As a member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather and the Rome project (with Danger Mouse, Norah Jones and Daniele Luppi [Tape Op #40]), Jack White III has certainly proved himself...
Too often people assume that those of us in the field of music recording had a distinct idea of what we wanted to do when we started. The truth is almost always that it's a wild and unpredictable path...
For many years loyal readers have asked us to interview Brendan Benson, an artist who has tracked his records in a variety of settings, from full-blown studios to home setups. In 2005, Brendan became...
The songs are strong, the playing impeccable, but what strikes many listeners when they first hear Dungen is the sound. It always comes up when fans discuss the band. Leader Gustav Estjes creates...
Too often people assume that those of us in the field of music recording had a distinct idea of what we wanted to do when we started. The truth is almost always that it's a wild and unpredictable path...
The songs are strong, the playing impeccable, but what strikes many listeners when they first hear Dungen is the sound. It always comes up when fans discuss the band. Leader Gustav Estjes creates...
I've been using iZotope's RX audio restoration bundle extensively for a few years now. I think this product is exemplary. I'd heard good things about their Ozone mastering plug-in, so I decided it'd...
Some people are in the right place at the right time. Johnny Sandlin has been a player, producer and engineer since the mid-sixties. Members of his early bands went on to back Elvis Presley and to...
When Chicago's legendary Old Town School of Folk Music — a place that's trained the likes of Roger McGuinn, John Prine, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc and more over its 50 year existence —...
I had arrived. Led by my ego, I waltzed into the recording studio and began to warm up. A jazz pianist about to study at conservatory, I prided myself on my ability to hear what others could not. I...
THE BEGINNING About two years ago I started my quest for an analog console. I wanted something small, flexible, powerful, sonically amazing, and visually gripping and unique. This is the story of...
Too often people assume that those of us in the field of music recording had a distinct idea of what we wanted to do when we started. The truth is almost always that it's a wild and unpredictable...
A reader in our letters section [Tape Op #75] recently bemoaned the fact that a virtual instrument plug-in he had purchased was no longer functioning properly and that he had received no support from...
Larry's review of Wings of Nature Organic Health Bars (Tape Op #81), in which he discussed healthy, in-studio snacking, inspired me to comment on another important means of staying happier and...
Somebody likes the Portico II. I had to wait a week for RND to cook up a fresh batch when the review unit they were supposed to send was bought instead of returned. It arrived welcomed, if late....
I don't need to spell out the fact that countless recordists who work on digital systems are on the quest to get a warmer sound. Nor do I need to delve into the 10,000 tools, tricks, and techniques...
The first time I came across the Little Chopper was at Assault and Battery 2 in NW London, whilst tracking instruments for a movie project. Session guitarist Tim Maple came in to lay down both clean...
Nearly every audio equipment manufacturer was pushing at least one hardware control surface at the Fall 2008 AES show... and nearly every studio has at least one control surface condemned to the...
With a broad line designed for both home audio and professional use, German designer Ultrasone knows headphones. The PRO 900 headphones advance many features included in 2007's HFI2200 model, a...
Over the course of months, the X-Desk review unit loaned to us by SSL was first shipped to Assistant Gear Geek Scott McChane, for use in his home studio; then to Kirt Shearer, owner of Paradise...
Several years ago, I wrote about being a Nomadic-Utopist — a true “N-ut” being someone that believes that utopia is not fixed in space and time, but can occur anywhere, anytime, and...
In the beginning, Twelve Tone Systems begat Cakewalk MIDI Sequencer for DOS, and Cakewalk begat Pro Audio, which begat SONAR, which begat SONAR X1. Just as SONAR kept much of Pro Audio’s...
There’s a brief segment in this instructional video series presented by Alan Parsons (which shall henceforth be called ASSR) in which the legendary engineer, while describing his approach to...
For over seven years, Carl Tatz, studio designer and former owner of Recording Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, has installed his proprietary PhantomFocus monitoring systems in studios around the world...
Doubtless the most famous microphone preamplifier in history, the Neve 1073 has spawned countless imitations — from cheap knockoffs to component-precise replicas. The sincerest flattery has been...
Retro Instruments made a splash about five years ago with its replica of the classic Gates Sta-Level compressor (Tape Op #55), and then again in recent years with products based on the Universal Audio...
While the Saffire PRO 40 is billed as a computer audio interface and the OctoPre MkII Dynamic is marketed as an 8-channel mic preamp/converter with compressors, they share a lot of the same elements...
Manley Laboratories had been building custom mastering consoles on a case-by-case basis, but the waiting list grew too long to manage. (I know - I've been on it.) In a nutshell, it takes a long...
Great River Electronics stalwarts Wes Kuhnley and Peter Bregman have been moonlighting of late, coming up with some promising guitar amp designs as well as a pair of fine guitar pedals. At first...
MIDI. Vacant stare. Puzzlement. Eyes rolling back into the head. Drool forming on the chin. You've heard about guys like me - I'm MIDImpaired. Terms like polyphony, quantization, and nodes make...
The Launchpad has, well, landed and seems certain to become a ubiquitous tool for users of Ableton Live (Tape Op #72). It's a compact and lightweight USB MIDI interface organized around an 8x8 grid...
When you find a product that streamlines your workflow simply and unobtrusively, you wonder, "Hey, how come nobody thought of this sooner?" Vienna Ensemble Pro is one of those products. So, what...
There are many jobs for which hardware still rules the music roost. But there are some that software does better - synths, for example. Though no software will replace my analog Minimoog, many...
When I started Tape Op Magazine, one of the thoughts I hoped to impart (as noted in my intro this issue) was that great music could be recorded far outside of a professional studio. I would look at...
