Interviews
Louder Than Liftoff is a relatively young pro audio company. They caught my eye with a unique take on both the 500 series EQ and the two bus processor. A small, two-man operation, born of a passion for impeccable sound, the company takes founder Brad McGowan's DIY aesthetic and his NASA-level engineering chops, and combines them with extremely interesting and, in my experience, excellent results.
The Neve 1073 is arguably the most famous and cherished preamp/EQ channel strip of all time. It has been endlessly cloned, copied, updated, and tweaked by countless manufacturers trying to cash in on the mythological status of this piece of recording gear. There is good reason for all the hype, as...
I recently purchased a used ADC1 (non-USB). I wrote Benchmark to say how much I liked it. I got a reply asking if I wanted to demo the new ADC1 USB to verify if my old model was still up to spec! Who does that? They had no idea I had written a review of their DAC2 [Tape Op #97], yet they offered a...
We recently did a session here at Panoramic House with Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads, Live) producing a great band called Le Butcherettes. Jerry has a studio near us with a mix/edit room and a separate tracking room; and both rooms have Burl Mothership converters [Tape Op #84] tailored to each...
Seven years after the original Clariphonic Parallel Equalizer [Tape Op #88] was released, Gregory Scott, the owner and visionary behind the company Kush, has updated this unique analog EQ with new features that open the gates to a whole new realm of tonal-shaping territory. If you’re unfamiliar...
Acoustic Geometry has completed some nice upgrades to the already outstanding, first-generation Curve Diffusor [Tape Op #88]. The Curve is a surface or stand–mountable acoustical treatment product that resembles a lengthwise slice of a giant pipe. Unlike single-function treatments, Curve is an...
My tech time is very limited, and I’d rather spend whatever time I do have working on music. So, when I wired my new studio space four years ago, I chose DB25 patchbays. I’ve never regretted this decision. DB25 bays cost more than traditional soldered or punchdown bays, but they’re flexible and...
Nearly all of the condenser microphones we know and love employ round capsules. Notable exceptions include rectangular-capsule Pearl and Milab mics (which, like the Ehrlund, are Swedish in origin), Bock’s Elliptical 5ZERO7, and three Audio-Technica models (which utilize smaller rectangles). I’m...
Switzerland's Merging Technologies is best known for their Pyramix, VCube, and Ovation workstations. But the company also makes world-class converters. Merging's flagship Horus is a network-enabled interface that offers AES/EBU and MADI digital I/O, as well as Audio over IP (AoIP) using the RAVENNA...
Don’t tell my wife I just bought another compressor. She thinks I have “enough” or maybe even “too many,” and I have to admit, I’ve been pretty lucky on the compressor front. I’ve got a bunch of great stuff — old and new — but I don’t have anything that does what this one does. The AMTEC 852 is a...
Kurt Ballou [Tape Op #76] showed me these gadgets a few years ago. They’re simple, 7’’ boom arms with a clamp that securely holds the boom on the shaft of a mic stand (or pipe, railing, etc.). Next to the clamp is On-Stage’s trademark Posi-Lok knob, which allows the boom to be rotated 300°. I use...
The Micparts S-25 is a side-address condenser mic available as a kit. All that’s required is solder, a soldering iron, and some basic hand tools. The JFET in the kit is even manually biased by Micparts. If you don’t have two hours to spare for the build, you can also purchase the mic prebuilt, at...
By now, you’ve doubtless heard me complain countless times about the exceedingly hyped sound of “lifestyle” headphones, earbuds, and in-ears. It doesn’t matter how much you want to spend, or what features you desire — most headphones on the market these days are anything but accurate. So, I always...
The SSL 4000 G Series bus compressor has been copied, emulated, reworked, and rehashed by both hardware and software manufacturers for years now. It seems every plug-in developer has their own take on the stereo compressor, and I’d bet most readers have at least one in their library. So, to be...
The fact that you can buy the Yamaha TF1, a 32-channel digital mixer with 20 analog input channels, 16 analog outs, moving faders, touchscreen control, advanced networking, and an onboard 34-channel USB audio interface to boot — for a penny under $2000 — blows me away. Less than a decade ago, the...
In recent years, I’ve been tracking more bands “live” in the studio — sometimes with keeper vocals recorded at the same time as the instruments. And every now and then, vocalists ask to hold the mic in their hands, because that’s how they feel most comfortable performing. For moments like these, a...
Earlier this year, I reviewed a combination digital tuner and DI in a floor pedal format — the Sonic Nuance TDI [Tape Op #118]. It’s a very nice device that solves some stage and studio problems quite well. But I mistakenly thought it was the only tuner pedal / DI combo pedal that existed. Well,...
