The Creative Music Recording Magazine

Suzanne Ciani

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synthesist, composer, sound designer, Buchla
Danny Elfman

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his Big Mess album, film scores, Oingo Boingo
Beau Sorenson
Death Cab For Cutie, Bob Mould, beaunoise
Maryam Qudus

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spacemoth, SAD13, Tune-Yards, Zelma Stone
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inside their recording process
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Shearwater
recreating Bowie’s Berlin LP trilogy
Blak Emoji
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Kelsey Warren on Eclectro

Shoes
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homemade ‘70s power pop

Kowloon Walled City
making the Piecework album
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Gear Reviews
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$ 5 . 9 9 N o . 1 4 8
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A p r / M a y 2 0 2 2
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 Hello and
welcome to
Tape Op
10
12
16
20
25
Letters
Blak Emoji
Danny Elfman
Loma
Shearwater
#148!

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26 Kowloon Walled City
30 Beau Sorenson & Maryam Qudus

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46 Suzanne Ciani
p a g e

52 Shoes

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56 Gear Reviews
70 Larry’s End Rant
Recording and creating music has been the center of my life since I was in my late teens.
Initially, I was tracking my pals as we goofed around with silly songs and ideas. I also worked on

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experimental solo music [check out some of my just re-released early “music”:
lawrencecrane.bandcamp.com], but after a few years, this music-making lead to forming the group
Vomit Launch with a new set of friends I’d met via college and the radio station there. People who

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helped us in the studio were either friends we already had, like Greg Freeman (Tape Op #1), or soon
became close friends and collaborators, like John Baccigaluppi who produced our last two albums,
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eventually becoming my partner in Tape Op Magazine. Even when I moved to Portland, Oregon, and
began recording people in my basement, most sessions were with people I already knew and
enjoyed being around, ones I would call friends.
In this issue, John interviews Suzanne Ciani, an amazing synthesist and composer who has
become a close friend of his. He also talks to his pals Beau Sorenson and Maryam Qudus, who
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discuss how music and recording led to a rewarding relationship. I got to finally (virtually) meet
the composer Danny Elfman, and we chatted about working with my late friend Elliott Smith [Tape
Op #4, 11, 118] – another person I became close to while working with in the studio. But please
see my End Rant this issue, for a remembrance of Tape Op contributor Rob Christensen, who became
(a

another amazing acquaintance over the years, and will be sorely missed.
Music, collaborating, conferences,
live shows, and all are so important
to my life. But as I’ve noted before
in these pages, it’s the friendships
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Leah Dunn, Beau Sorenson, and Maryam Qudus

that we make along the way that
really matter.
Larry Crane, Editor & Founder
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Larry and Rob c Jenna Crane

 The Creative Music Recording Magazine

Editor & Founder

Larry Crane
Publisher &! Graphic Design
John Baccigaluppi
Online Publisher
Geoff Stanfield
CTO & Digital Director
Anthony Sarti/BPXI/O
Production Manager & Gear Reviews Editor
Scott McChane

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Gear Geek at Large
Andy Hong

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Contributing Writers &! Photographers
Cover art by Emily Cross, an excerpt from her piece
What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Die.

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<www.crossrecord.com/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-to-die.html>
Jeremiah Cumberbatch, Jacob Boll, Bryan C. Parker, Emily Cross,
Dan Duszynski, Jonathan Meiburg, Dan Duszynski, Christopher Sikich,
Jack Shirley, Scott Evans, Daniel Villarreal, Beau Sorenson, Sean Hellfritsch,
Michela Di Savino, John Rau, Daniel Ryan Morse, Slater Swan, Dana Gumbiner,

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Garrett Haines, Dave Hidek, and Tom Fine.
Editorial and Office Assistants
Jenna Crane (editorial copy editor), Jonathan Saxon (reviews copy editor),
Thomas Danner (transcriptions), Hazel Stanfield (online),

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Maria Baker (admin, accounting), Jay Ribadeneyra (online)
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Disclaimer
TAPE OP magazine wants to make clear that the opinions expressed within reviews, letters, and
articles are not necessarily the opinions of the publishers. Tape Op is intended as a forum to
advance the art of recording, and there are many choices made along that path.

Editorial Office
(For submissions, letters, music for review. Music for review is also
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reviewed in the San Rafael office, address below)

P.O. Box 86409, Portland, OR 97286 voicemail 503-208-4033
All unsolicited submissions and letters sent to us become the property of Tape Op.
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Advertising
John Baccigaluppi
916-444-5241, <john@tapeop.com>
Marsha Vdovin
415-420-7273, <marsha@tapeop.com>
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Subscribe online at tapeop.com

(Notice: We sometimes rent our subscription list to our advertisers.)

Subscription and Address Changes

Can all be made online at <tapeop.com/subscriptions>.
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Back issues can be purchased via <tapeop.com/issues>. If you have

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Please do not email or call the rest of the staff about subscription issues.

Postmaster and all general inquiries to:

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Tape Op Magazine, PO Box 151079, San Rafael, CA 94915

(916) 444-5241 <tapeop.com>
Tape Op is published by Single Fin, Inc. (publishing services)
and Jackpot! Recording Studio, Inc. (editorial services)
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8/Tape Op#148/Masthead www.tapeop.com

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I just read the Lindsey Buckingham interview [#146]
and feel like it wasn’t quite complete without any
mention of his longtime tech, Charlie Bolois. In addition
to taking care of Lindsey’s home studio world for 30-
something years, he’s also put a studio in a racquetball
court for Eddie Van Halen, gone on tour with the Foo
Fighters - exclusively to maintain their Studer tape
machines, and he’s also the L.A. certified tech for ATC,
Neumann, and so on. There truly isn’t a nicer and more
generous guy than Charlie, and I’ve never said goodbye
to him without feeling uplifted and happy to
just get to chat with him. He’s the best.
Gavin Paddock <gavinpaddock.com>
Oh, yes; thank you so much for mentioning this. I didn’t
know the connection! Charlie has even repaired mic cables for a book on this subject alone. -LC
me in the past. Drop him a line at <vertigorecordings.com>
if anyone needs genius-level audio help! -LC
I wanted to say that I just got the new issue, and the recordings are always paired with meals. What are some
Lindsey Buckingham [interview], specifically, was very, of your favorite recipes to prepare for clients? I am happy
very good. You do a great job. I love this magazine, and to share ours. Much love and gratitude for
I look forward to it every time it comes in my mail. continually publishing incredible stories and knowledge.
Thanks again.
Barcelo Romero <via voicemail>
OMG, I’m losing my mind reading this Steve Lukather [#146]
piece. I came for the Buckingham, stayed for the Lukather!
Josh Kaufman
What, you didn’t read about yourself in that issue too? -LC
Thank you for such a great magazine! I am a musician,
songwriter, and self-taught engineer, and Tape Op has
been an indispensable resource for me. It occurred to me
recently that my reading of Tape Op has developed and
evolved over time, along with my knowledge and skills.
In the beginning, I was obsessed with the gear – an easy
target for marketing hype – and I was convinced that if
I could just find the right piece of gear or plug-in, my
work would magically sound “like a record.” I would skim
the interviews and devour the Gear Reviews section,
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looking for the “magic bullet” I was sure I was missing.
Years later, I have learned that the gear is indeed
important, but more important are the hundreds, and
even thousands, of small decisions and choices that
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accumulate over the course of a mix and add up to
something great. My reading of Tape Op has similarly
evolved, poring over the interviews to glean tidbits of
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process and concept while spending less time reading
about the next new piece of gear. I think that’s progress!
Paul DiGirolamo <pauldig@comcast.net>
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Thanks for a great magazine. How do you get a good mix
where you emphasize the midrange instead of low and
high frequencies? Can you please advise on where I should
boost and where to cut so it doesn’t sound muddy?
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Thomas Renhult <thomasrenhult@gmail.com>
10/Tape Op#148/Letters/(Fin.)
Simply listen and respond,
just like when playing music
with others. My own mixes
are usually very midrange-
orientated, as opposed to
some people’s work where
highs and lows are more
emphasized. The main
thing I do is to make sure I’m
usually not boosting any mid frequencies, and instead I
focus on finding ways to make these sources feel balanced
within themselves, as well as making them work better with
the rest of the mix elements. Are there too many high
frequencies? Then reduce them a little bit everywhere. Is it
getting cluttered between 200-500 Hz and sounding
muddy? Look for what information doesn’t need to be there
and bring that band down on select instruments. Set
mental priority for which parts of what tracks need to be in
certain frequency ranges. Maybe the piano can be soft and
the drum’s cymbals bright? Or vice-versa? I will say I do
very little soloing of individual tracks, though I will solo
banks of instruments and drum busses to see what might
be hiding or causing problems. But, heck, one could write
Tape Op is the greatest recording magazine of all time,
and it’s free! Thank you kindly! Rancho de la Luna [#63]
David Catching <www.ranchodelaluna.com>
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I don’t have a stove or anything to cook on at Jackpot!
Recording Studio. A toaster, coffeemaker, and a microwave
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might make for an interesting challenge if I wanted to whip
up some eggplant parmigiana, but in the meantime we’re
going to continue grabbing Ethiopian take-out from the
beloved Bete-Lukas next door! -LC
My studios, The Hangar and Panoramic House, both have
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had full kitchens, and cooking meals is a big component of
making records for me. It's such a nice way to wind down
the session at the end of the day, and is often a good
excuse for stopping the clock as activities get less
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productive. "Let's pick this up tomorrow. I need to get
dinner started so we can eat," is always nicer to say than,
"We need to bail on this. We're hitting diminishing returns."
I've got my quickie faves, like pasta with pesto or a quick
amatriciana with pancetta and good jarred pasta sauce,
but it's fun to do a bigger, elaborate meal after a session
that you might not tackle at home since it's too much food
for a small family like mine (my wife Maria and I). Paella
is an all-time fave, and I make that quite often as it can
feed a lot of people. I once even made a big batch for Little
Wings, Sea of Bees, and Vetiver after a show. Other
memorable meals have been cassoulet with my late pal
Neal Casal and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood; Frankies
meatballs and Sunday sauce with Thom Monahan, Two
Sheds, and Thom’s mom, Mary; and most recently a slow-
cooked octopus ragu with squid ink pasta with Beau
Sorenson, Maryam Qudus, and Suzanne Ciani (see our
after-dinner interviews this issue!). -JB
Regarding Dick Weissman’s “Letters” comment [#145]
about Black musicians in the Wrecking Crew, let me add
the great sax player, Plas Johnson (“The Pink Panther
Theme”). I appreciate this publication so much. I often
feel guilty about getting it for free! Please keep up the
good work.
Jonmark Stone <jm@jonmarkstone.com>
Plas is such a talented player! And no one should ever
feel guilty about getting Tape Op Magazine for free. Always
tell our wonderfully-supportive advertisers that you read
Tape Op and listen to our podcasts. If you really want to
offer more support, feel free to sign up for our full online
access Premium Subscription, or a PDF Complete Digital
Box Set of back issues! Thanks for reading and enjoying –
we love offering these for our awesome subscribers. -LC
Many of your interviewees mention the psychology of
producing. Successful producers understand that all good
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records contain feelings, and those feelings come from the
artist, their band, and the studio staff. If everyone is
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laughing, you can hear it. If everyone is tense,
you can hear that too. But music is a joy. Making it into a
dull, aggravating task seems like the wrong direction every
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time, and your interviews in Tape Op seem to validate this
assumption. All of us have had sessions that aren’t ideal,
but I know that every good producer is looking for a way
to alleviate that atmosphere. And if we’re successful, it’s
one of my favorite parts of making records. If unsuccessful?
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Well, that’s the work part, I suppose. Thanks!
<joereyes.com>
I understand Freddy K’s request for more “nuts and
bolts” in interviews [intro, Tape Op #146], as I was also
very interested in collecting as many “sonic recipes” as
possible. Unfortunately, when I tried to apply them I
often wound up with something that sounded terrible.
Usually my best results were achieved by accident, and I
gradually got to a point where I was able to make
something sound good most of the time. That’s the path
that a lot of us took, but the pursuit of sonic recipes can
go another way; one I think is actually much worse. If the
beginning engineer is smarter and more detail-oriented
than myself, they might actually produce albums that
sound exactly like the records they were trying to sound
like. Good for them, (I am very jealous) but the downside
is that this engineer might continue to produce work that
only sounds like everything else. I know that some clients
probably want this, but as a music fan and artist I do not
enjoy the homogeneous sounds that result.
Todd Thurman <junkyardtodd@yahoo.com>
Send Letters & Questions to:
editor@tapeop.com
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Blak Emoji is the project/band of producer,

songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Kelsey
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Warren. His recently released third album,

Eclectro, is a fun and inventive listen,
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so I dropped him a line and we got down

to chatting about how it was made.
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I went back and listened to some previous
Blak Emoji records, and this one has a
little more depth to it. There’s more
going on sonically.
I’d agree. I had more time.
Didn’t we all?
Yeah. That was it for me. I was already on the road to
recording and working on ideas for new songs. I would
sit and work on sounds for hours. The pandemic forced
me to throw myself into this without interruption. It’s
not a popular thing to say, but last year [2020] was a
good year for me. I didn’t have anything else to do but
music. I was on tour, and I came back here. I remember
hearing, “You’ve gotta get back home! Everything’s
going to stop!” And that was it. My production jobs were
gone. My gigs were gone. What keeps me the most sane
is making music and recording. I had more than enough
time to marinate on songs and try different ideas. There
record your vocals with that’ll sound clear that I can Did you do many revisions or anything
take and do something with?” It’s a whole different on the mixes with Michael?
environment. With my previous record, Kumi, that was Not really. “Mechanism” took a while. That was a weird one.
a mixture of my bedroom and a studio I went to in I had three other people try to mix it, and it wasn’t to my
Brooklyn called Rift Studios. Good sounds, and great liking. That one went back and forth a little bit with him.
engineers. I’ll go there when a song needs big drums. I But the others were maybe two or three passes.
can’t do that here. Sometimes, I want that studio What microphone are you using on your
sound. Other times it’s, “Oh, whatever.” Here I worked vocals?
at my own pace. Some songs came out in a day. Some An AKG P220 [large diaphragm condenser mic], believe
came out in two. “Float” took a year. There’s no pressure it or not. Not an expensive mic at all. I like it.
from the other outside work. I don’t have a manager, It sounds very clear. Detailed, but not
and I don’t have a label. Of course, it’s a blessing and a ridiculously bright.
curse. Like I said, there were eight songs that were
Yeah. My setup is so minimal and bare bones. I don’t
always there and then I was changing them. If I was in
have everything [sound]proofed in my room. I could
a studio, would I be changing things this much? I’ve
have a very expensive mic, and it might sound like
eventually got to set a deadline. crap in this room. This microphone is awesome
Where do we stop? That’s always the because it’s good for different genres. I could scream
question with the creativity angle my ass off on it and it works, and it works for what I

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are 12 songs on the album, 13 on Bandcamp, and maybe with recording. do with a very airy, breathy tone. I can add
seven or eight of them were constantly on the list. The Absolutely. compressors and make it sound sexy.

