Gear Reviews

These days, it's important to optimize every link of the audio chain, starting at the source. Often this source is a guitar pickup. Despite the name, the Steel Guitar Black Box is a device that fills a long-time need for studio rats and guitarists of all types. The tube-driven SGBB is intended...

Many years ago, back when my studio WaveLab was called 7n7, I was prowling around our musician's mecca, The Chicago Store, with JD Foster, in search of odd things to augment the Green on Red record we were about to track. JD discovered an odd looking microphone that looked like a mini U 87....

When Bag End sent me a three-piece system featuring their new M-6 studio monitors and Infrasub-12 PRO subwoofer, I lugged the heavy boxes over to WMBR Radio (where I used to DJ and engineer live recordings) for my colleagues there to use and test. I had little interest in auditioning these speakers...

The Triwave looks exactly like its name suggests: ludicrous. It's a customizable sound generator housed in a small metal box covered with lots of knobs-anywhere from ten to twenty of them-which stick out on all sides and have labels like "linnet" and "gale." What does it...

I'm sure most Tape Op readers know that the summing wars are really heating up. As widely discussed in these pages and at TapeOpCon for the last few years, summing devices, such as the Roll Music Folcrom and the Dangerous Music 2-BUS, have set the stage for the onslaught of devices that allow...

When I recently set up an editing and production desk in my home office and moved my ADAM P11A powered monitors to the desk, I needed some way of raising the monitors to match ear height and prevent first reflections from the desk surface. Basically, I wanted 8'' high stands with only a...

If there is a hip weird band in your town, it's highly probable that they either have a theremin or are saving up for one. The only instrument that you don't have to touch in order to play, the theremin is experiencing a bizarre surge in popularity, and all around the world, musicians are...

What has 22 switches and 18 knobs, is accented with the colors of the rainbow, and is more flexible than a circus acrobat? Give up? The Buzz Audio ARC 1.1 Analog Recording Channel! It's a mic preamp, instrument DI, multiband EQ, and dynamics processor with opto compression and FET limiting-all...

It seems like I'm always raving about Radial's product line. So far, I've purchased and reviewed Radial's Reamping Pack, JDI passive DI, J48 Mk2 phantom- powered DI (Tape Op #49); X-Amp active re-amplifier, and JPC stereo PC-AV DI (#45). All of these products feature the same...

Giving Z-Vex a run for its money, Austin-based Devi Ever has been creating some of the most unique effect pedals around for just a bit over two years. I recently had a great time trying out a couple of her designs.

First up was the aptly-named Truly Beautiful Disaster pedal. Considering what it...

By now, many of you are familiar with the MP1 series of mic preamps from OSA (see Tape Op #33). For those of you who are not, these preamps are based around the familiar API 500-series form factor and share the same size and pin-out, making them compatible with existing boards and racks. OSA also...

The MXL V6 is a large-diaphragm, solid-state condenser designed to emulate the characteristics of a tube mic-specifically, the MXL V69 (their top-of-the- line tube condenser). In keeping with the MXL tradition of providing solid, workhorse mics at unbelievably affordable price points, the V6 is a...

Dirk Brauner and company have been building handcrafted, boutique tube mics in Germany for a little over a decade. Their USA division has been steadily introducing these wonders to the stateside market with great word-of-mouth success, despite the glut of inexpensive, assembly-line-built...

The two-channel BLUETUBE DP is the successor to the original BLUETUBE mic preamp. Each channel is fully independent and features 48 V phantom power, a 20 dB pad, an 80 Hz high-pass filter, polarity reversal, knobs for gain and tube drive, and VU meters that read from -20 dBu to +6 dBu. As the...

Ever since M-Audio was purchased by Avid, the parent company of Digidesign, the industry speculated on whether or not Pro Tools would run on M-Audio interfaces. M-Audio has long enjoyed a reputation for making some of the best-sounding, cost-effective audio interfaces on the market, so a pairing...

The four-channel, Class-A, solid-state 4110 is Universal Audio's first mic preamp that is not derived from earlier classic designs. The 3RU-height device is simple to use and smart looking. It is solidly built and is easy to get around due to its basic simplicity. The individual preamp...

Sound the trumpets; Universal Audio has done it again! With the reissue of the LA-3A, UA has brought back one of the best, solid-state, optical compressors ever built. Originally designed as a broadcast unit, the LA-3A quickly found its home in recording studios, and with a bit of modification to...

When I was close to finishing this review, I began to realize that it's not only just scraping the tip of an iceberg, but it's bound to open a can of worms, and many people will disagree with at least some of the conclusions I've drawn. So, take this for what it is: my experiences...

Free VST plug-ins for Windows

Like a lot of people who read this magazine, I'm a hardware guy, and I've resisted using computers to make my music for a long time. But I recently realized that you could get a pretty good synth and effects rig going for free as long as you have a Windows PC...