Tape Op Magazine - Issue #97

Interviews

John McBride

By Larry Crane

John McBride's Blackbird Studios in Nashville probably has the largest assemblage of recording equipment in the world, and no expense has been spared on the eight rooms or ensuring the quality of his staff. Clients from all over the world, and from nearly every genre, rave about working here....

Interviews

Damian Taylor: Björk, The Killers, Arcade Fire

By Larry Crane

For years I've received brief emails from Damian Taylor. He might be in some remote location or some major metropolitan center, making records with a wide variety of artists. Frequently he'd have some specific, interesting question; some of which I could answer. When I found out he'd...

Interviews

Jim Anderson: Jazz, NPR, AES and the Grammys

By Larry Crane

Jim Anderson has had a multifaceted career in audio, from the beginnings of National Public Radio, to audio for The Muppets, to President of the AES Society, to engineering albums for some of the best jazz and acoustic musicians in the world. Not only is Jim a fine (Grammy winning) engineer and...

Interviews

Jesse Cannon: Gets You Fans

By Todd Thomas

Over the past two decades, Jesse Cannon has worked in nearly every aspect of the music...

Interviews

The Subtleties of Negotiating Recording Overseas

By Kai Riedl

I've been travelling the world capturing music in many countries for a number of...

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MARCH 23, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Andy Rehfeldt: Rewriting the Hits on Youtube

BY DANNY KALB

If you are working with a group of people making a record, there is one certainty: World class studio or basement pad, you will end up turning a short break into a long one by showing each other ridiculous Youtube videos. That said, if you've worked on a record in the last few years, there's a good chance you've seen one of Andy Rehfeldt's videos. Andy takes live videos of popular songs, leaves the lead vocal and video alone, and then completely changes the music to a different style. Essentially it is a remix done to video. Imagine Adele singing "Rolling in the Deep" to a jazz metal backing track. Or a Slayer song sounding like a Radio Disney song, or Megadeath playing reggae. The results are a form of absurdist humor like the popular "shreds" videos. The difference is that Andy's new tracks are very, very well done. The musicianship is top notch, and the chord substitutions are clever. His tones and mixes also sound excellent. This guy obviously has major talent as a writer, performer, and engineer. I had to know more.

MARCH 23, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Chuck Ainlay & Mark Knopfler: Dire Straits, British Grove Studios

BY WOLFGANG MANNS, GUY FLETCHER, NICOLAY KETTERER

"With him?" Mark Knopfler seemed amused about us coming along for an interview with engineer and producer Chuck Ainlay at Mark's British Grove Studios in Chiswick, London. Mark predicts it will only take two minutes. Of course, he knows that Chuck has more to say than that. The charming way Chuck and Mark wind each other up about their age and their time in the business shows their natural connection, which has been growing since the last years of Mark's band, Dire Straits, in the early '90s. Besides the Dire Straits releases On Every Street and On The Night, Chuck is probably best known for mixing and co- producing all of Mark's solo records. When we came by, they were mixing Mark's latest release, the double album Privateering, at the well-equipped British Grove.

MARCH 23, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Damian Taylor (bonus): Björk, The Killers, Arcade Fire

BY LARRY CRANE

For years I'd get brief emails from Damian Taylor. He might be in some remote location or some major metropolitan center, making records with a wide variety of artists. Frequently he'd have some specific, interesting question; some of which I could answer. When I found out he'd settled in Montreal, I knew I had to drop in at his new studio, Golden Ratio, and finally figure out where he'd come from and what his thoughts were about making records. Damian has worked on an extensive and highly creative number of albums with Björk, but also significant sessions with The Killers, Prodigy, U.N.K.L.E., Frou Frou, Austra, Trust, Diamond Rings, Gotye, Arcade Fire, and many others. And most curious to me was the way he does work, jumping in and out of production, writing, mixing, programming (both kinds), editing, and engineering; and in the end offering his clients the ultimate collaborator.

MARCH 23, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Wes Dooley: Behind the Gear

BY LARRY CRANE

Wes Dooley loves ribbon mics. He's carried the torch for these fine tools for many years, and his AEA Ribbon Mics company manufactures some of the finest microphones of this type, as well as specialized preamps and more. I love listening to Wes spin his stories, so this was a treat!

