Interviews
By Stephanie Cabral, Jonathan Saxon
I first learned about Joey Vera in the mid-1980s, when he emerged on the L.A. rock scene as the bass player for the band Armored Saint. Signed to Chrysalis and then Metal Blade/Warner Brothers, Armored Saint took an eight-year hiatus starting in 1992 when singer John Bush left the band to join the thrash...
Interviews
Ken Bogdanowicz is the man behind Soundtoys, the boutique software company known for their feature laden and very analog flavored e...
Interviews
No descript...
Interviews
I first met Gina Fant-Saez at an AES show where she was showing her new Internet-based...
Interviews
Tom Dube wears a lot of different hats. He has worked as a producer, engineer, mixer, tour...
Scott McMicken is a founding member of the band Dr. Dog. Along with Toby Leaman, Scott began writing and recording songs in his Philadelphia basement with very primitive gear, like the Tascam 388. Some of these early recordings found their way into the hands of My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, who invited Dr. Dog to open for MMJ on a US tour. Upon returning, Dr. Dog recorded Easy Beat, which landed the band record deals, simultaneously being released in North America by Park the Van and in Europe by Rough Trade. The success of Easy Beat allowed Dr. Dog to devote all of their time to recording and touring, and also allowed them to vastly expand upon their humble basement recording setup. In 2006 the band bought a studio, American Diamond, along with longtime friend and engineer Bill Moriarty. Besides Scott and Toby, Dr. Dog's current lineup includes Zach Miller, Juston Stens and Andrew Jones. I've had the pleasure of working with Scott and the band on a few occasions and really enjoy his approach to making records. It was great to catch up with him recently and talk about his recording process.
Bill Moriarty is an engineer based out of Philadelphia. He co-owns American Diamond (named after the cross streets nearby) with the band Dr. Dog. When he's not sharing tracking and mixing duties on their projects, he can be found working with some of Philly's finest musicians. In 2007/2008 Bill will be traveling several times to learn recording and mixing directly from engineer Oz Fritz [Tape Op #75] through a Philadelphia performing arts grant.
At times it can be difficult to believe that someone like Giorgio Gomelsky actually exists. For almost fifty years he has been at the center of so many significant cultural events and initiated so many things we take for granted, it seems that he must be a fictional composite of dozens of people. But no, he's for real — a flesh and blood man almost painfully committed to the highest ideals of art and its communication. One could call him a producer — and, indeed he has been — he produced records by John McLaughlin, Julie Driscoll, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble (with Derek Bailey), Vangelis, Magma and many others. But he also is/has been a manager, a club owner, an impresario, a raconteur, a facilitator, festival organizer and astute political theorist. However, unlike almost every other person in the music business, he has usually been seen running away from the money rather than towards it. If there is an underlying thread to his life story, it is that whenever things started getting too close to the mainstream, Gomelsky lost interest and moved on to another uncompromising situation. For this article, the focus is on what many people feel is his most important contribution to the world of music — his association with the seminal British rock band, The Yardbirds.
One might say I've become somewhat of a connoisseur of Peluso microphones. I have several of their microphones. (See my reviews in Tape Op #44, #48, #56, and #59.) At this time, my favorite Peluso is the 22 47 LE. This also comes as the 22 47 SE. The distinction between them is merely the...
For this review, I asked two of our contributing writers to send me their thoughts on the API A2D. First up is Joel Hamilton, whom many of you know from his popular appearances at TapeOpCon and his moderating at the Tape Op Message Board, as well as his work with Elvis Costello, Frank Black,...
When the request went out for a review on the Blue Sky Big Blue speaker system, I figured what the hell. I've been toying around with the idea of stepping up to a larger pair of speakers for some time now, and this system is a great package-tri-amped three-ways and optional subwoofers. It's not an...
As a co-owner of a small record label and several production facilities, I can understand why duplication facilities are losing business. Because of the popularity of online distribution for both final product and for demos, there's less need for physical CDs or DVDs. Even so, it's sometimes...
The Josephson Engineering C700A doesn't look like any mic you've seen before, and that's a good thing because, psychologically, you'll be expecting something new, and I promise, you won't be disappointed. It's big like a vintage mic-physically and sonically. The extra size accommodates its unique...
Last year I reviewed the CoolSprings passive spring reverb unit by Zerotronics (Tape Op #55). Not only did I love the smooth, analog reverb sounds, I also admired the efficient design (the unit is completely passive and is intended to be connected to a mic preamp for output gain). Zerotronics main...
I'll admit, it took me a while to grok the UA DCS Remote Preamp. On paper, it didn't strike me as a piece of gear which fulfilled a specific need in my studio. In practice, however-totally different story. I'm gonna be sad when my review unit has to go! The DCS, or Desktop Console System, is the...
