Interviews
By John Baccigaluppi
I first met Justin Meldal-Johnsen via our mutual friend, Lyle Workman, at a NAMM show. He was a Tape Op reader and seemed like a cool dude. He's also got a big fro, so when I saw him on some TV show playing bass with Beck, I recognized him right away and was like, "Hey that's Lyle's...
Interviews
Near the end of my interview with Steve Lillywhite, CBE, he confessed to me, "My first thought is that I hate doing some of these i...
Interviews
Whether printing complex mixes, section-by-section through old Neve consoles without automation to 1/2-inch tape, or hauling recordi...
Interviews
Brian Kehew is well known as the co-author (with Kevin Ryan) of the massive book Recording The Beatles [Tape Op #53]. But he's also been a fill-in keyboardist (and live tech) for The Who and a member of the charming group The Moog Cookbook (with Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.). Oh, and he's played on, engineered and produced a number of albums, and has been the Archives Historian for the Bob Moog Foundation. But, as far as I can tell, he also has the coolest job around; combing the vaults of the big record labels looking for unreleased tracks and outtakes to mix them. I met up with Brian at his modest studio in North Hollywood, California.
Brian Kehew is well known as the co-author (with Kevin Ryan) of the massive book Recording The Beatles [ #53URL]. But he's also been a fill-in keyboardist (and live tech) for The Who, as well as a member of the charming group The Moog Cookbook (with Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.). Oh, and he's played on, engineered and produced a number of albums, plus he's been the Archives Historian for the Bob Moog Foundation. But, as far as I can tell, he also has the coolest job around: combing the vaults of the big record labels looking for unreleased tracks and outtakes, and getting to mix them as well. I met up with Brian at his modest studio in North Hollywood, California.
The days of white lab coats at Abbey Road are long gone. Recording technology has never been more accessible to musicians, and there is a well-defined lineage of great artists who can both craft a song and perfect its sonic reality. The Dirty Projectors' David Longstreth is among the best of them. From home recording experiments to live orchestra cut-ups to hi-fi conquests, he's covered an intimidating amount of ground in ten years and twelve releases. The band's latest LP, Swing Lo Magellan, is the culmination of his abilities as a songwriter and an engineer.
I first met Justin Meldal-Johnsen via our mutual friend, Lyle Workman, at a NAMM show. He was a Tape Op reader and seemed like a cool dude. He's also got a big 'fro, so when I saw him on a TV show, playing bass with Beck, I recognized him right away. Well, Mr. Meldal-Johnsen has done much more than play bass with Beck. He's also been Mr. Hansen's musical director, a role he's also filled for Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gnarls Barkley. More recently, he's moved into production. So, when I was in L.A. on a recent surf trip and the opportunity came up to interview him about making records, I enthusiastically jumped at the chance. And, as I suspected, I had a great time chatting with Justin at Sunset Sound's Studio 3 while he was there producing a new Paramore album.
When last we spoke, I told y'all how I overcame my bias against PreSonus the manufacturer (based on my experience with their old M-80 preamp [Tape Op #26]) and digital the medium to find that the PreSonus StudioLive digital mixer [#80], while sounding only a little euphonic, does a great job of...
I don't recall exactly how I came to find Tim Prebble's Hiss and a Roar website, but I do remember what I heard first - sounds of an old broken-down piano being taken apart. Odd, unique and violent enough to be mistaken for American, but Prebble hails from New Zealand. Still, he's like the Pete...
Dave Raphael is one of the smartest guys I know. He's a terrific recording engineer, a great photographer, a technically-knowledgeable individual, and he has absolutely astounding ears, so when he told me several years ago that he and Jens Jungkurth were working on building an equalizer, I was...
One day, while listening to Roxy Music's Manifesto, I noticed that it was recorded at Ridge Farm Studio in England, and I did a bit of Internet research. While the studio no longer operates, I learned that its chief tech, Pierre-Olivier Margerand (known as POM), now manufactures gear as Ridge Farm...
Mike Castoro at Wunder Audio released his take on the Neumann U 67 early this year with the Wunder CM67, a multi- patterned tube condenser mic optimized for capturing vocals. The first thing I noticed when I opened the cardboard shipping box was the fine tweed case designed with safety in mind. No...
Anyone who pays attention to music industry trade shows can tell you how some company is always introducing a new gizmo designed to make the electric guitar better. Aside from the work from a few legitimate firms, most of these devices are bird-brained, non-production-ready, untested heaps of crud....
My relationship with lap steel guitars has been long and rewarding. I first bought a 1956 Fender lap steel on eBay years ago, when I was working on video-scoring project, and I was looking for an option for generating material in various tunings with nice sounding glissandi and swells. After a week...
airball Audio is the Seattle Company responsible for bringing us key elements for the DIY version of the 1176 Blue Stripe [Tape Op #84]. This is their first product designed from scratch. Named Lola, after the founder's dog, Hairball offers various kit and assembled forms of the 500-series unit....
There's a huge variety of outboard gear out there to choose from. We live in a time where sophisticated audio tools are available at almost every price point. So why does some gear command a higher price than others? The details. Often it comes from a passionate commitment from the equipment...
In the '90s, Allen Sides created a CD-ROM featuring his extensive Ocean Way Recording mic collection. Jump to this year, and guitarist extraordinaire Steve Vai went back and produced an app based on Allen's CD-ROM (seriously, did anyone ever use or buy those things back then?). What is the Ocean...
Timing is everything. Apogee's latest audio interface reached me barely a week too late (my fault, not theirs) to make my life considerably easier. I spent my evaluation period counting the conveniences I would have enjoyed if I had taken Quartet on my just-completed trip to Los Angeles, recording...
This is perfect. A simple and effective way to adjust the toe- in or angle of your speakers for perfect symmetry. How did we do this before? With protractors? I was pretty much guessing with a tape measure last time I set up my control room. First you set up your stereo or surround speakers so they...
As PAs get better and more people record at home, classic, lower wattage amps are gaining in popularity - and thus becoming more expensive. Anyone who has priced even a Silverface Champ lately knows the days of getting a deal are gone. To meet this demand, companies as diverse as Orange, Vox, and...
Have you ever read a review in which the writer goes into all the details of a really versatile and esoteric piece of gear, only to find yourself entirely lost? Because the Warmenfat is such a unique Swiss Army Knife-like tool, we are on the verge of writing such a review, so rather than bog...
Mixerman [Tape Op #34], the authorly alter ego of producer/engineer/mixer Eric Sarafin, first gained notice with a crazy online diary that eventually saw form as a book, The Daily Adventures of Mixerman. He followed that up with Zen and the Art of Mixing [#83], an excellent guide for comprehending...