AUGUST 20, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
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AUGUST 20, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Dave Jerden (bonus): Really Wrong Productions
Dave Jerden has engineered, produced and mixed some of the most cutting-edge, ground breaking records in studios all around the world. Just take a listen to his engineering and mixing of Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Talking Heads' Remain in Light and Herbie Hancock's Future Shock. As an engineer, he has worked with some of modern music's greatest producers such as Bill Laswell, Michael Beinhorn, Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite. Jerden is a technical master, unconstrained by conventional thinking and confident yet humble. As a producer he has helped artists like Public Image Limited, Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains, Social Distortion and The Offspring make stunning records. Currently, he co-owns Tranzformer Studios in Burbank, California, with his long time engineer Bryan Carlstrom (Tape Op #28). The studio is managed by Annette Cisneros (who has also engineered alongside Jerden and Carlstrom for many years) with assistant engineer duties going to John Nuss. Dave Jerden and I sat in the patio lounge at Tranzformer Studios for a pleasant conversation covering a multitude of topics.
AUGUST 20, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Doug Haire: A Life of Sounds & Places
Doug Haire has been a staff engineer (a rarity these days) at Jack Straw Studios in Seattle since 1990. He's recorded just about every kind of music and engineered countless live radio performances. When he's not in the studio he heads outside, listening for interesting sounds and locations to record. These recordings then became the basis for audio compositions, musique concrète mash-ups, if you will. On top of all that he's a super nice guy who was a pleasure to interview.
AUGUST 20, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Greg Calbi: Sterling Mastering Maestro
Queens, NY, native Greg Calbi has stood atop the musical food chain since the mid-1970s when he burst onto the scene mastering monumental albums like John Lennon's Walls and Bridges and Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run. Nearly 40 years later Calbi, (along with his fabled company, Sterling Sound), still has his pick of the recorded litter. Recent projects include Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and countless others. Following a recent session with Calbi to master my new album, I sat down with him to talk about his storied sonic legacy.
COLUMNS
GEAR REVIEWS
Gear Reviews
AR-51 tube condenser mic
Okay, let me be as clear and concise as possible: the Telefunken AR-51 is the best condenser microphone I’ve ever tested for this mag (and I’ve tested a few). This mic utilizes circuit design elements of the revered Telefunken Ela M 251 and C 12. While they maintain their status amongst engineers...
Gear Reviews
Comp.One tube compressor
RockruepelWith so much amazing boutique gear available these days, I have to confess that I don’t get all that excited when I hear about yet another expensive tube compressor being made in small numbers by experienced designers to quality standards that surpass every military spec known to modern...
Gear Reviews
CV4 large-diaphragm tube mic
The CV4 comes from Miktek in Nashville, and it combines modern construction with classic tube mic design and componentry. Right off the bat, the mic gets your attention with its chrome head, brushed steel body, and black trim. The build quality and weight of the mic and power supply are impressive,...
Gear Reviews
FliteMates earplugs
Are your ears being damaged? Do you attend loud concerts? Set up mics on fidgety drummers? Rehearse in a small room? Ride the subway? I don’t think that most of my friends are aware of the damage that is being done to their ears, and this is why I’ve started recommending (and handing out) the...
Gear Reviews
Onyx 1640i & 820i compact mixers
Maybe I’m old school, but I find it difficult to record and mix without a console. When making decisions about the sound of a piece of music (as opposed to the structure of the song), I find it much more intuitive to use faders, knobs, and buttons instead of a mouse; as Allen Farmelo explained to...
Gear Reviews
Opal active nearfield monitor
Fairly young and becoming something of an instant legend, the Event Opal is getting tons of attention. It’s not often that a company scales a rather diverse monitor range down to a single product (recently updated to two). So is the attention all hype, or has Event once again created a new class of...
Gear Reviews
Opticom XLA-3 limiter
The Opticom XLA-3 uses a photocell-based detection circuit coupled with tube make-up gain. The first famous compressor with this topology, of course, is the Teletronix LA-2A; its rich and dark tone has produced classic vocal sounds for decades. At the other extreme, the Manley ELOP demonstrates...
Gear Reviews
OTB16 16 Channel Summer
Tonelux was one of the first companies to design and build summing amps, and as the field continues to grow, Tonelux has released their newest offering, the OTB16, a 16-channel summing amp designed by Paul Wolff. (Mr. Wolff owned API for much of the ‘80s and ‘90s.) The OTB16 elegantly exemplifies...
Gear Reviews
PortaGig 62 portable RAID
Glyph Production Technologies recently released a new member to its line of professional drives. Called the PortaGig 62, it packs the full features of a Glyph in a space that fits in the palm of your hand. At about 3.5’’ x 4.5’’ x 1.5’’, it really is the little brother to the larger GT 062E. Inside...
Gear Reviews
RA:THE BOOK: The Recording Architecture Book of Studio Design
This hefty, 350-page hardbound book is based on the studio design firm Recording Architecture Limited’s 23 years of experience in recording studio design — from small, private project studios (Kravitz, Bernard Sumner, Sade) to large, commercial studios (Lansdowne, Konk). Inside are over 140 project...
Gear Reviews
RN17 condenser mic
sE Electronics recently teamed up with Rupert Neve to produce a new series of microphones, including the RNR1 active ribbon (Tape Op #85) and the RN17 small-diaphragm condenser. The principle designs were inspired by Rupert Neve and engineered and built by sE Electronics. True to all Neve designs,...
Gear Reviews
RND Portico 5033 EQ & 5043 Compressor plug-ins
When Steinberg announced the plug-in versions of the Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5033 EQ (Tape Op #57) and 5043 Compressor (#59), I jumped at the chance to try them. These plug-ins are based on Yamaha’s Virtual Circuit Modeling technology. VCM utilizes carefully tweaked, digital reproductions of...
Gear Reviews
Voodoo VR2 active ribbon mic
I have to say that as an engineer and producer, I’ve been blessed with being able to work with many talented singer/songwriters. The one thing I’ve discovered is that the best performances come from letting the artist perform naturally with guitar in hand while the rhythm section tracks along to...
Gear Reviews
Wow And Flutter stompbox
SNAZZY FXIn the current age of computer-based recording, it’s easy for in-the-box effects like reverb, delay, and such to come off as sounding too “under control.” I’ve found myself extensively re-amping signals, printing real tape delays, using plate and spring reverbs, and blasting sounds out...