It's the mid-60s and tubes are glowing hot in studios from 30th Street to Abbey Road. Wheels are in motion and the legacy of Leonard Chess and Sam Phillips is welling up in the ears of America. In...
I first worked with Leanne Ungar in 1992, when I was an assistant engineer at The Complex in West Los Angeles. The record was Leonard Cohen's The Future. Leanne has been engineering records for...
Howie Weinberg got his start in the Masterdisk mailroom, believe it or not. As a huge fan of music, Howie sought a purpose to support his passion, and he had always dreamed of working in the...
The Bevis Frond's 1986 debut Miasma could have come from any time, or maybe no time. Nick Saloman's home-recorded, somewhat primitive recording techniques would have fallen under the "lo-fi"...
In issue #29 I wrote about an IC op amp upgrade for the UREI LA-4, a '70s-era optical limiter whose ancestors were the Teletronix LA-2 (vacuum tube) and the Universal Audio LA-3 (solid state). The...
Everyone who's had tuning nightmares during a recording session, raise your hand. Gee, that's just about everyone, isn't it?
Well here's a classic Tape Op interview question for you: how do you feel about digital?Frustrated. [laughs]. There's so many great things about it and yet — there was a thing at the AES called...
Bart Thurber, once described by a record reviewer as the punk rock Phil Spector, has a favorite expression — "An engineer drives a train — I'm a recording guy". He's a West Coast legend...
When asked to come up with a "do it yourself" tube mic pre project, I thought long and hard about what topology to go with. I designed a number of different hybrid tube/discrete class A designs...
Okay, here's the rant I've been building up on for years and during the Tape Op Conference it came up a few times. What the fuck is wrong with some of you engineers out there that can't be bothered...
Like a lot of midsize studio owners, I have a dilemma. I'm committed to my two inch analog machine, but for a variety of reasons I need to be able to offer my clients a non-linear digital medium and...
With the advent of home-based digital recording, the search for a decent, versatile tube direct box with gain control felt like the search for the Holy Grail. The ADL G- 100 ($599 retail), is not a...
This unidirectional ribbon mic has been the secret pride of the Fostex pro audio arsenal for quite some time. While at the NAMM show in January I asked if it would be possible to review one of their...
The new Brauner Valvet Voice is a fixed pattern (cardioid) large diaphragm tube mic, specially designed for recording voice. It's only available in a limited run of 500 mics, and is at a lower cost...
Loopers have been asking for years for a product that not only repeats phrases or loops that they create but a unit that SAVES and STORES the information for later use. The folks at Electrix have...
This is the Holy Grail of limiters - the most transparent limiter I have ever used. This is not a plug- in, but a dedicated piece of hardware that does all its own number crunching at 48 bit. It's...
Here's a great little item that can be useful in immeasurable ways: The Lehle 1@3 switcher pedal. Basically it takes a 1/4" TS, unbalanced signal and switches or splits it to three other outputs...
With the proliferation of DAWs in home recording, some enthusiasts have been searching for an easy, clean and efficient way to record digital audio pristinely and directly into their computers without...
My seemingly endless search for the perfect tube DI has led me to Uncle Albert's doorstep. Here I found a no-frills, basic but excellent vacuum tube direct box for under $500. All the essentials are...
People always seem to be interested in finding "tricks" of the recording trade so here is one of mine: The Porchboard Bass is a solid, finely-crafted piece of wood employing a pressure sensor from a...
Most studios have pairs of T40RP headphones on hand for tracking. I've got three and have been using them constantly. The cups don't swivel all around like some headphones so they're easy to take on...
The MoPads are a set of 4 dense foam pads that fit under your studio monitors to isolate them from low end acoustic coupling that occurs all too frequently in studios. The pads go two to a speaker,...
When I received these mics I was shocked at their size. They are built right into standard XLR connectors with a small brass tube coming out of the end. All told, these things are about 3 1/2" inches...
Bucking the trend towards expensive, high-end mic- preamps, the folks at M-Audio have recently released two affordable models that caught my eye. DMP3 Mic Pre First off, the DMP3 dual mic pre ($249...
Wherein our hero Roger (ex- Byrds) and his wife Camilla drive around (with a computer loaded with Cool Edit Pro and a Yamaha SW1000XG card, a Stedman 1100B mic and a mixer and mic stands) visiting...
A shining example of the work of Tucker Martine (issue #29), recorded at his Flora Ave Studio, another place called Airstream, and also at Martin Feveyear's Jupiter Studios. It's a sonic treat with...
Concentrick is the baby of Tim Green of the Fucking Champs, ex-Nation of Ulysses, and proud owner/engineer of Louder Studios in San Francisco. If you know the Champs for their abrasive, loud guitars...
Here's the record that Tony Visconti was talking about in issue #29. Is it good? Certainly the best I've heard since Outside and my favorite since Scary Monsters, Tony's last previous co-production...
John Roderick is an introspective songwriter who is lucky enough to have friends like Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) and Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger) help him record and play on his record. Not to...
Rafter Roberts, who was featured in issue #28, helped record this record in various places and mixed it at his Singing Serpent studio. A great example of an arty rock band making a record on a tight...
Is there anyone out there that can carefully craft samples, loops and noises as well as Josh Davis? I doubt it. A lesson in what can be done in a home studio given talent and what must have been a lot...
Mary Lorson and Saint Low Tricks for Dawn Mary Lorson, once the voice of Madder Rose, steps out with this haunting collection of songs on her second "solo" record. She and partner Billy Coté...
