Artist/Recordists
Jason Falkner: Home studio wizard & songwriter
by Larry Crane, Andy Hong
He's been a member of The Three O'Clock, Jellyfish and The Grays. His voice and instrumentation appear on albums by Beck, Susanna Hoffs, Eric Matthews, Aimee Mann, and Air. He co-wrote, produced,...
Interviews
Malcolm Burn: Recording Emmylou, Dylan & The Nevilles
by Larry DeVivo
It was a beautiful sunlit morning the day I headed down to interview producer/engineer Malcolm Burn. While driving, I couldn't help but ponder what the day had in store for me. Malcolm had invited...
Interviews
John Goodmanson: From Sleater-Kinney to Wu-Tang
by John Bosch
John Goodmanson inhabits a unique place in the world of recording. Frequently traversing the country from his Seattle base to mix projects by major label artists like Wu-Tang Clan and Blondie, his...
Hip-Hop
Boots Riley: The Coup and Hip-Hop mixing
by Leigh Marble
The Coup is a hip-hop group from Oakland. They have an outwardly Marxist bent, which has earned them diehard fans as well as vituperous criticism from mainstream pundits. But that won't be our...
Behind the Gear
Geoff Daking: Behind the Gear
by Eric Broyhill
A character, genius and great host are just a few of the words to use in describing Geoff Daking. A resilient man having survived an entire US tour with The Who opening for his band, The Blues...
Interviews
Plink: Recording via the Internet
by Nick Altebrando
Plink is the brainchild of Scott Evans and Brad Derrick. Scott's a computer programmer by day with a long list of song writing and production credits. Brad is a sound designer for video games, a...
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Under The Radar: A sampling of the home-made CD-Rs and cassettes we receive.
by Matt Mair Lowery
John Goodmanson: Why Use Reference CDs While Mixing?
by John Goodmanson
Coming up in the recording environment of Seattle there was no local mastering to speak of, so when mixing I learned to get it as close to a finished master as possible before sending it off to be...
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End Rant
Good Will?
by Larry Crane
A few months ago I started a session with a local band. While booking the time, the singer/guitarist told me one of the main reasons he was coming to record with me. It turns out that a year...
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Gear Reviews See more →
Variax modeling guitar
by Line 6 | reviewed by Pete Weiss
Love it or hate it, the Pod by Line 6 is here to stay. And now it's got a companion, the Variax modeling guitar. Just as the Pod was intended to replace a warehouse full of amps and effects, the...
M-80 Bass D.I. +, Limiter pedal
by MXR | reviewed by Scott Craggs
Something old, something new from MXR. New first. When I was shopping for an affordable bass DI, I was intending to pick up the Sansamp on Larry's recommendation in these pages long ago, but somehow I...
Tube Amplified Direct Box
by Valvotronics | reviewed by Larry Crane
If you didn't know, musician-wise I'm primarily a bass player. As a bass player, I have always been somewhat unhappy with the sound of my bass when recorded. I've accumulated a stack of moderately...
Lo-Fi Loop Junky stompbox
by Z.Vex | reviewed by Geoff Farina
For a recent project, I needed to find a portable replacement for my delicate Roland RE-150 Space Echo that I was reticent to trust in the hands of Air France. A few hours at various music stores...
Live 2 Real-Time Audio Sequencing Instrument
by Ableton | reviewed by Chachi Jones
Sometimes the best way to make a new song is to just mess around, dive-in headlong, and improvise until something you like starts to take shape. In other words, jam. Jamming is a fundamental...
6176 Channel Strip
by Universal Audio | reviewed by Larry Crane
What do you get when you combine the UA 610B tube mic preamp and the 1176LN compressor? The 6176, of course. Beyond the mic pre and compressor, the 610 section also boasts simple low and high shelf...
C 1000 S microphone
by AKG | reviewed by Andy Hong
With fellow engineer Scott Craggs giving away all his secrets in the MXR review, I figured I should come clean and give away one of my recording secrets too. My all-time favorite guitar amp microphone...
D-2 Microphone
by Audix | reviewed by Eric Broyhill
Since drummers are always destroying tom mics, it's not uncommon that the necessity to try something new on the toms arises. This time it was a Sennheiser 421 that was destroyed and an Audix D-2 that...
Doc?s Proplugs ear protectors
by International Aquatic Trades | reviewed by Andy Hong
If you've read my past reviews about hearing protectors and noise-canceling headphones, you know that I'm careful with my ears. A few months ago, I discovered an ear protection system that was...
Dangerous 2-BUS
by Dangerous Music | reviewed by Joe Chiccarelli
Mixing out of the Box, Part 1: High End Mixer Shootout In recent months, there's been a bunch of talk on the various online forums about mixing digital audio tracks within your DAW vs. through an...
Evolver
by DaveSmithInstruments | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
Having cut my teeth on a big Buchla modular synth back in my college days, I have always wanted to put a modular analog synth into my control room. Two things kept me from doing this: space and money....
M3A DAW Monitor
by Coleman Audio | reviewed by Mike Jasper
Like many small studio owners, I don't use a true mixing board. Instead, I use the Pro Tools virtual mixer along with a MotorMix digital mixer worksurface attached to the MIDI ins and outs of a Digi...
ADL 670 stereo tube limiter
by AnthonyDeMariaLabs | reviewed by Pete Weiss
Crazy as it sounds, well-financed producers, engineers, and studio owners have for years been willing to pay upwards of $30,000 for a genuine Fairchild 670 stereo compressor. These back (and bank)...
