Interviews
By Larry Crane
Dropping in at Andrija Tokic's Bomb Shelter Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, one might be forgiven for assuming they fell through a time warp. Wood and stone walls harken back to another time, and vintage MCI console and tape decks form the core of the recording gear. But Andrija is also someone...
Interviews
Doomtree is a hip-hop collective base in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The seven-member band and record label is known for its homegrown D...
Interviews
Way the heck back, in issue #19 ofTape Op, we interviewed Chris...
Interviews
I caught Leo Abrahams at his London home after a soundtrack session at Abbey Road and...
Interviews
Ariel Rechtshaid is busy. Last year alone he released productions with Charli XCX, Tobias...
Interviews
Partway through my chat with world-renowned mix engineer Dave Pensado he said,"Be...
I had heard, from contributor Alex Maiolo, that someone from North Carolina had moved out to L.A. and accidentally discovered and re-opened the famed Producer's Workshop studio in Hollywood. That someone is Clay Blair, so I dropped in on him to find out the story behind revitalizing this studio that had seen artists like Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Ringo Starr, Carly Simon, Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, and famously Pink Floyd wrapped up The Wall here in 1979. Later the place went under the name Westbeach Recorders, and a new era of bands like Blink 182, The Offspring, Bad Religion, MXPX, The Melvins, Rancid, Rocket from the Crypt, Concrete Blonde and Mazzy Star made use of the space. In the new era as Boulevard Recording, the studio has seen sessions with War on Drugs, Moby, Jim James, producer Frank Tetaz [Gotye], Joel Little (producer of Lorde's debut), Bob Rock and The Cult, and producer Eric Rosse.
Independent scenes were popping up all over the US and UK in the '80s and '90s. Labels like Touch & Go and Merge started in spare bedrooms. Simple Machines went so far as to give away their Mechanic's Guide, which demystified the process of recording and distributing your own music. The DIY spirit was everywhere, eventually even giving birth to magazines like Tape Op. Northern Europe, however, was another story. What we take for granted simply didn't exist in countries like Denmark. In a rules-based society, traditionally rooted in Jante Law (the idea that there is a pattern of group behavior), it was utterly revolutionary for Jesper "Yebo" Reginal to start the Crunchy Frog label, in 1994, pre-Internet, with no owner's manual. With the signing of The Raveonettes, the subsequent release of their acclaimed Whip It On, and a follow up with the massive international dance hit, "Move Your Feet," by Junior Senior, things went to the next level. As a monster drummer, Yebo's impressive CV includes time with Tothe International, Junior Senior, Heavy Trash (with Jon Spencer), Danish legends Psyched Up Janis and, along with Tambourine Studio's Per Sunding, he's been "putting the 'urf' back in 'surf,' since 1999" in the instrumental supergroup Tremolo Beer Gut. The label recently hosted a 20-year anniversary party, selling out Copenhagen's Pumpehuset. Nearly 1000 people gathered to celebrate, drinking bespoke Mikkeller beer, and Charles Smith wine, made specially for the event, as bands played until the sun came up, proving Crunchy Frog is his greatest accomplishment.
John Baccigaluppi and Scott McChane both spent time on the recently reintroduced Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube. John owns a pair of vintage 5C speakers that he's relied on for 25 years; they are currently installed in his Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, CA. Scott spent many sessions...
In a previous issue, I wrote a glowing review of Focal Professional's mid-priced Alpha 65 2-way active nearfield monitor [Tape Op #104]. The Alpha 50 is the smallest speaker in the Alpha line, employing a 5'' woofer and 35+20 watt bi-amplification, versus its larger sibling's 6.5'' woofer and 70+35...
As I mentioned in my review of Pro Tools HD Native [Tape Op #84], when I ditched my TDM rig for a native system, I never looked back - with the one exception being the loss of the TDM-only Eventide Anthology II plug-in bundle [#55, #89]. Now, four years later, I'm pretty excited to see the...
Universal Audio is back with updated versions of their well-regarded Apollo line of interfaces [Tape Op #95, #99, #101]. Let's talk about the Apollo 8p variant. Similar to its predecessor, this is a 1RU-height interface capable of 24-bit, 192 kHz operation, with an onboard QUAD UAD-2 for real-time...
