Julie Kathryn is I Am Snow Angel, a sobriquet under which she composes, performs, produces, engineers, and mixes her own music. She also produces many other artists, such as Grace Lachance and ESS...
Emma Ruth Rundle Recordist Sonny DiPerri has worked with Nine Inch Nails, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Portugal. The Man, Emma Ruth Rundle, La Femme, Radiation City, and Protomartyr. The...
Joe Henry may be the deepest guy I have ever discussed music with. His insights and, in fact, almost every response to my carefully researched questions that came out of his mouth highlighted his...
As you walk into the offices of ABKCO Music & Records on New York's Fifth Avenue, you're immediately aware that you are entering the center of a rock 'n' roll universe. Winding through the middle...
British-born, Nashville-living Jamie Lidell is a singer, beatboxer, recordist, producer, engineer, songwriter, code writer, husband, and father. He has collaborated with Beck, Cristian Vogel (as Super...
I've wanted to do an interview with noted mix engineer Bob Clearmountain for many years. Ever since I first heard tales from artists who had worked with him about how he finds the heart of a song's...
Maston is the project of L.A.-based composer multi-instrumentalist Frank Maston, who also runs the studio and label, Phonoscope. I met Frank backstage at a Jacco Gardner [Tape Op #109] concert in July...
I met Chris Schlarb years ago in the Long Beach, California music scene, and we became reacquainted recently when I took on engineer and assistant roles for several of his productions in 2016, my...
SoundBetter Founders Shachar Gilad (Left) and Itamar Yunger (Right). In 2013 I met up with Shachar Gilad, the founder of SoundBetter, to talk about the new business he'd started, connecting people...
Not long after I first opened my recording studio, (some 20 years ago, when people actually booked time via a landline), I got a call one day about a booking request. Client: "Hi, we'd like to book...
Let’s talk tape. In 2015, I wrote about my favorite “sort of sticky” tapes for labeling and repairing things [Tape Op #107]. Recently, I needed to measure the diameter of a mic, so I...
When Arturia introduced a new series of Brute synths and a Eurorack/power supply system at NAMM last year, we had several reviewers asking about them. Thom Monahan is an experienced analog synthesizer...
We're lucky when three experienced audio professionals come together with their perspectives and experience for a deep dive into a product that deserves close attention. Studio owner/engineer/musician...
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders "musicians face nearly four times greater risk of developing hearing loss than the rest of the public." If you haven't...
Standard Audio, a California-based manufacturer specializing in 500 Series designs, has released an update of their much-loved Level-Or limiter/distortion processor. The original Level-Or [Tape Op...
Back in 2004, Mackie introduced the original Big Knob, the first affordable monitor/headphone bus controller for DAW-based studios. Essentially, Mackie took the best elements of an analog console...
These days, we are constantly updated with new product announcements consisting of plug-in emulations of old products. While this may be good for our ever-changing industry, it seems that truly...
From the Department of "where the heck has this been all my life!" comes thee soldering accessory from Austin DIY Ribbon Microphones. It's a purple block of dense silicon that can hold components in...
Apogee and Sennheiser teamed up to make a smart in-ear headset/microphone combo. As a proud owner, I was eager to find out of this magical hybrid beast lived up to its potential. First, what is it?...
When describing equipment we love, we often use words like "weight," "character," or "glue." Many would argue that the analog domain is where these adjectives thrive – I would have to agree. In...
There are pieces of studio gear that are essential and there are color or flavor machines that enhance, adding personality to your recordings or mixes. There are very few that are both, but the Crane...
Back in "ye olde days," when control rooms were built around a console, monitor control was generally handled in the master/center section of the desk where one could switch between multiple sets of...
As both a refurbisher and seller of pro tape machines, the name Mara is synonymous with tape. When I saw they were entering the iOS app world with their Mara tape calibration program, I was both...
If you have a studio, you have a microwave – odds are the inside of which looks and smells like a truck stop toilet apocalypse (or a Hertz rental car return from Burning Man). Interns would...
Acme Audio has been hitting home runs for the last few years with their Motown D.I. [Tape Op #116] and Opticom XLA-series tube compressors [#86], so when the MTP-66 Motown tube preamp recently popped...
Plug-in reverbs sure are handy at times, but most mix engineers will admit that the majority of these plug-ins are more convenient than actually good-sounding. I find myself using certain plug-in...
My studio in San Francisco is built around an Avid control surface instead of an analog console. Because of that, I rely exclusively on outboard to get sounds before I leave the "infinite sample rate"...
While reading Tape Op #128, I came upon Larry Crane's review of Qdea's Synchronize! Pro X backup software. About half way through I came upon the dreaded phrase "for Mac OS only." No worries! I'm a...
As engineers and studio owners, we all get excited (and check our cashflow) when a new microphone design hits the streets – especially when that microphone is built by an expert with a deep...
Along with failing solder joints and dust, overheating can be an equal opportunity menace to electronics. Previously, the solution for keeping the Mac mini, my UAD-2 Satellite [Tape Op #83], and a...
If you're not a crate digger, DJ, EDM track sampler, post production whiz, or music historian, you might not know what library music – also known as production or stock music – is, or why...
Consoles are iconic – for decades they were the nucleus of every professional studio. The first time I stepped into a control room and saw one I knew, right away, that was where I wanted to sit,...
