RZA

Interviews

RZA

By Sam Retzer, Brian Silak, and Brian T Silak

Born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and the musical force of Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan, RZA (Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) is easily one of the most revered and gifted producers of his generation. Working without a click, and often without a net, RZA's unorthodox sampling methods and bare bones...

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John Wood

Interviews

John Wood: Techniques in Sound

By Larry Crane

If I look at my record collection, there are so many favorites that John Wood engineered, mixed, and produced. This notably includes the first Pink Floyd singles, as well as albums by Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Judy Collins, Squeeze, John Cale, Nico, and John Martyn. I've...

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Jeff Jones

Interviews

Jeff Jones: The Jedi Master

By Ian Brennan

Jeff "The Jedi Master" Jones has been an engineer and producer for music and films in New York City for over 40 years. Starting out as a teenager in suburban Connecticut, he eventually worked with seminal New York rap artists like Slick Rick, Roxanne Shanté, Jam Master Jay (Run-DMC), as...

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The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: At Tonal Park

Interviews

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: At Tonal Park

By Shervin Lainez, Sam Retzer
What happens when you combine the rhythmic backbone of Fugazi veterans Joe Lally (bass)...
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John “Spud” Murphy

Interviews

John “Spud” Murphy: Filling in the Frequencies

By Steve Silverstein
While I only casually follow British music magazines like The Quietus and Uncut, their...
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Linda Smith

Interviews

Linda Smith: Embracing Limitations, Expanding Boundaries

By Lisa Machac, Peggy Bitzer
Linda Smith is a pioneering figure in the bedroom pop genre. With her introspective lyrics...
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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

MARCH 20, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Joe Boyd

Joe Boyd: Roots of Rhythm

BY IAN BRENNAN, ALISSA ANDERSON

Having produced classic albums for Nick Drake, Richard & Linda Thompson, R.E.M., and Toots and the Maytals, amongst others, Joe Boyd [Tape Op #60] is arguably the most renowned, living, roots music producer. His recently-released second book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, has won high praise from the likes of Brian Eno [#85], Robert Plant, David Byrne [#79], T Bone Burnett [#67], and Ry Cooder.

MARCH 20, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Colin Marston

Colin Marston: Out of the Cave, Into the Woods

BY SAM RETZER, PAUL FILMS

After 18 years helming his studio Menegroth: The Thousand Caves, in Woodhaven, Queens, Colin Marston is alone with his synths. Gearing up to tour behind his band Krallice's latest opus Inorganic Rites, Colin has temporarily set up shop in Northampton, Massachusetts, for mixing and mastering projects. He's also thankful that the ARP 2600 mini reissue comes with a road case. The closure of Menegroth came suddenly in the spring, in the wake of completing Inorganic Rites and the latest from art deco wackos, Imperial Triumphant. Colin's studio was an incredible incubator for local niche metal and weird music, and surely thousands, if not millions of kick drum notes shook those walls. We took a look back on the legacy of Menegroth, moving forward, and brutal death metal bucket lists. Check out Colin's earlier Tape Op #101 interview.

MARCH 20, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Fred Thomas

Fred Thomas: $30 and Ingenuity

BY CAROLYN ZALDIVAR SNOW

There are too many bands Fred Thomas has touched in his 30 years of touring. Ask him for a count on projects, and he'll tell you he doesn't keep track. The end of 2023 saw Fred's departure from Tyvek, a focus on pop ensemble Idle Ray, reissues from old solo projects, and a foray into drum and bass on his solo release, ECOATM. If this is not ringing a bell, you may know Fred from Saturday Looks Good To Me and as a member of His Name Is Alive. We caught Fred on the phone during a snowy Ypsilanti, Michigan, week of duplicating tapes for friends, organizing archives, and working on art for an upcoming release. A perpetual DIYer, we talked about his small label Life Like, how much gear one really needs, and the occasional emergency tooth extraction at the hands of a Portland drummer.

MARCH 20, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Joseph LeDoux

Joseph LeDoux: Brains & Music

BY RICHARD BARONE

Every musician knows that music, memory, and emotion are connected. But how? Joseph LeDoux, Professor of Science and director of the Emotional Brain Institute at New York University, and author of the best-selling book, The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life – along with other influential writings, has studied this field for decades. Considered one of the world's leading experts on the mind and brain, LeDoux is also a prolific musician and recording artist who has collaborated in the studio with the likes of Rosanne Cash and has performed with his group, The Amygdaloids, on bills with Rufus Wainwright, Lenny Kaye, and Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate. His music has been playfully described as "heavy mental." But how does LeDoux's acute knowledge of the brain's operations affect his approach to his own musical compositions and lyric writing? I sat down with Professor LeDoux in his home studio/office to talk about the mysteries of the brain – and the magic of music.

