Gear Reviews

A couple years ago, I bought a pair of Neve 3310 limiter modules from hi-fi guru Early Bender-Worth (www.hifitown.com). I wasn't familiar with these particular modules, but I figured that if I didn't like them I could sell them without taking a hit, thanks to the Neve name alone. I have a...

Two members of Digitalfishphones' collection of freeware audio plug-ins, Blockfish and Dominion, have become my first choice for certain dynamics-shaping applications "in-the-box," standing up to both high-end software such as Waves' Renaissance Compressor and VST stomp-boxes...

Ethan Winer is a name you may recognize. He's been a published author of audio-related articles since the 70s, and he's a regular contributor to many of the online forums. In 1995, he wrote an article for Electronic Musician that detailed how to build an affordable, low- volume bass trap...

I usually track "basics" with all the players, instruments, and amps in the same room. I find that musicians perform better this way. Unfortunately, the situation can get pretty "washy" with all the sounds bouncing around inside a single room, and the bleed between instruments...

In Issue #34, I wrote about my studio's lack of floating floors, and how the Auralex GRAMMA isolation platform reduced the amount of bass-amp rumble escaping the main room. I also noted that the GRAMMA had an immediate and very discernable effect on the "tightness" of the sound...

I've been outfitting my new studio with various acoustic treatments for the past eight months or so. In my "live" room, I've tried hard to spec out treatments that are easy to mount, unmount, move, and swap, with the goal of an acoustic signature that I change easily. I had a...

This is the perfect PCI/ASIO based audio interface for all of us studio owners looking for a high quality, versatile, yet simple, audio interface for a full sized music recording studio. It's best asset? 24 inputs and outputs at 96k/24 bit in one rack space. Put simply, this will either...

During my time as an engineer I have used some of the world's finest compressors, and at the same time, I've heard some of the worst. Having grown up in a studio, pretty much my whole life, I've been afforded the ability to become discriminating about gear, especially compressors....

Is it me, or is modeling getting a bit out of control? Seems like every plug-in, amp, outboard effect, keyboard, and even guitar these days relies on modeling circuitry to simulate some classic sound or other. But what about gear that just plain sounds really good (as opposed to gear that simulates...

DI boxes. We all rely on them to record electric instruments directly and to perform impedence matching chores. They've never been known as the most glamorous piece of studio gear, but they're surely necessary, and every studio worth its salt has at least one decent DI in its utility...

"No, not the Shure SM57," I said to the young clerk at the mega guitar market, "I need an SM-SEVEN." " Dude," he replied. "There's no such thing. You mean a FIFTY-SEVEN." At that point, luckily, I spied an SM-7A box behind the counter and pointed it out...

This article is partially excerpted from the introduction to A Musician's Guide to Pro Tools, Book Two, which is a continuation of A Musician's Guide to Pro Tools Book One. It was adapted by me to serve as a sort of review of Pro Tools 6. In view of the fact that upgrading to Pro Tools 6...