As the leading force behind the popular instrumental group Snarky Puppy, bassist/producer/composer Michael League has plenty on his plate simply by keeping up with the band’s prolific output....
For many years, an interview with Martin Glover, commonly known as "Youth," has been on my "must do" list for Tape Op. With the release of Gina Birch's debut LP, I Play My Bass Loud, which he...
Russ Titelman (left) with Lee from early 1973. Photos courtesy of Warner Music Group. Lee Herschberg's achievements place him on a rarefied plane as a recording engineer. After stints at Decca...
In the past few decades, something wicked has crept out of the Central Jersey swamp, slowly rising into the foothills and beyond. Horrific sounds that meld flesh and circuitry in a cyber-metallic...
Along with Ana da Silva, Gina Birch led The Raincoats from 1977 to 1984 in England, reforming in 1993, and still collaborating to this day. Their unique approach to music inspired many, including...
Drew Vandenberg talked his way into interning at the iconic Athens, Georgia, 40 Watt Club and the legendary Chase Park Transduction studio [Tape Op #14] by the time he was 16 years old. Today,...
Experimental and classically-trained percussionist Evelyn Glennie has released almost 50 albums and collaborated with the likes of Björk, Mark Knopfler [Tape Op #97], Fred Frith, Béla...
As the leading force behind the popular instrumental group Snarky Puppy, bassist/producer/composer Michael League has plenty on his plate simply by keeping up with the band’s prolific output....
Working with Michael League of Snarky Puppy, Nic Hard has engineered much of the band’s catalog. After starting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a DJ, he soon found himself studying...
With a start at New York City's Record Plant in the mid-'70s, Julie Last continued with her career at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. Now living in Woodstock, NY, she runs her own Cold Brook...
"No drum machines were used on this album!" "No synthesizers!" These liner note proclamations were, for a time, a "cool" way to indicate a declaration of purity. But bands like Queen, who made these...
When we lust over aspirational recording gear, what often comes to mind are vintage hunks of steel and vacuum tubes from the likes of Fairchild, Telefunken, Neumann, RCA, Pultec, Collins, and Altec....
Did you ever wonder who some of the first people to integrate sampling, drum machines, and sequencing into R&B, jazz, and pop were, and how they did it? Well, Jason Miles was one of those people,...
Kurt Ballou [Tape Op #76] is known for making incredible records both as a producer/studio owner (God City) and as the guitarist for hardcore/punk band Converge. Now, Ballou has released his second...
Folks, let's chat about PreSonus Studio One Professional, now leveled up to version six. I tend to “DAW-jump” these days between Ableton Live [Tape Op #143], Universal Audio LUNA [#138],...
I still believe that analog mixing sounds better than in the box mixing, and I enjoy the workflow more as well. I’ve been mixing with a hybrid analog/digital setup and process for years now, and...
Ah, the AKG 414. There are so many iterations of this mic. Every studio worth its salt has at least one, and if they’re on their game, they own several. We see them often used as drum overheads,...
I like to think of my mixing desk as the control center. I hate running around the studio, behind racks, or bending down to search for a power switch, which is why I have several power strips in racks...
We’re all super excited over here at Tape Op when API introduces new gear, and the enthusiasm doubles when said equipment is priced affordably. Additionally, a joyous hysteria breaks out...
Wayne Jones' career as a successful bass player led him to develop a line of well-respected bass amplifiers and cabinets for the stage and studio, utilizing his custom-manufactured Kevlar-impregnated...
The new MBOX Studio demonstrates why Avid remains at the top of the heap for music production professionals. After spending several weeks with this interface, I can attest that it brings unparalleled...
This is going to be shorter than my usual overly wordy review – not because the product doesn’t warrant the page space, but because the message is fairly simple. So, let me give the...
Many of us might be familiar with this scenario: A client brings in a hard drive of old DAW sessions to remix. You plug the hard drive in (likely needing some weird cable and adapter), and nothing...
Avantone began making microphones close to 20 years ago, and has recently updated their BV-1 large-diaphragm tube condenser microphone to the BV-1 mkII. First off, this upgrade comes as a significant...
Clones of classic vintage tube microphones have become a common occurrence in pro audio. As a result, I have had the opportunity to hear and compare many different reproductions of famous mic designs...
I made sure to start this plug-in delay's review without touching a single preset. Despite the feature-filled control panel, I understood and utilized most functions without reading any manuals and...
