Gear Reviews

Needing a good dual channel pre for stereo recording, I recently purchased a DRS-2 from Phoenix Audio UK. Although it's an original design, the DRS-2 has some Neve heritage; its Marconi switches are pure retro, and one of its creators is David Rees, who worked on the mighty 2254 compressor. So...

In the last three issues, I've reviewed a number of moveable products that I'm using in my tracking room to control acoustics. With only one live room that's suitable for full-volume tracking, I wanted as much control as possible in terms of varying the sound of that room to fit the...

Studio furniture for home and project studios needs to meet different criteria than furniture for large commercial facilities. For starters, smaller studios tend to be in basements or rooms with "normal" doors and hallways. Larger studios are usually housed in buildings with loading...

This is a CD-ROM of stereo drum tracks (real drums, real room) recorded as WAV files at 24-bit, 44.1 kHz. There are 41 song sets with up to 33 parts (fill, chorus, etc) per song. Plus, there are solo drum hits that you can add on top of or use as samples. BPM's range from 72 to 170, and the...

"More mics," that's what I always ask for when Christmas comes around. All the other tools used for recording are great, but mics are always the first in line to capture acoustic-based sounds. I'm always looking for different flavors, and when the AEA R84 showed up at Jackpot!...

Ever try to get the best of both worlds by sending a guitar signal through two amps using an A-B-Y box? I used to love this technique in theory, but every time I tried it, I was left severely underwhelmed. Each amp signal sounded okay by itself but when I combined the two, all the oomph would go...

The Korby Convertible is a tube microphone body with four hot-swappable capsules that claim to sound like Neumann U 67, Neumann U 47, Telefunken Elam 251 and AKG C 12 mics. The mic is hand made, and every capsule hand-tuned in the USA by Tracy Korby, who has been reparing and modifying vintage mics...

Concerned about "mixing in the box"? Want to really hear the side effects of different software mixers, analog consoles, digital consoles, bus summing? There are 29 mixing platforms here, with the "A" set being done at unity gain and the "B" set with fader changes up...

This summer I had the pleasure of recording the band Ida in my studio. During "basics" tracking, the band insisted on playing as many of the instruments "live" as possible. With four band members and producer Warren Defever behind the many sources (drums, bass, piano, electric...

The ISA 428 is Focusrite's entry in the rapidly crowding DAW front-end field. Stock, it's basically four mic preamps in a box. With the addition of an optional card, you get eight channels of 24-bit, 192 kHz A/D conversion, soft limiting, etc.-which obviously adds a lot of flexibility. I...

With its unusual design, the Ball mic from BLUE has generated a good deal of interest. Here are three different perspectives on the mic. ($200 street; www.bluemic.com)

The BLUE Ball is a unique new entry into the microphone market, as it's the first phantom-powered dynamic mic in mass...

Over the last few years, a handful of DAW's have moved past puberty and have become serious, feature- packed, digital-audio production systems. One of the forerunners in this field is Steinberg's latest flagship workstation, Nuendo 2.0 for both the PC and Mac. Designed to nip at the heels...

We've all become accustomed to the phrase "This is the best processor, mic, etc. for under x thousand dollars." We have also come to realize what that phrase means: The item doesn't sound quite as good as the multi-thousand dollar version-it only emulates it. There are many...

Yamaha has done it again-literally. The SPX2000 has just been released and continues faithfully in the tradition of SPX90, 90II 900, 990 and SPX1000. Is there anyone out there who hasn't used an SPX in the studio or at a live event? The SPX2000 packs a few new goodies, but overall the box is...

In Tape Op #36, Andy Hong favorably reviewed the RealTraps bass traps. I won't go over all the details, but the basic gist is that RealTraps are flat acoustic panel treatments for recording spaces that can absorb low-end energy much better than foam, carpet, etc. The MiniTraps are the easily...