JULY 20, 2025 INTERVIEWS
John La Grou: Behind the Gear with Millennia Media
Most Tape Op articles feature the people behind the making of a record. But what about the people who make the gear that we make records on? "Behind the Gear" is a new column featuring interviews with engineers, businesspeople and innovators who are the faces "behind" the recording products that we know and love. This issue Ian Mills Swanke interviews John La Grou of Millennia Media, a company famous for their pristine mic preamps and "twin-topology" equipment. Next issue: Walt Szalva interviews Dave Derr [Tape Op #33] of Empirical Labs who makes the Distressor. -LC John La Grou's company, Millennia Media, manufactures some of the most highly-praised outboard gear in use today. His preamps are used by NASA, the White House, and an enormous amount of classical engineers and film scoring studios. Millennia's compressors and equalizers are in constant use in mastering houses across the globe. I visited John recently at Millennia's headquarters in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California, where his was kind enough to share his knowledge, gregarious enthusiasm and insight.