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other four or five I changed so many times. I thought, Are you working in [Apple] Logic? And slipping into falsetto, like you do, is
“I’m pulling this off.” I had time to do it and not stress Yeah. Strictly Logic. a different tone.
about having to tour or do anything else. The pulsing synthesizers and sounds, Yeah. I was surprised. I ended up using it a lot on a lot

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When you were working on the album are those virtual instruments or of different projects for different styles.
order, was it more about the flow and outboard gear? With the projects you produced,
seeing what fit together? Both. Most of it is all in the box. I do have an M-Audio especially during the pandemic,
Yeah. There are probably 30 songs I recorded. There are controller. I have a little Alesis Micron [synthesizer] that I were those completely remote?
some that feel like “singles,” but there’s a theme. I like used a lot on the Kumi album. Not so much this one. Most In the beginning, yeah. I remember doing a single with

albums. I love [Prince’s] Purple Rain, [Nine Inch Nails’]
The Fragile, or [Pink Floyd’s] The Wall. All of those records
have a common thread and a common sound, but many
songs are different. It’s a roller coaster ride. That’s what
of it’s just me in-the-box, going through crazy sounds,
putting it through some distortion. It’s fun. When I throw
in a guitar, I feel it almost has more meaning than it used
to for me because I’m more selective about it. I go through
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Karine Hannah. We were going back and forth, and I
asked, “Can you just come over?” She said, “No, I can’t
come over! The pandemic, man.” But little by little, as
time went on, at least for the people around here, it’d

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I was trying to accomplish with Eclectro. I wanted a crazy freaking plug-ins to try and manipulate a sound to
consistent theme and sound, but it’s still all over the where you don’t know if it’s a guitar or if it’s a keyboard.
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place. There are a lot of different styles in there. Is the mixing done by you?
I was thinking of it as “future R&B.” Most of it. I produced and mixed all of it, except for three
I like that. songs that Michael LaVaque mixed. He’s awesome. He’s
I feel the focus is on the songs. The out of Arizona. I met him last year through some other
electronics are fantastic, but the music cats. He did the mastering, too. I can get in my
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be, “Okay, I’m vaxxed. Come on over. I’ll make sure
everything is clean and safe.” Now it’s a lot easier. But,
again, it’s a lot of people from France, Spain, and
around the world I’m working with. “You have to make
sure you can get a good sound.” I’ve had that issue
with people before, where they’ll send me a vocal track
and I’ll say, “You’ve got to record this over or I can’t

songs are what we come to listen to.
Thank you. That’s what I was trying to go for. The album
is called Eclectro because it’s an electronic base, but I
feel that sometimes people pigeonhole electronic
own head. I know my strengths. I know my weaknesses.
Sometimes I’ll realize, “This is good, but it would
probably be better if someone else mixed it.” I don’t
have that much of an ego.
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do anything with this.” That can be a bit of a problem.
I’ve thought about having a kit to ship
to people. “Here’s the USB cable and
here’s the mic. I’ve set the preamp to

music. Either it’s EDM or Aphex Twin. There’s a song What changes did having someone else a good level.”
called “Every Mother’s Son.” I was asking someone, mix bring? Yeah. “Don’t change this!”
“Why aren’t there any protest songs in the genre of Oh, man; a sigh of relief. It really was. It got to a point I’ve been doing lots of remote mixing.
electronic music?” A protest song is a guy or girl with where I was knee-deep working on Eclectro, but then I Once you’re able to get everybody in
an acoustic guitar or it’s hip-hop. Electronic music is so started working on other projects. I produced a couple the room the communication is
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vast. It’s Aphex Twin, but it’s also Kraftwerk. It’s Prince.
It’s Nine Inch Nails. It’s Eartheater. All of those sound
different. Prince and Nine Inch Nails are perfect for
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EPs and singles for some other artists. I can’t do it all. sometimes completely non-verbal.
It’s also good to take what you have and step away. There are things I love about recording by myself, and
Work on some other music and get that energy going there are things I love about recording in the studio.
there. “Can you mix this? Because I don’t want to

mixing sonics with songs. I love The Beatles as much as
I love Ministry. Why not mix it up, if it can work? I’m
not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m trying to make
songs that I want to hear.
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I loved having the freedom here by myself on my own.
fricking hear it anymore.” Then I’d get it back, and withI can wake up at three in the morning with an idea
him it’s easy. He knocked it out of the park quickly. from a dream and start working. And then, after a
It’s important to find collaborators while, I was thinking, “Oh, man; I’m tired of being by

That makes sense. It looks as if you’re at
your home studio right now. What’s
the place you did this in?
Here, in my little bedroom. Nothing fancy. I also started
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where you can get on the same page. myself. I’ve been here for five months. Maybe I should
Yeah. It’s not easy. But it was easy with him. There were see some people! I’m going to go to a studio.” That
a few songs where I knew, “I can’t get that thing. was challenging during the pandemic. I tried to have
Michael can do it.” somebody else mix a song over at one of the studios,

producing a little bit more for other artists, because I Did you send him notes about how you and they said, “We can’t do it now. We’re closed.”
had the time. I’ve done that in the past, but I always envisioned the song working, along You’re obviously a solo project but also a
wanted to do more. I couldn’t go to a studio. A lot of with your rough mix? band. Did your bandmates perform on
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the people I’m working with, it’s a different thing. I would send the rough mix and little notes about what Eclectro?
“Okay, let’s do something. Do you have something to I couldn’t get out of that. Blak Emoji/(continued on page 14)/Tape Op#148/13
 On the new album, no. The new album is all me, except for
the last track where I collaborated with Danos Ettrick. We
were in a band [Pillow Theory] before this. He did the
strings and cello parts on that song, and some guitars.
Other than that, it’s all my fault! A lot of the Blak Emoji
albums are predominantly me. Like how Trent Reznor will
have someone play on a track or two [for Nine Inch Nails].
Our main live drummer, Max [Maples], is sprinkled all over
[our previous album] Kumi. I just wanted to record. These
were weird times.
When you’re producing, how do those jobs
filter to you? Has your Blak Emoji work
been a calling card of sorts?
Absolutely. I’ve been doing music for a long time, especially
in New York. After a while people are like, “Oh, this sounds
cool. I want to do something.” Something changed around
the time of a single called “Lust Love Above” on Kumi. Once
that came out, I started to get more calls for production

)
work. Before Eclectro, I’d been talking about trying to put
out a predominantly instrumental album for a long time. I

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thought, “I’m going to put my weird Flying Lotus/Aphex
Twin thing into Blak Emoji.” I needed to do it to get it out
of my system. I did Antidote in less than a month. I wasn’t

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expecting anything. Once it came out, I was getting DMs
from people, saying, “This is great. How did you do this?
How did you get that sound? Are you expensive? Can I work
with you?” Especially regarding a song called “Quarantine.”
That got me a different audience, I guess. Most of my
favorite artists have albums that sound totally different.

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There are people who listen to everything. It’s not as
segregated as it used to be. I listen to everything from
Slayer to Joni Mitchell. That’s not as odd these days!

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You were playing synth bass with the
“avant-sludge rock” band Netherlands
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recently.
That is fun as hell. I’ve been a fan of that band for years. We
played Saint Vitus Bar recently. It’s the metal club. I’ve seen
so many shows there, and finally I got to be on that stage.
I’m definitely going to be doing more shows with
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Netherlands. Before Blak Emoji, I was in predominantly

hard rock bands. I loved going to shows back in the day
and seeing Nine Inch Nails or Ministry. These bands where
they’re in this electronic vibe, but they’re freaking heavy.
(a

There are crazy beats and ARP [synths], but the guitars are
thrash. We don’t sound like that at all, but what I do enjoy
with Blak Emoji is that I get to do it all. We get to have
that element, but it’s still a live band. It’s not going to be
a show where it’s just a laptop playing. I try to mix it up
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and try to be as authentic as possible, by just playing.

Any words of encouragement to Tape Op
readers?
Yeah. Don’t always be a slave to the rules of the past. I can
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keep mentioning Prince and Trent Reznor forever. I’m sorry;

I’m obsessed with them. But they broke so many rules.
There are a lot of people who I look up to who did weird
ir

things, like Tricky or Björk. If you always go by the rules,

you’re not going to go forward in music. It’s so much fun
experimenting with sound. I love making songs. If you
have a DAW, you can sit around for ten hours, and it’s the
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same thing as sitting around practicing your guitar in a

room for five hours a day. It’s an instrument, but it’s so
much fun. r
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<www.blakemoji.com>
14/Tape Op#148/Blak Emoji/(Fin.)
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by Larry Crane
photo by Jacob Boll

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They’d have to have a lot of pre-roll
on tape to get the units to have time
to sync.
So much pre-roll. I swear to god, we had to roll a minute
t)

Many likely know Danny Elfman’s name from movie There are two decks here. before it started to sync up.
credits, as he’s scored well over 110 films at this point. [rotates camera] There are obviously aspects that none of
But some of us remember his ‘80s and ‘90s group, Oingo What are those? us miss about that analog world. It’s
Boingo, along with their frenetic energy and twisted Otari MX-80s. hard to explain to someone who
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songs. Danny and I have an oddly intertwined history Otaris, yeah. At my first studio, back in Topanga, I was didn’t grow up seeing that in action.
involving the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting, yet we down 85 steps under the house on a hillside. I dug It’s funny, because when it comes to tracking for a song,
had never met before. With the release of Big Mess, his out, lifted up the house, put in a retaining wall, put I still sometimes miss tape. It’s not as big of a luxury
first album of non-soundtrack songs in 27 years, the house back down on it, and called that my studio. as it is in the film score, where we’ve got 100 tracks
I jumped at the chance to meet (and have a fun, I had an MCI 24-track and a Soundcraft mixing board, going. Being able to stop and start, roll back four bars
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loose chat) with an incredibly talented musician and I was so excited. “I’m in business here.” That was and pick it up again with an orchestra… oh, my god;
and composer. my world, for years. that was a game changer. When I’m playing along and
Keeping those running was a pain. hit a mistake, “Okay, cut! Let’s roll back to bar 116
Okay, we’re taping from this end. Do you remember the synchronizers, the [Time Line]
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and pick it up. There we go. Thank you.”

I do love it how we still call it tape. Lynx [Time Code] Modules? And to be able to easily “see” and know
Even if we’re recording an interview via Yeah. I’ve got an Adams-Smith where that is, instead of rewinding
Zoom, we say, “I’ve got to tape that.” Zeta~Three in here. I’ve never even and searching around for the bar.
ir

I still do exactly the same thing. I go, “Are we getting hooked it up! Exactly, exactly. Anyhow, I’m sorry. I already digressed
this on tape? Is tape running?” It never changes. It Back in the day, that’s what we had to use. I reached a hugely. Apologies.
doesn’t matter if it’s all [Avid] Pro Tools or not. “We’ve point, in the ‘90s, where it was getting insane. On film Oh, no issue! I thought we’d have an
scores we had four 24-track [tape decks] going. Then easy chat. I co-produced and recorded
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got it on tape.”
Even the word “analog” means we’d bring in four of these digital multitracks, 8-track “Miss Misery” for Elliott Smith for
“comparable.” units, and we must have had eight Lynx all going. Good Will Hunting. You did the score,
I know. I thought about putting a 24-track back in my We’d start out a cue, and we’d be watching. Like, and you arranged and co-produced
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studio again for the hell of it. I know that some “Sync 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… No, come on; god damn it! his “Between the Bars (orchestral)”
people do believe in that. Cut. We didn’t get the last Lynx up.” version for the soundtrack.
Sitting with Elliott and Gus [Van Sant, director] in the
basement of Gus’s house is still one of the great treats
I’ve had. I do remember heading out to see Gus in
Boston, [Massachusetts], and he goes, “Look, I know
this seems odd, but I’m going to give you a tape. Do
you know who Elliott Smith is?” At that point I hadn’t
been aware of him. He goes, “I think this will be the
only artist in the score for songs, and I’d like to get
your opinion and soak that up.” I listened, and it
totally made sense. It was such a rare treat. Usually,
songs are dropped in at the end. When I’m scoring, I
don’t even know what they are until I go to the
premiere, because they’ve changed ten times. Here I
was able to take the score and make it go rather
seamlessly into the song and back into the score. To try
to make it all cohesive was such a pleasure. Of course,
Elliott was a pleasure. Later, for the Academy Awards,
we were both nominated. Elliott called me one day, and
Right, right. And you started writing?
I never had a sense of what we were or who I was. Yeah, it’s a writing room. It’s not even a studio. I have my
Decades later, I finally gave up trying. I don’t know if I samples, so I could do orchestral work when I’m away
have an identity or not. If I do, I don’t know what it is. from home. I think it’s because of Coachella that I had
It’s a big mess in there! the feel of an electric guitar in my hand. That’s why it’s
I know you had a Coachella show a guitar-based album, because it could easily have
scheduled before this album that gone synth-based. At that moment I was feeling the
didn’t end up happening. Was that the strings still on my fingers, and that became the heart
impetus to start writing new vocal- of it. The sound of the band and the orchestra playing
based material? together became my center of what I was hearing. That
Yeah. Definitely guitar-based, but with the orchestra. brought me to the direction that the Big Mess went
Coachella had been trying to get me to put together into. Taking on that attitude was due to having been
an Oingo Boingo reunion for years. I’m so sorry, but it’s in that mode with a band.
never going to happen. After Hans Zimmer did an Right. When you’re angry, there’s
orchestral show at Coachella [in 2017], they wanted to nothing better than hitting a guitar.
do an orchestra film date. I said, “That still doesn’t feel It’s very different than playing a
quite right to me.” It means playing with a lot of pre- keyboard or a synth.
recorded tracks. They cannot mic an orchestra on stage Yeah, exactly right. I let out a lot of aggression with my

)
he said, “Danny, I’m at rehearsal, and it’s not going with 30 minutes between sets. It’s impossible. Laura guitars and vocals. I realized, after my first week, “Fuck
well.” Bill Conti did an arrangement of the song [“Miss brought me out there in 2019. I had written this piece the headphones. I’ll sing in front of the speakers.”

ot
Misery”] for the rehearsal. I could see that was a bad of instrumental music that became the song “Sorry.” I Were those a lot of keeper vocals that
match. I said, “So, when do you need something by?” wanted it originally to be part of this music festival in you did?
He said, “By tomorrow.” I banged out the arrangement Tasmania, called Dark Mofo. It’s a great festival. I All of them.

and got him his music by the next day!
He told me you had done the arrangement
he sang to during the awards.
Well, I didn’t really do anything. It was just the strings.
They wanted to have the orchestra play along. Keep it
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pitched it as “chamber punk.” I said, “I’ve got an idea You had speaker bleed coming back in on
for a piece of music with an orchestra and a rock the mic?
band.” I wrote “Sorry” as a 12-minute instrumental. I Yeah. After about a month I got the headphone amp fixed,
wasn’t singing on it; I was only playing guitar. The and I used them a few times on the soft background
only vocals were, “I’m so sorry,” by a female choir. The vocals. But 95 percent of it was in front of speakers,

simple and stay out of the way. It was the most basic,
simple, easy arrangement, because there was nothing
that needed amplification or help. It was really to give
it some texture, let it play along, and stay out of the
problem was I couldn’t put together the rest of a set
to go out there and pull it together in 2019. I didn’t
have time. When I saw Coachella, I said, “Wait a
minute, what if it’s half film music and half rock
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letting the bleed happen, and not giving a fuck. I made
a commitment at the end of it that I was not going to go
back in the studio and “fix” these up, which is always how
I was wired. I’d cut a demo, go in the studio, get in front

way. Don’t try to compete with the song. It was a lovely
way to end that process with Elliott, to get called into
that emergency orchestration. After 110 films, or
whatever it’s been, one of the only two times I feel I
collaborated with anybody – between the score and the
songs – was with Elliott on Good Will Hunting and with
Tyler, The Creator on The Grinch. Everything else has
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band?” I’d revive half a dozen Oingo Boingo tracks that
I could still tolerate, and I’d rework them. I’d turn
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“Sorry” into a song. That’s how I approached
Coachella. Then it was three months of work, playing
with this new band that I was loving being with.
That sounds fun.
It was so inspiring to me, and then it all collapsed. I
t)
of a mic, fix it up, and do multiple takes. When I was
doing the vocals for Jack Skellington years ago, I learned
to never discount those first demo vocals. At the
beginning of The Nightmare Before Christmas, there was
no script, and Tim [Burton] and I didn’t know how to
start. So, we started with the songs. There were ten
songs. We went in the studio, and I cut all ten songs in

been totally separate and removed.
The people who do music placement for
film frequently just seem to drop
something in.
went into quarantine, like everybody did. I took no
film work for 2020, as I had 22 concerts planned. I had
concerts for The Nightmare Before Christmas. I had
concerts for the Elfman and Burton show [Danny
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one night. All the vocals for every part except for Sally. I
did the big vocals, the little vocals, everything. Cut to six
months or a year later, and we were doing the “real”
vocals. Now I had orchestra tracks, and it’s a whole

