Tape Op Magazine - Issue #99 - issue-99

Wayne Peet

Interviews

Tim Palmer

Interviews

Joe Mardin

Interviews

Joe Mardin (bonus)

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

JULY 19, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Brad Wood

Brad Wood: Liz Phair, Idful, Ben Lee

BY LARRY CRANE, AYA MUTO

Ever since I started seeing Brad Wood's producer credits on excellent records coming out of Chicago by Seam, Shrimp Boat, Red Red Meat, Veruca Salt, and Eleventh Dream Day I was curious about him and his fabled Idful Music Corporation. Brad's work on Liz Phair's hard to ignore debut, Exile in Guyville, led to albums with Sunny Day Real Estate, Ben Lee, Smashing Pumpkins, Pete Yorn, mewithoutYou, and Touché Amoré. Eventually, after making records all over the globe, Brad ended up in Los Angeles with the lovely Seagrass Studio in his back yard, where I found him hanging out one afternoon.

JULY 19, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Tim Palmer (bonus)

Tim Palmer (bonus): U2, Pearl Jam, Bowie

BY JOHN MCMURTRIE, LARRY CRANE

An unsung studio hero? That's how some people see Tim Palmer. With a career beginning in London of the late '70s, he worked on records with Kajagoogoo, Cutting Crew and Dead or Alive. Later work with The Mission UK and The House of Love led to working with Robert Plant, David Bowie's Tin Machine, Pearl Jam's debut and even U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Yeah, maybe he does deserve a bit more attention? I met Tim at his home-based studio in the hills outside of Austin, Texas, where he keeps busy producing and mixing.

JULY 19, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Wayne Peet (bonus)

Wayne Peet (bonus): Engineering Jazz

BY STEPHANIE CABRAL, JONATHAN SAXON

Wayne Peet is an accomplished pianist/keyboardist and a first call player in the jazz/new music/avant-garde scene in Los Angeles, but he's also known as an excellent recordist, mixer, mastering engineer, and studio owner. The list of artists he's recorded spans genres and styles, including: Vinny Golia, Bobby Bradford, Nels Cline, Kenny Burrell, Bennie Maupin, Thurston Moore, Steuart Liebig, Mike Watt, Alex Cline, G.E. Stinson, Gregg Bendian, Lydia Lunch, Carla Bozulich, Scarlet Rivera, James Gadson, Louie Bellson, Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste, Jubilant Sykes, Robert Edward Thies, Pat Metheny, and Hubert Laws. Nestled in Mar Vista, between Venice and Culver City in Southern California, his Newzone Studio is conveniently located on the property behind Wayne's home.

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

19-09 Optical Compressor

by 19-09 Optical Compressor | reviewed by Adam Kagan

Western Dynamo is a relatively new manufacturer, based in Austin, Texas. Started by J. Morris, an experienced studio tech and recording engineer, Western Dynamo aims to produce audio products using new design approaches to create useful and familiar sounding devices. The first such device is the...

Gear Reviews

521 ZDT 500-series mic preamp

by 521 ZDT 500-series mic preamp | reviewed by Adam Kagan

Earthworks, while best known for its catalog of super- accurate microphones, also produces a line of microphone preamps based on the philosophy of extremely-low distortion and fast-responding circuitry. Transformerless and fully differential amplifier designs with no electrolytic capacitors in the...

Gear Reviews

Apollo 16 audio interface w/ UAD processing

by Apollo 16 audio interface w/ UAD processing | reviewed by Garrett Haines

The original Apollo [Tape Op #95] is a groundbreaking unit that combines real-time UAD plug-in processing, A/D and D/A conversion, and mic preamps in a single 1RU-height box. While the original unit was designed for a project or remote studio that requires an all-in-one device, the Apollo 16 is...

Gear Reviews

B32 Vancouver mix bus

by B32 Vancouver mix bus | reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

If you are short on time and just want the thumbs up/down on the B32 Vancouver 32×2 mix bus, it gets an enthusiastic thumbs up. All the adjectives that you might find in an adult-film review are applicable to the B32: wider, deeper, warmer, thicker, flexible, big bottom, sweet top. For more details...

