Gear Reviews

I recently learned that mic-clip thread adapters-typically called "Euro thread adapters"-fit onto standard camera tripods. This is good news if you are on a budget or have to travel with stands. An inexpensive tripod is typically very light and a lot more stable than an inexpensive mic...

A few years ago, we splurged on a P-touch labeler for Jackpot!-a PT-1900/1910 for about $60. As anyone who freelances knows, labeling is important in the studio. Stumbling around in a barely-lit room trying to read labels written in someone's nasty scrawl that are about to smudge into...

If you read my glowing review of the Carr Mercury in Tape Op #39, you already know that in my humble opinion, Steve Carr builds some of the best guitar amps on the market. So I was not surprised that Carr's new 33 watt offering (which Andy recently purchased for his studio) sounded brilliant...

I first ran across the excellent Audio Damage plug-in line via analogindustries.com, the blog of Chris Randall (ex-Sister Machine Gun frontman). Chris is one-half of the company with Adam Schabtach, and together they've made some stellar plugs which are known for their high quality, extreme...

Here's a flexible additive software synthesizer from Image Line, the developers who made the nearly-ubiquitous FL Studio app. Morphine is a standalone application, VSTi, or Audio Unit plug-in for Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X 10.4+. What is an additive synth? Without getting all up in some...

Awhile back, I was looking to augment my meager mic preamp collection, as I found myself not having enough "good" preamps to track a band all at once. I had read a lot of praise for the DAV Broadhurst Gardens preamps online and decided to investigate. I emailed Mick Hinton, the designer...

Liquid Mix is a FireWire hardware controller and processor that utilizes Sintefex's Dynamic Convolution technology to offer emulations of classic and vintage compressors and EQs. 40 compressors and 20 EQs are included, but additional emulations can be downloaded and installed easily. The...

For our studio, this was like one of those (smacks forehead) "why didn't someone think of this sooner" inventions. After all, our console has a built-in scribble strip for dry-erase or grease pencils. Why shouldn't our rack gear? The Rack Writer (patent pending) is a...

In 1950, a nineteen-year-old college student with an interest in electronics met another student in his dorm who had a vast collection of folk records. Having not heard this kind of music before, Jac Holzman "fell in love with the simple directness of melodies and words." He attended a...

I am a sucker for recording through outboard preamps direct to a recording device. I'm also a sucker for using a lot of microphones on a sound source. Sometimes these two loves can cause problems in terms of track count or availability of preamp channels. Enter the AT8681. It's a small...

I'm a sucker for innovative tools that allow for more efficient methods of working, especially when such tools afford you increased flexibility and therefore heighten creativity. My latest acquisition in this category is the SPL Transducer. It's a speaker-cabinet and mic emulator, all...

From professional multi-room facilities to bedroom computer rigs, the compact utility mixer is ubiquitous. Whether it's being used for its mic preamps and zero-latency monitoring facilities in front of a DAW, or it's submixing a bunch of outboard effects returning to a full-size console...

About two years ago, I received a Buzz Audio MA-2.2 preamp to review for Tape Op (#57). After a while of using this preamp for the review, I fell in love with it, but by the time I had to return it, I had just budgeted for a few high-priced items on my wish list, so the MA-2.2 had to wait. Soon...

Apogee has designed Duet to fit the Apple world. At first glance, it's just a brushed-aluminum, paperback-sized case with a big knob on top. There's also a 1/4" headphone jack on the front, along with LEDs to indicate phantom power to two microphone inputs. The back includes a...

Despite staying somewhat under the radar as far as marketing and promotion in the US, the UK-based TL Audio seem to put considerable time, effort, and love into developing products that find many happy owners. But I'll have to admit, I've always put TL Audio at the back of my...

Once you've tasted boutique audio, you're definitely spoiled. A good piece of hand-made gear is like a fine meal at a gourmet restaurant-not food from a formula-based chain restaurant. So, like great chefs, the boutique designers toil away on their respective benches making us really...

Has Phil Ramone made some records? Yes he has-and classics at that. Just the cover alone shows CDs from Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Getz/Gilberto, Elton John, and The Band. Yeah, not too shabby. If you read Phil's interview in Tape...

The SpringTrap is described by its manufacturer as a "spring-loaded, triple cavity, ported Pistonic/Helmholtz bass absorber." It measures 46" high, with an 18" x 18" triangular footprint, and fits perfectly into room corners. The concept behind this bass trap is rather...

For some time, Speck Electronics has maintained a reputation for making really excellent-sounding and flexible equalizers in what most consider to be a reasonable price range. I had an opportunity a few years ago to use one of Speck's multi-channel rackmount equalizers and found it to be an...

Ever since the studio where I do my tracking (Mavericks in NYC) acquired a pair of vintage RCA BK-5A ribbon mics, I've become a big fan and have found a ton of uses for them. It's difficult to track down the production dates of RCA equipment, but the BK-5A was likely produced from roughly...

We reviewed the original version of this book in Tape Op #31, and back then I felt it really helped get me through my introduction to Pro Tools. Now, six years on, Digidesign keeps moving ahead with new software versions (7.4.1, as of this writing), and with every version, there are new features to...