Joining Abbey Road Studios as a runner at the age of 16, John Kurlander swiftly moved up the ranks to become a tape operator and assistant engineer. Working under the tutelage of Geoff Emerick [Tape...
Having played drums, piano, and guitar in various bands and orchestras, Sam Okell undertook the exalted Tonmeister degree course in music technology prior to serving a placement year at Abbey Road...
Gordon Waller and Peter Asher (Peter and Gordon) at Studio Three at EMI Recording Studios Paul McCartney lived in his house for two years. His mother was George Martin's music teacher. He is...
For years Pea Hicks has carried a torch for the Optigan, a unique optical disc-powered keyboard from the '70s. His band with Rob Crow, Optiganally Yours, has released three albums. He's produced and...
Larry Klein began playing bass at a young age, touring with famed jazz musician Freddie Hubbard, and has since gone on to produce records for Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Tracy Chapman, Shawn...
I'm a big fan of the last two Bon Iver albums, 22, A Million and i,i, so when I was in Los Angeles recently and the opportunity came up for a last minute interview with co-producer and collaborator BJ...
This story begins many years ago, in Portland, Oregon. It was 1996, and the first issue of Tape Op had just been released. In a quest to learn more, I had been devouring as many books and magazines...
Youthful and energetic at 76, Bob Langford is active in local politics and community affairs in his small town an hour north of St. Petersburg, Florida. But in the late-1960s he was part of the...
When I first purchased an iPhone I was less than excited about most of the "extra" applications available. Games and other time-passing tools had no appeal to me. But when Peter Chilvers and Brian Eno...
The history of humankind shows that only in recent centuries have we have become less social creatures. I've long advocated in the pages of Tape Op that we all need to find time to get together...
A few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, JB sent an email to the Tape Op staff: "As studios are hopefully able to re-open in a few months, what will the cleaning protocols be? The SARS-CoV-2 virus...
Let’s use some simple steps for choosing monitors, based on how one might select a bottle of wine. Set your monitor price point (much like wine, with monitors you’ll likely need to buy at...
I've always wished there was a recreation of the Urei 1178, the stereo version of the Urie/Universal Audio 1176. With its FET-based compression and simple stereo link controls, the fresh-faced lads at...
Audio engineering was almost a non-existent academic career when I was growing up in Colombia during the nineties. Few universities in Latin America offered an audio engineering program, and the...
These days, we have more reverbs than ever before in our various DAWs, all available under our fingertips (trackball tips? mouse tips?!?) whenever we want them. More rooms, halls, plates, and...
Two large-diaphragm FET microphones have been released from TechZone Audio recently; the Stellar X2 and X2 Vintage. I received a single X2, and a matched stereo pair of the X2 Vintage mics mere days...
Comeback Kid, from BABY Audio, is a fully customizable delay and echo plug-in with analog flavor. It has 14 one-knob effects that uniquely allow control of the color and shape of the delay. Each knob...
Michael Romanowski, Alan Tubbs, and I reviewed the December 2018 release of Cubase 10 [Tape Op #131] last year. On time with its annual half-point release schedule, Cubase 10.5 was published at the...
The Apogee HypeMiC is a compact, premium quality, USB-powered cardioid condenser mic designed for use with iOS, Mac, and PC. It records up to 24-bit/96 kHz, plus it is 100% plug and play. The design...
Bryston, based in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, has been around since 1961. The company straddles the border between pro audio and the part of the audiophile/home theater world that gravitates to...
A few years back a friend of mine was recording at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles [Tape Op #114], and he told me there was a tech on staff there building some special compressors that I needed to...
A new addition to the venerable Drawmer line, the 1970, is a dual FET compressor, dual mic pre, and mono DI. It's versatile and easy to use with a vast feature set. While the 1970 borrows its layout...
The Daking MKII is a full-featured, large-format mixing console engineered for modern recording with the artist in mind – which makes sense as it was designed by producer, engineer, and...
Oeksound (pronounced "oh-ek") created the exceptional soothe2, which Larry covers in our next issue. I made the mistake of dismissing the soothe [Tape Op #127] concept as merely a dynamic EQ with...
Around 40 years ago I went to Radio Shack and purchased an integrated circuit (IC) chip that was packaged with a technical data sheet explaining how to wire it up as a delay unit. This was the Reticon...
In a recent review of a $7000 tube condenser microphone, I alluded to the fact that there are excellent condenser microphones being made for $400 and that it is no longer necessary to spend oodles of...
The Core 59 is the latest high end, professional reference monitor unveiled by Dynaudio, and the flagship of their new Core series. These monitors are handmade in Denmark, with distinct features,...
There seems to be an endless number of stompbox companies out there, but a good portion of them are only offering their take on classic circuits. Strymon is a rare exception to this, and has released...
I was excited to receive an email from Colin Adshead at AML (Audio Maintenance Limited) about a new product in the works; their take on the Neve 1081 microphone preamp and equalizer – a personal...
Let's come clean right from the beginning: I'm a gear snob. I like gear that feels robust and solid. I like gear that sounds beautiful and inspiring. I like it when the gear I use gives me the...
The Lauten Audio LS-208 is a companion microphone to the LS-308. Both are part of their Synergy Series, designed to reduce bleed in lively environments. The LS-208 is a front address, large diaphragm...
I don't want to call these mics "specialty," but they are truly special. The Lauten Audio LS-308 is described by the manufacturer as "a noise rejecting, high-dynamic range microphone to be used as a...
I didn't know I needed the Avid S1 until I started using it. Most of my production work is done in Pro Tools. I utilize outboard gear via inserts, and I've used an Avid Artist Mix for fader rides at...
Many of us have gone down the rabbit hole while mixing, looking for that unique and musical effect to put on a track to keep it from sounding stale. Lately, I've been relying on Wow Control by...
Sweet, smooth sounding and easy to use – this is my one sentence review of the Chandler Limited 500 Series TG12345 MKIV EQ. It's nice sometimes to have all the options for surgical precision...
The new KRK ROKIT G4 series is the fourth generation of this popular family of studio monitors. G4 monitors incorporate many of the advanced features of KRK's professional grade V Series [Tape Op...
There is nothing like a good, solid FET compressor. The Universal Audio 1176 has been on countless records – for good reason. It's very fast and it has its own sound, but it also has an enormous...