Yeah, exactly. With Gus, it’s all very purposeful. He was
already shooting the movie. He had a clear idea, and he
was only halfway through the shooting.
Speaking of songs and string arrangements,
your new record, Big Mess, is intense! I
si
Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton]. I had two
world premieres of classical music scheduled. I had
Coachella, and we were going to do more shows
around that. I’d committed 2020 to concert work.
Three months of prep to put together this Coachella
different thing. Tim kept saying, “Can you bring up the
vocals on your demo?” We’d put the demo up, and, for
about half of those vocals, I wasn’t topping them. We
kept them. I tried to EQ them as best as I could to match,
and they’re in the movie forever. At the end of Big Mess,

wouldn’t call it a mess, but it is big. show, and nothing. I have a place, not far from Santa I was still thinking, “I’ll go into my studio in Los Angeles,
Well, there are 18 songs. By the time I was at eight songs, Barbara, and I’ve had it as a second home for many, and I’ll get in front of the mic.” Then I made a decision.
I already could see what was happening. There was this many years. I’ve never spent more than a week here. I I said, “No, I’m not going to fix anything.” I decided, at
os

dichotomy that was coming out. By then, I’d already
said, “This is going to be a big mess,” because it was
going to be two records, written by two different artists,
both of whom live inside my head. They don’t get along.
ir
grabbed my wife, son, and dog, and said, “Let’s get out this point in my life, “What the fuck do I care?” If I’m
of L.A. for this. It could get nasty.” After sitting out singing out of tune, I’m singing out of tune. I’m not trying
here for a month or so, I started working on a classical to prove anything. It’s 100 percent a handheld mic into
piece. It was for The Proms, the big classical festival in Digital Performer, because I don’t even use Pro Tools up

In fact, they can’t stand each other. Laura [Engel], my
manager, was saying, “Maybe you should release one of
the albums now, and we’ll do the other in a year or two.”
I said, “Laura, in two years I’m not going to want to
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London, England, in August. They hadn’t yet officially here. I realized I’m more comfortable holding a mic than
canceled. Come April, they announced that nothing I am standing in front of a mic. There are singers who are
was going to happen. That’s when I said, “I’m going comfortable standing in front of a mic and singing, but

release any of this. I’m going to be into something else
completely.” That was the whole frustration of being in
a band [Oingo Boingo] for all those years. Every two
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to write a couple more pieces, just for the hell of it.” my performing years there was always a microphone in my
I was angry, frustrated, and depressed. I had one mouth. Even when I started doing Nightmare… music on
acoustic guitar, one electric guitar, a handheld stage, I started with in-ear monitors, trying to stand up
microphone, and no headphones. I had my Axe-Fx in front. By the end, I was asking for stage speakers. At a

years I wanted to be in a different band. [amp modeling] rack, so I didn’t need a [guitar] amp. certain point I had to grab it and start walking around.
D. Elfman/(continued on page 18)/Tape Op#148/17
 I saw Oingo Boingo in ‘83, opening for When I came out of the ‘70s, I didn’t know who Bowie and those cost $450,000. I held off and used my
The Police in Oakland, California. I was. I discovered Scary Monsters, and my friends are [Avid] Artist Mix [controller]. Now I’ve got the big
remember you prowling the stage and saying, “You idiot! This guy’s been around since the late Artist Mix, the 16-fader one. It’s fine! I mix whole
moving around a lot. A very visual ‘60s! You’ve never heard of Ziggy Stardust?” Even my shows on that thing. I can’t find any reason to put in
performer. guitar playing still calls back to that album. anything else, at this point.
Yeah. If I’m not holding a guitar, I have to move. The fun, wild parts. Do you have a full-time staff?
Right. Did it take any time to get your Yeah. For the solo on “True” I didn’t want to have to have I take great pride in having the smallest entourage of
voice back in shape? beautiful guitarists come in and replay it. Most of my any composer in Hollywood. I have a staff of two.
Before Coachella, and before I started doing Jack guitars on the piece are the ones my engineers, every Maybe it’s easier to manage than
Skellington [live], I began doing some training to try time we were mixing, they’d note my guitar as the something like Hans Zimmer’s
and bring back my range. When it came time to do Big “messy” one. Everything sounded good. Now put mine Remote Control Productions complex.
Mess, I’d already stopped doing that. I had to find a in, and we’d get some squeals and feedback. Just I’ve used that as a model. Like, “I’ll be the other end
voice, and that was part of the fun of the process. I enough to fuck it up. of that.”
know what Jack Skellington’s voice is, but I don’t know That’s character! Right. It’s not saying one is right or
what my voice is anymore. I only did one song in the Occasionally I would hit parts in a certain way, where wrong, obviously.
last quarter-century. It was for this movie Wanted, and there’s no way to communicate it. “I don’t even know Yeah. I never rent it out. It’s just for my use. I don’t have
I cut a song [“The Little Things”] for [director] Timur how I did this.” the financial pressure to keep it rolling all the time.
Bekmambetov. That was it! This was interesting, Did a lot of the record have to be done Right. I know that feeling!

)
because I knew from the get-go that I couldn’t hit the one overdub at a time, with the Yeah. It’s a real pressure. I resolved years ago that I’m not
high notes. I could barely hit the high notes in Oingo other players? good at that. Hans is a great producer and manager. I

ot
Boingo 30 years ago! I always wrote at the top of my The whole record. I cut all the demos, and then had to go think a lot of his talent is in managing groups of
range, and it would drive me crazy as soon as I was in one at a time. Josh Freese replaced the sample people and teams. I’m happiest being a lonely guy off
doing multiple shows. I’d lose my voice every night. drums. While Josh had his week, [bassist] Stu Brooks in the corner. My one assistant, Melissa McGregor,

This time, it was like, “All right. Don’t even think about
that. Find something else.” I experimented, and when
I was singing the song “True,” I came away from
listening, and I was going, “I’m enjoying this!” I
couldn’t have sung this song 30 years ago.
As far as the attitude?
was off quarantining. At the end of Josh’s week, Stu
finished his two weeks, got tested, and Stu came in and
did four days in the studio. While Stu was playing,
[guitarist] Robin [Finck] was off quarantining. It was
difficult, in that we could never have the pleasure of
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wears four different hats. She’ll be a second engineer
assistant. She’ll also organize all the music. She can
also print out music for smaller sessions; I don’t need
a music copyist. She does everything. Then I have a
tech. He’s always working on upgrading the system and

For one thing, 30 or 40 years ago I always wanted a
rougher voice than I had. It would frustrate me. There
was a time when I tried smoking. I hated smoking, but
going into the studio at the same time, with everybody
together, but that was the challenge. Fortunately, I’d
become used to demoing for films. In the old days of
Oingo Boingo, I’d come up with a rough idea for lyrics
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keeping my libraries current. It’s always very
complicated with me, because when I buy a new piece
of equipment it’s got to get duplicated four times. I
have a little studio in my house in L.A. and in my house

I wanted to rough up my voice. I was almost like a guy
in a rock band who’s genetically designed to be an Irish
tenor singing “Danny Boy” in a bar. I don’t know now
if it’s a combination of my voice having gotten rougher,
which it did, but also, I feel freer with it. I can be more
raw with my voice now. Back in Oingo Boingo I was
aiming for something. I was trying to get it right. I
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and chords and play it for the band, and then we’d up north. They have to all be compatible. I have a
immediately pick it up. second print room at my studio. Whenever we’re doing
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Rearrange it? films, that room is going all the time. I’m writing, and
Yeah. There’s no reason to overdo a demo [for a band]. A then as soon as I’m done writing, the tech will be
demo was probably just a drumbeat, me playing guitar, printing for the actual session with the orchestra that’s
and a vocal. Every piece that goes into a film has to be coming up. On my scores, all the synths and all the
demoed first. percussion is me. He’s got to set up the Pro Tools
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would do multiple takes, try to get a good take, and try
to find it. This time I wasn’t searching. I was like,
“Think about the song and see what voice happens.”
It’s not frustrating at all. In fact, it’s fun.
Right, mock-ups. session that’s going to go onto the big stage.
I did mock-ups for every song, and I’m going to release That’s a lot of work!
them soon on my website. I’ll put out all the demos, for It’s a lot of work in the movies, for sure. There might
nerds who are into it. be 40 cues, and they all have to be laid out in Pro
(a

Yeah, the Oingo vocals were more I was curious about your studio. Tools cleanly, with the right tempo map and all my
acrobatic. This is emotionally direct. The Studio Della Morte. pre-lay [pre-records].
Yeah, completely. I grew up on R&B singers. I was always How many rooms is it? If they’re going to an orchestral session,
trying to do turns with my voice, like R&B singers would It’s a small room, and the control room is nice. I can the cost per hour is astronomical.
do. I never was good at that, but it always drove me work there, and we can mix small shows there. I won’t It’s huge. You’re absolutely right. We don’t want any fuck
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crazy. Now I’m not thinking of any of that. I don’t give
a fuck. It was almost going back to my roots. I was
thinking of John Lennon and David Bowie. Who are the
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try to mix an ultra-wide show. For that we’ll go into ups. Everything’s got to be perfectly laid out before it
the bigger rooms. I do all the small recording there. I gets to that stage. My room looks like it’s not much
have a whole room full of percussion. I’ve wired up my different than your room, size-wise. I’ve got racks of
studio to the front room of the loft, where I have all analog gear that I use. I have Neve racks that we go

singers I really love? Those were two of them. Rather

than modeling myself after some cross between Andy my percussion. The studio itself is a proper room, with through. I’ve got Pultec EQs.
Partridge [Tape Op #19] of XTC, any number of R&B two iso booths. I can have the whole band playing, or For getting the sounds down, and
singers, and Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo, and I can put eight strings in there. I have a grand piano, processing?
ir

somehow creating a hybrid between them, this time I
wasn’t thinking about it. I was thinking back to my
roots. I got into Bowie a lot later, in the ‘90s. But this
one album was huge for me, which was Scary Monsters.
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a Bösendorfer. We did all the recording for Big Mess Yeah. Even though we’re in-the-box in Pro Tools mixing,
there. When I bought it, I had an SSL from the ‘70s. there’s a lot of analog available. Compression, EQ, and
After three years of never using it, I finally said, “I whatever else any engineer might want.
know one of these days I have to get a fucking It sounds ideal! Thank you so much,

That was one of the albums that brought me out of the Euphonix [console], but I don’t want to do that yet.” Danny. This has been fun to chat.
‘70s, where I essentially spent a decade rejecting all We put in a desk instead, and ten years later it’s still Oh yeah, totally. r
contemporary music. there. I never did get the Euphonix, thank god. When <www.dannyelfman.com>
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Oh, I love Scary Monsters! first I got the studio, every composer had a Euphonix,
18/Tape Op#148/D. Elfman/(Fin.)
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Inside the Loma Process
by John Baccigaluppi,
photo by Bryan C. Parker,
illustrations by Emily Cross
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How did everyone meet and start Loma?
Jonathan Meiburg: I first heard Dan and Emily through the
Cross Record album they made called Wabi-Sabi. It’s one
of those records you get lost in – it’s dark and
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fascinating, full of beautiful sounds and bold choices,
and all I knew was that they’d recorded it somewhere in Dan Duszynski: Necessity. If I’m mixing everything
rural Texas. I asked them to open for Shearwater during
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our tour for Jet Plane and Oxbow, an album we made
with Danny Reisch [Tape Op #146] and Brian Reitzell
[#107]. That version of Cross Record was just Emily and
Dan, so they squeezed into our van for a few months in JM: But it never did! I was exhausted after that
tt
the U.S. and Europe. I watched them perform every
night, and I was always stunned. I was amazed by the
sounds they made, the atmosphere they conjured, and
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the way they seemed like far more than two people.
My good friend, engineer/producer and occasional Tape Op contributor
Robert Cheek, turned me on to the group Loma. Their music didn’t grab me
initially, but a few months later I went back to their most recent LP, Don’t Shy Away (Sub Pop
Records) and it quickly sucked me into its sonic world. I’m now totally obsessed with the
band, and that album in particular. As I was poking around trying to find more information,
I realized that one of the three principal members of Loma, Jonathan Meiburg, has written
occasionally for Tape Op (he most recently interviewed Danny Reisch in Tape Op #146).
Small world indeed! Besides Jonathan, Loma consists of Dan Duszynski and Emily Cross.
Dan has also written for Tape Op (most recently Caribou in #105), and runs Dandy Sounds
Studio in Dripping Springs, Texas, outside of Austin, where, besides Loma, he has recorded
Molly Burch, Jess Williamson, and Shearwater. Jonathan is the principal member of
Shearwater, and met Emily and Dan when their band, Cross Record, opened for a
Shearwater tour. All three members contribute musically to Loma, while Emily, who is also a
visual artist and death worker (see this issue’s cover art), is the main vocalist. A small group of guest
musicians add textures such as strings, woodwinds, additional keyboards, drums, and bass.
Brian Eno (Tape Op #85) is a fan of the band and co-produced the track “Homing” for
Don’t Shy Away. Loma is both melodic and noisy, creating grooves that people want to keep
)
listening to. They are both a traditional band while also remaining fairly experimental. I once
heard a writer refer to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco as the “American Radiohead.” I would also
ot
add Loma to that small group, even if two of the three members have moved out of the
country since Don’t Shy Away was released. Curious to learn more about their process, I chatted
on the phone with Jonathan and Dan while they were both in Texas starting work on the next
(d
Loma LP. I also dropped a line to Emily to get her thoughts as well.
h oo
ya
t)
(a
Emily played some guitar but mostly sang, and Dan I asked, and they said, “Yes.” Then I booked a ticket
played drums and baritone guitar – often at the same to Texas. We figured we’d sort out the details later.
time – while running effects on Emily’s vocals, playing DD: And we’re still sorting them out!
keyboards, triggering loops, and singing backup. I still JM: Dan, you started off as a drummer?
don’t understand how he did all that at once. DD: Guitarist and drummer. But yeah, I played a lot of
music as a kid. I started playing in bands and then
before it hits the PA, we don’t need to take a sound figuring out how to record the bands.
engineer; and no house engineer is going to know JM: If you keep making music over many years, your
where we want weird delay throws anyway. But I only abilities grow in funny ways. After two decades, you
have myself to blame if it sounds bad. end up with skills that you never thought you’d need
– like business management! But you also pick up
Shearwater album, with no idea what to do next. One new instruments and production techniques, and
night in Belgium, during Cross Record’s set, I one thing leads to another. I’ve been playing bass a
thought, “I love this music, and I don’t understand it. lot more in the last two years, even though I’d never
What would happen if we started a band together?” call myself a “bass player” – but it’s opened my ears
 up to the vast possibilities of that instrument. I’ve you make it sound like this?” That kind of thinking DD: I was still on a Pro Tools 5 system at that point. The
come to admire great bass players and drummers. Not changed my creative path. And then one day in 2013 old 888 I/O units. My best mic was probably an
necessarily for their technical prowess, but for their she found a listing on Craigslist for a crazy-looking [Electro-Voice] RE20. And, for the longest time, I held
ability to create a feeling. In Loma that’s always what house in the woods near Austin, and she said, “We off on doing any upgrades because I liked the
we’re looking for – no matter how much we like a should move there.” I said, “What?” There hadn’t been limitations. It was like a digital tape machine, in a
part, or a song, or an instrument on its own, we anyone living in it for a few months when we moved way. I couldn’t use many plug-ins without crashing the
always ask ourselves, “Does this sound make us feel in, so there were scorpions in every nook and cranny system and there was no delay compensation, so I had
something?” of the place. Emily lives in the U.K. now, but I’m still to do any bussing outside of the box. But at a certain
You’re both engineer/producers, right? here, nine years later. Although our marriage didn’t point I realized that if I was going to be mixing other
JM: Dan’s much more of an engineer than me. I still last, Loma’s been a way for our creative partnership – peoples’ sessions, I’d need to be on the same
forget where the “record” button is. and our friendship – to endure. technological plane, so I finally gave in and upgraded.
DD: In Loma, we’re all producers with equal weight. But What is the house [Dandy Sounds] like? But I made a lot of cool records with that older
making records is also what I do for a living, so I’m Did you have to do a lot of work to system, including the first Loma album.
always mixing other projects or bringing bands in for make it sound good? On Loma’s records the songs settle into
sessions. Sometimes I’m engineering, and sometimes JM: It’s magical. When I walked in to start the first Loma these almost trancey grooves. They’re
I’m mixing. I’ve been interested in the engineering sessions, my hair stood on end. There’s this calm, pop song length, but I could listen to
side since I was a kid learning how to record my own timeless, slightly eerie feeling in the house that’s hard them for a lot longer than the
music – which I still do under the name Any Kind. I to describe, like it’s listening to you. And it’s a very standard three and a half minutes.

