These days, it’s pretty rare to see a piece of audio equipment with an innovative feature set, but the Cranborne Audio Camden EC2 is indeed one of those rarities. It is a combination two-channel...
This is an ingenious and very useful $25 accessory for anybody who owns Sennheiser MD 421 microphones and is perpetually frustrated at the poorly-designed mic clip/mount, the one that results in the...
At my studio, Jackpot! Recording, while setting up for a tracking session I get pretty obsessive about fixing the little problems that annoy me. One of these “little” irritations is...
I was an early adopter of Universal Audio’s UAD plug-in platform. My 2003 Power Macintosh G5 may have housed only a single UAD-1 DSP Card [Tape Op #41], but at the time, I thought the world of...
The golden age of plug-ins is happening right now. Initially, most audio plug-ins aped existing analog gear such as EQs, compressors, and existing effects units like plate reverbs and tape delays. I...
Eight years ago, I had the opportunity to evaluate Apogee’s Quartet audio interface [Tape Op #93]. I purchased my own Quartet as a result, and have trusted it ever since for use at The Happy...
With the current market for analog audio hardware crowded with clones of coveted pieces, the myriad of redundancies can be a drag once you tire of the usual suspects and begin to seek new tonal...
At $199, the Aston Element is a very affordable mic, but by no means is it cheap gear. That is to say, the value at this price point is immeasurable. An expertly crafted microphone paired with a...
Four years ago, Black Lion Audio introduced the B173 [Tape Op #100], their single-channel take on a British-style preamp at a wallet-friendly price. Last year, their B173 Quad improved on the design...
It’s time to open up about those empty spaces in our 500 Series racks – it feels like a sickness inside you, doesn’t it? Every time you see a shadowy gap or blank panel in your rack,...
As gear reviews go, this is a pretty easy one to write, as the issue isn’t whether or not this is an excellent product. It most definitely is, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who...
I first heard about JZ microphones years ago when my friend, singer Leah Siegel (Firehorse), gave me a BH-1 Black Hole [Tape Op #71] mic she’d received as partial payment for a session. She...
