Gear Reviews

Ah compressors… those wonderful helpers that make our lives easier. It seems like the more you learn how to use compression to your advantage, the more you want different types and flavors to use in tracking and mixing. As some of you may know, we at WaveLab have been using a pair of Daking FET II...

My musical tastes are relatively populistic, but I’ve got the merest hint of music snob in my bones. It’s the part of me that recoils when Antares Auto-Tune is used as an overtly applied vocal effect, or when hearing pop performances so perfectly pitched and sterile that they’re robbed of life....

I’ve used and/or reviewed almost every permutation of the UAD platform over the years, and let me say that I find the UA-developed plug-ins to be some of the finest sounding digital tools on the market. I’ve had access to the entire roster for a while now and am impressed with the range and quality...

The Translator is an interesting little passive device that purports to add “vintage tone” to your stale signals. It’s a small, bright red, inline XLR coupler with a transformer inside that’s meant to be added between mic and preamp. In use, the Translator adds a bit of harmonic sheen and clears up...

In a trend of 500-series this-and-that, many manufactures have responded to the question, “Can we get a tube module?” with, “Due to power supply requirements, it can’t be done.” Roll Music Systems accepted this challenge and responded with the RMS5A7 Tubule. As expected, this preamp is outfitted...

The KSM line represents Shure’s premium recording microphones. The newest member is the KSM42, a fixed-cardioid side-address condenser mic. With a similar “giant almond” shape to the KSM44A, the KSM42 is a darker-bronze metallic and is tailored for vocals. The package we reviewed included a hard...

How in the world do you get away from the stupid trackpad and keyboard while DJ'ing from a laptop?  This has been one of the bigger questions since DJs began moving from CDs to computer-based rigs. Traktor Kontrol X1 is one of Native Instruments' answers.  The Kontrol X1 is...

Are you completely happy with all of your mixes and see no reason to attempt to learn more or get better at this craft? Then read no more — you might not need this book.

Foreword: I’ve been getting a lot of mix work lately. I guess it’s a combination of finally owning a decent analog console and the

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Black Lion is a small company best known for tearing apart and upgrading off-the-shelf gear. They also manufacture pro audio items. One of their offerings is the Micro Clock Mk2, a small footprint, barebones, external master clock. If you are the owner of a Pro Tools HD rig with legacy Digidesign...

The world of the digital DJ has undergone tons of changes in a relatively short time.  Much like the realm of mobile phones, there are new technologies, hardware configurations, and functionality introduced at a blistering pace.  Where only a few years ago, the digital jockey options were...

During the last couple years, the 500-series format has developed into an industry standard among audio manufacturers, but over and over, I’ve found myself reading online that Neve clones would never be compatible due to voltage and current restrictions. The first time I read this supposed fact, I...

When you find a product that streamlines your workflow simply and unobtrusively, you wonder, "Hey, how come nobody thought of this sooner?" Vienna Ensemble Pro is one of those products. So, what does it do? Well, imagine that you connect your laptop (or additional desktop) via ethernet to...

MIDI. Vacant stare. Puzzlement. Eyes rolling back into the head. Drool forming on the chin. You've heard about guys like me - I'm MIDImpaired. Terms like polyphony, quantization, and nodes make me a little drowsy in the noggin. So after years of battling with 5-pin MIDI keyboard...

Great River Electronics stalwarts Wes Kuhnley and Peter Bregman have been moonlighting of late, coming up with some promising guitar amp designs as well as a pair of fine guitar pedals. At first glance, the Graviton Boost and Manifold Drive stompboxes seem to be in danger of being variations of...

Manley Laboratories had been building custom mastering consoles on a case-by-case basis, but the waiting list grew too long to manage. (I know - I've been on it.) In a nutshell, it takes a long time to build each one from scratch. And it turns out that many mastering engineers request the...

While the Saffire PRO 40 is billed as a computer audio interface and the OctoPre MkII Dynamic is marketed as an 8-channel mic preamp/converter with compressors, they share a lot of the same elements and capabilities, such as the mic preamp circuits and metering panel. Although the units can be...

Retro Instruments made a splash about five years ago with its replica of the classic Gates Sta-Level compressor (Tape Op #55), and then again in recent years with products based on the Universal Audio 176 variable-mu compressor (#66) and the Pultec EQP-1A3 passive/tube EQ (#79). This time around,...

Doubtless the most famous microphone preamplifier in history, the Neve 1073 has spawned countless imitations — from cheap knockoffs to component-precise replicas. The sincerest flattery has been repeatedly bestowed upon the venerable classic since its inception over 40 years ago. If you need a...

There’s a brief segment in this instructional video series presented by Alan Parsons (which shall henceforth be called ASSR) in which the legendary engineer, while describing his approach to recording electric guitar, moves a mic around the front of an amp from the center of the speaker cone out to...