Interviews
Ryan Hewitt: On working together, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Rubin, Ian MacKaye, Blink-182, Synthesizers as processors and lots more
by John Baccigaluppi
In just a few short years and at a relatively young age Ryan Hewitt has become one of L.A.'s first-call engineers in a notoriously competitive and dwindling market. The son of a well-known remote...
Interviews
John Frusciante and Ryan Hewitt: On working together, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Rubin, Ian MacKaye, Blink-182, Synthesizers as processors and lots more
by John Baccigaluppi
The first thing you notice upon entering John Frusciante's Laurel Canyon home is the two Studer A- 800 two-inch machines that nearly block the front door and hallway, leaving just enough room to...
Interviews
Slovenia
by John Baccigaluppi, Andy Hong
When John and I first started making plans to attend the May 2007 AES Show in Vienna, Austria, we talked about taking advantage of cheap intra-Europe flights and touring other countries. Having...
Let's DIY
Nicolas Collins: DIY Electronics
by Robert Poss
Nicolas Collins's book, Handmade Electronic Music: The Art Of Hardware Hacking, is a brilliant, hands-on guide to electronic music making. I've known Nic since the mid-1970s; he's been a friend, a...
Interviews
Bob Paquette: and his microphone museum
by Joe Wong
Milwaukee's Bob Paquette Sr. is regarded by many as the world's foremost expert on microphones. His self- published The History and Evolution of the Microphone is an 840-page volume chronicling the...
Behind the Gear
Michael Grace: Behind the Gear with Grace Design
by Walt Szalva
Michael Grace started Grace Design in 1994, a boutique pro audio company located in Boulder, CO. The story of his rise as a designer is one born from a love of music. His need for a preamp to...
Interviews
Two Stage Compression: Two Stage Compression
by Mike Caffrey
More From This Issue See more →
Smells Clean: Is Clean: Chris Mara
by Chris Mara
We all have theories about the best way to do things in the studio, whether it be how to mic up a snare drum, or how to pull a great performance out of a singer who's having a bit of an off day....
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End Rant
Lies
by Larry Crane
Over the years I've heard artists all tell me the same damn lies during the course of a session. Note that the people in question might just believe they are speaking the truth. It's some odd form of...
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Gear Reviews See more →
Germanium Compressor
by Chandler Limited | reviewed by Mike Caffrey
The Chandler Germanium Compressor is yet another amazing piece from designer Wade Goeke, and "Chandler Germanium" continues to be synonymous with innovation. The Germanium Compressor is unlike any...
D-Box
by Dangerous Music | reviewed by Thom Monahan
Hey kid, wanna make a record? Lord knows how you're going to do it. At home on a laptop, in some studio doing basics, probably to a computer, but maybe you're using tape. Your session changes...
GearBox Plug-in Gold Bundle
by Line 6 | reviewed by
This is a plug-in bundle with a hardware front-end which doubles as a copy-protect dongle. As a plug-in suite for Mac OS X or WinXP, GearBox Gold is a home run! But, if you only want to use the...
M 88 dynamic mic
by Beyerdynamic | reviewed by Steve Silverstein
The M 88 is an easy microphone to overlook. It lacks the instantly-recognizable visual profile of its closest competitors, the Electro-Voice RE20/PL20 and the Shure SM7, and it cannot rival the RE20...
Green Glue
by Green Glue Co. | reviewed by Garrett Haines
I wish I had known about this stuff years ago. It would have saved me time and money. It's a construction adhesive that turns regular drywall into one of the best sound-control building materials you...
K6 phantom-powered ribbon mic
by Karma Audio | reviewed by GH & Chris Moore
Karma is one of the newer microphone companies out there. They specialize in mics with unique sounds and designs at very affordable prices. We've been working with Karma on the beta versions of the K6...
Sub6 Be active subwoofer
by Focal | reviewed by Allen Farmelo
In Tape Op #60, I gave a glowing review of the Focal Solo6 Be studio monitors, and now I turn to the Sub6 Be, a mighty subwoofer especially designed for use with Focal's 6-range speakers. The Sub6...
High Speed Microphone Preamp
by Audio Upgrades | reviewed by Mike Jasper
Jim Williams has been making his Audio Upgrades High Speed Microphone Preamp since 1994, but largely on the down low-no advertising, no reviews, just a page on his audioupgrades.com website. The first...
Sonar 6 Producer Edition w/ Rapture & Dimension Pro
by Cakewalk | reviewed by Joseph Briggs
In my music production work, I employ huge audio and MIDI track counts, oodles of plug-ins, and heaps of audio editing. I might use 50 tracks for vocals alone, and another 40 for guitars. For example,...
XLogic Alpha Channel
by Solid State Logic | reviewed by Andy Hong
If you primarily record to DAW and you're in need of a high-quality recording channel, take a look at SSL's XLogic Alpha Channel. It streets for $1695, which is $50 less than the Rupert Neve Portico...
SCM20SL monitors
by ATC | reviewed by Craig Schumacher
Quick question... What is the most important piece of equipment in your studio? The obvious answer is you and your ears. Back in the day, the quality of the monitoring is what separated good rooms...
TLM 49 large-diaphragm condenser mic
by Neumann | reviewed by Andy Hong
When a representative from Neumann sent me this mic months ago, I was told that it was a killer vocal mic. So I did what I think many Tape Op geeks would have done; I tried it on everything else but...
Portico 5014 Stereo Field Editor
by Rupert Neve Designs | reviewed by Andy Hong
Readers who are familiar with my reviews know that I do a lot of sum-difference processing. In other words, I convert stereo Left/Right signals to Mid/Side, process the M/S, and reconvert back to L/R....
dfh EZdrummer
by Toontrack | reviewed by Josh Peck
The $179 price for EZdrummer is well worth the investment if you are looking for a virtual drummer with great-sounding, multi-mic'ed, live drums. EZdrummer comes with two excellent sounding kits with...