In 2017, one of my best friends, Craig Alvin [Tape Op #137], kept texting me about a record he was engineering. He was saying how amazing the process was, and how awesome the results were. The album...
Tim Oliver is the "Senior Consulting Engineer” at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios [Tape Op #63] in the English countryside. With over 40 years of experience, Oliver has worked with a...
I first met Thai Long Ly several years ago at a NAMM Show in Anaheim. He asked me, "What do you ride?" when he noticed the Kriega-branded motorcycling accessories on my backpack. We geeked out about...
Jarrett Pritchard has seen some shit. After coming up in Florida’s extreme music scene, he slugged it out as an educator, live sound engineer, and re-recording mixer for television before...
A little over a decade ago, the A Band Called Death documentary brought cheers and tears to music fans worldwide, telling the fantastic tale of proto-punk band Death’s rediscovery. Having been...
Azalia Snail’s recording career began with a TASCAM recorder running on batteries in the forests outside of New York City. From those early, carefree experiments, she has continued to embrace...
Jeff Lipton is a mastering veteran with an impressive 30-year career under his belt. He's been nominated for four Grammy Awards in the Best Historical Album category, thanks to his extensive work...
Eric Bachmann and Matt Gentling of Archers of Loaf discuss songwriting process, reunions, parenting, and working at Drop of Sun Studios on Reason in Decline.
Grammy award-winning songwriter and musician Aoife O'Donovan has released three critically-acclaimed solo albums, is co-founder of the bands I'm with Her and Crooked Still, and has spent a decade...
Malcolm Toft [Tape Op #26, #165] began his career as a recording engineer at the legendary Trident Studios in London in 1968, then went on to found Trident Audio Developments, creating the initial...
In writing this review, I realized it's been over 30 years since I was introduced to my first TASCAM product: The Porta One Ministudio. That little 4-track cassette recorder planted the seeds for...
Harrison consoles are beloved by many engineers, and after I had the opportunity to work with four of the new Harrison 32Classic MS Mix Strips, I understand why. While the Harrisons are not as...
After decades of manufacturing measurement tools and consumer electronics in England, Pye Audio merged with Phillips in 1960, forming Pye TVT Limited. Their studio technologies impacted an era of...
I reviewed the RTM (Recording The Masters) 1/4-inch SM900 tape back in Tape Op #161, was very pleased with it, and have since used it for a few more mixing sessions. Then, at the 2024 NYC AES show, I...
Since its release in 2018, FabFilter’s Pro-Q 3 [Tape Op #132] has become one of the most used, if not the most used, EQ plug-ins for professionals and enthusiasts alike. Seven years later, Pro-Q...
Fun trivia: The Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) Pro Audio Reference Guide provides three definitions of the word feedback, one being “the longest word in the English language that uses...
Here are books I enjoyed reading that cover two important underground music scenes that may have escaped some folks’ notice. Needles and Plastic, subtitled Flying Nun Records, 1981-1988, is an...
When AEA released their first stereo mic, the R88 [Tape Op #96], in the early 2000s it was quite a statement. Other companies, such as Royer Labs, were fairly new to the scene, and ribbon mics seemed...
Ben and Veronica Sneesby have been making mics in Australia for nearly 25 years (the name derives from Ben’s nickname in high school). Some of their mics have been designed as modernized clones...
I’m a big fan of using audio equipment originally designed for radio and other broadcast purposes to work on recording music in the studio. This gear is typically of extremely high build quality...
I’ve always been fascinated with the history of recording studios, the evolution of analog gear, and MCI equipment. There was one particular MCI console that almost seemed mythical: The...
A few years ago, I had a water leak somewhere on a 600-foot-long pipe. There was no wet ground to give the leak away, and I even tried water witching/dowsing to locate it! No dice. Enter the AudioTech...
For decades, I've wondered how the effect on the female backing vocals of Pink Floyd's "Time" from The Dark Side of the Moon was created. I hear a Leslie speaker vibrato or Doppler effect, but it's...
In April 2023, John La Grou, founder/owner of Millennia Media, dropped me a line about a new audio technology venture he was working on, with the caveat that I could not tell anyone what he was up to....
Jack White [Tape Op #82] likes a certain guitar tone, right? A fuzz with a low octave and maybe some high octave piercing tone. Union Tube & Transistor hooked me up with their collab Third Man...
Good things come in small packages, and that’s especially true for the iLoud Micro Monitor Pro. IK Multimedia first made waves with their iLoud Micro Monitors, which combined a compact form...
