Gear Reviews

Issue #165

NO. 165

Earthworks Audio: DK6 6-Piece Drum Mic Kit

REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield

Earthworks Audio has been known for its quality mics for decades, and they are my first choice for clean capture of sources without hype. I have always found them to be natural and detailed sounding, and I use them frequently for acoustic instruments such as drums, acoustic guitars, and woodwinds....

NO. 165 Gear Review

Universal Audio: Topline Vocal Suite Plug-In

REVIEWED BY Daniel Ryan Morse
January 15, 2025

Universal Audio’s Topline Vocal Suite offers an entire vocal chain’s worth of UAD analog effects in a single Native plug-in. Rather than overwhelm you with options, Topline divides its eight individual effects into three helpful sections: Tuner & Shift; Channel Strip; and Modulation, Delay...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Malcolm Toft: EQUATE 8-Channel EQ

REVIEWED BY Brian Tarquin
January 15, 2025

Being a loyal Trident console user, I jumped at the chance to review Malcolm Toft’s [Tape Op#26, #165 online] new EQUATE: Eight channels of six-band EQ in a three-space rack unit built in the UK. Malcolm has been in the audio recording industry as a gear designer, an engineer, and even a professor...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Adam Moss, author: The Work of Art (book)

REVIEWED BY John Baccigaluppi
January 15, 2025

Subtitled “How Something Comes From Nothing,” this heavy, beautifully designed and written, 423-page book explores the “celebration of the art that happens when instinct meets rigor.” Author Moss interviews 43 creative folks, ranging from visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians to playwrights...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Serato: Hex FX Multi-FX Plug-In

REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield
January 15, 2025

Hex FX from Serato is a virtual multi-effects rack that works as an AU or VST3 plug-in and is compatible with Serato Studio, Ableton Live [Tape Op#160], Apple Logic Pro [#74], Native Instruments Maschine, and FL Studio. It can also be used with Pro Tools via a conversion “wrapper” plug-in, such as...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Black Salt Audio: Silencer Drum Gate Plug-In

REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
January 15, 2025

Subtitled “Where cymbals go to die,” Silencer is a plug-in that claims to remove drum bleed on the individual tracks of a drum set recorded live, a problem I frequently deal with while mixing. I hate resorting to drum samples and would prefer to use the real drum tracks sent to me for mixing, but...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Grace Design: m303 Active DI

REVIEWED BY Danielle Goldsmith
January 15, 2025

Whether working in a live venue, a professional studio, or at home, every recordist knows the importance of having a reliable DI unit. I use a DI on almost every session, so I was excited for the opportunity to try the Grace Design m303. As soon as I took it out of the box, I noticed its solid...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Chase Bliss: Clean Stereo Compressor Pedal

REVIEWED BY Dana Gumbiner
January 15, 2025

Chase Bliss’ latest original pedal design, Clean, delivers an all-analog, two-stage stereo "creative compressor." I've been obsessing over pedals as creative outboard tools for some time, using them in a dedicated setup with the Radial EXTC-Stereo [Tape Op#146] effects re-amper...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Orchestral Tools: Berlin Solo Strings Sample Library

REVIEWED BY Alex Ruger
January 15, 2025

Throughout its nearly 20-year history, Orchestral Tools has established itself as one of the premier voices in orchestral and cinematic sample libraries. I’ve always viewed them as one of the “basic food group” companies for any composer’s tool kit. From the large ensembles of the Berlin and...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Electrical Audio: EApreq500

REVIEWED BY Zach Bloomstein
January 15, 2025

Let's talk about gear snobbery behavior. "Tubes are better than transistors." "Transformers are better than servo-balanced circuits." "Discrete op-amps are better than integrated circuit (IC) op-amps." Sure, sometimes these statements are correct, because there is...