Burl Audio is already well known and loved for its two-channel B2 Bomber AD/DA converter [Tape Op #79] and multi-channel B80 Mothership [#84], but maybe less so for its boutique all-analog audio gear. A while back, I bought a pair of Burl Audio B1D 500-series mic preamp modules on a recommendation...
While I have a few minor quibbles, the Arturia BeatStep Pro is a super fun hardware sequencer and controller, and it's a great deal. Go price out a 16-step analog sequencer, and you'll have a hard time finding a fairly basic one for less than $250. Now find one with MIDI, which should add another...
Many, um, "experienced" readers have fond memories of their first TASCAM/TEAC analog reel-to-reel or Portastudio cassette decks, while digital whippersnappers will be more familiar with TASCAM's ubiquitous flash-memory recorders and digital audio interfaces. The brand's latest line of USB...
Focusrite comes out swinging into the growing Thunderbolt interface market with this unbelievably affordable entry, the flagship in their new Clarett range of interfaces. I say "unbelievably affordable", but really, I'm being pretty restrained in my desire for even greater levels of hyperbole — I...
Before she joined Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick was in a band called The Great Society. They made an LP, Conspicuous Only in Its Absence, the title of which has stuck in my mind ever since I first heard it as a teenager. (The album also contains some killer psychedelic rock riffing, but that's...
Okay, Eventide has just officially become my favorite pro audio manufacturer on the planet. I had almost finished this already favorable review, and then I got something in the mail that made me come back and add this glowing intro. When Joe Waltz at Eventide asked for my address to send me an...
Radial Engineering has been creating robust, well-designed, great-sounding audio boxes for decades now. The Canadian company - pioneers in the re-amping game - excels at solving problems that audio engineers don't even realize they have. I'm a big fan of their gear in general, and their DI boxes in...
For acousticians and those engaged in research and development, the ability to measure attributes of rooms, speaker systems, and audio circuits is obviously invaluable. While the need for this capability might be less pressing for the average engineer, producer, or studio owner, we may still...
As I barrel toward the half-century mark, I find I am way more active with guitars than in the past. Not only am I playing more than usual, I'm also adjusting, setting up, fixing, and even cobbling together guitars these days. Andy "Gear Geek" Hong is plenty aware of this and thoughtfully put me in...
Every once in a very rare while, a new pro audio product appears that is extremely well designed and fills a very obvious need, yet somehow, the product didn't exist earlier. When you finally get your hands on one of these products, your first reaction is, "OMG, why didn't anyone think of this...
While shopping around for some XLR connectors, I came across the NC3MXX-B-CRYSTAL connector from Neutrik and just laughed. A ring of Swarovski crystals embedded into a black XLR connector for $25 each? Really? I thought that this must be some audio-nerd web-hacker's idea of humor you might see in...
New ribbon mics are everywhere these days. They have always been part of every good studio's microphone locker, but in recent years, there have been several new ideas for what a ribbon mic can be. Beyond the modern ribbon designs from the likes of AEA and Royer Labs, there are several unique...
FabFilter Pro-C 2 is the new and improved version of their Pro-C, a compressor plug-in that captured many hearts back in 2007, in part due to its GUI that was straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation. All joking aside, Pro-C was (and still is) a formidable compressor for many reasons (such as...
PSP L'otary is an emulation of the classic Leslie 122 and 147 rotary cabinets. I've been a big fan of PSP's products since my first use of the company's fantastic rendition of the Lexicon PCM 42 delay unit, so I was anxious to get my hands (or mouse) on this one. Leslie cabinets have been a staple...
Moses Asch is almost certainly the only record-label owner to have had his aspirations personally endorsed by Albert Einstein. From this auspicious encounter, Asch went on to release titles by Leadbelly, Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan (as Guthrie-inspired...
Valhalla DSP is a new plug-in company consisting of Sean (coding) and Kristin (graphics, marketing) Costello, who together run a small and efficient operation. There are a few things that make Valhalla unique. One: They only make reverb and delay plug-ins. Sean seems a bit obsessed with reverb, to...
The V610 is an enhanced version of the classic Complimiter from Spectra Sonics. Spectra Sonics was founded by William G. Dilley in 1964 to build products for recording and broadcasting studios. Dilley was a WWII veteran and pilot, with countless accomplishments, including world speed records,...