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

API 500-Series EQ Plug-In Collection

BY API 500-Series EQ Plug-In Collection | reviewed by Eli Crews

The list of invaluable UAD-2 plug-ins just keeps growing. Earlier this year, Universal Audio added the venerable API 550A and 560 EQs to the pile of must-have emulations, and I've had the pleasure of incorporating them into my mix workflow ever since. I've used quite a few original 550As and 560s...

Gear Reviews

DAC2 HGC D/A converter

BY DAC2 HGC D/A converter | reviewed by Garrett Haines

The DAC2 HGC is a followup to the popular DAC1 [Tape Op #33]. It features more than 15 enhancements, so we were excited to use this unit. Benchmark Media Systems is a company that straddles the audiophile and recording markets. Consequently, the DAC2 HGC is designed to serve the needs of both...

Gear Reviews

Gear Tie reusable twist ties

BY Gear Tie reusable twist ties | reviewed by Garrett Haines

This is one of those "I wish I thought of that" inventions. The Gear Tie is a reusable rubber-coated twist tie. Available in a range of colors, thicknesses, and lengths, the Gear Tie is amazing for holding long cables, snakes, and extension cords. Unlike hook-and-loop (e.g., Velcro) cloth holders,...

Gear Reviews

Insight metering plug-in suite

BY Insight metering plug-in suite | reviewed by Garrett Haines

Insight is a professional metering system that runs on Windows and OS X machines in a variety of plug-in formats. Insight is impressive visually. In fact, it has been responsible for drawing large crowds at every trade show where iZotope has demonstrated it. I still remember an AES voicemail from...

Gear Reviews

m905 Monitor Controller

BY m905 Monitor Controller | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

This is a mature, third-generation product. As a hybrid DAW/analog studio owner, I'm now on my fourth monitor controller, and I'm very impressed with how Grace addressed so many of the needs and issues associated with a product like this that fulfills crucial control-room functions, whether...

Gear Reviews

P5 headphones

BY P5 headphones | reviewed by Andy Hong

I love my B&W P5 headphones. The P5 is a closed-back, on-ear model that folds relatively flat (to the size of a paperback book) for easy packing, and its sensitivity is high enough that ample volumes can be reached using the standard headphone outputs of your smartphone, tablet, or PMP. One of the...

Gear Reviews

Preceptor model-A compressor/limiter

BY Preceptor model-A compressor/limiter | reviewed by Garrett Haines

Gem Audio Labs is a Polish company specializing in high-end recording gear. The Preceptor model-A (for Aggressive) is a two- channel, class-A compressor/limiter aimed at tracking and mixing applications. Gain reduction is handled by a discrete VCA design. The 3RU-height unit is impressive, with...

Gear Reviews

Premier Series audio cables

BY Premier Series audio cables | reviewed by Joseph Lemmer

I recently stocked up on cables from Monoprice. I got ten 25 ft mic cables, twelve 10 ft 1/4'' male-to-male TS (mono) straight cables, and ten 8'' right-angle 1/4'' male-to-male TS jumper cables. For a previous review of high-end cables published in Tape Op, I did a blind-listening comparison...

Gear Reviews

Push instrument & controller

BY Push instrument & controller | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner

Bear with me here. As a musician and gear review writer, I've spent a great deal of time using a lot of "Music Stuff." Some stuff looks great, other stuff is highly functional, and some stuff is just fun to play with. Some instruments facilitate music-making with an almost terrifying ease, and...

Gear Reviews

Studio One for Engineers and Producers (book and DVD-ROM)

BY Studio One for Engineers and Producers (book and DVD-ROM) | reviewed by Joseph Lemmer

This is an extremely well-written book that I can easily recommend to almost anyone that uses Studio One 2, the award-winning DAW from PreSonus. The only people that would not benefit from it are those that already possess the daunting amount of knowledge that the author obviously does. The writing...

Gear Reviews

X-Cab 2x12 speaker cabinet

BY X-Cab 2x12 speaker cabinet | reviewed by Garrett Haines

You don't think the big records you hear use off-the-shelf guitar cabinets? Although some might use whatever the artist has, an open secret among engineers is that modifying, customizing, and optimizing cabinets is the way to get the best sound for recording. After all, most speaker enclosures are...

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COLUMNS

by Larry Crane

by Andy Hong

GEAR REVIEWS