Beatles Recording

Interviews

Mike Patton

Interviews

Michael Penn

Interviews

Michael Gira

Interviews

Brian Beattie

Interviews

Stereo Recording w/ Jecklin Discs

Interviews

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JULY 30, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Alex Newport

Alex Newport: At the Drive In, Mars Volta, Melvins, more...

Alex Newport first made a name for himself in the late eighties with the heavy, sludgy sound of Fudge Tunnel, an English band that was around from 1989 to 1995. He moved to the states in the early nineties, starting the side-project Nailbomb, becoming a producer and later an engineer. He's well known for helming guitar-heavy productions for artists like The Locust, Mars Volta, At the Drive In, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Polysics, Melvins, The Icarus Line and many others. I met up with Alex in Los Angeles at his studio, Hot Head Recording, which is tucked into a loft in The Brewery (the largest artist complex in the world and where Pabst Blue Ribbon used to be made). He works here often, with modest equipment and a smallish room, but also travels around the country and world to work in other studios. Alex is a soft- spoken, thoughtful person, and a joy to spend time with — interviewing him was like hanging out with an old friend — we had a great time.

JULY 30, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Danny McKinney

Danny McKinney: Behind the Gear with Requisite Audio

Danny McKinney is a textbook case of a very busy man with a whole lot of irons in the fire. Requisite Audio is his boutique outboard gear company. Standel is his company that designs guitar amps. And he also makes super high-end cables. We talked to him about his design philosophy and tube based power supplies.

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GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

46 ribbon mic

by 46 ribbon mic  |  reviewed by Thom Monahan

ShinyBox is Jon Ulrigg, a one man operation in Washington state. A musician and self-described electronics freak, Jon is a passionate guy who came to microphone design after a long period of soul-searching and with a desire to make tools for musicians. He was interested in ribbon mics, and after...

Gear Reviews

Bound by Law

by Bound by Law  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

Using audio samples isn't just for rap artists anymore. With the proliferation of loop-based production software (e.g. GarageBand, Acid, Live, et al) more and more songwriters are using sound bites from their favorite songs, movies, or television shows. Unfortunately, many artists suffer from the...

Gear Reviews

Dangerous Master

by Dangerous Master  |  reviewed by Larry DeVivo

The Dangerous Master has taken my mastering console up quite a notch. Integrating it with the Dangerous Monitor (Tape Op #34) has truly given me the processing and routing capabilities I've always dreamed of but could never afford. That's not to say that the two pieces together don't come with a...

Gear Reviews

FireWire Solo & Pro Tools M-Powered 7.1

by FireWire Solo & Pro Tools M-Powered 7.1  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

Let me start by mentioning a few things about Pro Tools M- Powered 7 that Dana missed in his review of PT MP 7 and the M-Audio ProjectMix I/O. First of all, you can download a free demo of PT MP 7 from either the Digidesign or M-Audio websites. This is a first for Pro Tools. If you haven't had a...

Gear Reviews

Glory Comp

by Glory Comp  |  reviewed by Craig Schumacher

There is no doubt that Groove Tubes understands vacuum tubes. Aspen Pittman, the owner of GT, is one of the most knowledgeable persons you could ever meet when it comes to the subject. As a follow-up to their successful creation of the ViPRE mic preamp, Groove Tubes now has the variable...

Gear Reviews

Grand Pre mic preamp

by Grand Pre mic preamp  |  reviewed by Pete Weiss

Under the Mercury Recording Equipment Company moniker, David Marquette has made a splash with a flurry of new, high- quality, vintage-style outboard gear. In Tape Op #49, I reviewed the initial Mercury offerings: Pultec, Fairchild, and Telefunken- inspired tube devices that wowed me. These units...

Gear Reviews

M600 Universal Mic Mount

by M600 Universal Mic Mount  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

The first time I saw this sucker, I was a little skeptical. Why does just about every large-diaphragm condenser mic come standard with a suspension shockmount? Because a shockmount isolates the mic from vibration and therefore "enhances" the mic's performance... or so I thought. The M600 takes the...

Gear Reviews

Making Tracks

by Making Tracks  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

Occasional writer for Tape Op, Jeff Touzeau has a relaxed way of interviewing people about recording music. In his book Making Tracks, he visits eighteen studios and interviews people involved in their operation or use. The basic premise is that these places-and the people who create and work in...

Gear Reviews

Model 3600 Cathedral plate reverb

by Model 3600 Cathedral plate reverb  |  reviewed by Tony SanFilippo

Recently, there was a thread on the Tape Op messageboard linking to Plate-Sonics, a new company producing plate reverbs in Peoria, Illinois, only 40 minutes away from my studio. I immediately emailed them because I wanted to go and hear one in person. Dan and Brett of Plate- Sonics were more than...

Gear Reviews

Music Production Toolkit

by Music Production Toolkit  |  reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

As an indication of how dependent my studio is on Pro Tools, the single most exciting thing I saw at the Winter NAMM show was Digidesign's Music Production Toolkit. MPT is a plug-in bundle that also significantly improves the feature set of ProTools LE and M-Powered 7.1 by extending the track count...

Gear Reviews

P1 Audio Processor

by P1 Audio Processor  |  reviewed by Andy Hong

The P1 is an all-analog mic preamp, instrument DI, expander, compressor, limiter, and headphone-monitor mixer in a 1/2-rack chassis meant for desktop use with a DAW. It was designed and is hand-assembled by Robert Campbell, formerly of Neve and Calrec. The P1 streets for $600, which seems like a...

