Interviews
By Larry (B/W), Larry Crane
Being that Spencer graciously helped Tape Op set up our interview with his dad, Jeff Tweedy, and that he sat patiently as I asked so many questions, we thought it'd be fun to talk to him about growing up immersed in music, Wilco, Tweedy, and The Loft, as well as starting his own company.
Interviews
When I visited Nashville and interviewed Vance Powell [Tape Op#82] years ago, I met...
Interviews
I've been in studios and rooms all over the world. I've seen where The Beatles spent hours creating masterpieces. I'v...
Interviews
From humble beginnings in Hobbs, New Mexico, and a childhood spent moving from oilfield to...
Interviews
Part of my job with Tape Op is talking with our advertisers, and I particularly enjoy...
Interviews
Dave Cook, recording and live engineer extraordinaire, has worked with The B-52s, King...
In March of 2018 I met Holly Herndon at a hotel on the outskirts of Berlin, just two weeks before she was set to defend her Doctor of Musical Arts Music Composition dissertation from Stanford University, and one month before the release of her third album, PROTO, on 4AD Records. We had a fantastic conversation about the making of PROTO, her creative process, as well as what it's like to collaborate with artificial intelligence and a choral ensemble.
Formerly chief engineer at Sear Sound [Tape Op #41], Tom Schick proved his skills in the studio with artists like Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Sean Lennon, and Rufus Wainwright. As a freelance engineer in New York City, he worked on projects for M. Ward, Norah Jones, She & Him, Willie Nelson, and Iron & Wine. Now, as the house engineer at The Loft in Chicago, he runs multitudes of sessions for Jeff Tweedy [see Jeff's interview this issue], including Jeff's band Wilco, as well as the various artists Jeff produces, like Low, Mavis Staples, and Richard Thompson.
Hot on the heels of their affordable “You’ll Actually Use” plug-in bundle series featuring 3 Filters and 3 Preamps [Tape Op #125], here is Arturia’s latest batch of software effects: models of the venerable UREI 1176, Gates STA-LEVEL, and dbx 165A compressors. Installation was easy enough, although...
In the recording industry, there is a long list of iconic microphones that every experienced recording engineer has at least heard of. The RCA 44-A, is one of these. Built in the 1930s, and known for its smooth sound and beautiful appearance, the RCA 44-A is an absolute classic. Cloud Microphones...
Admittedly, I'd began this review with a bit of frustration by hooking up the MADI optical outputs of my interface to the MADI optical inputs of the Ferrofish A32, routed 16 channels of audio and... only two channels came through... What gives? After a bit of head scratching, I figured out that the...
In 2012 Audio-Technica released the AT5040 [Tape Op #95] microphone, which was a special mic in several ways. The hand-built mic uses four 2-micron rectangular capsules, positioned next to each other in a 2x2 array to effectively create a capsule with the surface area twice that of a typical large...
Antares has just upped its game by releasing a lower-priced version of its Auto-Tune [Tape Op #126] line of pitch correction plug-ins called Auto-Tune Access. I have been a user of Auto-Tune since the '90s, beginning with the ATR-1 Auto-Tune hardware box and I've owned every version of Auto-Tune...
Steinberg is on an impressive roll with sexy hardware interfaces, collaborating with Yamaha and Rupert Neve to deliver products that lean into the strengths of all three. The AXR4 is clearly meant to be a flagship in their hardware line, and it’s absolutely something to be proud about. Boasting 28...
Sony, widely known for their consumer entertainment products, takes pro audio very seriously. In the professional microphone market, Sony previously produced three remarkable microphones: the C37A from the ‘50s became a staple for symphonic recording, the C38 (‘60s) and the C38B (2000s) known as...
When I first heard that Tim Farrant of New Zealand’s Buzz Audio had designed a new stereo compressor based around a diode bridge gain reduction circuit, I immediately knew that this was something that could potentially rock my world. I have been a huge fan of Tim’s work for years, as I’ve had the...
