Gear Reviews

Massey CT4 is a straightforward compressor plug-in that comes in RTAS and TDM formats. With an uncluttered interface, CT4 has only four controls-compression, makeup, attack, and release-making it easy for users to dial up settings in a flash. There is also a VU-type meter that shows gain reduction and...

Some years ago, I owned an original Allen & Heath WZ20:8:2 MixWizard designed for use with an 8-track. It was a major step up from other small-format consoles of the time, both functionally and sound-wise. I purchased the MixWizard while in the middle of tracking and mixing the compilation CD In...

The PreSonus HP60 solves two of the most common home- studio problems by providing individual headphone mixes for up to six people as well as a convenient talkback system. There are two main stereo inputs in the rear, marked A and B, which feed the six high-power stereo headphone amps inside. A mix...

When I was at the last AES conference, I ran into Fletcher of Mercenary Audio, and I saw something sticking out of his shirt pocket. He pulled it out proudly and showed it around. I said, "That's got to be an 84"-meaning a copy or version of the famous Neumann KM 84 microphone. He said,...

I am a home recordist with a humble 12-space rack filled with affordable (and occasionally interesting) gear. I am also a sucker for anything odd, old, and esoteric... and bonus points for strange paint jobs. Like many of my bedroom and basement brethren, purchasing rack after rack of thousand dollar...

We have a small B-Room here at The Hangar with a Digi 002 and a Rolls HA43 4-channel headphone amp. So when Aphex asked if we'd be interested in reviewing their HeadPod unit, I said sure, I can do that. Both units are similar in that they both power four sets of cans with individual volume controls....

This is one of the best sounding EQs I've ever used. I'm a big fan of passive EQs for their smooth sound, especially when boosting. The Pultec is one of the best-known examples of a passive EQ. In layman's terms (and I'm definitely a layman), a passive EQ doesn't actually boost...

What recording geek doesn't have a soft spot for analog synths? All those knobs and patch cables! All those textured sounds! Running audio through filters and ring mods! Good analog synths are a valued paintbrush in many an engineer's tool kit. This is the best book to date I've seen...

Along with other acoustic treatments, I've employed RealTraps bass traps (Tape Op #36, #38, #48) in my personal studio with a good deal of success. The payoff for careful placement of traps, treatment, main monitors, and a Bag End subwoofer (#50) was a monitoring setup that measured very close...

I've been messing around with video game music since about 1997 with my good friend Joseph Majalca in Chicago under the moniker Royal Space Force. We started off by using sound tests and otherwise sampling bits of games that we thought had cool tunes, and then mixing and matching them together...

I've been messing around with video game music since about 1997 with my good friend Joseph Majalca in Chicago under the moniker Royal Space Force. We started off by using sound tests and otherwise sampling bits of games that we thought had cool tunes, and then mixing and matching them together...

I've been messing around with video game music since about 1997 with my good friend Joseph Majalca in Chicago under the moniker Royal Space Force. We started off by using sound tests and otherwise sampling bits of games that we thought had cool tunes, and then mixing and matching them together...

Shane Wilson's Guide to Mixing was produced by Chris Graffagnino, Russ Long, and Michael Valletta for Audioinstruction, LLC in Nashville, and in the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I was one of the beta testers on the project. In return for discovering the errant sound of a squeaky...

If you followed my "Gear Geeking" columns in year 2007, you know the epic story of my move from Pro Tools HD to various native DAWs running on a souped-up Mac Pro, including Logic Pro 7. Well, soon after I'd given up on Logic 7 because of its meager audio-editing capabilities, Apple released...

I'm not a plug-in hound. I tend to stick to a few families of plug-ins that I know and trust. These days, I think I could do 99% of my work with plug-ins from Universal Audio and Wave Arts (Tape Op #55, #56, and this issue), as well as Waves Tune (#54). Up until a year ago, I had a dual G4 Mac...

The inexpensive Zoom H2 Handy Recorder makes quality WAV or MP3 recordings on removable SD media. It's loaded with features, comes with many useful accessories, and is easy to interface with a computer. The H2 reminds me of most cell phones that I've owned; it has tons of features I'll...

A few months ago, while Neil Mclellan and I were having dinner at his place and listening to some tracks he'd been mixing on his home rig, he started to show me webpages of some big old synths that he wished he could shoehorn into his small, NYC-sized living room. I put on my propeller-topped Gear...

A few issues back, I announced that I had sold my Pro Tools HD rig and replaced it with an Apogee Symphony (Tape Op #59) system running Apple Logic on a Mac Pro. The audio performance of Logic/Symphony is simply stunning: it can handle more tracks than I can throw at it; its latency is on par with hardware-based...

Sometimes not knowing what you're getting into is a good thing. I don't know what Rick Wilkinson was thinking when he decided to whip up a ribbon mic from scratch, but it's a good thing he's not easily deterred. A technical writer/corporate trainer by day, it only seemed natural...