COLUMNS

END RANT by Larry Crane
Ignore These Rules
END RANT

Ignore These Rules

by Larry Crane

After the internet came along and made sharing of information easier, I noticed an interesting trend. Maybe it's because of that misguided impulse of "doing it the right way" that beginners attempt to apply to the recording arts. Could it be that it's related to the "Do You Really Need to be 'Doing...

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

013A Ambisonic Mic

BY 013A Ambisonic Mic  |  reviewed by Matt Anderson

I’ve loved everything Soyuz has made so far and own many of their mics, but ambisonics seemed like an odd direction for them. When Soyuz announced the 013A Ambisonic Mic, I began doing more research on the topic. From the little I knew of ambisonics, it was a bit of a complicated process with a lot...

Gear Reviews

32Cpre+ 500 Series Preamp

BY 32Cpre+ 500 Series Preamp  |  reviewed by Tim Pratt

If you’re of a certain age (mid-40s/50s), you probably remember sifting through and being raised on the records of your parents and/or siblings. Such listening sessions probably included the likes of ABBA, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Queen – these are still all bands I love to listen to regularly –...

Gear Reviews

ARC Studio

BY ARC Studio  |  reviewed by Scott McDowell

ARC Studio is an easy-to-use acoustic room correction tool, and one of my favorite recent studio upgrades. Set up is relatively simple; while it does require a computer for the calibration, once calibrated it runs computer-free. It’s easy to forget it’s even there until I hit the bypass button and...

Gear Reviews

AS78 Dual Peak Limiter

BY AS78 Dual Peak Limiter  |  reviewed by Brian Tarquin

Well hell, let’s face it – who doesn’t love a good sounding 1176? It’s one of my favorite compressors! Everything – vocals, guitars, bass, drums, percussion, and sax – sounds good through it. Quick history lesson: Bill Putnam founded Universal Audio in Chicago in the 1950s, then moved to Hollywood,...

Gear Reviews

EF-P2 Spring Reverb Pedal

BY EF-P2 Spring Reverb Pedal  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Maybe it was my childhood fascination with The Ventures, but I've always been a fan of spring reverb devices in the studio. I have four rack-mount spring units (Demeter [Tape Op #21, #109], Benson [#126], Surfy Industries [#153]), and one Surfy Industries Surfybear stompbox. I love them all, and...

Gear Reviews

Electronic Perspectives (book)

BY Electronic Perspectives (book)  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Subtitled "Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments," this is a treat of a book. From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Tom Rhea wrote 52 columns for Keyboard magazine called "Electronic Perspectives." In an era where synthesizer technology was changing incredibly fast, Tom was looking back on the origins of...

Gear Reviews

HEDDphone TWO Headphones

BY HEDDphone TWO Headphones  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

"Wow, I don't feel like I'm listening to headphones. They sound so open" were the universal reactions from mastering engineers at Infrasonic Sound and students at The Blackbird Academy that I witnessed when they tried the first production prototype of the HEDDphone TWO last year. At the time, my...

Gear Reviews

JBL Professional: 705P 7 Series Monitor

BY 705P 7 Series Monitor  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

There are so many choices when it comes to studio monitors these days that I often forget that one of the original names in that space is JBL. For years, JBL was the monitor found in many of the best studios. As the smaller choice in JBL’s 7 Series line, The JBL 705P dual-amplified powered monitor...

Gear Reviews

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here (film)

BY Linda Perry: Let It Die Here (film)  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

In Tape Op #143, Dawn Landes interviewed Linda Perry, one of the most successful producers and songwriters of the last 30 years. In this documentary, Don Hardy captures Linda in action, writing and recording with Dolly Parton, Kate Hudson, and Christina Aguilera. She recounts her story of producing...

Gear Reviews

Motion Filter Plug-In

BY Motion Filter Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

In the fall of 2023, Baby Audio acquired Denise Audio, a company with an awesome line of deceptively-simplified plug-ins. Motion Filter is their reworking of Denise's The Sweeper, a digital motion filter that includes two dynamic motion modes with lots of control over a variety of possible sounds....

