For drummers, while playing it’s sometimes a challenge to change between brushes, sticks, and mallets. Of course, studio magic allows us to do that with punch ins, but if you are tracking live...
The first thing you see when encountering Alder Audio’s H44 online is their slogan: A Better Ribbon For Less. This statement may seem underwhelming against the backdrop of today's pro audio hype...
Earthworks Audio has always been known as a maker of extremely high-quality microphones, historically aimed at studio use. I have used their mics for years, including the kick drum mic included with...
Call me an AI pessimist, but my initial reaction was lukewarm when I considered trying out the Vocal Reverb plug-in from Antares Audio Technologies. Haven’t I already got enough reverbs? How is...
A few months ago, I was hired to work on the audio engineering team at a production camp put on by Sony. One of the events at this camp was a demo of Sony’s immersive audio tools, and this was...
There’s an age-old philosophical question in the audio community: “If a Fairchild compressor/limiter falls in the woods and loses over two dozen tubes and transformers, is it still a...
As part of the McDSP Analog Processing Box universe (APB-8, APB-16) [Tape Op #134], the BOB Bass Optimized Bias is a plug-in based on the original BOB module from McDSP's 6060 Ultimate Module...
In 2002, during an internship at Electrical Audio in Chicago [Tape Op #87], I was introduced to Bowers & Wilkins hi-fi (consumer) bookshelf speakers being used as studio monitors. Working on them...
Anyone who owns a few large diaphragm microphones has likely seen the common trouble with many shock mounts – failing elastic or rubber bands that cause the mic to droop, clamps that don't...
Last year, at least once a week, I heard someone mention Coil Audio. Even a few engineers I knew who never hype gear were straight-up saying, "These are the best preamps on the planet.” My...
Ostensibly a drum mixing tool especially built for kick drums, Subloom is one of those plug-ins based on a mixer's workflow, specifically Jesse Ray Ernster [Tape Op #151], and combines several...
The single-channel, three rack space Mercury 666 MKI is inspired by the Fairchild 666, a later cousin of the Fairchild 660/670 limiters. Unlike those units, the 666 was a hybrid solid-state and tube...