The Weiss DNA1 is a 2RU-height audio restoration dynamo that performs several noise- reducing tasks via the DeClicker/DeCrackler and DeNoise modules, along with K-Stereo ambience recovery and M/S routing. All can be used alone or together in any combination there of. What makes this box really...
Apogee's all-in-one preamp, converter, and monitoring system offers all the essential features in a 1RU-height FireWire audio interface. There are eight analog inputs, four of which can handle mic, instrument, or line levels; eight analog outputs; a set of ADAT optical ports; and S/PDIF...
Here's a pair of excellent nearfields from M-Audio. The EX66 is an MTM, or midrange-tweeter-midrange active monitor, with a 1" titanium driver centered between two 6" midrange/bass drivers. Surprisingly, the monitor is designed to be stood upright as opposed to horizontal placement. M-Audio...
For Tape Op #29, I sat down and interviewed Tony Visconti, one of my producing/engineering heroes for his work with Bowie, T. Rex, U2, The Stranglers, Paul McCartney, and others. What I found was a generous, funny, charming and witty man whose calm exterior would set any recording session at ease....
Violet Design is a relatively new boutique microphone manufacturer founded by Juris Zarins, part owner of a facility that once manufactured mics for BLUE. Violet's microphones are all hand made and produced exclusively in their Latvian factory (check out the virtual factory tour on their website!)....
Jonathan Little, the man behind Little Labs, is one of my favorite persons on the planet. He is super sweet, has a great sense of humor, hosts awesome BBQs, and he looks and acts the part of a mad scientist. His hair isn't as finger-in-the-electric-socket fuzzy as it used to be; but he's maniacal...
In a little over two years, with the success of the MA-200 (see Tape Op #55), Mojave Audio has shown what a company can do with a combination of good design, affordable manufacturing, and quality control. Mojave's second product is the MA-100 small-diaphragm tube condenser. It comes with two...
I came across monome in April, while trolling the web for information on step sequencers. I found myself drawn to the Spartan aesthetic of monome.org and the minimalist principles expressed there. And then there was the 40h controller itself-a user-configurable 8x8 grid of 64 backlit buttons,...
The SoundToys suite of plug-ins was developed by a crew of ex-Eventide gurus headed up by Ken Bogdanowicz. [See interview on previous page.] Ken and the gang have been developing plug-ins for years now, starting out early in the DAW game writing exclusively for the Pro Tools TDM platform. From the...
By now, most of you who have read this magazine know that at WaveLab, we love ribbon mics. We record a lot more acoustic instruments than electric at times, and ribbons are always employed for their natural sound. This is mainly due to the fact that we have had a Royer R-121 microphone since it was...
I'm sure many of you are familiar with Littlite gooseneck light systems, especially those of you doing live sound. Many sound reinforcement consoles, for example, have built-in jacks for plugging in Littlite goosenecks. The RL-10-D Raklite is a 1RU-height recessed panel with two 12" goosenecks. If...
Every once in a while, an idea comes along that's so elegant in principle and brilliant in execution that when you experience it, you think, "Duh!" That's the Recoil Stabilizer. What it does is so simple, and the improvement you hear is so immediate, you have to say to yourself, "Why wasn't this...
Despite recent advances in virtual and synthesized instruments, nothing has the same sound and feel as a real piano, cello, violin, or brass section. Those with experience recording these types of instruments know you can't bring in a classically-trained player, tell them the song is in a given...
When I heard that Eventide was branching out into the world of stompboxes, I was psyched. Several versions of the stalwart H3000 have graced my racks over the years, and I'm still the happy owner/user of a vintage Eventide H949 harmonizer/delay. After decades of cutting edge and musical outboard...
For Tape Op #29, I sat down and interviewed Tony Visconti, one of my producing/engineering heroes for his work with Bowie, T. Rex, U2, The Stranglers, Paul McCartney, and others. What I found was a generous, funny, charming and witty man whose calm exterior would set any recording session at ease....
The majorly major thing that's cool about this excellently-realized single-rackspace eight-channel mic+line preamp/DI/FireWire computer interface/monitor is what I'd call the "Fairy Godmother" factor: all your wishes are granted, and just enough of each one so as not to play favorites or stomp on...
Seems like every time I get into a conversation about recording, it goes something like this. Me: "Blah blah room mics blah compressors blah." Them: "Yeah, cool! What program do you use-Pro Tools?" Me: "Actually, I use a program called WaveLab." Them: *blank stare...crickets....tumbleweeds*. Every...
As the digital age showers the world with more and more buttons, knobs, switches, flashing lights, faders, cue point selectors, effects options, card slots, etc., it's nice when you find those rare machines that simply work well. To say the Xone:V6 works well is an understatement for sure. This box...