Interviews
Dennis Herring: From Timbuk 3 to Modest Mouse
by Tim Lee
Chris Eckman has been chief songwriter and guitarist for Seattle band The Walkabouts for 20 years. The band's sound has evolved over time as Eckman's collaboration with co-founder, vocalist and...
Real World Studios is an icon in the studio business, recognized internationally for its innovative architecture, high technology standards and, of course, its association with founder Peter Gabriel....
On a bone-cold day I rushed up Varick Street in lower Manhattan in an effort to be on time to interview a certain producer with stellar credentials, a man whom I had volunteered to interview with...
David Josephson, of Josephson Engineering, builds microphones that are innovative, interesting and downright great sounding. We talked about digital audio, cheap mics and the future of microphone...
On a daily basis I come across many words used in the recording world that have no meaning to me or have lost any meaning they might have once had. These words come out of clients' mouths, from...
In Tape Op #36, I reviewed the panel traps that RealTraps used to manufacture out of wood. In issue #38, Larry Crane reviewed RealTraps MiniTraps, which performed so well (while being easy to ship)...
Unlike the article we published in Tape Op #45, which outlined a very simple mod for the 3630 compressor, this kit is a complete overhaul. Considering the low initial cost of the compressor and the...
You may recall my positive review of the Proscreen 101 in Tape Op #23. Since then, I've used my four Proscreens (I keep buying more!) on many sessions, packed them in my luggage when recording...
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." I've heard this quote attributed to everyone from Igor Stravinsky and Thelonius Monk, to Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, and Elvis Costello....
We have reached a point, more than 20 years into the digital revolution, where vintage digital is being sought after almost as much as vintage analog. This is especially true in the area of reverbs....
I wrote a review in Tape Op #44 about the Peluso 22 251 vacuum tube condenser. I was very impressed. So impressed that I wanted to check out the whole line. John Peluso, the great guy that he is, sent...
The Sebatron VMP-1000e is a really-cool tube mic preamp. It's kind of its own thing (thank goodness), and it doesn't seem to be a clone of anything. It has a very warm tone-great for guitars-and...
I get a lot of letters asking "what should I buy next?" I'm hardly ever in a position to give such advice. But I also get questions like "what's a good starter compressor?"- which is a bit easier to...
The live room in my recording studio has lots of natural light (see www. kimcheerecords.com/articles/studioacoustics/ for photos), much of it from two skylights. When we first built out the studio, we...
The folks that make this really cool, great sounding microphone may just be the nicest people I have ever dealt with on the phone, period. That instilled confidence from the moment I called up Sage...
$300 (street) buys you a fantastic-sounding, large- diaphragm condenser, complete with suitcase and shockmount? Unbelievable! I recently recorded four songs with Chris Colbourn (Buffalo Tom) and...
A guy I know is migrating to Pro Tools from another application. He asked me if I had any suggestions for a primer. Unfortunately, it seems like everyone and his dog has written a book on Pro Tools...
The MicroTonic (or μTonic) is a VST drum and percussion synthesizer plug-in for Windows (98 or later) or Mac OS X (10.2 or later) that works with any host application compatible with VSTi 2.0...
It was five years and one issue ago when I reviewed the Event 20/20 monitors (Tape Op #18), and they've been my mainstays ever since. I raved about them then, and I still like them, but after doing...
A microphone bar is a device that allows you to mount two or more mics on it. It usually looks like a metal tongue depressor with threaded mic mounts on each end. Replace a standard mic clip with the...
A 150-foot snake. I bought it on Craigslist about a year ago. I thought it would be great for mic'ing up drums in my living room or backyard, vocals in the bathroom, or a string quartet in my garage....
The first multitrack I recall owning was a TASCAM Porta One cassette 4-track. My brother and I bought it sometime in the early-80's, along with a spring reverb and a cheap dynamic microphone. A lot...
Despite the fact that I'm an übergeek, I only recently installed foobar2000 on my primary desktop machine in my home office so I can listen to all the various audio files that I have stored on...
We've been big fans of ribbon tweeters for a long time here at WMBR Radio, especially after having reviewed the ADAM P11A's in Tape Op #33. So when we received a pair of Samson Rubicon 6a's for...
The popularity of tube-based audio gear has grown with the popularity of digital recording. One look around your local music mega-center and it seems like half of the pro-audio, keyboard, and guitar...
MindPrint has recently unleashed a few nifty devices of the "channel strip" variety, and the DTC (Dual Tube Channel), designed with the help of award-winning Euro guitarist Thomas Blug and Hughes...
When we interviewed Alan Parsons last year, he asked if we could shoot a photo of him for a book for which he'd just done an interview. I happily emailed him one of the digital pictures I'd taken of...