Gear Reviews

We have a small B-Room here at The Hangar with a Digi 002 and a Rolls HA43 4-channel headphone amp. So when Aphex asked if we'd be interested in reviewing their HeadPod unit, I said sure, I can do that. Both units are similar in that they both power four sets of cans with individual volume...

This is one of the best sounding EQs I've ever used. I'm a big fan of passive EQs for their smooth sound, especially when boosting. The Pultec is one of the best-known examples of a passive EQ. In layman's terms (and I'm definitely a layman), a passive EQ doesn't actually...

What recording geek doesn't have a soft spot for analog synths? All those knobs and patch cables! All those textured sounds! Running audio through filters and ring mods! Good analog synths are a valued paintbrush in many an engineer's tool kit. This is the best book to date I've seen...

Along with other acoustic treatments, I've employed RealTraps bass traps (Tape Op #36, #38, #48) in my personal studio with a good deal of success. The payoff for careful placement of traps, treatment, main monitors, and a Bag End subwoofer (#50) was a monitoring setup that measured very close...

I've been messing around with video game music since about 1997 with my good friend Joseph Majalca in Chicago under the moniker Royal Space Force. We started off by using sound tests and otherwise sampling bits of games that we thought had cool tunes, and then mixing and matching them together...

I've been messing around with video game music since about 1997 with my good friend Joseph Majalca in Chicago under the moniker Royal Space Force. We started off by using sound tests and otherwise sampling bits of games that we thought had cool tunes, and then mixing and matching them together...

I've been messing around with video game music since about 1997 with my good friend Joseph Majalca in Chicago under the moniker Royal Space Force. We started off by using sound tests and otherwise sampling bits of games that we thought had cool tunes, and then mixing and matching them together...

Shane Wilson's Guide to Mixing was produced by Chris Graffagnino, Russ Long, and Michael Valletta for Audioinstruction, LLC in Nashville, and in the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I was one of the beta testers on the project. In return for discovering the errant sound of a...

If you followed my "Gear Geeking" columns in year 2007, you know the epic story of my move from Pro Tools HD to various native DAWs running on a souped-up Mac Pro, including Logic Pro 7. Well, soon after I'd given up on Logic 7 because of its meager audio-editing capabilities, Apple...

I'm not a plug-in hound. I tend to stick to a few families of plug-ins that I know and trust. These days, I think I could do 99% of my work with plug-ins from Universal Audio and Wave Arts (Tape Op #55, #56, and this issue), as well as Waves Tune (#54). Up until a year ago, I had a dual G4 Mac...

The inexpensive Zoom H2 Handy Recorder makes quality WAV or MP3 recordings on removable SD media. It's loaded with features, comes with many useful accessories, and is easy to interface with a computer. The H2 reminds me of most cell phones that I've owned; it has tons of features...

A few months ago, while Neil Mclellan and I were having dinner at his place and listening to some tracks he'd been mixing on his home rig, he started to show me webpages of some big old synths that he wished he could shoehorn into his small, NYC-sized living room. I put on my propeller-topped...

A few issues back, I announced that I had sold my Pro Tools HD rig and replaced it with an Apogee Symphony (Tape Op #59) system running Apple Logic on a Mac Pro. The audio performance of Logic/Symphony is simply stunning: it can handle more tracks than I can throw at it; its latency is on par with...

Sometimes not knowing what you're getting into is a good thing. I don't know what Rick Wilkinson was thinking when he decided to whip up a ribbon mic from scratch, but it's a good thing he's not easily deterred. A technical writer/corporate trainer by day, it only seemed natural...

I always like having a lot of options in my mic closet. There are times that I lean heavily on my most expensive microphones, but I often find it far more helpful to have as many effective, trustworthy options as possible. I'm often surprised by the mic that proves best for a job, so the more...

The brunt of this review focuses on a shootout between the PreSonus FireStudio and the RME Fireface 800. Why? Because I already owned a Fireface and I needed a second interface. Not fair you say? The Fireface is over twice as much in street price! Yes, but the FireStudio held its own very well. In...

When given the opportunity to review Thermionic Culture's Phoenix 2-channel compressor, I couldn't help doubting the necessity of another entry into the high-end tube compressor market. But after using this British box extensively on a variety of tracking and mixing situations, my...

I had to record an interview for an audio documentary and didn't want to lug around my laptop and Mbox. What could I use that would offer portability and decent-though not necessarily studio-quality-sound? Thanks to Andy Hong, I got my hands on a potential solution-the Edirol R-09 flash...

The Lauten Horizon is a cardioid tube mic with a shock-mounted, large-diaphragm capsule and a two-step pad. The mic ships with a shock mount, a hard mount, a power supply, and a 20 ft Gotham Audio cable with double Reussen shielding and Neutrik gold-pin connectors-all fitted snugly into a rugged...

Please read this with the "movie guy" voice in your mind. Many years have passed since the invention of the compressor, and the world has seen many incarnations of this piece of recording history. Through the ages, the compressor has morphed from a simple AGC or "automatic gain...

In Tape Op #60's "Gear Geeking" column, I discussed my very positive experience with Wave Arts MR Noise after receiving an email from Thom Monahan that he considers the MR Suite of plug-ins essential for his adventures recording in unconventional locations with questionable...

In my "Gear Geeking" column in Tape Op #57, I discuss an ultraportable Pro Tools M-Powered system running on a handheld Sony UMPC connected to an M-Audio Transit USB interface. At the time, the Transit was the closest thing to a "Pro Tools dongle" that you could buy. As many of...

One of the main reasons I wanted to write this review is to highlight the strength of the unit's built-in DI, which I discovered accidentally. We were evaluating a new preamp for a separate review, and I wanted to check out the instrument input. So, we set up a blind listening test using...

I can't remember what I did with the first compressor I ever purchased-an Alesis 3630. But the second compressor I bought is still in my rack-an HHB Radius 30, the purple-colored rebadge of the original Ivory-series TL Audio 5021. It's been used on just about every session I've done...

I've been a fan of the UK band Senser ever since their first full-length (Stacked Up) was released in the US, around the time the band began to lose members. Now that the original lineup are back, I was excited to hear that Neil Mclellan would be heading to the UK to record their fourth album....

Following on the heels of the success of the ViPRE, Groove Tubes has created another fantastic tube-based microphone preamplifier. Called the SuPRE, it looks like the twin little brother of the ViPRE. It is a two-channel preamp that delivers a healthy 72 dB of wide open gain. With a three-position...

FLUX is a French company that specializes in high-quality audio processing tools. Solera is the company's flagship dynamics tool. And there is a reason for the name; it comes from solerais, which is a wine-blending technique used to ensure consistent flavor from year to year. That the...

Warning: For those readers who get upset when we deviate a bit from matters strictly audio, you should skip ahead to the next microphone review that fits your budget. These next paragraphs will only barely relate to audio. On the other hand: This book should resonate with anyone who's ever put...

The ATH-M50 "Professional Studio Monitor Headphones", as Audio-Technica like to call them, really are usable for recording and mixing applications. They sound amazingly clear. The top end has a wonderful clarity to it, with an extra helping of airy highs. The midrange is exceptionally...