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GEAR REVIEWS
Gear Reviews
B:Assmaster distortion pedal
Distortion aficionados, take note-Malekko has served up the indie-stompbox scene with a doozie. The B:Assmaster is a contemporary tribute to the exquisitely rare Maestro Bass Brassmaster, a '70s-era pedal that was intended to impart trumpet-like tones onto electric guitar or bass. In truth, the...
Gear Reviews
CL2 Pencil Condenser Mic
Here's a couple of new and very affordable mics from Samson. First up, the CL2s are sold as a matched pair of small-diaphragm pencil-style condensers with high-pass filters and 10 dB pads. The mics come very handsomely packaged in a tough little aluminum case that holds the two mics, plus just...
Gear Reviews
Ellipse 8 iDP studio monitor TS212 iDP subwoofer
I love the Bag End M-6 Time-Align monitors (Tape Op #50) that I have in my living room for their accurate imaging; these were my first long-term experience with coaxial drivers featuring a tweeter mounted within the center of the woofer. So I was excited to demo Tannoy's top-of-the-line Ellipse...
Gear Reviews
KikBrik
Bass drums are a strange thing. They are big and can be unruly, or worse yet, tiny-sounding if packed with a bunch of crap. They have a lot of interior space that is reflective and rounded. And they play a really important part of most music made involving a drum set. Enter the KikBrik, a truly...
Gear Reviews
M 160 & M 130 ribbon mics
Does the Beyer M 160 even need a review? Surely everyone knows by now that this is the mic Andy Johns used to record John Bonham's drums on "When The Levee Breaks". Does anything else need be said? I rather doubt, it but I will prattle on for a bit anyway. It's a ribbon mic, but unlike most...
Gear Reviews
Monitor ST
Probably more than ever, recording studios have seen a need for monitoring different inputs and routing these signals to a variety of speakers. In my studio, we monitor the DAW, console LR, console control room out, CD, iPod, and computer outputs. We listen through three different speaker/amp...
Gear Reviews
NRV10 mixer/interface
When I first saw the NRV10 at the NAMM show in January, I said out loud, "Duh! Why didn't anyone else think of doing this?" The sucker is an analog mixer and multichannel audio interface in one. It makes a ton of sense! Well, I finally got one, and you know what, the pocket-protector geeks at...
Gear Reviews
R-1 ribbon mic
My guess is that a lot of people considering the purchase of the SE R-1 will wonder how it compares to the Royer R-121. Both feature a rectangular ribbon that's offset-mounted within the magnet structure (a Royer innovation) to allow greater ribbon excursion, which equates to higher SPL capability...
Gear Reviews
Reveal 6D active nearfields
When Andy first asked me to take a listen to the new Tannoy Reveal 6D studio monitors, I was eager to hear what improvements had been made from its predecessor the Reveal Active, a speaker that I wasn't too impressed with but with which I was already familiar. After working with the Tannoy Reveal...
Gear Reviews
RM-5C ribbon mic
Students enrolled in the Audio Production program at Webster University, St. Louis and I had the great experience of evaluating the new Telefunken USA ribbon microphone, the RM-5C. The students participated as engineers, listeners and musicians. The setup was quick and not at all scientific, but...
Gear Reviews
SLD Total 44.1 ReFill
Michael Moushon and Glenn Forsythe are Boston-based musicians with lengthy studio tenures and expertise in development of music production tools. The pair undertook a major endeavor with Sounds Like Drums, which was initially available as a ReFill for Propellerhead Reason. The audio content is now...
Gear Reviews
Solo6 Be active monitors
The French company Focal has dominated the audiophile speaker market since its inception in the 1970s. Today, Focal helps to form what I consider to be a vanguard of studio monitor designers who are quickly catching up with the ever-increasing resolution, bandwidth, and dynamic range of modern...
Gear Reviews
SP1 large-diaphragm condenser mic
You knew it. You knew that with all the microphones on the market, there had to be at least one cheapo Chinese mic that stands head and shoulders above the rest. You were right! Interestingly, this mic is so overlooked that it is slated to be discontinued, although you can still find them for sale....
Gear Reviews
TM-1 & TM-2 tube mics
There are legends in microphone technology, and there are legends in microphone technology. Everyone has surely heard about the legendary U 47 microphone, but have you heard about the U 47 Church microphone? The legend goes something like this. On a smoky movie set on an MGM soundstage sometime in...
Gear Reviews
TS-1 small-diaphragm condenser mic
The sonic combination of a small-capsule microphone diaphragm with a tube amplifier can be a thoroughly pleasing one for many applications. The high-frequency definition and quick transient-response of the small diaphragm coupled with the moderating and sweetening response of a well-designed tube...
Gear Reviews
VMX tube mic
I have always been curious about the Brauner microphones. I have seen the name for a while now, and the fact that Klaus Heyne got involved with this company, when any company would probably be glad to collaborate with such a man on a microphone, really piqued my interest. Brauner seems to make...
Gear Reviews
VR88 Velocity Ribbon Mic
Here's a couple of new and very affordable mics from Samson. First up, the CL2s are sold as a matched pair of small-diaphragm pencil-style condensers with high-pass filters and 10 dB pads. The mics come very handsomely packaged in a tough little aluminum case that holds the two mics, plus just...