Gear Reviews

While covering a place and time with far-reaching consequences, Richard Barone’s [Tape Op #54] new book is a delight to read. From civil disobedience to coffee house folk singers to confessional songwriters, there’s so much history, music, culture, and art to discuss throughout this book. In 2017,...

STL Tones is best known for their guitar amp modeling software, AmpHub, ToneHub, Tonality, and Libra, which bring signature amp models, pedals, and cabinets, to user’s fingertips. In addition, they’ve modeled the rigs of the biggest names in rock and metal to provide unparalleled accuracy in...

In the early years of third-party plug-ins, Poland’s PSP Audioware released the PSP VintageWarmer [Tape Op #29]. Although other saturation titles existed, PSP VintageWarmer was widely praised as a must-have for serious engineers. After decades of research, PSP Audioware introduced the PSP...

I was first introduced to Vanguard Audio Labs before they even brought a microphone to market. The gentleman who tipped me off about this company was a trusted friend in pro audio. He told me repeatedly over the course of 18 months that “something very exciting is happening with a new microphone...

What if we wrote this review in a 1940s radio announcer mode? Where every sentence is obnoxiously alliterative... “The minuscule monophonic Moog Music’s Mavis makes many massive melodies! An ‘A’-mazing manual maximizes the modulation modes! Way-out wave-folding waxes the competition!” No?...

Why review a wireless speaker aimed at audiophiles? Well, because we record, produce, and mix music that people will ultimately listen to. More and more, what they are listening on are not the traditional home hi-fi rigs of the past, but rather Bluetooth earbuds, headphones, and speakers (as well...

Sound Particles is a software company based in Portugal, and is most known for the immersive audio software aptly named Sound Particles 2. Their new plug-in, Density, creates multiple sounds based on the input signal. It manipulates the audio through granular synthesis, a concept similar to...

Bounce Factory is an application that automatically bounces mixes and stems, using the SoundFlow [Tape Op #149] platform. It was created by mixing guru Andrew Scheps [#133] as a way for him to save time printing multiple mix passes. Take a listen to editor Larry Crane’s Tape Op podcast with Scheps,...

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Fourteen years ago, Apogee Electronics released their original Firewire Duet [Tape Op #65] – arguably opening the floodgates for one-knob desktop interfaces that focus on portability and ease of use, with high-quality conversion and built-in preamps. Many other manufacturers have followed suit with...

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You know the scenario: You’ve mic’d up a whole band, did the first day of tracking, and are shutting down for the night, coming back tomorrow for more takes. There are over 25 microphones placed all over the studio to capture various instruments. As we should know, these microphone elements – be...

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Every stereo mix has a phantom center, or middle channel. This “mid,” includes any audio that is not panned (or recorded) exclusively to the right and left “side” channels, and creates a center image in a mix between the speakers. In typical mixes of popular music styles, the mid channel will...