Rostam Batmanglij

Interviews

Rostam Batmanglij

By Sam Retzer

Ever since Rostam Batmanglij burst onto the scene as a founding member of Vampire Weekend, he’s been known for his penchant for baroque and leftfield sounds in pop-leaning indie music. Fresh out of college, he handled production for the first three Vampire Weekend albums (Vampire Weekend, Contra,...

Read More →
Hidden Musics

Interviews

Hidden Musics: Hidden Musics

By Ian Brennan

By 2014, I'd already been transitioning for more than five years from working in traditional studios to almost exclusively doing field recordings overseas. As a result, I'd had some success with groups like Tinariwen, Malawi Mouse Boys, and The Good Ones. At that point, the co-founder of...

Read More →
Joe Boles

Interviews

Joe Boles: Seattle Recording Pioneer

By Alex Kostelnik

In the mid-1950s, Seattle was host to the little-known music recording legacy of Jay F. "Joe" Boles. A fraction of his discography includes The Ventures, The Wailers, Cab Calloway, Big Jay McNeely, Buck Owens, The Fleetwoods, Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby...

Read More →
Melina Duterte

Interviews

Melina Duterte : Sharing Curiosity

By Danielle Goldsmith
Melina Duterte began recording her own music armed with little more than a laptop, a...
Read More →
Oli Jacobs

Interviews

Oli Jacobs : Friends & Commitment

By Larry Crane
A graduate of the Tonmeister course, a former Head Engineer at Peter Gabriel’s Real World...
Read More →
Floating Points

Interviews

Floating Points : Sam Shepherd's Vision

By John Baccigaluppi
Although I had heard of Floating Points, the project of London-based musician Sam...
Read More →

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

NOVEMBER 8, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten : A Very Vulnerable Process

BY MEREDITH HOBBS COONS

Since early in her career, Sharon Van Etten has been refreshingly open about her recording process and the lifelong learning aspect of it. This generosity has shown up in episodes of the podcasts Song Exploder and Life of the Record, as well as a companion documentary providing a behind-the-scenes look into the making of Van Etten’s recent release, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory – to name a few. Through the years, we have seen Van Etten both cede and take control of her work, challenging herself to be more hands-on in the recording realm while also opening up her songwriting process to the influence of her Attachment Theory bandmates. I caught up with the artist virtually, her collection of synths visible in the background.

NOVEMBER 8, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Catherine Anne Davies: is Still The Anchoress

Catherine Anne Davies: is Still The Anchoress

BY LARRY CRANE

In issue #149 of Tape Op, I was lucky enough to interview Catherine Anne Davies about her musical career as The Anchoress. We've kept in touch a little bit since, and when her new album, As We Once Were, was announced she dropped a line and suggested another chat. I think we should just do this for every record she puts out, as we had another enjoyable hour-long discussion about so many things. Please check out her new album, and previous releases as well. It's truly some of my favorite current music out there. We began our conversation discussing computer and software updates, as she'd lost a week having to uninstall operating system updates during the making of As We Once Were.

NOVEMBER 8, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Yves Jarvis

Yves Jarvis

BY GEOFF STANFIELD

Yves Jarvis is the moniker of Canadian musician Jean-Sébastien Yves Jarvis. His latest release, All Cylinders, won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize for best album of 2025, a record on which Jarvis wrote and performed all of the 16 tracks. Made entirely using Audacity and a half-broken laptop, the collection showcases his love of ‘60s and ‘70s classic rock, soul, and folk music, but it also shines a light on his post-modern approach to music making. Geoff Stanfield caught up with Yves from his home studio in Montreal for this engaging, and often philosophical, conversation. This interview appeared in Episode 114 of the Tape Op Podcast.

COLUMNS

TOC by Larry Crane
Welcome to issue #175 of Tape Op.
TOC

Welcome to issue #175 of Tape Op.

by Larry Crane

As we've been doing publicity for our recently released book, Making Music: Conversations With Record Producers, many of the people interviewing John Baccigaluppi and me have asked, "So, what is a record producer?" It's certainly a fair question, but as many of you reading this will know, there...
END RANT by Larry Crane
Language as a Barrier
END RANT

Language as a Barrier

by Larry Crane

I had a session coming in that was seeking to record, overdub, and mix three songs in one 10-hour day. I figured I'd need some help, so I hired one of our faithful staff as an assistant. I had her come in early, set up a drum set and microphones to my spec, get levels, route headphones, and more....
GEAR GEEKING by Andy Hong
Gear Geeking - Issue 175
GEAR GEEKING

Gear Geeking - Issue 175

by Andy Hong

A sound pressure level meter is a great tool for promoting safe monitoring volumes, but it's also handy for making mix decisions. We all hear relative volumes between instruments, vocals, and other sound sources differently as we adjust the overall volume. If a background vocal is too quiet in one...

