Hrishikesh Hirway

Interviews

Hrishikesh Hirway

By Meredith Hobbs Coons

Hrishikesh Hirway is a musician through and through, though that may not be the role that comes to mind when we first think of him. For over ten years, he has created and hosted multiple podcasts, most notably Song Exploder and its Netflix series, for which he has courted such iconic artists as...

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Tod A. Maitland

Interviews

Tod A. Maitland : A Record from a Film

By Ian Brennan

Tod A. Maitland has worked as production sound mixer on over 100 films since 1978, with known directors such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, and Oliver Stone. His work has been nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Sound (including Bob Dylan’s music biopic, A Complete...

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Cate Le Bon

Interviews

Cate Le Bon : Staying Porous

By John Baccigaluppi

As I mentioned when I interviewed Stella Mozgawa in Tape Op#169, I first met Cate Le Bon when she came into my Panoramic House Studio to work on her 2013 album, Mug Museum. Since then, I have enjoyed seeing Cate every few years when her orbit intersects with mine. She has a calm, steady, friendly...

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Mac Kennedy & Poison Ruïn

Interviews

Mac Kennedy & Poison Ruïn: “Cut the Burnt Parts Off”

By Sam Retzer
Philadelphia’s Poison Ruïn emerged from the shadows in 2021, with two demo tapes of nervy...
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José González

Interviews

José González: José González

By Geoff Stanfield
Drawing from a wide-ranging pool of influences – from punk and hardcore to authors like...
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Kenneth Blume III, FKA Kenny Beats

Interviews

Kenneth Blume III, FKA Kenny Beats : Kenneth Blume III

By John Baccigaluppi
After posting my year-end 2025 favorite albums on <tapeop.com>, I ended up emailing...
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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

AUGUST 3, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Steph Marziano

Steph Marziano : As Artist-Led As Possible

BY MEREDITH HOBBS COONS

Steph Marziano has produced Sir Chloe’s Swallow the Knife, Jasmine 4t’s You Are The Morning, Vundabar’s Surgery and Pleasure, and Jenny on Holiday’s Quicksand Heart. Additionally, in her early days, she assistant engineered on albums for big names such as The Prodigy, Sam Smith, and Radiohead. Now, she continues to produce and co-write on a wide range of projects, including Hayley Williams’s Grammy-nominated song “Parachute” from the acclaimed 2025 album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Apart from her technical prowess, what sets Steph apart in the studio (and on virtual calls, frankly) is her ability to make people comfortable; to make them feel heard and like they have something to offer creatively. In this conversation, she reflects on her journey into songwriting, the sounds that inspire her, and what makes someone a “good hang” in audio spaces.

AUGUST 3, 2026 INTERVIEWS
Jack Petruzzelli

Jack Petruzzelli : Build It and They Will Come

BY GREG DI GESU

A founding member of The Fab Faux, a highly regarded Beatles tribute band, Jack Petruzzelli has an even longer path as a session and touring musician. He has collaborated extensively with artists such as Joan Osborne, Patti Smith, Ian Hunter, Rufus Wainwright, Vanessa Paradis, Curt Smith, and Sara Bareilles. Over the years, Jack has added engineering and producing to his list of diverse talents. I had a chance to chat with him for a bird’s eye view from his Little Pond Recording in Cottekill, NY.

COLUMNS

END RANT by Larry Crane
Variety Feeds the Soul
END RANT

Variety Feeds the Soul

by Larry Crane

In recent months, I did a bunch of mixing, including: An album for a hypnotic electronic duo, songs for a psychedelic band from Mexico, tracks for a local queer country singer, and a full record for a catchy punk band from Toronto. I was lucky to produce/engineer/mix a song for a kick-ass group...
GEAR GEEKING by Andy Hong
Gear Geeking - Issue 174
GEAR GEEKING

Gear Geeking - Issue 174

by Andy Hong

With online shopping being the norm for most of us, it's easy to forget that knowledgeable salespeople exist in the pro audio industry. Meanwhile, our recording rigs are composed of computers, interfaces, and software that interoperate using a dizzying array of technologies and protocols with...