)
started going to studios with my bands; I would ask unusual structure: It’s built out of rammed earth, so DD: We like to think of the songs as places you’d want
lots of questions and learn as much as I could. Sean the walls are almost three-feet thick. And rammed to live for a little while.

ot
O’Keefe, the producer who gave Fall Out Boy their earth, as it happens, is a beautiful acoustic surface. JM: Miniature landscapes.
start, made some early records with me and he showed DD: Yeah. It’s got this unique, reflective, soft property to Are you both living in Texas now?
me the ropes. it that’s live, but not harsh. I barely have any DD: I’ll probably be here ‘til they drag me out, but JM’s

JM: A lot of nudging kick drum hits to the grid?
(d
treatment up on the walls. The house also happens to flown the coop.
JM: Yeah – I’ve just moved to Hamburg, Germany! But
for the last couple of years I lived about thirty yards
from Dan’s control room, in a well-worn RV from the
1980s he gutted and remodeled. I finished a book in
there during the first year of the pandemic, and we

oo
made the second Loma album, Don’t Shy Away, and the
new Shearwater album, The Great Awakening, which
comes out in June [2022]. It was a good time to be

h
buried in work.
What’s the setup now? Do you have a
ya
console?
JM: After the first Loma record, I kept wondering how
we could upgrade the studio a bit without spending a
ton of money we didn’t have. But at that point
Shearwater was out of contract, and I crowdfunded a
t)

budget for a new album, which exceeded my wildest

hopes. I thought, “This is our chance. We can beef
up this place, and also make the next Loma record
with the new gear.”
(a

DD: The most important piece we added was an

[Undertone] UnFairchild [Tape Op #133]. I record almost
everything through it now, and I sometimes even mix
back through it. It’s hard to imagine working without it.
si

DD: [laughs] Yeah. Lots of tiny edits and [Antares] Auto-
Tuning in pop punk records! It made me pretty handy
with that, though I try to do as little of it as I can
these days. In Chicago, I ran my studio for a few years
os
be framed out in a mini-amphitheater style, so it’s a
perfect sonic space. The owners who built it lived in it
for a few years, but they didn’t realize they’d built a
perfect recording studio.

out of a building I lived in next to a train station. JM: They built it like a tank! The house has concrete
That’s where I met Emily and came into her musical floors and outlets all over the place. What’s now the
world – which was the exact opposite of what I was control room used to be the master bedroom. There’s
ir

doing. We fell in love, got married, and started a hallway running between the control room and the
recording together. living room/tracking room, which has its own unique,
How would you describe her approach? hollow reverb – and there’s a back porch that opens
DD: Emily’s a visual artist – she went to the Art Institute onto a huge meadow surrounded by woods. I took all
tt

of Chicago – so she comes at music more like a that in, and I was shocked when I saw the recording
painter than a typical musician. At one point, early gear that Dan was using. It was held together with
on, she described a sound she wanted by drawing a duct tape and glue.
pe

bunch of little dots inside a triangle and saying, “Can

Loma/(continued on page 22)/Tape Op#148/21


Dandy Sounds c Dan Duszynski
We also got some great mics – a few older Neumanns, a
[Coles] 4038, and several other ribbon mics. “Dark, but
clear” is always our goal for Loma albums, and those fit
the bill. The best part is not having to mangle the signal
to compensate for the iffier bits of the gear I used to
rely on. But there’s still no console. I’ve got two of the
[Universal Audio] Apollo interfaces, so I use those in
console mode and use some of those pres, which sound
great. Then I’ve got a couple of outboard pres. My
favorite is a Coil Audio single-channel preamp [CA-286S]
that Jim Vollentine built. That goes on a lot of vocals,
drums, and acoustic guitars.
But no tape machine? Everything’s
digital?
DD: Yeah. I never learned to use a proper tape machine, Do you two work on instrumental ideas
other than my first 4-track – I came up after the era.
But now I’m obsessed with all the cassette plug-ins
that keep coming out, like Wavesfactory Cassette and JM: Dan and I make a lot of sketches that we flesh out
[Aberrant DSP] SketchCassette. They all sound
different to me, and they’re all interesting. I also use
the UAD Studer [A800] plug-in a lot. Sometimes
there’ll be 10-plus instances of it going in a session,
as well as on the master [bus].
What’s the general writing, recording,
production, and mixing process for
Loma? Are the two of you are
overseeing all of that? Emily’s not DD: She’s comfortable just deconstructing whatever. That
si
there right now, I take it?
DD: She’s not. She’ll be joining us in the spring, when
we have a little more for her to chew on.
JM: Emily’s a big presence, though. The nice thing about
os
a three-person band is that either everybody agrees,
or it’s two against one. We make decisions by JM: Part of why I wanted to do this in the first place was
consensus when we can and majority rule when we
ir
can’t, so we never end up deadlocked. Occasionally it’s
contentious, but mostly it’s amazingly smooth. We
also started this project because we wanted to do
things that we wouldn’t ordinarily do. We wanted to
tt
give ourselves permission to make choices we
wouldn’t have made in our other bands, and to trust
in happy accidents – and when you start with that as
pe
your mission, it’s thrilling. For example, in the song
22/Tape Op#148/Loma/(continued on page 24)
“I Don’t Want Children” on the first album, we
recorded Emily’s vocal at the wrong sample rate.
DD: We recorded the vocal at 48 khz, but the session
was 44.1.
Right!
JM: And when we listened back, we were intrigued. The
voice singing sounded like a more weathered version
of Emily, and she really identified with it – so we
decided, “Okay, this is the Loma voice.” On almost all
of our recordings, we slow Emily’s voice down a little.
It’s like she’s wearing a sonic mask.
h
DD: Another rule we made was that if my dogs bark or
knock something over while we’re recording, we have
ya
to keep it in.
together for a certain amount of
time, and then Emily comes in?
t)
or discard later as a group. Sometimes Emily brings in
songs, which are often my favorites. Yesterday we
were working on a new song she sent us; we kept the
first half, ditched the rest, and added a rhythm
(a
section that gave it a much heavier feeling. Emily
loves it when we jerk the wheel; she’s open to very
intense collaborations, which is pretty rare among
musicians I’ve met.
might be my favorite thing about Loma: We’re all
songwriters, and we’re all control freaks in our own ways,
but we respect each other. Whatever we bring to this
space, it’s understood that anyone is allowed to take it
apart and do whatever they want to it if it interests them.
to be in a band where I wasn’t in charge. I’d also never
written lyrics and melodies for another person to sing,
and I feel my job is to create a character for Emily to
inhabit. That character is partly based on my idea of
who Emily is, but there’s a lot of wiggle room, and we
end up creating this hybrid “singer” together. It’s
fascinating. I’ve been writing songs for a long time, so
the things that thrill me most now are surprises. That
song “Thorn,” for instance, on Don’t Shy Away, is a
hodgepodge of ideas from all of us. That vocal
ensemble in the intro, that was your idea, right Dan?
DD: Yeah, but it was supposed to go later in the song,
and then we moved it to the top.
JM: Then Emily starts talking, which is an excerpt from
her podcast What I’m Looking At. Which is exactly
what it sounds like: She just describes whatever’s in
front of her at that moment. She loves it when people
think it’s boring.
DD: Kind of Andy Warhol-style.
JM: We flew in parts of two episodes: One where she was
talking about a mossy log, and another one where she
was describing a dried flower. The groove underneath it is
me and Dan – I’m playing bass and Dan’s playing drums.
Emily overdubbed some clarinet, and then our friend and
musical comrade, Emily Lee, added that weird, scratchy
violin. That one started on a late night, when we were
trying make something like [Donovan’s] “Hurdy Gurdy
)
Man” – and failed – but we liked the feeling that emerged.
DD: Loma’s taught me that the starting point doesn’t
ot
really matter. If the inspiration is something that we
all want to follow, it’s going to develop, no matter
where we drop in.
(d
JM: For the song “Relay Runner” on the first record, we
were watching the Werner Herzog film Bells from the
Deep, and there’s a scene where two boys from Siberia
are singing by a frozen river. One of them is playing a
little banjo-like instrument with a snakeskin head,
and I started playing two notes in the same rhythm
oo
on the piano, which developed into that song.
DD: This way of working takes lot of trial and error. We
have tons of songs that we don’t finish.
JM: Yeah – there was one I really liked in the Don’t Shy
Away sessions that was nine minutes long and had all
this beautiful orchestral work in it, as well as some
stoner-metal drumming. But we just couldn’t get it to
hang together. Eventually we had to call time.
It sounds like you guys have gotten
pretty good at not getting too
attached to anything.
DD: Emily’s really our secret weapon. Once we start
tracking vocals, she’ll come in with a machete and
make huge changes to the songs. She’ll say, “Let’s
change the key,” or, “Let’s slow it waaay down,” or, “
Let’s get rid of the main instrument.” She sees things
we’ve missed, and we rely on her for that.
JM: Her hit rate really drives me crazy, by the way. She’s
so good at finding exactly what’s wrong with songs
that have stumped me and Dan.
Does she ever have issues interpreting
the lyrics you wrote?
JM: Usually I’ll do a rough guide vocal to give her a
melody and approach, and then I’ll give her the words.
Then she goes in the control room, shuts the door,
and does takes by herself for a while. If a line is not
working, she’ll tell me and I’ll try to fix it. Lyrics are
always scary because that’s where the song becomes
itself, and I can feel exposed. But this process forces
me to remember that the song is external to me.
DD: Loma’s been healthy for breaking down whatever
ego I have about ideas I think might work or might
not work. I love thinking that I know what’s going to
happen, or what should happen, and then watching it
pe
tt
ir
os
si
(a
t)
ya
hoo
(d
ot
)
 go in a different direction. When something I was JM: I feel sure he’s tired of people asking him to
holding on to gets destroyed, the result often becomes
my favorite thing.
JM: There have been times when we’ve all sat listening
to a mix and thought, “This doesn’t sound like
something any of us would make on our own.” It’s like
having our hands on a Ouija board.
I’ve often found on records I’ve worked
on, that the ideas I was reluctant to
try, or didn’t like, end up being my
favorite parts. Now I try anything.
DD: That’s a lesson that never gets old for me. It keeps
me humble, and keeps me open. It also makes me
realize how valuable other people’s instincts are.
JM: It’s funny to be talking about songwriting this much in
Tape Op! I feel we’re supposed to be talking about things
you can control with technology. But the music so often
lies in what an engineer can’t control at all. Watching
produce records, so I hesitated to reach out at all,
but I gathered my courage and sent a letter to his
management, saying that we don’t want him to
produce our record – but if he was interested in
collaborating in any way, we’d love to do something
together, and he said, “Yes!” We never spoke to him;
we just sent tracks to his manager for the song that
closes Don’t Shy Away, “Homing.” A few months later,
a 2-track mix came back in the middle of the night.
When we got the file, we were looking at each other
like, “Well, I guess we’ve got to listen to this now!”
It was a little scary. But it was stunning. It had a
depth it hadn’t had before. There were a lot of small,
significant moves, sonically and structurally. He
added a nearly inaudible drum machine at the end.
He made a line repeat. He changed the key abruptly
at the end.

)
that Beatles documentary [Get Back], you see that DD: He also added a strange, almost subliminal harmony
there’s nothing inherently magical about their recording all the way through, and did something with the

ot
process, but somehow, at the end of it, it’s Beatles music. stereo image that I still don’t quite understand. In the
Yeah, whatever preamps or compressors end, it felt like he’d retained everything we gave him,
they used – that are now stupidly over- but also solved the puzzle.

(d
priced – had the least amount to do JM: It’s rare that meeting your heroes is so satisfying –
with those records. much less working with them. I loved that he found a
JM: No matter how one recorded the Beatles, it would way to take all the nervousness out of that, and
have sounded like them. That’s becoming more and communicate purely as musicians.
more true with Loma, I think, as its shape becomes Will you work with him again?

oo
apparent to us. But we’re still learning what this band JM: Who wouldn’t? But if that was our only chance, it was
is. I hope that never ends. still really generous of him. It’s amazing to have
someone whose work we revere not only enjoy
Emily Cross on Loma something we made, but help us make something new.

h
“I love the role I’ve sunken into during our music-
How do you mix a Loma album?
making process. At first, I felt resistant to not being super
DD: I’m usually the one turning the dials and clicking
ya
involved every step of the way, but now I see it as one of
the mouse at Dandy Sounds, but Loma is a
our strengths as a team, the way we communicate in bits
collaboration so I’m manning the spaceship as we all
and spurts until we come together in the final stages.
navigate. Ideally, we’re shaping tones along the way
When we first formed Loma, Dan and I were a
so we don’t rack up a huge to-do list that requires us
married couple living under the same roof. The dynamic
to imagine what it might sound like later. I’ve gotten
morphed through our divorce and completion of the first
t)

to the point where I trust my intuition, as far as

record. We invited more distance in, partially for our own
knowing when to commit to something on-the-fly
sanity, and partially for practical and logistical reasons. The
and when to leave options. In the end we print an
boys are so prolific with their ideas and both of them are
in- the-box mix.
(a

extremely dexterous around musical instruments and gear.

JM: The best thing we can do with mixes, I think, is step
They come up with a staggering amount of material during
away from them for a few weeks. I never listen to
their initial brainstorming sessions together. I see myself
roughs anymore.
as the “wobbly character” waltzing in halfway, humming
DD: Perspective is crucial, and elusive – a sonic paradox.
lines, furrowing my brow, shaking my finger, gesturing, and
Thanks so much for taking the time to
si

speaking passionately. Eventually we experiment enough

chat. I’m looking forward to hearing
to land on something we can all agree on for the “good of
the next record!
Loma,” and that’ll be that. It’s a magical, frustrating, and
JM: Us too. We’re very early in the wool-gathering stage,
deeply fulfilling experience for me.”
so right now we’re just making a big mess and seeing
os

<www.crossrecord.com>
what interests us.
How did the Brian Eno collab on Don’t DD: I’m very curious to see what crawls out of the cocoon
Shy Away come about? this time. r
ir

JM: On December 26, 2018, my phone started blowing <lomatheband.com> <www.dandysounds.com>

up: “Brian Eno’s talking about your band on the BBC!”
We listened to the program, and, sure enough, he was
talking about our song “Black Willow.” He said he’d Tape Op is made
tt

been listening to it on repeat. It was surreal. possible by our

DD: One of the sounds in “Black Willow” is the rustling advertisers.
leaves of a crabapple tree outside the control room. I Please support them and tell them
you saw their ad in Tape Op.
pe

loved the thought of him enjoying the sound of that tree.

