Tape Op Magazine - Issue #25

Interviews

Article

Interviews

Interviews

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 17, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Andy Wallace: From Nirvana to Jeff Buckley

BY GREG SULLIVAN, GLEN COLEN

In his twenty-five plus years in the music business, Andy Wallace has grown from an unknown home recording enthusiast to the premier mixer of his day. Andy's first commercial breakthrough came with his co-production (along with Rick Rubin) and mixing of Slayer's Reign in Blood and continued with high-profile work on such projects as mixing Nirvana's Nevermind, Rage Against The Machine's self-titled debut and it's follow-up Evil Empire, and production and engineering of Jeff Buckley's debut album, Grace.

JULY 17, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Phill Brown: Stomu Yamash’ta/Rock Follies 16th February 1976

BY PHILL BROWN

We interviewed Phill Brown in issue number [#12] of Tape Op. Over the years he's worked with some of the greatest artists ever, like Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer, Bob Marley, Steve Winwood, Harry Nilsson, Roxy Music, Stomu Yamash'ta, John Martyn, Little Feat, Atomic Rooster, and Talk Talk. This is another excerpt from his (still!) unpublished book, Are We Still Rolling?URL Last issue: Phill began doing two albums at once. –LC

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

111B spring reverb

by 111B spring reverb | reviewed by Steve Silverstein

New high-end studio reverbs tend to sell for over $1000, and $10 Pioneer models produce a lot of noise. Orban's mid-80s rack-mount unit presents a reasonable compromise. With 2 channels selling for about $300 (used, obviously), it has relatively low noise, balanced outputs, and a characteristic...

Gear Reviews

1969 tube compressor/mic pre

by 1969 tube compressor/mic pre | reviewed by Larry Crane

Recently Drawmer introduced a new version of its 1960, the venerable and mid-priced ($2750) stereo mic pre/DI/compressor. This version is called the 1969, and all of its modifications are courtesy of Fletcher and the guys at Mercenary Audio. I've been tracking with this device for a while now, and...

Gear Reviews

40 A2 meters

by 40 A2 meters | reviewed by Steve Pogact

For anyone who purchased their home studio by max-ing out their Visa card, a set of outboard audio meters probably isn't high on your list of priorities. Most modern gear includes at least decent metering, and many digital boxes go so far as to offer a choice of average or peak metering by simply...

Gear Reviews

AMM-68 condenser mic

by AMM-68 condenser mic | reviewed by Craig Schumacher

The McHugh Military AMM-68 is a tube-powered small condenser microphone designed around the AKG C-60. That is where the similarities end. I use the term "around" as the microphone's design is nothing short of genius in its simplicity. The whole thing comes in an army surplus ammo box that is...

Gear Reviews

DMX-R100 digital mixer

by DMX-R100 digital mixer | reviewed by Andy Hong

I still cringe when I think about the first digital mixer I ever used: The Yamaha DMP-7. It was noisy, it sounded gritty, and its user-interface was horrible. But the DMP-7 had scene recall, moving faders, and it was fully automatable when connected to a MIDI sequencer - features unheard of at its...

Gear Reviews

Ionic Breeze Quadra silent air purifier

by Ionic Breeze Quadra silent air purifier | reviewed by Andy Hong

My mom thinks of me as a gadget-kinda guy - probably because she's seen my living room. It's full of recording gear, plus I have a second room full of all sorts of computer gear. To her, it all looks the same... rooms full of electronic gadgets. When Christmas comes around, she likes to shop for me...

Gear Reviews

iOptiJr USB optical mini scroll mouse

by iOptiJr USB optical mini scroll mouse | reviewed by Andy Hong

I travel a lot. A typical month has me in three different cities across the globe. Therefore, most of my computing is done on a laptop. My favorite laptop accessory is the Macally iOptiJr mouse. It's quite small and packable, but not too small to be uncomfortable when used for hours at a time. It's...

Gear Reviews

MC012 condenser mic

by MC012 condenser mic | reviewed by Andy Hong

I can't recall a time when good-sounding mics have been so readily affordable as they are now. I purchased three Oktava MC012 condenser mics for less than it would have cost me to buy three SM-57s. The biggest music retailer in the US regularly advertises this mic for $99, but if you're friendly...

Gear Reviews

MDP-1 tube mic pre/DI

by MDP-1 tube mic pre/DI | reviewed by Jesse Cannon

At least once a year, a studio will usually make an investment in a piece of gear which is supposed to make their recordings jump light-years in quality. This typically comes with a high price tag, which is why a small studio doesn't do this often. The Pendulum Audio MDP-1 ($2495) is one of these...

Gear Reviews

OB-Tune software

by OB-Tune software | reviewed by Bill Dodd

To be honest, I'm not one for getting excited about pitch correction. It always seemed that it put some kind of "robotic-ness" to the voice. However, when I saw that Oberheim had licensed the Antares Auto-tune engine, and had begun marketing it under the name OB-Tune, I downloaded it on a whim....

Gear Reviews

Origin STT-1 channel strip

by Origin STT-1 channel strip | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

Firstly I want to recommend that every recording school or university with a recording program immediately purchase an STT-1. Nowhere else can you get so many different signal paths and sounds in one box. The STT-1 is like some kind of educational audio science fair project on steroids. First let's...

Gear Reviews

SF-12 stereo coincident dynamic ribbon microphone

by SF-12 stereo coincident dynamic ribbon microphone | reviewed by Andy Hong

Steve Albini's review of the Royer R-121 in a previous issue of Tape Op is what prompted me to try out the R- 121. A quick demo confirmed that the R-121 was a fantastic mic, so I ordered both an R-121 and a SF-12. The SF-12 is a stereo ribbon mic, with the ribbons facing 90 degrees apart, set up as...

Gear Reviews

z-Q2 stereo digital mastering equalizer

by z-Q2 stereo digital mastering equalizer | reviewed by Larry DeVivo

My dad used to have two sayings that he liked to use. One, use the right tool for the job and two, put it back where you found it when your done. The right tool for me these days is the z-Systems z-Q2 stereo digital mastering equalizer. It's the EQ I reach for and use the most. Why, you might ask?...