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

Amethyst AMV-MKII LDC microphone

BY Amethyst AMV-MKII LDC microphone  |  reviewed by Geoff Stanfield

I’ve reviewed a ton of JZ microphones, and I have yet to come across one that was not a well-built and useful tool in the recording studio. Amethyst was first released in 2006 by the Violet brand (a venture of JZ founder Juris Zarins after his time as an original team member at Blue Microphones)....

Gear Reviews

BAX500 EQ

BY BAX500 EQ  |  reviewed by Stefan Konstantopoulos

I never imagined that the bass and treble controls as seen on home and car stereos for decades would follow me into my professional life. That ubiquitous EQ circuit, designed by Peter Baxandall, was reimagined in 2010 for professional audio applications by Chris Muth [Tape Op #45] and the team at...

Gear Reviews

DC-2 dual compressor for APB

BY DC-2 dual compressor for APB  |  reviewed by Larry Crane - editor

The DC-2 is a plug-in-controlled analog compressor that works in conjunction with the McDSP APB ("analog processing box") units (APB-8, APB-16) [Tape Op #134]. As I've noted before in APB-based reviews, the APB is a one-space rackmount box that attaches to your computer via Thunderbolt and locks...

Gear Reviews

ISA C8X interface

BY ISA C8X interface  |  reviewed by Matt Anderson

I’ve never seen the value in spending exorbitant amounts of money on recording interfaces. I started recording in the early 2000s, so I’ve been at this long enough to remember digital in its earlier days when you really did “get what you paid for” as far as an interface was concerned. Anyone who...

Gear Reviews

Kick Mic

BY Kick Mic  |  reviewed by Mike Kosacek

I have a pair of Lauten Audio LA-220 V2s above my drum kit, and I’ve previously reviewed the Lauten Snare Mic [Tape Op #159], Tom Mic [#163], and Rim Mount [#164], so of course I was eager to check out their Kick Mic too! If you haven’t been following along, these Lauten drum mics are all condenser...

Gear Reviews

Opusonix mix review platform

BY Opusonix mix review platform  |  reviewed by Drew Vandenberg

Opusonix is a new online platform designed for project management, sharing mixes, and gathering feedback. There are many of these sorts of apps and subscription services these days, all with a variety of features that go far beyond where we started with services like Dropbox or Google Drive. I have...

Gear Reviews

PREQ2-500 500 Series preamp/EQ

BY PREQ2-500 500 Series preamp/EQ  |  reviewed by Slater Swan

Mäag Audio has knocked it out of the park with the PREQ2-500, a 500 Series preamp featuring their acclaimed Air Band. I’ve had the opportunity to use two PREQ2-500s in my studio on all sorts of sources, and I have been thrilled with the dimension and flexibility they have added to my recordings....

Gear Reviews

Pro VLA III Multivoice Tube/Opto Compressor

BY Pro VLA III Multivoice Tube/Opto Compressor  |  reviewed by Tim Pratt

ART’s Pro VLA [Tape Op #37] has always occupied a funny little corner of the compressor world. It isn’t boutique, it has never been especially expensive, and it is not the sort of box that sends engineers down rabbit holes over its sonic lineage. And yet, in one form or another, the Pro VLA has...

Gear Reviews

Silver 17 tube condenser mic

BY Silver 17 tube condenser mic  |  reviewed by Drew Vandenberg

I’ve been a big fan of Soyuz equipment since a rep came down to Chase Park Transduction here in Athens, Georgia, and let us demo several of their microphones a few years ago. After the demo session, studio owner David Barbe [Tape Op #14] decided to buy their Bomblet condenser mic [#140], and the...

Gear Reviews

Soothe3 plug-in

BY Soothe3 plug-in  |  reviewed by Larry Crane - editor

Gus Berry reviewed oeksound’s "sonic-fixing" Soothe2 plug-in in Tape Op #138 and noted how handy it could be for suppressing bass resonances. I’ve been using it for years since that review, but exclusively for taming upper midrange harshness and rarely digging into the lower frequencies… since I...

Gear Reviews

UNI-L Master Limiter plug-in

BY UNI-L Master Limiter plug-in  |  reviewed by Adam Gonsalves

Tone Projects is known for their popular mastering plug-ins. With UNI-L, Tone Projects’ Rune Lund-Hermansen and mastering engineer Bob Macc have created a truly special modern single-band limiter, one that uses multiband detection. This drives an adaptive lookahead time, a crucial innovation that...