Interviews
By Vance Powell
Back when I was first starting out, all my friends' bands wanted to make their records with Lou Whitney. He was the first "Professional Recording Engineer" I ever met when a friend brought me to Lou's Column One Recording in Springfield, Missouri. We toured the studio; Lou was cordial,...
Interviews
Almost four years ago, after a 19-year run, the studio savvy group Stereolab went on hiatus. Here&ap...
Interviews
Manny Nieto got bit by the recording bug after working with Steve Albini [
Interviews
Back when I was first starting out, all my friends' bands wanted to make their...
I'd seen Ed Stasium's name on records for years; The Ramones, Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, Peter Wolf, Living Colour, Soul Asylum, and The Smithereens, to name a few. But little did I know that Ed's engineering chops stretched back to songs like "Midnight Train to Georgia," as well as groups like Kool & the Gang and The Chambers Brothers. Even though Ed's currently residing in the beautiful mountains outside of Durango, Colorado, he still keeps busy working on records at his home studio, sometimes traveling for sessions, and recently producing the Misfits and a posthumous Joey Ramone album.
I'd seen Ed Stasium's name on records for years; The Ramones, Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, Peter Wolf, Living Colour, Soul Asylum, and The Smithereens to name a few. But little did I know that Ed's engineering chops stretched back to songs like "Midnight Train to Georgia" and groups like Kool and the Gang and The Chambers Brothers. Even though Ed's currently residing in the beautiful mountains outside of Durango, Colorado, he still keeps busy working on records at his home studio, sometimes traveling for sessions, and recently producing records by The Misfits and Joey Ramone.
As the driving force of the group Distortion Felix, Manny Nieto got bit by the recording bug after working with recordist Steve Albini [ #10/87URL] on their I'm An Athlete album in 1999. Manny quickly built a studio in East Los Angeles, Manny's Estudio International, and soon bands like Chokebore, The Breeders, Vaz, Health, Trash Talk, and even Los Lobos, were tracking records there. But a decade on, something snapped in the head of Manny Nieto, and soon he was off on a recording odyssey that took him to China and Southeast Asia, including the cities of Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Chengdu — even venturing into New Zealand for sessions. Along the way he recorded some of the best acts that you may have never heard, like Pairs, Poubelle International, Reign Lee, UNiXX, Boys Climbing Ropes, Snapline, Forget the G, Proximity Butterfly, Hedgehog, Chui Wan, Cheating Sons, In Each hand a Cutlass, and Obedient Wives Club. I first found out about Manny's journey directly from the explorer himself, receiving an interesting email not long before the quest began. These emails continued unabated as his trip was extended and more records were made, and the excerpts below make for fascinating reading. In between trips to Asia, Manny dropped by my studio post-session one night, and after some delicious burritos we popped some beers. Check out the extensive candid gallery of Manny's travels and recording sessions below, and read the full interview that follows. [ gallery ]
Over their 19-year career, Tim Gane was arguably the closest thing Stereolab had to a creative director, providing the initial spark for nearly all their compositions, along with singer and co-writer Laetitia Sadier. Stereolab are one of the rare exceptions that have made the studio-as-instrument model work. Collaborators along the way included John McEntire [ #23URL], Jim O'Rourke [#16], Mouse on Mars [#46] and Sean O'Hagan. We talked to Tim Gane in his Berlin home to ask about the process of invention and collaboration.
For this review, I auditioned four Monoprice 600700 front- address condenser mics and a pair each of optional 600701 omnidirectional and 600702 hypercardioid capsules. The 600700 mics are sold in pairs with cardioid capsules included. Overall, Monoprice has delivered another incredible sonic...
Building upon the foundations of the renowned SSL G Series bus compressor, Alan Smart drew on years of experience working for SSL to create the first (that I am aware of) rackmount clone of what was, up until then, only available as part of the center section of an enormous SSL mixing desk. The...
The Rockruepel comp.two, designed and hand-built by Oliver Gregor in Germany, is the successor to the comp.one [Tape Op #86], released in 2011. The comp.one received excellent reviews, and surprised more than a few users with its pinup-girl- clad VU meters. The comp.two loses the pinup girls, but...
I'm not going to be at all coy about this. I won't pretend to be neutral as I describe the Juggernaut Twin mic preamp. I am smitten. After months of owning it, I find myself still reaching for it and discovering new sounds. I've developed a few favorites, but this thing is an all-you-can-eat sonic...
I'm a big fan of Arturia's soft synth collection; they have some of the best sounding and well-modeled "vintage" software synthesizers available. So I jumped at the chance to try out their new super-affordable MiniLab hybrid controller. Not because I needed another USB control surface - frankly, I...
The other day, I took a ribbon microphone made in Salt Lake City, UT by a pro audio manufacturer born and raised in Russia to a downtown Austin, TX recording studio owned and operated by a musician from Oklahoma for a mic shootout recorded by an engineer from Connecticut, so that I - a...
We're studio rats. We're never happy with our speakers or our headphones. It's always onto the next thing, until we sigh and go crawling back to an old favorite. Or do we sometimes find a new favorite? Focal, the excellent French monitor/speaker company, have come out with a model of pro...
The Studio-Capture offers similar functionality to Roland's Octa-Capture [Tape Op #82], but with more I/O, plus a few new bonus features. I invited my longtime audio cohort and Grammy Award-winning engineer, Chris Theis (www.theismix.com) to help me put the Studio-Capture through the paces. As soon...
I've been intrigued by Elysia's line of products for some time now. After a few encounters with their stuff at various studios, I became impressed with the sonics and innovative features of their processors, particularly their compressors. When I saw that they were releasing a line of 500-series...