Gear Reviews

pArtScience SpaceArray diffusor

by pArtScience SpaceArray diffusor  |  reviewed by Jeff Elbel

I recently completed construction of a mixing room based upon designs by Ethan Winer and Wes Lachot. The room is 21 ft long, with an 11 ft front wall, 15 ft rear wall, and 8 ft ceiling. A space 4 ft high by 8 ft wide was reserved on the rear wall behind mix position for diffusion. I had planned to...

Gear Reviews

Pro Tools 7 LE & HD upgrades

by Pro Tools 7 LE & HD upgrades  |  reviewed by Allen Farmelo

Ah, upgrading, what fun! I'm paying for a product I already own, fixing something that isn't broken, and spending my time installing, authorizing, and configuring software when I should be making music. Upgrading to Pro Tools 7 in both LE and HD formats provided the usual hassles, and I'm sure...

Gear Reviews

Pro Tools M-Powered 7

by Pro Tools M-Powered 7  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

The ProjectMix I/O is a stellar FireWire audio interface and integrated control surface from the folks at M-Audio. It's fully compatible with any DAW supporting Mackie Control, Logic Control and HUI protocols, including Pro Tools M- Powered, Ableton Live, Cubase, Logic, Digital Performer, SONAR,...

Gear Reviews

Rapture

by Rapture  |  reviewed by Andy Hong, David Huber

As an electronic musician who's been producing music in surround sound with Steinberg's Nuendo, I'm no stranger to instrument plug-ins. In fact, I've been amazed by new virtual incarnations as well as software emulations of older hardware boxes (Korg's new Legacy Collection of the M1 and...

Gear Reviews

REDDI Tube Direct Box

by REDDI Tube Direct Box  |  reviewed by Craig Schumacher

Lots of companies are offering newfangled direct boxes these days. The old days of a passive direct box that gave you a clean signal have been replaced with direct boxes that offer many options of EQ and filter. The REDDI is not one of these. The REDDI is a solid piece of vacuum tube goodness. When...

Gear Reviews

ReMOTE 25SL MIDI Controller

by ReMOTE 25SL MIDI Controller  |  reviewed by David Huber

Electronic musicians and controller freaks beware! The ReMOTE 25SL, one of the most tricked-out portable MIDI controllers, just hit the streets. This puppy sure packs a punch by cramming a ton of features and controllers into an amazingly small space. For starters, the 25SL offers up a two- octave,...

Gear Reviews

Sonik Synth 2

by Sonik Synth 2  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

This is a versatile sampler/synth/workstation plug-in for Mac and Windows, running under RTAS, VST, DX, and AU hosts. On the surface, the user interface and overall concept seem to strongly resemble SampleTank, IK Multimedia's other popular sampler plug. Digging a little deeper reveals a breadth of...

Gear Reviews

TA-1P Passive Monitor

by TA-1P Passive Monitor  |  reviewed by Tony SanFilippo

I opened my studio a little over three years ago. I was forced to replace my console before I even opened the doors. I decided to not buy any other gear for a while figuring that a new room and a new console would be enough to get used to. My plan was to work in the room with the gear that came...

Gear Reviews

TeaBagz kits

by TeaBagz kits  |  reviewed by Garrett Haines

One of the coolest things I've seen in a while is the new TeaBagz panel from Modular Acoustics. It's a portable broadband absorber constructed of rigid fiberglass in a specially fitted "bag." The manufacturer sells TeaBagz assembled or as a DIY kit. When completed, each TeaBagz is 48''x24''x4'' and...

Gear Reviews

Tube MP Project Series

by Tube MP Project Series  |  reviewed by Nick McCarthy, Bryan Cord, Ramsey Tantawi

ART's Tube MP mic preamp line has been around for some time, but a recent evolution of the series gave us the opportunity to review this unit. The stock preamps on our mixer here at WMBR radio (a Soundcraft Spirit 328 digital board) suffer from both a weak low end and a high noise floor, so...

Gear Reviews

vt3 EQ & Tape-Head Saturation plug-ins

by vt3 EQ & Tape-Head Saturation plug-ins  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Here's a pair of rad plugins for Pro Tools from Steven Massey, a self-confessed music and audio geek who had a hand in developing TL Aggro, TL Space, and other fine software from Trillium Lane labs. vt3 is a simple three-band EQ. Bass, mid, and treble, that's it! Boost or attenuation of up to 20...

Gear Reviews

Womanizer tube distortion pedal

by Womanizer tube distortion pedal  |  reviewed by Pete Weiss

Damage Control, a relatively new company started by a few Line 6 alumni, has made a splash with a pair of impressive high-end guitar pedals going by the very rock- and-roll names of Womanizer and Demonizer. As stompboxes go, these pedals are pretty large (about 9 x 7 x 3 inches) and share the same...

Gear Reviews

Z-Noise plug-in

by Z-Noise plug-in  |  reviewed by Rob Shelby

Like most plug-ins these days, Z-Noise comes in RTAS/AudioSuite, VST, AU, and MAS flavors. It supports up to 96 kHz resolution (requiring 1 GB of RAM to do so). As a fan of Waves' preceding noise reduction plugin, X-Noise, I instantly felt at home. The new "more musical" algorithm of Z-Noise is...