24/Tape Op#148/Loma/(Fin.)

While talking with Jonathan Meiburg Our new record, The Great Awakening, comes out
and Dan Duszynski for this issue’s Loma in June 2022, which I co-produced with Dan and
interview, we also discussed Jonathan’s our friend and musical comrade Emily Lee. There
can never be too many Emilys.
other project Shearwater, and an Your last time on stage was
ambitious recent project they took on. -JB
memorable, from a performing
How did Shearwater begin?
Jonathan Meiburg: Very humbly. In 1999, I moved
to Austin and joined a scrappy young band called
Okkervil River. We were full of ideas but could
barely get a gig, and the singer, Will Sheff, and I
thought it’d be fun to make a record under
another name, maybe on a 4-track cassette. I
called it Shearwater, after some long-lived
seabirds I met in the Falklands. I saved up
enough money from temp jobs to record with our
friend Jeff Hoskins for three days, who had a
ramshackle studio in a partly-vacant building
downtown that’s since been demolished. We
released it in 2001. I feel the same way about
that album now as you probably do about your
class picture from eighth grade, but I admire our
si
moxie. Eventually I parted ways with Okkervil and
took over Shearwater, with Will’s blessing.
And you’re still going.
JM: Definitely. I stepped away for a minute to focus
os
on Loma and write a book [A Most Remarkable
Creature, Knopf/Vintage 2021], which is a
nonfiction adventure in travel and natural
ir
history. But Shearwater’s been my main project
since 2005. We’ve made three albums for Matador
and three for Sub Pop, and I’ve been lucky to
work with great producers, engineers and mixers
tt
– including Brian Beattie [Tape Op #53], Matthew
Barnhart, Craig Ross, John Congleton [#81],
Danny Reisch [#146], Peter Katis [#31], and Greg
pe
Calbi [#86] – along with an army of wonderful How did you record and mix it for
musicians who’ve come and gone over the years.
Shearwater and Recreating
David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy Live
with Jonathan Meiburg and Dan Duszynski
Photo by Christopher Sikich
JM: WNYC’s ace crew recorded it. Their remote rig is
fearsome; they were using vintage [Neumann]
KM84s on all the guitar amps! But after that they
gave us the raw tracks to mix, which put Dan in
the hot seat. I told him all he had to do was
remake three classic Bowie albums in a week.
Dan Duszynski: No pressure.
)
JM: Or at least land them somewhere between our
performance and the albums. [laughs]
ot
DD: We had our mixes up on one fader, the originals
on another, and I was A/B’ing between them just
to get in the ballpark, since the unique sound of
those records is as important as the songwriting
(d
– especially since a lot of the songs are
instrumentals. It was like doing a study of a really
complicated painting. Some moves were obvious,
like the harmonizer insert on the snare, which
we’d also done live. But others were much more
oo
subtle – running the entire mix of “Beauty and
the Beast” through a 5 ms delay, for instance, or
phasing the bass on most of the “Heroes” album.
and recording perspective.
I was listening so closely to the originals that I
h
JM: To put it mildly! Our last full tour was in 2016,
almost felt like I was in the control room at
but in 2018 WNYC’s New Sounds program asked us
ya
Hansa [Tonstudio]. I came away with a huge
to organize a three-night live performance of
respect for the way those albums were arranged
David Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy” of Low, “Heroes”,
and recorded.
and Lodger, the wild and adventurous albums he
JM: Once in a while there’d be a moment where we
made between 1977-79 with Brian Eno, [Tape Op
were toggling between the mixes and I was like,
#85], Tony Visconti [#29], and Edu Meyer [#95].
“Wait, is that us or is that them?” I had the
t)
So we did. We were really nerdy about it; we knew
feeling we were on the same team, trying to solve
we’d have a big live audience and a radio
the same problems, even though there were 40
broadcast, and we wanted to blow them away. We
years between us.
treated the records like pieces of classical music,
(a
Can we hear these recordings
down to the smallest details, and Emily Lee spent
anywhere?
hours scoring out the parts we couldn’t memorize.
JM: Yes! They’re on Shearwater’s Bandcamp page.
She was our musical director and keyboardist,
We couldn’t put them anywhere else because we
along with the rest of our touring band from 2016
had to buy a certain number of licenses. r
– Sadie Powers on bass, Josh Halpern on drums,
Lucas Oswald on guitar, and Dan (from Loma) on <shearwatermusic.com> <shearwater.bandcamp.com>
guitar and keys. We also had Ed Rodriguez from See More Shearwater and Cross Record photos here:
Deerhoof as our Robert Fripp/Adrian Belew Seattle: <www.flickr.com/gp/countfeed/pMsz37>
shredder, Travis Laplante from Battle Trance on Philadelphia: <www.flickr.com/gp/countfeed/oR5097>
saxophone, and Eliot Krimsky on synths. Jamie <www.sikichphotography.com>
Stewart from Xiu Xiu [#77] split the vocals with
me, since I felt like having a single Bowie stand-
in was too much weight for anyone to carry. We
even persuaded Carlos Alomar, who played guitar
on those records and directed Bowie’s band, to
conduct the band during Low’s “Warszawa,” like
he did on Bowie’s 1978 world tour! After a month
of rehearsing, we had one shot at each record,
and everybody rose to the challenge.
broadcast?
Shearwater/(Fin.)/Tape Op#148/25
 Finding Their Way:
Making Kowloon Walled City’s
Piecework

)
ot
(d
with Jack Shirley
and Scott Evans

h oo
ya
Longtime Tape Op contributor Scott Evans Sure. Wait, are there actual rules? Along with the kick drum not being sub-
[above left] has played in a band called Kowloon Oh, my god; there are so many rules. Along with that, bassed out, the bass guitar isn’t either.
Walled City for many years. In October of 2021, we’ve figured out what we’re good at. Container Ships My bass mic choices have always been pretty mid-rangey. The
KWC released their fourth LP, Piecework. Recorded was the first record where it was like, “Oh, there’s a [Electro-Voice] RE20 and a [Shure SM]57, most of the time.
by Scott at Oakland’s Sharkbite Studios, and mixed thing here.” The Grievances record was us doubling No DI?
t)

at his own Antisleep Audio, Piecework has been down on that, and maybe me being a better recordist. Nah.
described as, “Intricate, room-mic’d, and mean,” by This one sounds the best of all of them. Oh. Offended?
the Chicago Reader. We asked Jack Shirley [above The sonics are very much grounded No, but I always feel like the big winner if I can avoid a
right, Tape Op #115] and Scott to sit down to discuss in reality. You don’t give into the
(a

DI. You get a lot of tone out of your DI. I didn’t even
the making of this record. larger-than-life overinflation of know that was possible. I grew up playing bass, so I love
So, I listened to your record. elements, like a boomy sub-bass kick dialing in bass tones. I don’t find it that hard. In our
Thanks! drum. I assume that’s deliberate? case, Ian [Miller] is a fantastic bass player. He could be
And I listened to some of the previous Yes. Super deliberate. I’ve realized that’s my favorite type playing through a $25 practice amp, and it would sound
Kowloon records again. There’s a of recording to make. great. His rig has been consistent for years. It’s very
si

solid theme going on. The new record Realistic? simple: a Washburn Vulture, which is [like] a hyped P-
feels like an expansion on previous Maybe hyper-realistic. You know this – if we gave bass, [Tronographic] Rusty Box [bass preamp pedal], and
themes. How much of that is someone a recording that really sounds like what’s in a [Gallien-Krueger] 800 [bass amp]. It sounds great.
os

conscious? the room, it would be totally underwhelming. I’m Would you say that new strings are the
It’s completely conscious. When we started writing we shooting more for what it feels like when you’re in the fifth member of the band? It sure
had a few changes in mind, based on Grievances. So, room. I’m trying to accentuate that. sounds like it.
it’s naturally evolutionary. Despite the running joke in Listening to the whole record, I almost We don’t actually change strings that often. [laughs] But
ir

this band that my original idea was that we would get the feeling that it’s made for I’m playing a [Fender] Telecaster, and Jon [Howell] plays
never evolve. musicians or engineers. There’s all a [Gibson] Les Paul with very spanky P-90s. My guitar
You can’t make the same record over this negative space, and you’re cabinet is punishingly bright, and I’m usually working to
celebrating the texture of everything.
tt

and over again. [laughs] get Jon’s guitar sound into that zone. On this record we
Oh, I could! But I find it okay to make creative rules and It’s not like, “Check out this riff.” were playing Hi-Tone amps, which are amazing Hiwatt
sometimes break them. Maybe make a rule like, “No Yes! I love hearing that. There are parts that feel like clones with infinite headroom and very sharp.
cymbals on this album.” Then, at some point, it’s like, “We when you look at a minimal painting for a long time Unforgiving. Jon played two boost [pedals] into the Hi-
pe

do need a cymbal here.” It’s fine. The rule is not religion. and start zoning out. We all love that. Tone, and that’s it.
Two boosts? No actual distortion or You don’t have a control surface. If a lot and you crush a lot. That does a lot of the
overdrive pedals? you’re doing multiple fader rides, automation for you.
Yep. Then stacking them when needed. It’s weird, but it are you doing them one at a time? It evens it out, for sure. I was looking at
works for him. Yeah, I do one thing at a time, all with the mouse. But the Deafheaven song that I’m
And you’re using the [Ben Adrian I’m in a zone to do that. I’ll run through and do a pass prepping for NailTheMix [online mix
Audio] KWB [kowloon walled bunny, of only tom or overhead automation, and, once I’ve school]. It’s an 11-minute song, and I
overdrive] pedal? done that, it’s logged in my head to listen for other said, “Hey, if I don’t build this from
Not much on this record. I used the Hudson Electronics little tweaks as I go. scratch on the show, it’s going to be
Broadcast [pre-amp pedal] and Electronic Audio Most bands don’t have a budget to put the shortest episode ever.” It’s like,
Experiments Mu Blaster [boost pedal]. Both are that level of care and deliberation “Let’s push these faders up, and...
fantastic pedals. For a couple of songs, I got some into details like that. we’re done!”
clank from the Big Game Pedals F800B, which is like I don’t think it takes that much time. Maybe it’s more a I’ve nailed the mix! [laughs]
an old Peavey preamp in a pedal. matter of letting the other decision processes chill out A big part of my thought process is “let it
Was this the record where it ended up enough to get to that point. If every set of mix notes lie.” The band played. We evened out
being mostly tracked with ribbon is huge changes, as well as trying to figure out if I can the overs enough. I crush some
mics? even make the band happy, at what point does it things. I like to think that the band
Yes. For guitar I had two or three mics up on each cab, make sense to commit to automation moves? is doing a lot of the work, especially
but, in the end, I only used one for each guitar – both Right. When I’m working on somebody because they’re all recording live.

)
Extinct Audio BM9 ribbons. And crazily enough, that’s else’s music, I default to, “Well, this Did you guys record this live?
what I used for vocals too. was their dynamic. This is the thing Yep. Since the beginning of this band, we’ve recorded

ot
That means that in real life, the guitars they worked on at band practice.” I’m everything together. We’ve mic’d everything up, stood
were really bright. not trying to mess with it too much. I in the same room, counted off, and played the song.
Take-your-fucking-head-off bright. There’s very little EQ can accentuate it, but I don’t want to Amps in booths?

(d
on my guitar. There’s a little bit of Pultec lift on Jon’s. fuck it up, or put a bunch of time in Amps isolated, yeah. Then, once we have the takes, we
Each guitar track has a couple of EQ notches to take and have to backtrack when they’re do a day or two of, “Now what do we need?” It’s like
out some resonant ring around the pain zone. But not like, “Why did this jump so much on making a movie, when they do multiple shots to make
much else. this part?” something translate better. “What can we add or redo
You know that I’m perpetually Well, hopefully the automation is mostly invisible. If I to bring out sonic details?” For instance, there are a
hypercritical of the 3 kHz range in

all recordings. But I didn’t get it on
this. It doesn’t hurt. Listening to
your previous records, on the loud
oo
notice that the hi-hats are overwhelming on every handful of quiet sections that we did play live, but
verse, I’ll go through the song and ride those down. we’d try redoing the guitars so we could open the iso
No one should notice that, like, “Hey, dude. I’m trying booth doors and use room mics.
to smash the fuck out of my hi-hats there.” You’re not Are there click tracks?

h
parts I can hear them hitting the really an automation person, right?
ceiling a bit; but on this one the I’ll clip gain to even out a vocal or
ya
headroom is higher. Even when it guitar part if something’s jumping
gets the loudest, it doesn’t feel like out. But I don’t often ride faders. A lot
it’s smashing up against anything. of times, with the music I’m dealing
Oh, that’s interesting. One thing I noticed, looking back, with, everything’s loud all the time.
is that I did a ton of [mix] automation. Tons. I can grab a whole section and turn it
t)
Oh, god; no.
How do you redo a section where it’s
wide open?
With hi-hat counts. Dan’s counting the whole time.
And you edit those out?
We generally leave it. He does a lot of quiet pedal hat
counts, and, to me, they’re part of the song. I miss

Individual drums. Fader rides on the kick out mic. On
the overheads, on the bass. A bunch on the drum bus.
Some on the mix bus. Maybe that helps fit everything
into the space.
all down, rather than having to ride
it, because it’s so consistent and
compressed.
A lot of the moves that I’m talking about are that.
(a
them when they’re not there.
Whenever bands want to take that out,
I’m always like, “Come on. It sounds
like people playing!”

Actual written automation? Not Pro They’re coarse, across a whole section of a song. Yeah, exactly. I leave crap at the beginning and end of
Tools clip gain? I’ve seen screenshots from some people’s mixes all the time. Guitar hum on breaks. Always on
No. Lots of written automation. mixes – I’ll look at the automation purpose. But, inevitably, I get asked to take it all out.
Oh, wow. Do you do that much on other window, and it’s like a constant crawl This is the nice part about doing your own band. No
peoples’ records? across every track. Everything’s aesthetic debates!
si

Maybe? I’d like to do more than I do already. I think it’s automated as a performance. We can take way more liberties when it’s
really important. So, they’re doing automation passes with a control our own music, right? We have this
Is it accentuating loud passages? surface? idea of how it all should go.
Bringing up the room on quiet parts, Yeah, or on a console. They’re riding Totally. It is a relief not to have to communicate all your
os

and that type of automation? everything the whole time, doing decisions for one record. There’s a spot in one of these
It’s both. If Dan [Sneddon] starts leaning into the one or two things at a time. That songs where during a very quiet section you can hear
cymbals, I’ll pull down the overheads a little bit. If always blows my mind. Dan turn on his snares before a pickup. Is that
ir

the song lifts, maybe bump the whole mix bus up half I know the traditional automation method is playing staying? No question.
a dB. For instance, on this record there are lots of back [the mix] with your hands on the faders. That Are there overdubs or layers?
little guitar details. Jon jumps back and forth doesn’t work as well for me. I find myself chasing We overdub the little leads. And there are some guitar
between being the rhythm guitar and the stunt guitar. what just happened too much. With a mouse I can be layers. They’re subtle. We write a lot of parts with
tt

Is he the right side? pretty quick and decisive, listen back, and move on. ringy, open chord voicings, and they’re real pretty; but
Yes. The good guitar side. So, when he plays something It sucks for my wrists, but works pretty well otherwise. the detail can get lost in the pushed guitar sounds.
that’s important, a quick 1 dB lift makes a big My impression with you, as we’ve spent a lot of time We’ll often go back and add more “underdubs.”
pe

difference. listening to recordings together, is that you compress Sparkly, dirty-clean sounds.
Kowloon Walled City/(continued on page 28)/Tape Op#148/27
 It’s pretty hidden though, yeah? Yeah. Knocked them out. They were great. But the next
It is, but you’d notice if I muted it. It adds depth. A lot of morning, he said, “You know what? I can do better.” I was
bands I work with want to add more and more. More like, “Man, we’ve got other things to do, but all right.”
scenery. My reptile brain does not want more scenery. It Then he absolutely beat it. I would have kept the first
wants to make the scenery more detailed. takes, for sure. Then, after I went home, he re-recorded a
There’s a sense of depth, for sure. few songs, and beat his takes again.
That’s fucking great. Depth is hard with music like this. It Damn.
is just four or five elements all going for it. That He just knew. But it’s a slippery slope. One of the things I
Sharkbite Studios live room helps. I tried a third room tell bands is, “It doesn’t have to hurt.” Play a song well,
mic on the drums. then move on. If they’re a good band, they don’t need to
There’s a center mic? do 100 takes. But for these vocals, I did need to do lots
Yeah, a [Shure] SM7 pointed at the far wall and crushed up of takes. I hadn’t sung a lot of this before, and I was
a bit. It sounds great. The main room mics do their usual working it out as I went.
thing, and I can make them real loud, but then push a Do you do vocals at practice?
little of this in, darkened up. I do, but we recorded these songs with no vocals written.
Did you “distort everything” on Piecework? Whoa. That’s interesting. I would think
that there would be some interplay
where one thing would inform the

)
other, and all that.
You would think. I wouldn’t recommend this. It was bad. But

ot
we’ve done this long enough, and we do try to write
actual songs, so I knew the song structures and where
vocals would go. It worked out. Still, it sucked.

