Interviews
By Cheriss May, Andy Hong
I first met Thai Long Ly several years ago at a NAMM Show in Anaheim. He asked me, "What do you ride?" when he noticed the Kriega-branded motorcycling accessories on my backpack. We geeked out about motorcycles for 15 minutes before he offered to lend me one of his bikes for the remainder...
Interviews
Tim Oliver is the "Senior Consulting Engineer" at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios [Tape Op#63] in th...
Interviews
Jarrett Pritchard has seen some shit. After coming up in Florida's extreme music scene, he slugged it out as an educator, live s...
Interviews
A little over a decade ago, the A Band Called Death documentary brought cheers and tears...
Interviews
Azalia Snail's recording career began with a TASCAM recorder running on batteries in...
Interviews
Jeff Lipton is a mastering veteran with an impressive 30-year career under his belt....
Grammy award-winning songwriter and musician Aoife O'Donovan has released three critically-acclaimed solo albums, is co-founder of the bands I'm with Her and Crooked Still, and has spent a decade contributing to the radio variety shows Live From Here and A Prairie Home Companion. Her new album, Age of Apathy, was produced from a distance by Joe Henry [Tape Op #129] during the pandemic lockdown, but you'd never know it from the incredibly cohesive sound and "in the room" energy of the recordings. Geoff Stanfield caught up with Aoife to chat on the eve of the record's release. This interview is from her Tape Op Podcast, took place in April of 2022, and has been edited for clarity.
Eric Bachmann and Matt Gentling of Archers of Loaf discuss songwriting process, reunions, parenting, and working at Drop of Sun Studios on Reason in Decline.
In 2017, one of my best friends, Craig Alvin [Tape Op #137], kept texting me about a record he was engineering. He was saying how amazing the process was, and how awesome the results were. The album turned out to be Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour, which went on to be a platinum selling, award-winning album that even her own record label had never expected. Daniel Tashian, with his longtime collaborator, Ian Fitchuk, co-produced, co-wrote, and played on Golden Hour, as well as the follow-ups (that Craig also worked on), Star-Crossed and Deeper Well. Outside of this, Daniel has produced amazing records for Lily & Madeleine, Sarah Jarosz [Tape Op #140], Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and even co-wrote and produced an EP (Blue Umbrella) with Burt Bacharach. Even more recently, Daniel co-produced (alongside T Bone Burnett! [Tape Op #67]) the new Ringo Starr album, Look Up. Now that's fun.
Daughter's Stereo Mind Game was one of my top five albums of 2023, and a record I listen to fairly often. The songwriting, interesting layered production and arrangements, along with vocalist Elena Tonra's voice keep me emotionally invested in their music after many listens. So, when they recently released the live EP Middle Farm Session, it quickly moved into my regular listening rotation. After a few listens, I was curious if there might be some video of the sessions – it turns out there is! The record is a fantastic listen, but if you can spare 30 minutes the video is well worth the time and a great introduction to the band.
Harrison consoles are beloved by many engineers, and after I had the opportunity to work with four of the new Harrison 32Classic MS Mix Strips, I understand why. While the Harrisons are not as colorful as offerings by some of the other notable consoles in recording history, they definitely have a...
Ben and Veronica Sneesby have been making mics in Australia for nearly 25 years (the name derives from Ben’s nickname in high school). Some of their mics have been designed as modernized clones of classic originals (e.g., Neumann U 47, Telefunken ELA M 251, etc.), while others are original designs...
I reviewed the RTM (Recording The Masters) 1/4-inch SM900 tape back in Tape Op #161, was very pleased with it, and have since used it for a few more mixing sessions. Then, at the 2024 NYC AES show, I bumped into Matt and Tim from RTM, and they gave me a few of their C60 and C90 Type One cassette...
In April 2023, John La Grou, founder/owner of Millennia Media, dropped me a line about a new audio technology venture he was working on, with the caveat that I could not tell anyone what he was up to. Later that year, he asked if I was interested in becoming a beta tester for his new HDR-A...
Since its release in 2018, FabFilter’s Pro-Q 3 [Tape Op #132] has become one of the most used, if not the most used, EQ plug-ins for professionals and enthusiasts alike. Seven years later, Pro-Q 4 offers several new features and updates, giving FabFilter fans everywhere a reason to celebrate. From...
I’m a big fan of using audio equipment originally designed for radio and other broadcast purposes to work on recording music in the studio. This gear is typically of extremely high build quality and is easy to use since in a broadcast context any interruption can be a major problem that could cause...
Fun trivia: The Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) Pro Audio Reference Guide provides three definitions of the word feedback, one being “the longest word in the English language that uses all the letters 'A' through 'F.'” On a more practical point, the AES Guide also defines feedback as “the...
Good things come in small packages, and that’s especially true for the iLoud Micro Monitor Pro. IK Multimedia first made waves with their iLoud Micro Monitors, which combined a compact form factor with professional-grade sound. Building on that success, they introduced the iLoud MTM monitors [Tape...
Jack White [Tape Op #82] likes a certain guitar tone, right? A fuzz with a low octave and maybe some high octave piercing tone. Union Tube & Transistor hooked me up with their collab Third Man Bumble Buzz guitar pedal years ago, and I love the fact that it has no knobs and a perfect Jack White...
Here are books I enjoyed reading that cover two important underground music scenes that may have escaped some folks’ notice. Needles and Plastic, subtitled Flying Nun Records, 1981-1988, is an exhaustive tome by Matthew Goody. It discusses every record released by the New Zealand label Flying Nun...
I’ve always been fascinated with the history of recording studios, the evolution of analog gear, and MCI equipment. There was one particular MCI console that almost seemed mythical: The so-called “Hotel California” console at Criteria Recording Studios in Florida. Criteria’s MCI really can’t be...
In writing this review, I realized it's been over 30 years since I was introduced to my first TASCAM product: The Porta One Ministudio. That little 4-track cassette recorder planted the seeds for countless multitrack creations. It wasn't long after exploring and outgrowing the capabilities of my...
When AEA released their first stereo mic, the R88 [Tape Op #96], in the early 2000s it was quite a statement. Other companies, such as Royer Labs, were fairly new to the scene, and ribbon mics seemed to be making a comeback out of nowhere. I remember looking at the R88’s size and design and being...
A few years ago, I had a water leak somewhere on a 600-foot-long pipe. There was no wet ground to give the leak away, and I even tried water witching/dowsing to locate it! No dice. Enter the AudioTech Probe, whose motto is: "You can hear what you've been missing." Described as a "Diagnostic...
For decades, I've wondered how the effect on the female backing vocals of Pink Floyd's "Time" from The Dark Side of the Moon was created. I hear a Leslie speaker vibrato or Doppler effect, but it's more focused and clearer in the high frequencies than that kind of re-amping ever gets. It seems to...
Malcolm Toft [Tape Op #26, #165] began his career as a recording engineer at the legendary Trident Studios in London in 1968, then went on to found Trident Audio Developments, creating the initial Trident A Range consoles and many others to follow. After leaving Trident in 1988, Malcolm founded...
After decades of manufacturing measurement tools and consumer electronics in England, Pye Audio merged with Phillips in 1960, forming Pye TVT Limited. Their studio technologies impacted an era of seminal records from the late ‘60s through the mid-‘70s. Then, the brand was curiously dissolved in...
Here are books I enjoyed reading that cover two important underground music scenes that may have escaped some folks’ notice. Needles and Plastic, subtitled Flying Nun Records, 1981-1988, is an exhaustive tome by Matthew Goody. It discusses every record released by the New Zealand label Flying Nun...