Remember when hardware reverbs were the sole effects available? I certainly do. In the mid-‘90s, when I began making records in Los Angeles, I would scan any unfamiliar studio for the presence...
To list all the classic, quintessential rock 'n' roll recordings that have been tracked at Sound City Studios is beyond the scope of this review – but trust me, you’ve heard them:...
Baby Audio collaborated with producer Andrew Huang [Tape Op #85] to create the Transit transition designer plug-in. Like most Baby Audio plug-ins, Transit aims to simplify a complex task, offering an...
Universal Audio (UA) is one of the giants of the plug-in world, and their emulations of classic analog gear are among the most hallowed. With the release of their PolyMAX synth, UA is showing...
Remix is a plug-in that "uses cutting edge technology based on artificial intelligence" in order to un-mix a stereo track into five stems of Vocals, Piano, Bass, Drums, and Other. There have been a...
I've been wary of "all-in-one" vocal processing plug-ins that claim to deliver "pro-level vocals" for your mixes with minimal work. I've tried a few, and every time I've been better off removing the...
The kind folks at Wavesfactory recently offered up the free SK10 plug-in, which simulates having a speaker-based mic as an extra low frequency kick drum track. Insert it on your kick track, dial in...
Mixing drums can seem like some sort of magic. Mysterious, delightful, revelatory, fascinating, confounding, and confusing all at once. My experience begins with the love of playing drums. The power...
What's a BinAmp? Well, the fine folks at PSPaudioware love the sound of the preamp section of the Binson Echorec 2 delay, those cool metal-based magnetic drum delays from Italy, first introduced in...
In issue #126 I reviewed Benson Amps' stereo Studio Tall Bird Spring Reverb, a wonderful piece of hardware that gets used a lot at Jackpot! Recording. The original Tall Bird has been discontinued, but...
Baby Audio’s BA-1 is a reimagining of the cultish ‘80s analog synth, the Yamaha CS01, bringing with it some pure and authentic textures that are easy and intuitive to program. The CS01 was...
Built to work only with the McDSP APB ("analog processing box") units (APB-8, APB-16) [Tape Op #134], the KD1 Kinetic Drive is a plug-in that uses this interesting system. The APB essentially is a one...