(d
Does the band come up with all these songs
on the spot, together in a room? Or does
somebody bring the seeds?
Jon and I wrote the majority of the record, sitting in my studio
together with our guitars plugged into Pro Tools with that

oo
I knew you were going to ask this. [laughs] I think the “Eleven” amp simulator. We both came to like our fake guitar
answer is yes. There’s a mono crush bus on the drums. sounds. [laughs] If need be, I program basic demo drums.
Kick, snare, toms, going through one of those [Louder Why that, versus getting everybody in a
Than Liftoff] Colour modules and distorting quite a bit. room and jamming?

h
There’s a parallel drum bus that’s a pair of [Universal We found that it’s grueling to write this material, and it ends
Audio] 1176s with two buttons in. It’s not quite up being better doing it when it’s like, “Okay, we’re both
ya
distortion, but it’s pretty gritty. There’s PSP down for pain.”
VintageWarmer 2 [plug-in] on the kick. There’s an SPL How do you feel now that it’s all done? Are
TwinTube plug-in on the guitar bus. The vocals are you happy with the record?
splattered through the Ampex 351 [tape recorder I am. I feel good about it.
electronics] that I borrowed from you. That’s rare, right?
t)

The vocals are saturated, but they’re not You know me. I’m rough on myself.
obliterated. Would you call the mastering on this pretty
Yeah, I sang into one of those Extinct ribbon mics. That involved? Usually, “Don’t master my
took distortion in a cool, tasteful way. I was riding the record!” is your version of mastering
(a

351 input for different parts. If a section really went for
it, I hit it harder. But that was at mix time. Since I’m
tracking myself, I run through a plug-in for grit and it’s
close enough.
I feel like tracking your own vocals is a
si
instructions.
I should give a shout out to Carl Saff [Saff Mastering] for his
mastering work. We did ten fucking mastering passes. In
case Carl is reading this, I want to say, “I’m sorry.” He is a
patient, patient man! I will say, if I played you the first

gift. You’re at the helm, and no one’s
around. You can try weird shit if you
want, and then erase it.
os
master, the record got demonstrably better for it. Carl is not
a heavy-handed person, no matter what. But I try to get
him to juice things up a little. He knows that I like him to
push the low end. He’s also a typical mastering engineer,

One thing about tracking my own vocals, as a recording

engineer, is that I remember everything about the where he’s like, “The mix sounds good! If you’re happy, I’m
experience so I’m dialed in to other singers when I happy!” He’s trying to make progress rather than open cans
record them. I sang parts over and over, then comped of worms. But I’m like, “Carl, I need more from you. Open
ir

and comped, then re-sang again. Then I listened in the
car and did it again. It was worth it. That’s the thing to
remember. If someone can’t play a guitar part and we’re
doing it over and over, that’s misery. But if someone is
tt
that can.” We’d go back and forth, and he was always very
polite and Midwestern. Eventually I’d say, “Okay, I talked
myself into it. I’m trying one more move.” It was like
talking to a therapist. Me working through things out loud,

finding their way, that’s different. I went to England to with him mostly nodding. It made a big difference. For
record this band Wren, and their singer Owen [Jones] someone whose work one might consider mild-mannered,
did the vocals in a day. He’s a great vocalist. he improved this record. If nothing else, he accomplished
pe

For the whole album [Groundswells]? that by being patient. I’m grateful. r
28/Tape Op#148/Kowloon Walled City/(Fin.) <inthewalledcity.com> <theatomicgarden.com>
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I’ve known Beau Sorenson for close to ten years

now, and around two years ago I met his wife,
Maryam Qudus. They are recording engineers
and producers, and both create their own music.
They work out of Tiny Telephone Recording (often
referred to as Tiny), and Tiny’s owner, John
si

Vanderslice (often referred to as JV) [Tape Op

#10], and Chris Walla (formerly of Death Cab for
Cutie) [#19, #111] figure prominently in their
os

careers. I’ve gotten to know each of them better in

the past two years, as they’ve been doing
occasional sessions out of my Panoramic House
Studio. I always enjoy seeing them, as they each
ir

exude a very positive and friendly vibe. Even

though the pandemic has limited in-person
interactions, we recently had a chance to share a
tt

dinner at Panoramic with artist Leah Dunn, her

cousin Juno Hassid, and my friend Suzanne Ciani,
who I had long wanted Beau and Maryam to meet
as they’re all Buchla synthesizer users. After
pe

getting to know everyone better over dinner, we

spent the next few days chatting for Tape Op. -JB
Beau Sorenson and asked, “Would you be interested in interviewing Yeah. I met Chris on Plans, which was mostly because

A Person Who Likes to be in Studios for an internship here?” An instructor of mine, Doug they had tracked Plans at Long View Farm [Studios].

and Help People Make Music Olson, had worked at Smart on a lot of records. We
connected over a shared love for Television’s Marquee
Long View had a pretty rare Trident A Range console,
which Smart famously had as well. At that point,
Moon. Apparently, Doug had told Mike to call me, so Chris wasn’t excited about any of the studios in
You started out in Madison, Wisconsin,
I went and interviewed. It was supposed to be a 15- Seattle for mixing. He wanted to mix it somewhere
at Smart Studios [Tape Op #11], but
minute interview, but Mike and I ended up talking for else. He stopped by to tour Smart and quickly fell in
you’d gone to a recording school?
three hours, going into tangents about [The Beach with the whole vibe and ethos of the place and ended
Yeah. I’m going to step back a little bit. I grew up in
Boys’] Pet Sounds box set. It was clear, very quickly, up coming back to mix the record there. That’s how
northwestern Wisconsin, in a very small town called
that I was going intern there. I cancelled my moving we became friends.
Springbrook, and there wasn’t much to do. When I
plans, stayed in Madison, and started working at When you say “the vibe and ethos,” did
was in high school, music was a big part of my life,
Smart as an intern. I was there for about five years, that studio have a distinct community
both playing in garage bands and in school: jazz
until it closed. about it? How involved was Butch Vig
band and concert band. I was doing some recording
That was where you met Chris Walla, at this point?
in my bedroom at home. I never thought of music as
working on one of the Death Cab It definitely had a sense of community and history.
a possible career path. I had moved to Madison, and
records? Butch wasn’t as involved on a day-to-day level by the

)
ot
(d
h oo
ya
t)

I was working at a hardware store. I was recording my

(a

own music at home, and I wanted to understand how

to do some of it better. There were big gaps in my
knowledge – because I was recording mostly direct, I
didn’t even understand what phantom power was! I
went to this small, two-year community college
si

called Madison Media Institute that had an Associate

of Arts degree in recording. I went there without any
intent of becoming an engineer and producer; I just
wanted to understand what I was doing and get
os

better at it. While I was there, I realized how much I

enjoyed these overlapping sensibilities of music,
technology, and problem-solving. As I was getting
ir

out of school, I was trying to find an internship. I

had a possibility of an internship at a studio in Los
Angeles – that was probably going to be a lousy
experience, and it felt like one of those places that
tt

grinds through interns. But it was my only

opportunity. I was two weeks away from moving to
Los Angeles to work at that studio when Mike Zirkel,
pe