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

Aztec multi-pattern tube mic

BY Aztec multi-pattern tube mic  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

I’ve been a fan of Roswell Pro Audio’s mics since they sprouted from the mind of Matt McGlynn, and even prior to that, with his MicParts kits and mic mod site (I built and reviewed their original 12-251 kit back in Tape Op #128). The Roswell Aztec is the logical evolution of both the MicParts...

Gear Reviews

Benson The Amp guitar-amp pedal

BY Benson The Amp guitar-amp pedal  |  reviewed by Stefan Konstantopoulos

It was early 2020 when my intent to work more in my new home studio became a necessity. A couple of years later, I agreed to track some emerging artists with their guitar amps. I quickly learned that a garbage amp with nice electronics feeding it is still a garbage amp and that the benefits of...

Gear Reviews

Big Time Analog/Digital Echo

BY Big Time Analog/Digital Echo  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Made in collaboration with John Snyder at Electronic Audio Experiments, Big Time is a new stereo hybrid delay unit that blends the best of those analog input/output stages in old-school digital delay units with a highly controllable digital delay effect. Chase Bliss describes its sound as "the...

Gear Reviews

collaboration app

BY collaboration app  |  reviewed by Alex Ruger

When it comes to websites and apps that claim to address one piece of the music-making puzzle, musicians in 2026 are spoiled for choice. We're inundated with seemingly never-ending file-sharing sites, social networks for musicians, collaboration tools, and methods for expanding a fan base. Bounce...

Gear Reviews

Comptroller Stereo Dynamics Processor

BY Comptroller Stereo Dynamics Processor  |  reviewed by Don Gunn

Full disclosure out of the gate – Sam Winston, who is Squarewave Industries, has been a good friend for many years. He brought the initial breadboard version of the Comptroller to my studio a few years ago to play around with component values as he was putting the initial circuit together. Sam has...

Gear Reviews

Console ST

BY Console ST  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

This is my dream mixer. It sounds quiet and neutral when I want it to be but full of musical character if I choose to push it hard. It has the most extensive routing features in its class. It took two years for Paul Wolff to design. Up until then, Paul had sold his modular Fix Console under his Fix...

Gear Reviews

DA FET 47 large diaphragm condenser mic

BY DA FET 47 large diaphragm condenser mic  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

There are so many recreations of classic microphone designs, it can sometimes be confusing. I have used inexpensive copies of Neumann U 87s that sounded pretty good and pricier ones that sounded awful. Some looked classic and sounded terrible, and others that were a bit rough-looking sounded...

Gear Reviews

Direct In analog amp emulator DI

BY Direct In analog amp emulator DI  |  reviewed by John Phillips

I love guitar amplifiers. I feel most connected to my electric guitar playing with an amp in the room. Together with effect pedals, I can create a sound that is my own. But there are situations where an amp-less approach is more practical, like late-night home recording. Unfortunately, playing...

Gear Reviews

DT 700 Pro X headphones

BY DT 700 Pro X headphones

I am ready for an upgrade in studio headphones. I’ve been using Audio-Technica ATH-M50s [Tape Op #63] for many years, and they have been a trusty companion. But I’m looking for wider imaging, extended frequency response, and an easily replaceable headband. After some research, I found that the...

Gear Reviews

Fixate:Midrange plug-in

BY Fixate:Midrange plug-in  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

An analysis and repair tool, the Fixate:Midrange plug-in seeks to clear the mud, repair missing lows, adjust frequencies that build up too much, and improve whatever sources are put through it. I jumped in and did some mucking – and un-mucking – around.  I started with Automatic mode, where the...

Gear Reviews

IER-M500 in-ear monitors

BY IER-M500 in-ear monitors  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

My studio is a one room setup. Most of the work I do there is mixing, but I also track a fair amount of overdubs, and for projects on a slim budget I'll even do full sessions there. I enjoy the open feeling of working this way, and communication is easy without using a talkback system. When...

