Gear Reviews

I've been a long-time user of GIK Acoustic's studio acoustic treatments, employing their 244 FlexRange [Tape Op#113] and Tri-Trap corner [#113] bass traps in my many studios over the years. They install easily, have a clean aesthetic, are made with sustainability in mind, and are...

There has been so much talk about AI and its uses, but I haven't come across many products that are practically useful within the scope of my daily work. There are many fun products out there for generating audio, lyrics, images, and more, but they all feel more like entertaining toys and less...

The Nuance Select is Radial Engineering's new desktop stereo monitor controller from the bench of their lead designer, W.C. “Hutch” Hutchison (formerly of Manley Labs and Rupert Neve Designs). Radial supplies engineers and performers with utility products that fill a market gap left by other...

Ever since reading Thom Monahan's informative and gushing review of the Soyuz SU-017 tube mic [Tape Op#117], I've been curious about the company's products. JB and Robert Cheek's writeup of the transformer-coupled 013 FET [#139] only solidified my interest. Chris Koltay's...

LEWITT is one of the most innovative and thoughtful microphone designers right now. In a sea of manufacturers churning out knock-off mics, they stand out for releasing fresh, exciting designs. I recently enjoyed recording with their PURE TUBE mic [Tape Op#156] and was excited to try their latest...

At Panoramic House, more and more sessions primarily take place in our fairly large control room. It seems that the studio paradigm has shifted a bit from the days of large studio spaces and smaller control rooms, and now it's not uncommon to have five or six people in the control room with...

Previously, we discussed instrument-related essentials that every studio should have on hand. With "Part 2," we're looking at items that keep the humans in your studio more comfortable, creative, and productive. Look for "Part 3, Studio Supplies," in a future issue of Tape...

Cat 5, aka Ethernet cable, has been a powerful way to pass digital audio around your studio or live venue for quite a while now. The various formats (Dante, AVB, and many other proprietary protocols) have changed the way we think about studio installs, stage box runs, etc. Personally, I've...

I've found both the Lindell Audio LiN76 [Tape Op#153] and LiN2A [#156] compressors to be extremely useful in my studio, so I jumped at the chance to check out the new, one channel LiNTEC Vintage Program Equalizer. I use their compressors primarily for tracking purposes, but I mix in the box...

At the last few pre-pandemic AES conferences I attended, my brief conversations with David Bock centered around his opinions about the classic microphones that were built incorrectly. Most of his comments went over my head, but what I took away was an impression of his passion, talent, and ambition...

Proclaimed as "an adaptive tone shaper," Bloom is a new plug-in by oeksound, known for the handy tone-fixers Soothe2 [Tape Op#138] and Spiff [#137]. I constantly use Soothe2 to fix tracks that have issues, and it gets a lot of use on my remote mixing jobs, so I was curious what Bloom...

Some 24 years ago, my pal Craig Alvin [Tape Op #137] found out that one of Tchad Blake's [#133, #16] ubiquitous mix distortion devices was the Shure Level-Loc. Level-Locs were Shure's attempt at a dummy-proof limiter for podium speakers, even featuring a Distance Selector switch for how...

I’m an EQ guy and always have been. When I began working in studios, the debate was whether or not to EQ to tape or wait to EQ when mixing. Fuck that; get the sound the way you want it when hitting the tape! Nowadays, the debate is about whether hardware EQs sound better than plug-in EQs. If you’ve...

I’m always reluctant to review speakers. It’s hard to do client work on unfamiliar monitors. My room was tuned for my current nearfields over ten years ago, and since then I haven’t moved them an inch – mixing is hard enough already. But when asked about reviewing Focal’s new flagship studio...

Folks, please label your patchbays: Not with a paper key that sits on top of the bays, not with a PDF on your computer, but with labels on the patchbays. For years, I made labels using a carefully crafted Excel spreadsheet. It worked okay, but when I found PatchCAD 3 I never looked back. PatchCAD 3...

I’ve loved listening to music in headphones since I was a child, but I’ve come a long way from those flimsy freebies that came with my yellow Sony Walkman. As an adult, I’ve spent weeks at a time earning a living in audio while primarily clocking my hours in cans, and I've learned the hard way...

When I was managing Jackpot! Recording Studio, I was fascinated by Tape Op editor and studio owner Larry Crane’s approach to gear-buying. The studio is mostly made up of new equipment with a few vintage items. This is savvy, as new gear doesn’t come with inflated price tags or unexpected (and even...

Pulsar Modular’s P455 MDN Sidecar plug-in was designed in conjunction with engineer Marc Daniel Nelson. Although there’s definitely some API style inspiration involved, they’ve taken a much broader and, in my opinion, much more useful approach to creating a tool that will probably replace entire...

The name of this magazine is Tape Op, and we know that lots of people still love working on analog tape machines. We also know that there are a lot of people who have never worked with tape machines yet love the idea of working with tape. However, I want to talk about the elephant in the room; the...