the manager and chief engineer at Smart, called me

B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 32)/Tape Op#148/31

 time I started; Mike was running the studio day to day.
However, at that moment, they were finishing up a
Garbage record [Bleed Like Me], so he was there all the
time. I was interning then, and I got to know all of
them at that point. There was a creative thread from
the beginning, when Butch and Steve [Marker] started
the studio in 1983. They started it, as a lot of people
do, to have a space to do their own music, to record
bands, and to experiment. There was a strong feeling
of encouraging experimentation and freedom and
doing whatever you want. If we had an idea for
something, we’d build it. There was a homemade plate
reverb, and tons of discarded lab gear and test
equipment. Mike and I became obsessed with the
Cooper Time Cube [garden hose-based mechanical
delay]. We couldn’t find one, so we built our own
“Cooper Time Tube” out of garden hose and some
[Shure] SM57s. There was a lot of very playful, open-
minded “go for it” attitude there. Nothing was ever a
problem. Have fun and be creative!
After that you moved to Portland,
Oregon. Was that through Chris?
Yeah, Chris had a huge part in it. Chris was living in
Portland for a number of years, and he had a studio in
the basement of his house. When he went on tour one
summer, he said, “I’m gonna be gone. I’ve got a studio
in the basement. If you want to come live in the house
and make some records, go for it.” I’ve always been of
the mind that if you get an opportunity to go to a
weird place and make a record, you need to do it. I
went out there and spent some time in Portland,
making records. Of course, Portland in the summer is
amazing; it’s very easy to fall in love with. This was all
a couple years before Smart closed. When Smart
closed, I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I felt
pretty lost. Death Cab were getting ready to do
another record, and Chris called me a couple days after
we decided to close Smart. He said, “I want you to
help engineer this record, but this time on the
recording side, not on the mixing side of it.” Alan
Moulder was going to mix. I decided to move to
Portland because I didn’t have a job anymore, but I
did have this person I knew with a studio, and there
was work for me on the West Coast for six months.
How’d you end up in the San Francisco
Bay Area?
Again, through Chris, this time leading me to John
Vanderslice. We tracked that record, Codes and Keys, in
si
eight studios, all up and down the West Coast. Ben
[Gibbard] was living in L.A. at the time, so we started
off tracking at Sound City [Studios]. Chris was living in
Portland, so we did some recording at Jackpot!
os
[Recording Studio]. Nick [Harmer, bass] and Jason
[McGerr, drums] were in Seattle, so we worked at
London Bridge [Studio], Avast! [Recording Co.], and
ir
Jason’s old place [Two Sticks Audio]. We also went up
to Vancouver, Canada, to The Warehouse [Studio],
which was incredible. For strings, Magik*Magik
Orchestra was in San Francisco, [California,] so Chris
tt
and I drove from Portland down to San Francisco. Of
course, Death Cab and Tiny go back a few records
before that, to Transatlanticism. That was the first time
pe
I met John [Vanderslice], and the first time I was at Tiny.
32/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 34)
I stayed in touch, and I was back to Tiny once or twice
while still living in Portland. We recorded all the guitars
for [Bob Mould’s] Silver Age there. A few years later,
John came up to play a show at my house in Portland
and said, “I’m building a studio in Oakland with a 56- When you say you don’t take points, your
channel Neve 8068. I want you to work there.” I loved
Portland, but I didn’t really have a home base. I’d been
working freelance in a lot of different studios, which I
loved, but I missed the thing at Smart where I could
walk into place and know how everything worked and I definitely don’t shy away from production. Somewhere
where it goes. I had a familiarity, and I was missing
that. The other factor that brought me to San Francisco
was meeting my (now) wife, Maryam, who is from the
Bay Area. We had started a relationship that was still
long-distance at that time. I started thinking, “I’ve got
this guy who’s building an incredible studio, who says
he’s going to keep the rates affordable and wants me
to work there; and I’ve got this girl I’m falling in love
with.” It felt like I needed to move to San Francisco. I
never thought I would live in the Bay Area. It always
felt so out of reach, especially doing what I do. It felt
if I’m not making iPhone apps, there’s no way I could
ever afford to live here.
Did John pitch it to you that you were
going to be one of the primary
engineers and that he’d be getting
you work? Or was it more like, “I want
you working here”?
Knowing John, he probably promised me a puppy and
whatever else I wanted! John’s a very persuasive guy.
He did say, “There’s a lot of work at Tiny Telephone.
We’re going to need someone to be here, and I want
h
you to be one of the primary engineers.” Honestly, the
way that he sold it to me was that he promised to keep
ya
the rates below $400 a day for as long as possible. This
definitely stays in the zone of the type of projects I’m
working on, because I don’t want to get to this area
where I can’t afford to bring people in there. Originally,
there was going to be a lodging component, which, for Are you equally happy being an engineer
t)
a lot of my projects, was a key thing. I started to see
how that was such a critical part of the budget for
projects. The lodging part unfortunately fell through,
but that was part of the pitch that got me. “It’s going
(a
to be a studio in Oakland that’s affordable. There’s Totally.
going to be a place for people to stay.” I felt I could That’s such a blurry line these days.
get enough work there and keep things going.
You’ve done a lot of larger budget
records, but you’ve also done a ton of
smaller local projects. If keeping
studio rates low is important to you,
are your sympathies more with newer,
younger artists?
Generally, yes. When I got into this, all I wanted to do
was to be able to continue doing it. If I ended up Do you also get people who specifically
working at a higher level, that sounds incredible, but
I never set out to do that. As I continue working and I definitely get asked that too, and I’m always happy to
get a little older, my sensibilities have started to align
with someone more like Steve Albini [Tape Op #10,
#87], who is very democratic about who he works
with. There’s something very working-class and
egalitarian about, “These are my rates. I will work as
hard as I can to make your recording as great as I
possibly can. I don’t take points as a producer on the
back end.” I don’t charge more for “bigger” bands. I
never want to become so exclusive that l won’t work
with someone smaller. Smaller artists often have more
freedom and radical ideas.
discography looks like you’ve done
more engineering than production.
Is production something you shy
away from?
along the way, I stopped believing in the dichotomy of
“engineer” versus “producer.” Those terms are often
quite vague in what they mean, and how it relates to
what we’re actually doing. A producer can be all sorts
of different roles. The classic idea of a producer –
someone who picks the songs, chooses the musicians,
books the studio, and gets the product done on time –
feels so far in the past when someone on an iPad
)
making beats is also a producer! It’s usually a
collaborative situation, but, in many ways, almost all
ot
engineering decisions are aesthetic and creative, which
a lot of people define as “production.” If I’m
engineering a project and someone asks me to mic up
(d
the drums, unless they dictate every single microphone,
exactly where to put them, which compressors to use
with specific settings, and so on, then I’m making
some of the aesthetic decisions about the record and
what it’s going to end up sounding like. If I’m mixing
oo
a record and I choose which reverb to use, or I decide
to mute the bass in the second verse, is that
“producing”? I slowly stopped worrying about these
distinctions, maybe to my deficit of not demanding
that I get credited as a producer on some projects. I
started seeing it as I’m less of either, and more of just
a person who likes to be in studios and help people
make music. Hopefully I get credited and respected in
a way that honors what I’ve contributed. Most of the
time, the people I work with make sure this happens.
with limited production responsibility
as much as being an uncredited
producer when you’re engineering,
but also de facto producing?
It is such a blurry line. I also run into situations where
I’m working with an artist, and they’re worried that if
I’m credited as a producer, someone’s going to think
that I had all the ideas or wrote all the songs. Rather
than push that to a level of friction, I’m like, “It’s fine.
I’ll engineer.” I’m being compensated for it. If I’m
writing, I get credit. The people who know, know what
I did. That’s how I’ve navigated it, to some degree.
ask you to produce them?
produce if there’s space and bandwidth for me to do it.
If someone’s going to be receptive to what I do, I’m
more than happy to work in that way. A little bit of what
held me back, earlier on, was not having an instrument
I’m remarkably proficient at. A lot of great producers are
great at guitar, drums, or accomplished songwriters, so
they can offer that. I’m in that Brian Eno [Tape Op #85]
pe
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(a
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 “non-musician” camp, someone who fiddles around.
Maybe that made me feel that I wasn’t deserving of
that title earlier on. In a lot of sessions, the producer
is viewed as a dictatorial mastermind, which has never
been my style. I have ideas and I want something to
be good, but I feel much more collaborative with
people in the studio, responding to what they want
and their ideas. I feel more like a facilitator than a
top-down organizer.
It’s equally valid to be the producer, as
well as viewing the role as helping
everyone sift through everything and
occasionally breaking the impasse.
Yes, exactly. Or be the tiebreaker.
“We could spend a half hour talking
about it, or five minutes doing it.”
The idea will stand or fall on its own. That is the proof right
there. I had a situation on a record where I was co-
producing with someone else, and the band could not
agree on mix decisions. It was a very binary, like a “more
guitar solo/less guitar solo” thing. Eventually we said,
“We’ll do both and let the mixes fight it out.” We ended
up making these shirts that said, “LET MIXES FIGHT /
NOT PEOPLE.” I still wear it to sessions sometimes!
As a studio owner I’ve seen a lot of
younger engineers come through
here with varying degrees of
competence. The first time I met you,
I realized that you are extremely
competent, with a strong grasp of
signal flow and troubleshooting, plus
a calm demeanor. Where did that all
come from?
Part of it is having a troubleshooting brain. Back to the
hardware store, it’s a bit, “How do we solve this problem
with the pieces that are available?” Going to school gave
me a foundation in signal flow. I was lucky enough to
come up in the old studio world, where I picked up some
of that knowledge. I was fortunate to be an employee of
the studio when I was working at Smart. Even as an
assistant, there’s a role where you’re the ambassador for
the studio, and you want the people there to be happy.
Mike always said that you have to think of a studio like
running a bed and breakfast. We’re in the hospitality
industry. It taught me that when something isn’t
working, be cool. Figure it out. Everything’s pretty
logical. If it can’t work, figure out another way to do it.
Always act as if nothing’s a problem, even when
si
something’s definitely not working. I’ve seen smoke
come out of consoles a couple of times, and you need to
stay cool – “We’ll get through it! We’ll figure it out.” Trust
in that. Having that time of being part of a studio – that
os
I felt very protective of and wanted to make sure it was
functioning properly – gave me a bunch of these skills.
At this point, if I’m in an unfamiliar place, I can usually
ir
sort it out pretty quickly and stay cool.
You have quite a few releases on your
beaunoise Bandcamp page. What is
that project?
tt
I started off playing guitar, piano, and messing around
with drum machines – the classic arc for many
recording people. My mother drove me two hours up to
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Duluth [Minnesota] to help me get my first 4-track, a
34/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 36)
Upon First Meeting Beau
As all of the studios I’ve owned in the past two
decades have been focused on hosting freelance
engineers, I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with
many different people. I’ve also been witness to the
transition from most engineers coming up from working
at established studios to now frequently being self-
taught. Many are fairly competent and professional, and
some are extremely so, but, if I’m going to be honest,
that list is very short – from a young, self-taught
engineer in his 20s to a veteran producer in his 60s who
is still very passionate about music. Some “engineers”
unfortunately are not very competent, with more
confidence than actual abilities, though that group can
have excellent people skills and can still bring some real
value to their clients. In my opinion, Beau Sorenson is a
rare example of extremely competent and professional.
Every studio probably has its quirks, but my former
place, The Dock in Sacramento, California, had more than
its fair share of them. I would try to be around for the
first few hours of a new client’s session to help them set
up. I had chatted with Beau about booking a session,
and, as the date got closer, it turned out that Beau’s flight
would not get in until late in the evening. The band
wanted to get their gear in and set up earlier that day, so
I agreed to help out and got them in for the evening. I
left a short note for Beau on where things were, but asked
him not to patch anything in, or power up any of the
audio gear, until I got in the following morning so I could
work with him on it. I figured the band could set up, he
could run mics to the snake, and we could quickly patch
in and troubleshoot it in the morning.
h
When I got back the next morning everything was set
up, the mics were all in place, and the patchbay was
ya
completely patched. Beau said to me, “The patchbay
looked pretty straight ahead to me.” It was not! But he
continued, “So, I patched everything in, but I didn’t
power it up.” “Okay,” I thought. I took a look around,
powered it up, and every cable was patched in correctly
t)
and immediately worked perfectly. Like I said,
“Competent and professional.” -JB
[Tascam Portastudio] 424. As I started to get involved
in recording, I interned and assisted for the first three
(a
or four years. I was completely on an engineering and
producing path, and I stopped making any type of
music. I was lucky enough to assist a few other
engineer/producers who I could tell were clearly
frustrated musicians. Somebody once made the joke
that every recording engineer has a great, unfinished
record that you’ll never hear – the carpenter’s house is
never done. I saw some of that, the way a lot of
engineers and producers had a need to satisfy their
creativity through the projects they worked on, and
how that caused conflict. I started to get back into my
own music for a lot of different reasons, but one was
to have a place to work creatively, so I could do a
better job on the projects I was doing on
professionally. If my idea doesn’t get used, that’s fine,
because I have this sandbox over here where I can
mess around with my own weird ideas. The other
reason I started was as a R&D for sounds, processes,
and treatments; figuring out how things work. I was
working on a lot of indie rock records, which I loved –
I still love making guitar music – but I’ve always had
a big fascination with synthesizers. I didn’t want to
put a bunch of synthesizers on somebody’s record who
doesn’t need that. I noticed that as I started to release
music, or let people know that I was making this music
on the side, people would ask me for that kind of thing
on their records. Of course, this correlates with the
general resurgence and interest in synthesizers over
the last 10 or 15 years as well, but, in a weird way,
working on my own music ended up attracting the
type of projects that wanted the skills and interests
that I had anyway. It became this calling card, which
I didn’t even realize until many years later. People
would say, “I like that thing you did on that cassette.
Could we do something like that here?” Suddenly I was
getting work that reflected my sensibilities without
even trying for it. That’s where it came from and why
I continue to do it. It’s also to have a place for music
)
that has no goals. I say this all the time, but it’s true:
I don’t care if anyone listens to it or not. I love that
ot
people enjoy some of it. But it’s just for me to have a
safe place for my own creativity.
You don’t seem too focused on promoting
(d
it, beyond simply posting it.
No. I love Bandcamp for what it does, because it lets me
be an autonomous unit. I love the DIY aspect of
packaging tapes, writing a note, and sending them out.
Going back to what I talked about with engineers and
oo
producers who are creatively frustrated, I want to
protect this part of my creative life so there aren’t any
of the “music business” struggles of hoping to get
noticed, wanting to get signed, or reaching some level
of success. I want to keep this little area where it’s safe,
to always allow me to have a spot where I can
reconnect with the reason I got started.
Why the Buchla modular synth as your
primary instrument? It’s such an
unusual choice.
I first encountered what people refer to as “West Coast”
synthesis through my good friend Tim Curtis, who was
one of our techs at Smart. Tim had worked for Rex
Probe at Sound Transform Systems when they were
outside of Milwaukee, building and selling Serge
panels. At the time I had a [Korg] MS-20, which was
my gateway drug to synthesizers. I was always
fascinated with modular synthesizers, but I had no
access to that where I grew up. Tim said, “If you like
synthesizers, I have this Serge system that I built when
I was working at STS. It’ll blow your mind.” He brought
it in to the studio and let me play with it, and I
thought, “This is incredible! The possibilities! I can
build something that can control anything.” There are
no distinctions between audio and voltage; it’s all one
continuum. There is something about the Serge that’s
very elemental; very simple building blocks that have a
lot of functionality, but you have to figure out how to
build a lot of it. I was getting excited about West
Coast-style synthesis but wanting something that was
a slightly higher-level thing that had a little more
structure, and I started learning about Don [Buchla]
and his history. The Buchla presents some of these
functions at a slightly higher level. Rather than
building an oscillator or a filter from the ground up,
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 higher-level features are presented to the user while
still retaining the weirdness and tonality. This was
when they were making the 200e systems, which also
offer recall and MIDI. Because there was a Serge at the
studio at the time, I thought, “I can always use Tim’s
Serge, so I’ll get into this other flavor.” I sent Don an
email saying, “I want to start with a small system.” He What did Danger Mouse bring to that
sent an email back, in his typical brusque manner, and
said, “It’ll be this much money and will take six Brian brought a huge amount of the rhythmic sense, feel,
months. Send half.” At this point, I was working two
different jobs: I was teaching engineering where I’d
gone to school, and also recording at Smart. I was
making more money than I had been in a while, and I
thought, “I’m going to put this money into this
system.” I sent the money and didn’t hear anything for
six or seven months, so I sent another email: “Hi Don,
I think I ordered a system from you. Any update on
that?” He responded: “Don’t you still owe me some
money?” He said it’d be ready, so I sent the other half.
If I’m really honest, I got into it without completely
knowing what I was getting into, but it’s one of those
relationships where the more I’ve grown into it, the
more I’ve grown to appreciate it and learn with it.
You were never into the Moog/East Alan and Brian equally co-produced?
Coast-style?
I don’t dislike it, but it mirrors my taste for studio gear.
I’ve never wanted to own a [Universal Audio] 1176,
because every studio in the world has an 1176. I want
the thing that I can’t find elsewhere. I can always find
a [Moog] Minimoog, so I’m always attracted to the Was everybody pretty even, personality-
weirdest thing in the room. I guess it was my desire to
dabble in the esoteric. There are definitely times where Yeah. Everybody was remarkably easy in that way. It was
I could use a classic low-pass filter! Now we have a
bunch of other synthesizers in our home setup,
including some Moogs.
You worked on Dreamt for Light Years in the
Belly of the Mountain with Mark Linkous
[Sparklehorse, Tape Op #12], right?
Yes, while I was still working at Smart. Like Chris, a big
reason Mark was drawn to Smart was the A Range
console. Mark was an incredible aficionado of recording
equipment. He had an old Flickinger desk that had You’ve done quite a few records with Bob
belonged to Sly Stone. Alan Weatherhead came with
him, and he also worked with Danger Mouse [Brian I have. Starting with Silver Age, we’ve done five together,
Burton] on that record as well. It was the four of us at
Smart over a couple of weeks. We ended on Christmas
Day, if I remember correctly.
I’m not familiar with Alan Weatherhead.
si
He’s from out East. Great producer and excellent studio
presence. Very calm, and a great guy. I owe it to Mike
Zirkel for turning me on to Sparklehorse. Like John
Vanderslice, Mark’s records were referenced at Smart all
os
the time, in terms of creativity, sound, texture, and
how cool and interesting those records were. The fact
that he was coming there was momentous; it was
ir
pretty exciting. He’s probably the closest person I’ve
worked with who I would describe as having that Brian
Wilson-type genius. His sensibility about parts, and
intuition and sense for sounds and chasing them, was
tt
so remarkable. I remember when he first came in, we
had a little Yamaha VSS-100 sampler by the patchbay.
It’s Yamaha’s version of the [Casio] SK-1. When he
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came to the studio for the first time, he walked over to
36/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 38)
the VSS-1 and started singing into it and making these
weird little sounds and sampling himself. I thought,
“What is this guy doing?” There was all this legendary
gear in there, and that was the first thing he’s drawn
to? A week later those little bits ended up on the
record. I thought he was just messing around!
record?
drums, sampling, resampling, and arrangements. There You’ve done a couple records with
was a huge wall of all the CDs that had been done at
Smart there. The first thing he did when he got there
was grab all of them and ripping every single one into
his computer. Watching him go through media was
amazing, because he was looking for samples Yeah. I just finished mixing another record for Mac, The
everywhere. I was aware of the idea of sample-digging,
but he was looking for samples all of the time.
Everywhere. Every possible source. That was
inspirational to me; the idea that you never know
where you can find a piece of sound that you can use
for something else. Just being open about it at all
moments. They were all wonderful to work with. Very
quiet, low key, and very thoughtful.
Brian was weighing in on the aesthetic, stylistic side
more, and Alan was handling the engineering and Who are some other engineers you
recording, but all of them were contributing. Mark
was clearly leading, but everybody was bringing Scott Solter [Tape Op #67] is one. He worked on some of
things to the table.
wise?
h
cool, and very open. Brian would add big, bold
changes, like, “What if we took the drums in this
ya
section and then slowed them all down and reversed What was working with Tune-Yards [Tape
them for four bars?” Very large-scale, re-
contextualizing in ways I wasn’t even thinking about.
A couple of songs had big arrangement changes at a Oh, man. Similar to the freedom of working with Brian on
later stage because of that. It was inspiring to be
t)
unafraid to completely chop something up or
reimagine it at any time.
Mould [Tape Op, online].
(a
and worked on a couple other records as an
engineer/producer team. I was initially connected to
Bob through working with Death Cab, as they shared
management. I believe my name was recommended
when he was getting ready to record Silver Age. Bob
produced records at Smart long before I was around –
he worked with Tar Babies there, and he and Butch
knew each other. Bob was one of the people
shortlisted to produce [Nirvana’s] Nevermind! I think
knowing I started at Smart made Bob feel like it was a
solid endorsement for my background. I got tossed
into working with him on Silver Age, and it’s been the
closest thing I could have to grad school for my
recording career. His ability to focus on details to a fine French pitch shifter. So, Merrill is playing the MS-20,
degree, but also stand back and consider the whole
picture – all the way out to the album level – is
remarkable. His understanding of song is probably
deeper than anyone else I’ve worked with. Knowing if
an arrangement is solid and ready to move forward
with, or figuring out what needs to work together. His
harmonic sense is incredibly rich. I started to
understand how his records came together and
sounded so full with just a few guitars. The level of
detail in how to record guitars, how to approach
voicing, how to sort out dense, complicated tonality
and distortion. These are some of things I’ve learned
from working on his records. I feel incredibly lucky to
have spent time in the studio around Bob.
Superchunk, but also a solo one with
Mac McCaughan, [Tape Op #76]
and quite a few other projects for
Merge Records?
Sound of Yourself. As you’ve noticed in this
conversation, one thing leads to another. Mac is a fan
of Bob’s work and Silver Age was on Merge. A lot of
)
people noticed Bob again with Silver Age. Like, “Whoa,
this is the Bob we’ve been missing!” That got Mac and
ot
Merge excited. He sent me an email asking about
doing a Superchunk record. I mixed some songs for
their I Hate Music album, alongside some other
(d
engineers, and I also recorded and mixed all of their
What A Time To Be Alive.
admire?
oo
my favorite Vanderslice records. He brought a lot to
John’s sound. Brian Paulson [#78] is another. Brian
worked at Smart a bunch and was always spoken of
highly there. He did the Slint record, Spiderland, of
course, and The Spinanes’ Manos; both of which I
admire greatly. And Jim O’Rourke [#16]!
Op #88, I Can Feel You Creep Into My
Private Life] like?
Sparklehorse. The same idea of throwing a lot of studio
conventions out the window about what it needs to
sound like or what things should be. It was probably
the most playful session I’ve ever worked on, in the
best way. I was allowed to set up a whole bunch of
crazy processing chains. A lot of times when I’m
working, I’ll set up one or two. If I’m recording a pretty
traditional rock band, I might have the [Eventide]
H3000 on a send so I can secretly be recording bits. If
somebody needs a nugget, I’ve got one ready. “Here’s
a weird sound for the break.” Working on Tune-Yards
was doing nothing but that. Two things stand out: One
of them was figuring out a very complicated vocal
chain, where Merrill [Garbus] could play the [Korg] MS-
20 and sing through the processing section of it in the
live room, so we could also catch the room mics at Tiny
Telephone. That live room in Oakland sounds great,
especially on vocals. Then we were also running that
back through the Publison DHM-89, which is this crazy
singing through it, and we’re capturing a dry vocal,
that MS-20 vocal, her manipulations of that vocal
through the Publison, and the room mics. Talking
about the problem-solving thing, it’s like, “How do we
get all this routing to work?” But it also was really fun.
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 The other thing I carry with me from the Tune-Yards Maryam Qudus
session is at one point we were cleaning up some tracks Complementary Synchronicity
and doing some edits. As anybody who works in a DAW
a lot does, you start to do certain tasks subconsciously,
You’re a Bay Area native, right?
I’ve been in the Bay Area my whole life. My parents are
like hitting Apple-S. You’re saving all the time. I’m
from Ghazni, Afghanistan. In the late-70s, my father
always habitually cleaning up noises and edits. I’ve
had a job teaching Farsi to American diplomats and
learned that if I do it as I go, then there’s less to do
foreigners living in Afghanistan. A couple from
later. At one point there was an unfaded edit, and I
Berkeley, California, who my father was teaching in
went to add a fade, like I’m always doing, and Merrill
Kabul, offered to sponsor him to come to the U.S. He
asked, “What are you doing? I never fade anything. I
was able to get a visa, and his plan was to go the U.S.
like how things sound without fades.” The rule from
for one year to go to school, work, and see if a life in
then on was that if I wanted to fade something, I had
America would be right for himself, as well as my
to wait to be asked to fade it! That little clip at the end
mother and sister, who was three weeks old at the time.
is part of the rhythmic information. It was a cool
When he landed in the Bay Area, and one of his first
reminder of, “Oh, yeah. You don’t have to fade How often do you mix an album through
the console at Tiny Telephone down to jobs was working at Doggie Diner in Oakland – a well-
everything. There can be a digital clip in there. That’s
an analog tape machine? Does that known Bay Area institution back then. Shortly after he
legal. In fact, that’s part of what makes it what it is.”
still happen once in a while? arrived in the U.S., the Soviet Union invaded
I’ve heard about the Publisons. Is that the