NO. 165 Gear Review

BURL Audio: BURL Black Audio Interface

REVIEWED BY Adam Kagan
January 15, 2025

I’m frequently asked by friends and clients which audio interface they should upgrade to for their studio. My usual advice is to focus on features, as most modern interfaces deliver similarly-excellent sound quality. However, after using the new BURL Black series interfaces, I must retract that...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Elysia: Xpector Dual Headphone Amp

REVIEWED BY Adam Kagan
January 15, 2025

Like many, I’ve grown increasingly comfortable working on headphones ever since the COVID lockdown – to the point that even when mixing and mastering commercial projects in my studio, I often spend long stretches working exclusively on headphones. Because of this, I’ve become quite critical of both...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Focusrite: Scarlett 16i16 Interface

REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
January 15, 2025

My home studio is very simple, and is mostly used for editing audio, prepping mixes before using my "real" studio, recording remote interviews, doing my voiceovers, and mixing in the box. An old pair of Dynaudio BM6A speakers [Tape Op#22] and a Dangerous Music D-Box [#61] monitor...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Ferrofish: Pulse 16 MX Converter

REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield
January 15, 2025

Recently, I’ve been working on streamlining my studio setup, and part of that plan was to ditch my patchbays and integrate all of my beloved analog gear via hardware inserts. I don’t run a commercial studio (I’m the sole engineer), so my main goal is to simplify my personal workflow. I have an...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Expressive E: Osmose Synth/MPE Controller

REVIEWED BY John Baccigaluppi
January 15, 2025

I have seen the future, and it is this instrument. In an industry that overuses terms like “revolutionary” and “game changer,” Expressive E’s Osmose is an amazing new instrument with an extremely elegant and refined culmination of over 40 years of research into sound synthesis and electronic...

NO. 165 Gear Review

ADAM Audio: D3V Active Monitors

REVIEWED BY John Baccigaluppi
January 15, 2025

For over a decade, I’ve been using a pair of Tascam VL-M3 [Tape Op#77] monitors with my Universal Audio Apollo Twin [#101] interface for in the box editing and overdubbing in my small home office studio space. They’ve served me well, sounding better than built-in computer speakers or cheap consumer...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Cranborne Audio: Carnaby HE2 EQ

REVIEWED BY Scott McDowell
January 15, 2025

The two-channel Carnaby HE2 is the new flagship version of the Carnaby Harmonic EQ® designed by Cranborne Audio. What do I mean when I say, “Harmonic EQ?” It operates like a multi-band saturator that presents as a 3-band EQ strip. It’s obviously helpful to think of it as an EQ, but it functions...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Universal Audio: Apollo x8p Gen 2

REVIEWED BY Dana Gumbiner
January 15, 2025

Universal Audio recently released an update to all five of their flagship Apollo audio interfaces, so we got our hands on the new Apollo x8p Gen 2 for testing. The Apollo range has now been in the market for over a decade, with fully matured hardware/software integration and specs that rival the...

NO. 165 Gear Review

AKG: AKG: P420 Microphone

REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield
January 15, 2025

I have a list of microphones that I recommend for people looking for good quality that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Most of these people are hobbyists, making home recordings for themselves or dipping their toes into the wild waters of recording. My go-to list includes mics from Audio-Technica...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Groove Synthesis: 3rd Wave Synthesizer

REVIEWED BY John Baccigaluppi
January 15, 2025

If you are a synthesist, we currently live in a golden age of instrument design. The original “East Coast” and “West Coast” analog synth designs that were supplanted in the mid-‘80s by digital synthesizers have evolved into a huge palette of options to consider when shopping for (or designing) a...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Solid State Logic: 2+ MKII Interface

REVIEWED BY John Baccigaluppi
January 15, 2025

Though there are many two-channel computer DAW interfaces on the market, I’m often a bit stymied when friends call and say they need a decent, affordable unit for themselves or for their kid just getting into recording. After using the Solid State Logic 2+ MKII, that question is much easier for me...

NO. 165 Gear Review

H2 Audio: 0011 Mic pre/EQ

REVIEWED BY Michael Urbano
January 15, 2025

When H2 Audio reached out about getting their 0011 mic preamp/EQ reviewed, my good friend and session drummer Michael Urbano came to mind. Michael has worked on records with Todd Rundgren, Trina Shoemaker, Sheryl Crow, Eric Valentine [Tape Op#45, #133], Cracker, Matt Wallace [#128], Jack Joseph...

NO. 165 Gear Review

Serato: Hex FX Multi-Effects Plug-In

REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield
December 15, 2024

Hex FX from Serato is a virtual multi-effects rack that works as an AU or VST3 plug-in and is compatible with Serato Studio, Ableton Live [Tape Op#160], Apple Logic Pro [#74], Native Instruments Maschine, and FL Studio. It can also be used with Pro Tools via a conversion “wrapper” plug-in, such as...