At the 2016 AES Show in Los Angeles, I was shown a slew of great new gear. For me, the products I saw typically fell into a few different categories: (1) Cool product, but doesn't make sense for me;...
The importance of organization, functionality, and preparedness is central to the work we do when making music with/for others. From my perspective, DAWs are getting more comprehensive and less...
Former Eventide coder/engineer Dan Gillespie, who runs Newfangled Audio (distributed by Eventide), has developed some pretty wild plug-ins. We've reviewed the fantastic virtual synth, Generate [Tape...
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...
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...
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...
It wasn't that many years ago that my staff at Jackpot! Recording Studio kept mentioning FabFilter's Pro-Q 3 [Tape Op #132] so much that I began using it on everything; they were correct –...
In what seems to be a growing trend, Freqtube FT-1 is a saturation plug-in for DAWs that uses an outboard analog processor in conjunction with software. This is my first experience with anything from...
The SA-3 is a massive evolution of McDSP’s SA-2 Dialogue Processor. Like its predecessor, it’s still a killer dialogue and vocal tamer, but it’s so much more than simply that. This...
Remember when hardware reverbs were the sole effects available? I certainly do. In the mid-‘90s, when I began making records in Los Angeles, I would scan any unfamiliar studio for the presence...
To list all the classic, quintessential rock 'n' roll recordings that have been tracked at Sound City Studios is beyond the scope of this review – but trust me, you’ve heard them:...
Baby Audio collaborated with producer Andrew Huang [Tape Op #85] to create the Transit transition designer plug-in. Like most Baby Audio plug-ins, Transit aims to simplify a complex task, offering an...