Gear Reviews

Dove LDC FET mic

by Dove LDC FET mic | reviewed by Joel Hamilton

Transparency comes in many colors. The Archangel is a mic preamp that seems to create its own reality of transparency - with unprecedented "passive gain" topology; cool, interesting design; and general feel of quality throughout. I got to plug this thing in, finally, after a lot of conversation...

Gear Reviews

DRS-EQ/500 equalizer

by DRS-EQ/500 equalizer | reviewed by Steve Silverstein

The Phoenix Audio DRS-EQ/500 is a 4-band equalizer in 500-series format, loosely comparable to the API 550b. Each band offers fewer frequency points than a 550b, without overlap between the bands. The two mid bands are bell-shaped, while the high and low bands are shelving. The boost/cut knobs are...

Gear Reviews

Orion32 AD/DA converter & USB interface

by Orion32 AD/DA converter & USB interface | reviewed by Chris Koltay, Andy Hong, Tony SanFilippo

Every now and then, a product comes along that sets a new bar for sound quality, features, and price. The Orion32 is a prime example. When contributing writers Tony SanFilippo and Chris Koltay contacted me to explain how the Orion32 had completely changed their games, I asked both of them to...

Gear Reviews

Robot

by Robot | reviewed by Chris Woodhouse

Never saw it coming. Another day at work at the Dock (our spanking-new studio spot in Sacramento), helping my bud John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees, Coachwhips, Damaged Bug) spray fuzz guitar all over everything, and I'm blathering on as usual, "Gahd damn I wish I had a bunch of Death By Audio stuff, but...

Gear Reviews

Sceptre S8 active monitor

by Sceptre S8 active monitor | reviewed by Steve Silverstein, Andy Hong

Before we get to Steve Silverstein's opinion on the newest speaker offering from PreSonus, let me butt in. After reading the first draft of Steve's Sceptre S8 review and his email exchanges with PreSonus, my own interest was roused. I decided to demo a pair myself. After careful placement of the...

Gear Reviews

SF-2 active ribbon mic

by SF-2 active ribbon mic | reviewed by Dave Hidek

The SF-2 is a phantom-powered version of Royer's discontinued SF-1 ribbon mic, which means you get to press the +48V button without feeling like you've brought about the end of humanity. After that initial high wears off, you can start to record some really, really beautiful sounds using the mic....

Gear Reviews

SGI Studio Guitar Interface system

by SGI Studio Guitar Interface system | reviewed by Larry Crane

What's a Studio Guitar Interface? Well, the SGI allows us to take an electric guitar, or any high-impedance, unbalanced instrument signal, and send it down a balanced signal path (think mic cables, snakes, or studio tie-lines) to an amp or processor. It does so with two small, stompbox-sized units...

Gear Reviews

SONAR X3 Producer

by SONAR X3 Producer | reviewed by Alan Tubbs

Cakewalk has been in the news a lot lately. First, Gibson agreed to buy them from Roland. Having a guitar maker buy a DAW company is not as odd as it first seems, since Gibson also owns TASCAM, maker of interfaces and digital recording hardware. So Cakewalk becomes Cakewalk Development, and SONAR...

Gear Reviews

SRH1540 headphones

by SRH1540 headphones | reviewed by Larry Crane

We always ask our gear reviewers at Tape Op to take the product in question into the studio and use it on sessions. I think this is a good thing. To me, there's not much use in the real world for key jangling in front of mics; and in the heat of a recording, I couldn't care less what someone's...

Gear Reviews

Symphony I/O 8×8+8 Mic Preamp

by Symphony I/O 8×8+8 Mic Preamp | reviewed by Garrett Haines

The original Symphony I/O was already reviewed [Tape Op #87], but Symphony is more than a converter; it is a configurable product line. With six different expansion modules, the Symphony chassis can be equipped for specific needs and applications. Two newer options for the system are the...

Gear Reviews

Symphony I/O 8×8+8 Mic Preamp

by Symphony I/O 8×8+8 Mic Preamp | reviewed by Garrett Haines

The original Symphony I/O was already reviewed [Tape Op #87], but Symphony is more than a converter; it is a configurable product line. With six different expansion modules, the Symphony chassis can be equipped for specific needs and applications. Two newer options for the system are the...