DIY Reverb

Interviews

DIY Reverb

By Nicolas Collins

In the disembodied world of today's computer-based multitrack mixing, one can spend a lot of time crafting a unifying sense of "space." Despite the dozens of reverb plug-ins and rack devices available, you might like to experiment with some physical signal processing that can impart...

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Mac McCaughan

Interviews

Mac McCaughan: Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge

By Larry Crane

Mac McCaughan is well known for his 20 years as the front man for the Chapel Hill, NC, band Superchunk, co-owner (with Laura Ballance) of the influential independent record label Merge Records and the leader of his side-project-turned-group, Portastatic. Mac has worked with a number of interesting...

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Alan Evans

Interviews

Alan Evans: Playonbrother Studios and Soulive

By Larry Crane

Drummer Alan Evans and his bandmates (Eric Krasno on guitar and Alan's brother Neal Evans on keyboards) have led the funk/jazz trio Soulive through over 10 years of tours, albums and studio sessions. Their latest release, Up Here, is the first on their own Royal Family Records, and the first...

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Ben Allen

Interviews

Ben Allen: Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, Puff Daddy?

By Alex McKenzie
When I got the offer to interview Ben Allen I was a little confused at first. I had...
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Kurt Ballou

Interviews

Kurt Ballou: Godcity Recording and Converge

By Scott Evans
If you listen to modern hardcore or metal, you know Kurt Ballou's work. Kurt is a...
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Gurf Morlix

Interviews

Gurf Morlix: Rootball Recording in Austin, TX

By Larry Crane
Gurf Morlix likes to produce, engineer, perform, write and even just plain talk about...
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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

FEBRUARY 25, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Brad Avenson

Brad Avenson: Behind the Gear with Avenson Audio

BY LARRY CRANE

For years now I've been bumping into Brad Avenson, a real down-to-earth guy who's been building his Avenson Audio company up with small, ingenious little tools to help us all make better records without busting our wallets. He began building mics with Erik Wofford under the Stapes name, and branched out with Avenson Audio and the STO-2 mics soon after. Avenson's Small DI is an amazingly tiny, in-line DI box, and the upcoming Mid-Side and Blend half-rack boxes look to be very useful. Plus he's got a headphone amp and a multi-featured IsoDI as well. Cool stuff outta Austin, Texas.

COLUMNS

END RANT by Larry Crane
Proprietary Information
END RANT

Proprietary Information

by Larry Crane

Forty years ago I began my career repairing industrial electronics equipment. Right out of tech school with a wife and a kid on the way, I worked on precision measurement equipment by day, and played rock 'n' roll and fixed musical equipment on nights and weekends. My employer was mismanaged by a...

GEAR GEEKING by Andy Hong
Gear Geeking - Issue 76
GEAR GEEKING

Gear Geeking - Issue 76

by Andy Hong

Longtime readers know that I am a keyboard geek — a QWERTY keyboard geek — and my expectations for the perfect keyboard are hard to satisfy. I demand full-size keycaps throughout, as well a numeric keypad for DAW control, but in a compact layout to reduce my reach for the mouse. I'm also picky...

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

Alloy plug-in

BY Alloy plug-in  |  reviewed by Dave Hidek

I've been hesitant to write this review, as I'd prefer that no one else know about iZotope's Alloy but me. Being a long time iZotope fan, I was excited to work with their new do-it-all plug-in, and it didn't disappoint. Alloy, like its name suggests, is a conglomerate of several sound-shaping...

Gear Reviews

EQSM1 500-series EQ

BY EQSM1 500-series EQ  |  reviewed by Kirt Shearer

Even though the format has been around for decades, there has been an explosion of products in the last few years produced for the 500-series format. About the only thing that hasn't been shoved into one is a pair of nearfield monitors. This popularity is a good thing, because it means that you can...

Gear Reviews

Max for Live

BY Max for Live  |  reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Cycling '74 and Ableton have introduced a fascinating new version of the Max programming environment tailored specifically for instrument and effect creation within Live (Tape Op #72). Max/MSP and its video-oriented cousin Jitter have long been the go-to object-based programming environments for a...

Gear Reviews

MC Mix, MC Control, and MC Transport

BY MC Mix, MC Control, and MC Transport  |  reviewed by Allen Farmelo

Whether to work with a control surface or not is a personal decision. If you do prefer to have faders, knobs and buttons under hand, the one thing we will all agree on is that the integration between the surface and the software is the key ingredient. Tight integration is why we still have...

Gear Reviews

Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie

BY Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie  |  reviewed by Larry Crane

I would imagine most of our readers are familiar with the Mellotron, a tape-playing keyboard that became popular in the late '60s on songs like The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever." Ms. Dilworth took on the task of creating a video documentary of this curious device, from its origin as the...

Gear Reviews

PT2-500 mic preamp

BY PT2-500 mic preamp  |  reviewed by Craig Schumacher

New at the 500-series lunchbox cafe this week is the PT2-500. TRUE Systems' Tim Spencer has managed to take the clean, full sound of his P2analog (Tape Op #44), create an even more full-bodied, high-resolution mic preamp/DI with his new "Type-2" circuit design, and shrink it down to fit into one...

Gear Reviews

SRH840 headphones

BY SRH840 headphones  |  reviewed by Brandon Miller

Shure just launched its first line of headphones aimed specifically at music-making applications -the SRH series. The idea's been to fill a growing demand for pro-level gear by an audience that's breaking from the norm. Improvements in the performance of software and the chaos of the music industry...

Gear Reviews

Studio One Pro 1.0.2

BY Studio One Pro 1.0.2

My primary music DAW is now Studio One Pro. When I first saw the advertisement for it, I thought, "That looks cool, but not cool enough to spend the time learning a new DAW. My DAW's working fine." I am really glad that Tape Op gave me the opportunity to review it, because I don't think I would've...

Gear Reviews

TT/DB25 patchbay & cabling

BY TT/DB25 patchbay & cabling  |  reviewed by Allen Farmelo

With ubiquitous products like Digidesign's converters (now Avid) having adopted the balanced 8-channel DB25 connector as standard, these jacks have found their way onto all kinds of pro gear. There are two standard pin-outs for DB25 wiring: Yamaha, which is typical for digital connections; and the...

Gear Reviews

UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins

BY UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins  |  reviewed by Neil Mclellan

When I recently wiped the system disk of my primary music computer to replace Windows XP Pro with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, I installed only the applications that I knew I'd be using regularly. Similarly, I didn't bother adding any plug-ins or accessories that I didn't find essential to my own...