N72 mic preamp
by Seventh Circle Audio | reviewed by Collin Dupuis
I recently had the opportunity to check out the Seventh Circle Audio N72 mic preamp with the CH01 chassis and PS01 power supply. The N72 is available fully assembled or in various kit forms. With the...
MP20 Two-Channel Mic Preamp w/ Stereo Bus
by PreSonus | reviewed by Garrett Haines
The PreSonus MP20 is a microphone and instrument preamp consisting of dual Class A discrete input buffers followed by a dual-servo gain stage. This design translates into a low-noise, high-gain box....
TR8 Tuned Reference biamped monitor
by Event Electronics | reviewed by Eric Tischler
Two or three years ago, I read a review of Event's 20/20 monitors in this very magazine and promptly bought a pair. (I had been using a pair of Infinity home stereo speakers, not entirely...
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Music Reviews
Follow Your Bliss
by The Production Club | reviewed by Larry Crane
Wally Gagel spent many years engineering at Boston's Fort Apache Studio, working on many cool records with bands like Belly, Sebadoh, Old 97's, and Pell Mell. Now he lives in L.A. and has a home...
Music Reviews
Anthology
by The Clean | reviewed by Larry Crane
Remember the interview with New Zealand's David Kilgour a while back? This is what all the fuss is about. The two disc set starts with their early singles and EPs, 4-track heaven of grinding pop songs...
Music Reviews
Kennedy
by Kennedy | reviewed by Larry Crane
Full-bore, crunchy one-man-band home-recorded (Kennedy Space Station) masterpiece. He used one Audio-Technica stereo condenser mic and three SM57s through a Tascam M108 board through a 20-bit Layla...
Music Reviews
Copying Machine Music
by Xerophonics | reviewed by Larry Crane
Dr. Stefan Helmreich recorded the rhythmic sounds of photocopy machines on a Realistic Minisette-20, manipulating the sounds in an Ensoniq EPS 16 Plus. The songs have titles like "Xerox 5828". This...
Music Reviews
Distortion is Truth, Crossing Casco Bay
by Robert Poss | reviewed by Larry Crane
Speaking of Tone, one of their previous CDs was produced by Robert Poss, guitar genius, drone meister and ex- Band of Susans member. Here's some stuff from live performances and his well- equipped...
Music Reviews
The Acid Gospel Experience
by Scenic | reviewed by Larry Crane
Bruce Licher and company deliver another fine instrumental album, this time with more electronics and fuzzier guitars in the fore than before. Harold Budd makes a guest appearance with spacey piano on...
Music Reviews
Log 22
by Bettie Serveert | reviewed by Larry Crane
I finished writing all these "reviews" and then realized that one of the CDs I'd been listening to most was this one. Bettie Serveert have been around for years now, and is a great guitar pop band....
Music Reviews
Say You Will
by Fleetwood Mac | reviewed by Larry Crane
I admit that I'll buy occasional big budget, major label records just because I am curious about what can happen when lots of time and money (something I never get to see) are spent making a record....
Music Reviews
Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid
by Elefant | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
I'm super sick of the retro NYC new wave/punk revival trend and would rather just listen to Television, et. al. But dammed if this Elefant CD, which kinda fits that genre, doesn't just completely rise...
Music Reviews
Hand Clappin’
by Dub Narcotic Sound System | reviewed by Larry Crane
Calvin's Dub Narcotic return to form with this EP after a long, dormant recording period. Issue #32 had an interview with him about the studio, and here's a prime example of roomy, groovin' music with...
Music Reviews
Summer Sun
by Yo La Tengo | reviewed by Larry Crane
According to Roger Moutenot, "It was recorded here in Nashville at Alex The Great Studio, mixed in N.Y.C. at Shelter Island Sound. Just the band and myself." Dreamy tunes, cool instrumentation,...
Music Reviews
Republic of Two
by Nedelle | reviewed by Larry Crane
It's funny how I won't let anyone write in Tape Op about CDs I work on, but I'll go on and on about albums our contributors have worked on. Nedelle is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter...
Music Reviews
Ambient Metals
by Tone | reviewed by Larry Crane
Produced and engineered by J. Robbins, this is Tone's most "rock" record yet. Instrumentals with massive pounding drums (two kits) and more pronounced guitar hooks and riffs (four guitarists) pull it...
Music Reviews
Feast of Wire
by Calexico | reviewed by Larry Crane
I had to correct the publicist for this record when I received an email telling me that the new Calexico was recorded in "the band's studio, WaveLab." As any astute reader of Tape Op should know,...
Music Reviews
Bright Yellow Bright Orange
by The Go-Betweens | reviewed by Larry Crane
They did their previous record, The Friends of Rachel Worth, at Jackpot! with engineering by yours truly. We all had a great time and when plans for a new record came up I was in the running to...
Music Reviews
quicksand/cradlesnakes
by Califone | reviewed by Larry Crane
Recorded and mixed by Graeme Gibson at the band's own Clava Studio in Chicago with additional recording by Mikael Jorgensen and Joe Ferguson. Recorded on 16-track 2" 3M, M79 with an Amek Big28...
Music Reviews
The Studio One Story
by The Studio One Story | reviewed by Larry Crane
This CD and DVD combo is the size of a two-CD package, plus it has a nifty little booklet. The DVD is four hours of documentary on Studio One, the legendary Jamaican reggae studio run by Clement "Sir...