those challenges lie in creative dilemmas, such as “What should go in the overhead speakers?” Yet, the most exasperating struggle lies in predicting the audience’s experience when...

Gear Reviews

Level-Or Mk2 DUAL Limiter

by Level-Or Mk2 DUAL Limiter | reviewed by Larry Crane

Some 24 years ago, my pal Craig Alvin [Tape Op #137] found out that one of Tchad Blake's [#133, #16] ubiquitous mix distortion devices was the Shure Level-Loc. Level-Locs were Shure's attempt at a dummy-proof limiter for podium speakers, even featuring a Distance Selector switch for how far the...

Gear Reviews

Mini K67x Condenser Microphone

by Mini K67x Condenser Microphone | reviewed by Geoffrey Knecht

The need for flexibility is paramount in many recording situations, and affordably meeting that need is a challenge. Fortunately, Roswell Audio’s Mini K67x cardioid large diaphragm condenser mic nicely balances colorful harmonic saturation (from a transformer-coupled circuit) and sparkling clarity,...

Gear Reviews

Notepad-8FX Mixer

by Notepad-8FX Mixer | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

The Soundcraft Notepad-8FX is an entry-level mixer that seamlessly connects as a USB 2.0 interface to your laptop, tablet or phone. It has two mic/line XLR combo input jacks (one of which has a selectable Hi-Z input option for DI sources like electric guitar or bass) with +48V phantom power, four...

Gear Reviews

P455 MDN Sidecar Plug-In

by P455 MDN Sidecar Plug-In | reviewed by Matt Anderson

Pulsar Modular’s P455 MDN Sidecar plug-in was designed in conjunction with engineer Marc Daniel Nelson. Although there’s definitely some API style inspiration involved, they’ve taken a much broader and, in my opinion, much more useful approach to creating a tool that will probably replace entire...

Gear Reviews

Part 1: Instrument-Related

by Part 1: Instrument-Related | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield, Larry Crane

Congrats! You have a solid collection of mics and mic stands, a battery of plug-ins, a few pieces of outboard gear for that extra special sauce, a great pair of monitors and stands, and even some stylish acoustic treatments along with a nice large rug for the live room. You are now a studio owner....

Gear Reviews

PatchCAD 3 Patchbay Label App

by PatchCAD 3 Patchbay Label App | reviewed by Scott Evans

Folks, please label your patchbays: Not with a paper key that sits on top of the bays, not with a PDF on your computer, but with labels on the patchbays. For years, I made labels using a carefully crafted Excel spreadsheet. It worked okay, but when I found PatchCAD 3 I never looked back. PatchCAD 3...

Gear Reviews

Pearl ELM-T BM Signature Ed. Mic

by Pearl ELM-T BM Signature Ed. Mic | reviewed by Danielle Goldsmith

Pearl Microphone Laboratory is one of the longest-running and oldest microphone manufacturers in the world. Their former production manager, Bernt Malmqvist, has been building quality microphones since 1954. It goes without saying that his expertise and experience is unparalleled. Recently, Pearl...

Gear Reviews

Push the Right Buttons (book)

by Push the Right Buttons (book) | reviewed by Larry Crane

With the subtitle "A Practical Guide to Becoming and Succeeding as an Audio Engineer and Producer," the goal of this book should be obvious. But where many books of this ilk usually fail, this book excels. Why is that? Because Neil Kesterson (owner of Dynamix Productions, Inc. in Lexington,...

Gear Reviews

Royalty Tube Mic

by Royalty Tube Mic | reviewed by Tony Vincent

I've had the opportunity not only to sing and play into many sought-after microphones, but I've also been able to use even more mics on artists and instrumentalists as a producer and engineer. I recall the first time I ever performed into a vintage Telefunken ELA M 251E. I was young and didn't...

Gear Reviews

RTM SM900 Analog Tape

by RTM SM900 Analog Tape | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

The name of this magazine is Tape Op, and we know that lots of people still love working on analog tape machines. We also know that there are a lot of people who have never worked with tape machines yet love the idea of working with tape. However, I want to talk about the elephant in the room; the...

Gear Reviews

Silver Bullet MK2 Plug-In

by Silver Bullet MK2 Plug-In | reviewed by Liam Nelson

The Louder Than Liftoff [Tape Op #122] Silver Bullet mk2 plug-in is my new favorite in the box processor by a wide margin – and that’s kind of hilarious, considering that my trusty hardware Silver Bullet mk1 is the analog centerpiece of my personal studio. The thing is, the mk2 plug-in has new...

Gear Reviews

Sonicview 24XP Digital Console

by Sonicview 24XP Digital Console | reviewed by Geoffrey Knecht

It’s clear that TASCAM made no compromises when designing the Sonicview 24XP digital recording and mixing console. While its virtually endless features should make it attractive to seasoned engineers, the Sonicview is exceedingly simple to set up and use for those with less experience. Its unique...

Gear Reviews

TG Microphone Type L

by TG Microphone Type L | reviewed by Gus Berry

When I was managing Jackpot! Recording Studio, I was fascinated by Tape Op editor and studio owner Larry Crane’s approach to gear-buying. The studio is mostly made up of new equipment with a few vintage items. This is savvy, as new gear doesn’t come with inflated price tags or unexpected (and even...

Gear Reviews

Trio6 ST6 Active 3-Way Monitor

by Trio6 ST6 Active 3-Way Monitor | reviewed by Scott Evans

I’m always reluctant to review speakers. It’s hard to do client work on unfamiliar monitors. My room was tuned for my current nearfields over ten years ago, and since then I haven’t moved them an inch – mixing is hard enough already. But when asked about reviewing Focal’s new flagship studio...

Gear Reviews

UA Bock 251 Tube Mic

by UA Bock 251 Tube Mic | reviewed by Kirt Shearer, Scott McChane

At the last few pre-pandemic AES conferences I attended, my brief conversations with David Bock centered around his opinions about the classic microphones that were built incorrectly. Most of his comments went over my head, but what I took away was an impression of his passion, talent, and ambition...

Gear Reviews

UE 150, 250, & 350 In-Ear Monitors

by UE 150, 250, & 350 In-Ear Monitors | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

For most live performers, the days of wedge floor monitors are a thing of the past. IEMs (In-Ear Monitors) have become the new standard for stage monitoring, and for good reason. A monitor engineer can take preferred mixes from venue to venue and recall monitoring preferences with the push of a...

Gear Reviews

UTEQ500 500 Series EQ

by UTEQ500 500 Series EQ | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

I’m an EQ guy and always have been. When I began working in studios, the debate was whether or not to EQ to tape or wait to EQ when mixing. Fuck that; get the sound the way you want it when hitting the tape! Nowadays, the debate is about whether hardware EQs sound better than plug-in EQs. If you’ve...