Gear Reviews

I don't need to spell out the fact that countless recordists who work on digital systems are on the quest to get a warmer sound. Nor do I need to delve into the 10,000 tools, tricks, and techniques employing transformers, tapes, and tubes to help warm things up. The problem is abundantly...

Somebody likes the Portico II. I had to wait a week for RND to cook up a fresh batch when the review unit they were supposed to send was bought instead of returned. It arrived welcomed, if late. Coming out of the box it looked gorgeous - like a piece of sculpture. The front panel is a...

When you find a product that streamlines your workflow simply and unobtrusively, you wonder, "Hey, how come nobody thought of this sooner?" Vienna Ensemble Pro is one of those products. So, what does it do? Well, imagine that you connect your laptop (or additional desktop) via ethernet to...

MIDI. Vacant stare. Puzzlement. Eyes rolling back into the head. Drool forming on the chin. You've heard about guys like me - I'm MIDImpaired. Terms like polyphony, quantization, and nodes make me a little drowsy in the noggin. So after years of battling with 5-pin MIDI keyboard...

Great River Electronics stalwarts Wes Kuhnley and Peter Bregman have been moonlighting of late, coming up with some promising guitar amp designs as well as a pair of fine guitar pedals. At first glance, the Graviton Boost and Manifold Drive stompboxes seem to be in danger of being variations of...

Manley Laboratories had been building custom mastering consoles on a case-by-case basis, but the waiting list grew too long to manage. (I know - I've been on it.) In a nutshell, it takes a long time to build each one from scratch. And it turns out that many mastering engineers request the...

While the Saffire PRO 40 is billed as a computer audio interface and the OctoPre MkII Dynamic is marketed as an 8-channel mic preamp/converter with compressors, they share a lot of the same elements and capabilities, such as the mic preamp circuits and metering panel. Although the units can be...

Retro Instruments made a splash about five years ago with its replica of the classic Gates Sta-Level compressor (Tape Op #55), and then again in recent years with products based on the Universal Audio 176 variable-mu compressor (#66) and the Pultec EQP-1A3 passive/tube EQ (#79). This time around...

Doubtless the most famous microphone preamplifier in history, the Neve 1073 has spawned countless imitations — from cheap knockoffs to component-precise replicas. The sincerest flattery has been repeatedly bestowed upon the venerable classic since its inception over 40 years ago. If you need a...

There’s a brief segment in this instructional video series presented by Alan Parsons (which shall henceforth be called ASSR) in which the legendary engineer, while describing his approach to recording electric guitar, moves a mic around the front of an amp from the center of the speaker cone out to...

Over the course of months, the X-Desk review unit loaned to us by SSL was first shipped to Assistant Gear Geek Scott McChane, for use in his home studio; then to Kirt Shearer, owner of Paradise Studios; and finally to me at my Kimchee Records project studio. Our perspectives on the unit’s features...

Nearly every audio equipment manufacturer was pushing at least one hardware control surface at the Fall 2008 AES show... and nearly every studio has at least one control surface condemned to the "eBay pile". Nocturn separates itself from the toys with its dedicated, intuitive Automap...

With a broad line designed for both home audio and professional use, German designer Ultrasone knows headphones. The PRO 900 headphones advance many features included in 2007's HFI2200 model, a $300 entry at the top of the company's more consumer-friendly line. They also borrow...

Several years ago, I wrote about being a Nomadic-Utopist — a true “N-ut” being someone that believes that utopia is not fixed in space and time, but can occur anywhere, anytime, and anyplace... and in a blink of an eye, that fleeting moment might be gone! At the time, the E-MU 1616M (Tape Op #52)...

In the beginning, Twelve Tone Systems begat Cakewalk MIDI Sequencer for DOS, and Cakewalk begat Pro Audio, which begat SONAR, which begat SONAR X1. Just as SONAR kept much of Pro Audio’s functionality but sported a new look, the X refers to an all-new SONAR without losing the name recognition. When...

For over seven years, Carl Tatz, studio designer and former owner of Recording Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, has installed his proprietary PhantomFocus monitoring systems in studios around the world – either in conjunction with a room design or implemented in previously existing rooms. These...