Gear Reviews

I first came across the KSM353 at the Shure booth at the 2009 New York AES Convention. After two long days of pretending that I could hear anything in a discerning way in this huge, bustling expo center, I finally did hear something that caught my ear -my own "midrangey" voice, sounding...

Epson is a household name when it comes to desktop printing technology, so it's no surprise to see their inkjet expertise applied to on-disc printing. The company's Discproducer is a self-contained CD/DVD publishing system that uses premium drives, dependable robotics, and Epson's...

The thought of replacing drums may seem outright offensive to many of us. After all, aren't we supposed to be recording things? But sometimes, we're called to mix projects that we did not track. Other times, a client may want a contemporary commercial sound. In those situations, replacing...

Finding myself in what seems to be the largest surge of interesting studio gear development in history, I'm always surprised when someone asks me if a piece of gear does enough. Maybe it's the fact that many plug-ins, especially EQs, seem to have found a valid place alongside their...

Wave Arts claim that Tube Saturator, "a basic circuit consisting of a Baxandall-type three-band EQ feeding two 12AX7 triode preamp stages... is the world's most accurate real-time tube-amp plug-in." Let's examine how they can make this outrageous claim -and why I agree. Before...

It all started in 2006 when I bought a Monome 40h (Tape Op #62) and plugged it into my computer's USB port. (After a lot of configuring) I held in my hands a box of blinking buttons -each light controlled by music software, each button a unique input. I used the 40h to play with (and learn) a...

Thanks to Top Hat Recording, a few of us Austin engineers, producers, and studio owners got to listen to one of the first Wunder CM7 FET mics alongside its inspiration -the Neumann U 47 fet. Top Hat's John Harvey went straight for the jugular and recorded the kick drum first, something the U...

Keith McMillen Instruments has hit the nail on the head with a very simple, yet oh-so-handy gadget that measures the voltage and remaining life of batteries. The Batt-O-Meter can test any 1.5 V battery but is optimized for checking 9 V batteries that are nestled inside effect boxes, instruments...

As an owner of a 1976 API model 3232 console, Jeff Steiger has years of experience restoring, repairing, and modifying his desk. The modular build of those APIs is modification-friendly. Being a tech-nerd, he built, duplicated, or sourced many unique printed circuit boards and other components that...

I'm a big fan of small monitors for mixing and referencing my mix away from the larger hi-fi monitor systems. I've been using Auratones for decades and won't mix without them. When I saw these little guys a few months ago, I was really eager to check them out. These are ported...