Gear Reviews

Living Sky GPU-powered spatial reverb

BY Living Sky GPU-powered spatial reverb  |  reviewed by Matt Anderson

I’m hesitant to even start out by calling this a “reverb,” as it’s almost a whole system in and of itself. MNTRA Instruments has teamed up with Outer Echo and GPU Audio to bring Living Sky, a spatial reverb powered by your computer's GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) as opposed to your CPU. The spaces...

Gear Reviews

MPEQ-1 EQ Super-Parametric Saturation Equalizer plug-in

BY MPEQ-1 EQ Super-Parametric Saturation Equalizer plug-in  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

The mad scientists at UnderToneAudio have recreated their legendary (and rare!) MPEQ-1 rack hardware as an affordable plug-in. To understand my excitement, here's some history and context: The original hardware MPEQ-1 was a single-channel-strip Class A mic preamp/DI/EQ, which itself was a...

Gear Reviews

MU-1 hybrid microphone

BY MU-1 hybrid microphone  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

What a cool idea: a microphone housing that has both a ribbon element and a large diaphragm condenser perfectly aligned to eliminate phase issues. It is no secret that I like JZ Microphones, especially their BH-1 Black Hole LDC [Tape Op #71]. I use that mic on just about everything from kick drum...

Gear Reviews

PluginHub

BY plug-in management apps  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Both of these macOS-only applications perform audio plug-in management functions, but with varying options and pricing. I hate doing this, but I'm going to discuss two very similar products in a single review. I'll start by stating that both of these apps work really well, and I enjoyed using them...

Gear Reviews

Portico II Master Buss Processor plug-in

BY Portico II Master Buss Processor plug-in  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

When I reviewed the Portico II Master Buss Processor hardware for Tape Op #89 in 2012, I was fortunate to get my hands on one just as I was mastering a modern rock album that I had tracked and mixed. The producer and I were immediately struck by the MBP’s ability to increase the power, energy, and...

Gear Reviews

Quantum LT 2, 4, & 16 audio interfaces

BY Quantum LT 2, 4, & 16 audio interfaces  |  reviewed by Alex Ruger

While Fender Studio Pro 8 [Tape Op #173] is a continuation and rebrand of what was formerly PreSonus Studio One, Fender's new interface line takes select features of the PreSonus Quantum HD series [Tape Op #164] – mic pres with 75 dB of gain, custom drivers, and remote direct monitoring control –...

Gear Reviews

SC2 500 Optical Stereo Compressor

BY SC2 500 Optical Stereo Compressor  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

It’s easy to spot JoeMeek gear in a rack – that vibrant green color from the '90s to '10s is unmistakable. Now it is back in the 500 Series format, in that familiar green color, and under the Trident name. This is perfect for me, because I’m currently short on 19-inch rack space. For more history...

Gear Reviews

SubCulture bass enhancer plug-in

BY SubCulture bass enhancer plug-in  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Many years ago, my pal – Tape Op contributor and reFuse Software owner Leigh Marble – came out with Lowender, one of the first subharmonic synthesizer plug-ins that worked well and was easy to use. Tchad Blake [Tape Op #16, 133] popularized it, and countless productions benefitted. Lowender is...

Gear Reviews

The “Original” Dual Baffle

BY The “Original” Dual Baffle  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

I was setting up my drums at a live gig, and I saw the sound engineer slip a thin baffle in front of the guitar amp to reduce the volume out front. I was checking it out, and he offered to place one on the backside of this open-back amp too, which was still kind of blasting me on the drums. Whoa!...

Gear Reviews

Thunderbolt 5 Dual 10GbE Network Dock

BY Thunderbolt 5 Dual 10GbE Network Dock  |  reviewed by Chris Gelin

I've been doing this for more than 30 years, and one thing I've noticed is that we spend a lot of time talking about the items that almost never ruin a session, such as microphones, compressors, plug-ins, and converters. Meanwhile, the gear that's actually capable of bringing an entire day to a...

Gear Reviews

Type 40 Mains monitor speakers

BY Type 40 Mains monitor speakers  |  reviewed by Adam Kagan

We are all familiar with the square, gold-colored folded tweeters in many popular studio monitors. Klaus Heinz, who founded HEDD Audio, spent decades refining the concept into the compact AMT (air motion transformer) designs familiar to studio engineers. HEDD now produces several monitor and...