The debate between hardware versus plug-ins has cooled over the last couple years as plug-ins are getting better and better. However, Acustica Audio seems happy to stoke the fires with their El Rey compressor plug-in, gaining a lot of attention and buzz for rivaling its tube hardware inspiration....
Audient jumped headfirst into the premium class interface market with their release of the iD22 [Tape Op #104]. The premium classification gives more attention to component and design quality than what may be found in standard prosumer interfaces. Less noise, crosstalk, and superior preamps are the...
There was a time in the ‘80s and ‘90s when the word “Lexicon” became synonymous with reverb. Like Kleenex, Photoshop, or Google – if you heard, “Just add some Lexicon to that” in the studio, you knew it was time to add some reverb to the track. Released in 1986, the Lexicon 480L was the cream of...
Tone Empire’s LOC-NESS (aka “the Smash-Box”) is a dedicated channel plug-in designed for processing individual drum hits, a drum set’s room sound, or the entire drum bus. It is touted as a mystical plug-in that brings all the right controls and colors for drums to your DAW. While I have shied away...
My first impression of the TASCAM Model 24 was of the classic design. From the red, blue, and orange Gain, EQ, and Aux knobs, to the faux wood sides, this is a classy-looking piece of gear. It wouldn’t look out of place among the classic cassette multitrack recorders that TASCAM was famous for. The...
Neumann made its bones on the microphone side of the audio business. From its 1928 founding by Georg Neumann, through its 1991 acquisition by the Sennheiser family-owned company, Neumann was synonymous with state-of-the-art German condenser microphones. A few years back, Sennheiser also acquired...
FabFilter's Pro-Q 3 is the best sounding, most powerful, most flexible EQ plug-in that I've ever used. If you're familiar with FabFilter's line of products, you'll be glad to know that the Pro-Q 3 continues their tradition of excellence and innovation, with the same informative and intuitive style...
In my mind, one of the greatest shortcomings of the hybrid/in the box era in which we find ourselves is the loss of a coherent, thoughtful approach to the monitor section of a studio. The center section of a large format console is almost always hugely flexible and easy to use, especially compared...
There are plenty of great emulations of upscale vintage reverbs out there, from plates and chambers to coveted early digital units. While there is a time and a place for these elegant designs, many times I crave the dirty attitude that only a spring reverb can offer. Enter my new favorite reverb...
It’s been nearly a decade since we published a review of the original version of Studio One [Tape Op #76]. Over the years, the DAW’s feature set has grown significantly, and, impressively, it remains one of the most streamlined audio applications in terms of its user experience. Two of our veteran...
Since building my mixing space last summer, I’ve been looking for a solid pair of headphones for mix referencing that wouldn’t break the bank. When I heard that ADAM Audio, maker of highly regarded studio monitors, had ventured into the headphone game, I had to try them for myself. Their SP-5...
Audified is a hardware and software company from the Czech Republic that may be somewhat unfamiliar as a brand name in the US, but for more than 20 years they have been creating audio products under various names, including DSound and Audiffex, often as custom software for companies like TC...
The children of Dust Bowl migrants who’d resettled to Southern California in search of farm and oil production jobs redefined their cultural significance (c. 1951) and fostered a music scene born from the worker’s camps, dance halls, and dive bars in and around the Bakersfield, California area....
I expect many readers are going to want to buy this plug-in within five minutes of trying it. In addition to being a nice limiter for general use, The Wall is superb for adding last minute level to reference mixes. I found that it does a better job respecting the original mix EQ profile than a...
Full disclosure; while I’m going to review Valhalla DSP’s latest plug-in, ValhallaDelay, I’m also one of the two product designers of the plug-in, along with Valhalla DSP founder Sean Costello. This may lend my review towards a more Behind The Gear flavor while also talking about the product, its...
Softube is one of the most acclaimed emulation developers, so it was a surprise that their release of the Weiss DS1-MK3 mastering compressor was not a model – it's a line-by-line source transfer of the real thing. Somehow, Softube convinced Daniel Weiss to hand over the code block for his digital...