Elemental Audio: InspectorXL
reviewed by Larry Crane
During one of my Recording Workshops a few years ago, while I was talking about using an RTA (Real Time Analyzer) to check mixes, a student piped in that there was a free plug-in online. So we...
Gear Reviews
by Larry Crane
Mark Brend: Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop
reviewed by Larry Crane
An excellent book covering some of the wackier instruments to make it into pop recordings, like the theremin, clavioline, sitar, melodica, ocarina, stylophone, and more. What's great here is getting...
Fulltone: Tube Tape Echo
reviewed by Larry Crane
I remember borrowing a friend's Echoplex in 1983 in order to add echo sounds to the electronic recordings I was creating at home. I was in heaven to be able to create real tape regeneration and nice...
A-Designs Audio: Pacifica 2-ch mic preamp
reviewed by Larry Crane
The Pacifica by A-Designs is a two-channel, solid-state, transformer-balanced mic preamp. Its front panel is simple-each channel has a DI input, phantom-power switch, 20 dB pad, polarity switch, and a...
Stedman: Proscreen XL pop filter
reviewed by Larry Crane
You may recall my positive review of the Proscreen 101 in Tape Op #23. Since then, I've used my four Proscreens (I keep buying more!) on many sessions, packed them in my luggage when recording...
David Battino & Kelli Richards: The Art of Digital Music
reviewed by Larry Crane
When we interviewed Alan Parsons last year, he asked if we could shoot a photo of him for a book for which he'd just done an interview. I happily emailed him one of the digital pictures I'd taken of...
Popless Voice Screens: VAC-6c Popless Voice Screens
reviewed by Larry Crane
The VAC-6c pop screens provide a unique solution to the "How do I tame those damn plosives?" dilemma-you know, the overbearing "P" sounds that create huge low- end peaks on vocals when mics are in...
Nomad Factory: Blue Tubes Bundle 2.0
reviewed by Larry Crane
This set of 16 plug-ins works in RTAS (Pro Tools LE), HTDM (Pro Tools HDTM/TDM), VST (Cubase, Nuendo), and AU (Logic, Digital Performer) and will run on MacOS X, Win98, NT, 2000, and XP. It seems like...
Thermionic Culture: The Culture Vulture
reviewed by Larry Crane
What is this box? I've had it for almost a year, and I'm still not sure how to answer that. For one, it's basically two channels of tube circuitry that can be run in normal or overdrive modes. The...
Great River: EQ-2NV two-channel equalizer
reviewed by Larry Crane
First off, a story: I was tracking some songs in New Orleans this summer, and Dan Kennedy of Great River was cool enough to send me this new EQ to the studio I was at; plus, he sent one of his MP-2NV...
Groove Tubes: VIPRE Variable Impedance Preamp
reviewed by Joe Chiccarelli, Larry Crane
When Larry Crane emailed me about reviewing the Groove Tubes VIPRE, I was very excited. I had used this unit when it was first introduced several years ago but never had an ample amount of time to...
Telefunken North America: Ela M 14
reviewed by Larry Crane
Telefunken NA has been reissuing the classic line of Telefunken mics, like the Ela M 251 and U 47M, for the last few years (see our review of the 251 in issue #34). This mic, the Ela M 14, is the...