Interviews
Shooter Jennings: Steering the Ship
by Geoff Stanfield
Waylon Albright Jennings, known as “Shooter,” is the child of famed “outlaw country” luminaries Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. But how did he end up producing artists like...
Interviews
Lou Holtzman: NYC's EastSide Sound
by Richard Barone
For over 100 years, New York’s Lower East Side has been known as one of the most culturally rich areas in Manhattan. It was one of the first neighborhoods in the city, becoming home to a...
Interviews
Marc Urselli: Hal Willner, John Zorn, Lou Reed
by Larry Crane
Several decades ago a young engineer left Italy for New York, looking to enter the studios of Manhattan. These days, Marc Urselli is a respected producer, recording engineer, and front of house...
Interviews
Ben Kane: Taking the Time to Listen
by Larry Crane
Years ago, I was recording the group Ravens & Chimes in Montreal at Hotel2Tango with Howard Bilerman [Tape Op #47], when the bandleader, Asher Lack, mentioned, “I’ve got a friend who...
Women in Audio
Denise Barbarita: It's "The Moment" That Matters
by Bren Davies
Brian Silak and I had the honor of visiting engineer/studio owner Denise Barbarita and her husband, drummer/music educator Rich Kulsar – both recent Grammy winners – at their Long Island...
Women in Audio
Heba Kadry: Building Community
by Geoff Stanfield
What do Björk, Beach House, Slowdive, Liturgy, !!!, The Mars Volta, Deerhunter, Explosions in the Sky, serpentwithfeet, and Ryuichi Sakamoto all have in common? Mastering and mixing engineer...
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Jesse Lauter: Moving Parts and Moving People
by John Baccigaluppi
I first met Jesse Lauter in 2009, when we interviewed him for his production and engineering work on the Low Anthem’s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin [Tape Op #114]. We’ve stayed in touch...
Scott Jacoby: The Humanity in the Process
by John Baccigaluppi, Larry Crane
In 2017 John and I went to visit Scott Jacoby in Manhattan at his Eusonia Studios. Since then he’s mixed Jason Mraz’s Look for the Good album, produced and written for a diverse slew of...
Logan Farmer’s Still No Mother
by John Baccigaluppi
I think the best music reaches you on a subconscious level, connecting with you in a way that’s not always immediately obvious – when you hear something that makes a real connection, you...
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Columns See more →
End Rant
Forest for the Trees
by Larry Crane
What would be the most important concept I would explain to someone just starting out recording music? There’re a lot of things I’d like to say, but one of the most salient is,...
Gear Geeking
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
Last month, I purchased my own HEDDphone Air Motion Transformer headphone hedd.audio after I received a tmesis-laden email from Heba Kadry [see this issue]. “Absolutely ---king amazing”...
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Gear Reviews See more →
SV33 Microphone
by Earthworks | reviewed by Brendan Connors
I have used Earthworks products since early in my career, and have always wondered what a flagship Earthworks studio vocal microphone would be like to use in one of my sessions. Much to my delight,...
A12t In-Ear Monitors
by 64 Audio | reviewed by Lars Fox
I use in-ear monitors (IEMs) to really dig down deep into the details of mixes I’m tweaking – most especially vocals. You can clearly hear weird breaths, overly loud esses, plosives on...
VISO & PIB Isolation Booths
by GIK Acoustics | reviewed by Matt Anderson
I was told early on in my career, “Start at your source and work your way back,” and it’s never let me down. If I get stuck on a problem for too long, it’s usually because...
ICE Cube-12 Subwoofer
by Carl Tatz Design | reviewed by Larry Crane
Did you know it’s possible to spend $4000 on a 12-inch powered subwoofer? Wait, no, that’s not what I’m reviewing here! While writing this review I ended up scanning Sweetwater and...
SEQ-S Linear Phase EQ Plug-In
by NUGEN Audio | reviewed by Don Gunn
NUGEN Audio, in case you’re not familiar, have been making sizable inroads in the post-production and mastering worlds over the last 16 years with plug-ins that I generally characterize as...
New STAGE 1 Board Isolation Platform
by IsoAcoustics | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
At the January 2020 NAMM Show (which seems like a lifetime ago) the New STAGE 1 Board Combo was one of the cooler things I saw. It’s really simple; an amp-sized heavy-duty ABS polymer plastic...
SiX Analog Desktop Mixer
by Solid State Logic | reviewed by J. Robert Lennon
After a series of moves that necessitated selling most of my recording gear, I recently found myself with a stable spot for a small office/studio that’s largely dedicated to working alone. High...
Listento Remote Monitoring Plug-In
by Audiomovers | reviewed by Brad Allen Williams
If the COVID-19 pandemic has any silver lining, it’s the way it has invited the reimagining of entrenched habits. When we all mothballed our tracking rooms in March, we became pretty open-minded...
Clearmountain's Spaces Plug-In
by Apogee Digital | reviewed by Gus Berry
Late last year, Apogee Digital released Clearmountain’s Domain [Tape Op #135], a plug-in that allows users to emulate the effects that renowned mix engineer, Bob Clearmountain, has been using on...
Saturn 2 Saturation and Distortion Plug-In
by FabFilter | reviewed by Dave Hidek
FabFilter’s Saturn was one of 2012’s most celebrated plug-ins, offering multi-band distortion and saturation, along with a sleek GUI, plus a powerful modulation section that was embraced...
013 FET SDC Microphone
by Soyuz | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi, Robert Cheek
Talking and writing about microphones feels a bit like talking and writing about wine – we all like what we like, and mouthing off about it can get pretentious pretty quickly. Nonetheless, we...
Crystals Plug-In
by Eventide | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
Crystals is Eventide’s latest port of its iconic H3000 Harmonizer algorithms into a simpler plug-in GUI – similar to their Blackhole, MangledVerb, Spring [Tape Op #137], MicroPitch, along...
C705 Condenser Mic
by Josephson | reviewed by Brad Allen Williams
In 1947, a young Dr. Heitaro Nakajima was hired by the technical and research division of Japan’s public broadcast house NHK. Although he’d have a long and illustrious career (later...