Gear Reviews

ORIA Interface & Monitor Controller

BY ORIA Interface & Monitor Controller  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

I was extremely excited to see Audient – the British audio manufacturer that makes everything from budget-conscious USB interfaces to large format recording consoles – debut the ORIA immersive monitor controller/audio interface at this year’s NAMM Show. I recently expanded my studio for Dolby Atmos...

Gear Reviews

P422 Fairuz EQ Plug-In

BY P422 Fairuz EQ Plug-In  |  reviewed by Matt Anderson

Pulsar Modular never seems to disappoint when it comes to unique and colorful designs. I’ve always kept it pretty simple when it comes to EQs. I have one main software plug-in that is surgical and flexible, and a handful of other options that can do one or two tasks well that I’ll sprinkle on for...

Gear Reviews

PSP Flare Compressor Plug-In

BY PSP Flare Compressor Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Touted as “a new kind of psycho-acoustic compressor,” PSP Flare can apply a huge amount of compression to a stereo or mono source, and do so without immediately veering into nasty artifacts or dulling the source. Post-production engineer Paolo Pasquariello provided the “project inspiration and base...

Gear Reviews

SD-series Mics & Hemisphere Plug-In

BY SD-series Mics & Hemisphere Plug-In  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

The boxy, rectangular shapes, light grayish-white painted bodies, and contrasting black windscreens of the new dynamic microphones in Universal Audio Standard Series – SD-3, SD-5, and SD-7 with Hemisphere mic modeling – certainly don’t look like the classic studio mics they are intended to emulate....

Gear Reviews

SideMinder Max Plug-In

BY SideMinder Max Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Billed as a "Spectral Dynamic Stereo Width Maximizer," the SideMinder Max plug-in works on stereo tracks to adjust the width of a signal at different frequency ranges. I reviewed the original SideMinder in Tape Op #136, and since then, it’s had a few iterations and upgrades. As I noted in my...

Gear Reviews

Smooth Operator Plug-In

BY Smooth Operator Plug-In  |  reviewed by Daniel Ryan Morse

I recently discovered that my mixes sounded a bit thinner than I wanted because of a buildup in presence frequencies (4 to 6 kHz). Looking for a cure, I turned to Baby Audio’s Smooth Operator “intelligent signal balancer” plug-in. The GUI looks like a dynamic EQ or a multiband compressor, running...

Gear Reviews

SOLO VLA Compressor

BY SOLO VLA Compressor  |  reviewed by Tim Pratt

I’ve been a longtime user of Applied Research and Technology (ART) hardware, as have most of my engineer friends with home, project, and professional studios. I remember many of my early-2000s era recordings being tracked and mixed through my old Dual Levelar compressor, mastering projects going...

Gear Reviews

Songzap iPhone DAW App

BY Songzap iPhone DAW App  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

A pocket DAW app for your iPhone? Sure! Songzap is built for creating and capturing song ideas. Professor Rob Toulson and Dr. Mike Exarchos developed this app, and Rob wrote the excellent book Drum Sound and Drum Tuning [Tape Op #146] and made the iDrumTune Pro app; plus, he's a real musician....

Gear Reviews

T10S Active Subwoofer

BY T10S Active Subwoofer  |  reviewed by Daniel Ryan Morse

I’m nearing the end of a search for a new monitoring setup in my small home studio (aka spare bedroom). I fell in love with the ADAM Audio A7Vs [Tape Op #153] and a matching subwoofer Sub10 MK2 [#156]. I learned the hard way that my nearfield monitors did not stand a chance in my less-than-optimal...

Gear Reviews

TAPE APB Plug-In

BY TAPE APB Plug-In  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Here's another new plug-in that comes included with McDSP's APB ("analog processing box") units (APB-8, APB-16 [Tape Op #134]). In case you don't know what APB processors are, they're 8 and 16-channel outboard units that connect to a computer and allow plug-in control of real analog circuits. TAPE...

Gear Reviews

Taped Spaces Reverb Plug-In

BY Taped Spaces Reverb Plug-In  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

half light is Mitchell Schneider and David Riddle. Taped Spaces is their first full plug-in (they’ve also made some Kontakt instruments), but they’ve been playing music together for over a decade since they met in Nashville in 2012. Let’s start with their music. In the tradition of Eno (Brian and...

Gear Reviews

Tom Mic

BY Tom Mic  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

Drum-specific mics have been around for some time, but innovative companies such as Lauten Audio are still finding ways to improve them. Recently unveiling the Snare Mic [Tape Op #159] to bring out the best from snare drums, they have now introduced the Tom Mic, which – no surprise – is for toms!...