Interviews
By Glen Burrows, Larry Crane
For many years, an interview with Martin Glover, commonly known as "Youth," has been on my "must do" list for Tape Op. With the release of Gina Birch's debut LP, I Play My Bass Loud, which he produced for this former member of The Raincoats, I got a chance to pick Youth's...
Interviews
Lee Herschberg's achievements place him on a rarefied plane as a recording engineer. After stints at Decca Studios and United W...
Interviews
In the past few decades, something wicked has crept out of the Central Jersey swamp, slowly rising into the foothills and beyond. Ho...
Interviews
Along with Ana da Silva, Gina Birch led The Raincoats from 1977 to 1984 in England,...
Interviews
Drew Vandenberg talked his way into interning at the iconic Athens, Georgia, 40 Watt Club...
Experimental and classically-trained percussionist Evelyn Glennie has released almost 50 albums and collaborated with the likes of Björk, Mark Knopfler [Tape Op #97], Fred Frith, Béla Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, and fellow Scot, filmmaker Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). Evelyn became deaf at the age of 12 and she is currently the only deaf artist known to have ever won a Grammy – which she has done twice, as well as having been nominated three other times since 1988. She also received Britain's Polar Music Prize in 2015, and the Leonardo da Vinci International Award in 1987. Amongst other honors, she has been awarded the title Dame by the Order of the British Empire (the female counterpart to Knighthood). Ms. Glennie was the focus of the 2004 documentary feature, Touch the Sound, and even appeared on an episode of Sesame Street. The author of two books (Good Vibrations and Listen World!), Glennie's stated mission is to "teach the world to listen."
With a start at New York City's Record Plant in the mid-'70s, Julie Last continued with her career at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. Now living in Woodstock, NY, she runs her own Cold Brook Productions. Along the way she worked on sessions for Talking Heads, Cheap Trick, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Brian Eno [ Tape Op #85], Joni Mitchell, and Rickie Lee Jones.
As the leading force behind the popular instrumental group Snarky Puppy, bassist/producer/composer Michael League has plenty on his plate simply by keeping up with the band's prolific output. Then throw in a record label, a festival, and producing records for artists such as the late David Crosby and the amazing Susana Baca [Tape Op #32]. How does he do all this? We caught up with Michael as he was wandering a desert in Spain where he has his studio [Estudi Vint] on a rare "day off" to find out more about his methods, as well as Snarky Puppy's fantastic Grammy-winning album, Empire Central, which was recorded live in front of a studio audience over eight nights and featured their "musical godfather," the late keyboardist Bernard Wright.
Wayne Jones' career as a successful bass player led him to develop a line of well-respected bass amplifiers and cabinets for the stage and studio, utilizing his custom-manufactured Kevlar-impregnated eucalyptus pulp 10-inch driver. Building upon his cabinet and loudspeaker design expertise, Jones...
This is going to be shorter than my usual overly wordy review – not because the product doesn’t warrant the page space, but because the message is fairly simple. So, let me give the conclusion right up front and then explain what I actually mean: The Soyuz 1973 is an excellent mic, especially if...
Ah, the AKG 414. There are so many iterations of this mic. Every studio worth its salt has at least one, and if they’re on their game, they own several. We see them often used as drum overheads, room mics, on acoustic guitars, and percussion. However, I have placed them on all sorts of sources –...
Avantone began making microphones close to 20 years ago, and has recently updated their BV-1 large-diaphragm tube condenser microphone to the BV-1 mkII. First off, this upgrade comes as a significant design change. The original BV-1 was in the form of a large lollypop, whereas the mkII looks more...
Clones of classic vintage tube microphones have become a common occurrence in pro audio. As a result, I have had the opportunity to hear and compare many different reproductions of famous mic designs next to their predecessors, such as the Neumann U 47 and U 67, AKG C12, and Telefunken ELA M 251E....
Kurt Ballou [Tape Op #76] is known for making incredible records both as a producer/studio owner (God City) and as the guitarist for hardcore/punk band Converge. Now, Ballou has released his second signature drum sample library, six years after releasing his first, through Room Sound Premium Drum...
The new MBOX Studio demonstrates why Avid remains at the top of the heap for music production professionals. After spending several weeks with this interface, I can attest that it brings unparalleled professionalism to gear at a project studio price point. The team at Avid truly addressed every...
I like to think of my mixing desk as the control center. I hate running around the studio, behind racks, or bending down to search for a power switch, which is why I have several power strips in racks situated right on the desk. One is a standard surge suppressing strip with a single switch and...
I made sure to start this plug-in delay's review without touching a single preset. Despite the feature-filled control panel, I understood and utilized most functions without reading any manuals and ignoring the tool tips. Right away, creating stereo delay lines was simple, and setting up times and...
I still believe that analog mixing sounds better than in the box mixing, and I enjoy the workflow more as well. I’ve been mixing with a hybrid analog/digital setup and process for years now, and feel like I get faster, better mixes working that way. Fewer and fewer people still mix on large format...
We’re all super excited over here at Tape Op when API introduces new gear, and the enthusiasm doubles when said equipment is priced affordably. Additionally, a joyous hysteria breaks out “around the office” when our industry shows signs that supply chains are beginning to normalize. All of this is...
Many of us might be familiar with this scenario: A client brings in a hard drive of old DAW sessions to remix. You plug the hard drive in (likely needing some weird cable and adapter), and nothing appears on the computer's desktop. Many HD issues like this are simply due to the electronics in the...
Folks, let's chat about PreSonus Studio One Professional, now leveled up to version six. I tend to “DAW-jump” these days between Ableton Live [Tape Op #143], Universal Audio LUNA [#138], and Studio One Professional (based on the project's needs) – Studio One has become my go-to for complex mixing...
Did you ever wonder who some of the first people to integrate sampling, drum machines, and sequencing into R&B, jazz, and pop were, and how they did it? Well, Jason Miles was one of those people, and this book tells his story over the decades. Subtitled, A Musical Biography, Jason – a talented...