)
Afghanistan. He scrambled to save money and find a
Infernal Machine? Less these days, but still pretty regularly. A lot of
way to get my mother and sister out of Afghanistan.

It’s the one before that. It’s like the French H3000. There
are two delays and two pitch shifters that feed into
each other. There’s a looping function in there, and a
keyboard that I’ve never been able to find. It’s a crazy
projects are half and half. I’ll have a project that was
tracked in Pro Tools, but then they wanted the mixes
printed to 1/2-inch, so we’ll do that. The benefit of
being in a studio that has two Studer A820s and an
ot
After 18 months of being apart (with their main form
of communication being through letters and pictures in
the mail), my mother and sister were able to get a visa.

noisemaker, which I’m always drawn to.
You also worked with Thao & the Get Down
Stay Down?
We’ve done two records, A Man Alive and Temple. That was
the first record I did at Tiny Telephone after I moved
[Ampex] ATR-102 [tape decks] that are being used
regularly means the barrier to using them is much
lower. It happens more than it would if you had to
seek them out. I probably only have two or three
purely analog projects a year now. I’m pretty format-
(d
He came home one day to find a note from his
roommate letting him know that my mother and sister
would be landing in SFO that afternoon! My parents
both worked double shifts at low wage jobs for several
years; my father at Doggie Diner by day and at a juice
factory at night. My mother worked as a housekeeper

here. I got to dig in and get to know the place. Merrill
[Garbus] was producing, and that was how I first met
Merrill. Merrill and Thao go way back. Merrill’s bringing a
lot of those same sensibilities to that record. I love that
agnostic; I don’t care. I’m totally happy to work in
Pro Tools. It’s more about whether it matches the
sensibilities of the person I’m working with. If tape
matches their speed, great. If there’s friction because
oo
while also going to school for electronic assembly.
That’s where she learned about the fundamentals of
circuits, hardware, and testing equipment. That landed

h
they want stuff that’s not possible, or they’re her a job soldering electronic components to build
situation, being the engineer on a project where it’s
imposing their process onto it, then it’s a bummer. telephones. They moved between different jobs
okay to depart with all the regular recording gear and
ya
throughout their lives, and eventually opened up
say, “What’s the oddest thing you’ve got in here? What’s Outside of the beaunoise projects, how
much of your work are you doing at businesses of their own, including a Charlie’s Liquors in
the thing you’re not supposed to do?” Incorporating it
your home studio now? Hayward, California. They also opened a diner in San
in a way where we’ll be able to use it and it’ll sound
One of the best lessons I got early on at Smart was from Leandro called Olympic Burgers, and later moved to a
halfway decent. Those are always fun for me.
small town in the middle of California called Avenal,
One record you did that stuck out to me a producer named Brandon Mason, who had come up
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running a grocery store called T&T Market. My parents

was Jars of Clay’s Inland.
When I moved to Portland, I took a leap and reached out
to one of my heroes, Tucker Martine [Tape Op #29]. At
working on records out East. He worked at Allaire
[Studios] on a couple of later-period Bowie records worked hard to build a life for my family.
[Reality and Heathen, with Tony Visconti, Tape Op Did you speak Farsi in your household
#29]. He was working at Smart while I was interning, growing up?
(a

that point in my career, I had done some records I was

and one of the first things he told me was, “No matter I spoke Farsi at home with my family until I went to grade
proud of, and I was doing the freelance thing, but I
where you go, no matter what you’re working on – I school and had to speak English. My English was pretty
didn’t know where to go next. I’d wanted to go back
don’t care if you’re the lead engineer at Abbey Road – broken at the time; I remember being in preschool and
to assisting for a while, because I wanted to work for
always have a way to record and mix music on your having a hard time communicating with people and
someone else who I could learn from and not be in the
own, outside of a studio.” I took that to heart and making friends. When you’re young, you learn new
driver’s seat for a bit. I told Tucker, “I would love to
si

always made sure I had a home setup, even if it was languages pretty easily and my English dominated very
assist you on some records.” I didn’t want to learn his
very modest. Throughout my life and career, it’s saved quickly. I still speak Farsi when I’m at home.
“secrets” or anything. I wanted to be pushed through
to some other experiences I wouldn’t normally have. I me a million times. At this point, I would say maybe What age were you when you started
playing music and getting serious
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started assisting him, and one of those projects was a half of what I do is at home in some way, and the rest
Jars of Clay record that he produced that we tracked is in studios. about that?
I was really into rock music when I was growing up; my
together. Then he got busy coming up here Mostly unattended?
siblings played a great role in introducing me to music at
[Panoramic House] to do a record [The Waterfall] with Mostly unattended, now. The last year has been
ir

different, of course. Sometimes there’s production a young age. One of the bands they first introduced me
My Morning Jacket, and he asked me if I’d be
work where, if we have to record some parts together to was Depeche Mode; I remember being a young teen
interested in mixing [Jars of Clay]. I mixed it all
or program, it’s nice to be in the same room. And singing along to “Enjoy the Silence” in my bedroom,
except maybe one song, of course with Tucker’s
karaoke-style. I would dream of being on stage singing
tt

guidance. He was checking the mixes remotely and mixing, the very end of the revision process. A home
studio allows me to take on more projects, because and playing guitar to my own songs someday. I asked my
offering his input. Those guys are the sweetest guys
there are a lot I want to be part of! r parents to buy me a guitar for my 12th birthday and they
ever; they’re great. They’ve got a great studio in
gave each other a look of worry. [laughs] I grew up in a
Nashville that we went out to and tracked some parts <beaunoise.com>
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Muslim household, with parents who were moderately

there. I’m super proud of how that record sounds.
38/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 40)
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 religious and had some cultural beliefs that they had held
on to. They had this picture of, “Oh, no! Guitars! Rock
music! Drugs!” All the stereotypes raced through their
heads. In Afghanistan, non-traditional music was frowned
upon and not very many women were performing music
in public settings. In Ghazni, there weren’t very many
concerts happening to begin with, and even if there were,
women were not allowed to attend. However, things were
a little more relaxed in Kabul. My parents talk about
driving to Kabul and going to concerts by some of their
favorite musicians. Ahmad Zahir – a beloved Afghan
musician known as the “Afghan Elvis” – was one of the
first Afghan musicians to introduce western instruments
such as drums, bass, and guitar into Afghan music. My
father stopped at a restaurant in Kabul one day; live music
was playing, and he was introduced to [Ustad Farida]
Mahwash, one of the very few female musicians
performing in Afghanistan at the time. During that time,
women in music could be counted on one hand. No one
in my family plays any musical instruments, other than
my aunt and uncle who play harmonium and tabla
together for fun. With some support and encouragement
from family, my parents gave in and got me a guitar for
my birthday. I sat in my room for many, many hours every
day, singing and playing songs by my favorite artists.
Eventually, I was at a grocery store with my mom, and I
saw that they had a cassette recorder for sale. I thought,
“Maybe I can record my songs with this?” I would sit in
my bedroom and record covers of Weezer songs that
sounded very distorted and crushed. I still have those
cassettes in a box somewhere.
Have your aunt or uncle played on any of
your music projects?
They haven’t played on any of my projects, but I would love to
get them involved in something. My uncle has always been
so encouraging. Whenever I see him, he asks, “Are you still
doing the music thing?” When I answer, “Yes,” he’ll say,
“Okay, cool. Keep going. It’s so great for your life.”
You’ve had the music projects Doe Eye and
spacemoth. How do these relate to
studio work?
Doe Eye was my first solo project and it was what lead me
into the path of engineering and producing. I started out
recording demos through that cassette recorder and then
graduated to using [Apple] Logic, but wanted my songs
to sound more professional. A friend recommended that I
reach out to John Vanderslice [Tape Op #10] at Tiny
Telephone Recording, which lead to a decade-long
si
friendship. JV produced an EP and a full-length record of
mine, with the help of two excellent engineers at Tiny:
Jacob Winik and James Riotto. Working at Tiny Telephone
was one of my first experiences working in a professional
os
recording studio, and it blew my mind. When I was
working on my own music at studios, I wanted to learn
what the engineers and producers I was working with
ir
were doing. I also found it hard to communicate what I
wanted, because so much of what I heard was in my head.
I didn’t have the technical knowledge at that point to say,
“I want more reverb!” Or, “I want more delay.” That’s what
tt
eventually got me into wanting to learn all of that. So
that I could both communicate that to the engineers I
was working with, but also so that I could noodle around
pe
on my own and play around with some of my own music
40/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 42)
as well. The experiences I had at Tiny Telephone inspired time that I work on my music. It wasn’t an easy transition
me to take on a career path as an engineer/producer, and at first, but balance is important to me. Performing and
the years I spent learning, discovering, and making my own music was what lead to my deep
experimenting with music and recording is what lead me connection to music and has always been an important
to start my current solo project, spacemoth. part of my musical existence. I'm currently working on the
You’re not playing much guitar anymore, first spacemoth record with Sadie Dupuis [Tape Op #142]
are you? Is spacemoth mostly electronic? of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13, and look forward to sharing
I am playing guitar on those songs, but they’re so more details on that soon.
manipulated and combined with electronic elements that Beau mentioned he’s working with you
they don’t sound like guitars anymore. mixing this new record. What’s the
Manipulated through all the modular thought process to have someone else
synths or pedals? come in and help with the mixing,
I use all sorts of things! Modular synthesizers, guitar whether it’s Beau or someone else?
pedals, and unique outboard effects. I like taking a I spend a lot of time inside of my own songs and, at a
pretty standard-sounding instrument – a guitar or a certain point, an outside perspective is necessary. Most of
piano – and then destroying it completely so it my process is spent alone; I perform and record almost all
becomes unrecognizable. of the instruments on my songs. Working with Beau is a
How did you make the transition to natural transition because he understands me and my
)
engineering and producing as a music so well. We understand each other’s workflow, and
career? I know you spent some time at having him work on my mixes is the most amazing
ot
Women’s Audio Mission. scenario. We can dig deep together, and since there aren’t
Working on my own music project at Tiny Telephone inspired any time constraints, we can get to places on the songs
me to a whole other level; there was an excitement and that we normally wouldn’t be allowed to get to working
(d
drive to experiment that I did not experience in any other on someone else’s project. It also feels good to let go and
studio. I would look forward to every session and was so allow someone else to do their magic.
sad when it was over. I remember wishing that I could be Do you ever see getting someone else
there all the time! Watching JV interact with the songs that besides Beau to mix some of your
I brought to him was exciting to me. My songs would start projects?
oo
out as an acoustic guitar and a vocal and then turn into I’m not against it, but it works so well. I’ve never considered
these amazing productions. I remember thinking, “If I the idea of someone else mixing my songs because
could walk into a recording studio, make a cup of coffee, working with Beau is the ultimate dream scenario; he
work with a band and help them record and produce music, understands me on a personal and creative level in a way
h
that would be the ultimate dream!” One of the assistant that no one else can.
engineers at Tiny Telephone, Kelley Coyne, worked at Do you feel your experience as an artist
ya
Women’s Audio Mission and encouraged me to check them and a writer, being on the other side
out. I decided to take an Intro to Recording class at of the glass, informs your approach
Women’s Audio Mission and learned about the basics of as a producer and engineer with
recording. Shortly after, I reached out to John to see if he other artists?
would let me sit in on some sessions and intern, and he When I’m working with artists, I listen to every aspect of
t)
was very supportive. At the same time, I applied for an their songs, from the writing, to the arrangements, to all
internship at Women’s Audio Mission and got into that as of the instruments that they’re using or wanting to use. I’ll
well. I was interning at both studios. Eventually I spent the find myself suggesting a rhythmic change on a vocal, or,
evenings recording my friends’ bands and trying to figure “What if you change that word to this word so that the
(a
out how to run a session on my own. What I learned about phrasing works a little bit better?” Those are what I’ve
interning at recording studios is that you see a lot of people learned, from writing songs and producing my own music,
come and go, but I stuck around for a while. If you stick that I’m able to hand over to the people I work with. Of
around long enough, eventually there will be a session that course, there’s a fine line to how many suggestions that
no one can take, and someone will turn to you to take the you can give, depending on the people that you work
work; that’s exactly what happened to me. If you can jump with. I feel that because I have a background as a
into a session when someone needs you to, and the artist musician, people tend to trust me with that advice. I’m
leaves happy, you’ve then proven that you can do it. Before able to give tips on singing, and emotional support of
I knew it, I was working as a staff engineer at both understanding what it’s like to be on the other side of the
Women’s Audio Mission and at Tiny Telephone. glass. A lot of engineers forget what it’s like to be the artist
spacemoth is a serious project for you. You who is at the studio recording, and how much anxiety and
tour, and you have a label and a emotion is built up to that recording session. I remember
publicist. How do you balance being in a when I would get ready for a recording session, it was
band and working as an engineer and the most exciting, nerve-wracking time. Every time I was
producer? behind a mic, I was both excited and nervous at the
I’ve learned over the several years of working as a producer same time. I always try to remember that feeling
that my schedule can be totally chaotic. If I don’t take whenever I have someone behind a microphone, whether
control of that I could continue to live in that world of they’re singing or if they’re playing guitar. What often
chaos forever. I’ve earned to schedule everything. I gets forgotten is how much pressure and emotion is
schedule my workdays, my days off, and I schedule the behind that single guitar take or that single vocal take.
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/41

 The emotional landscape of recording music is very wide,
and having the skill and awareness to support people
through that experience, as well as helping them feel
safe in that zone, is probably one of the harder parts of
the job. It’s also one of the more rewarding, because you You also worked with Toro y Moi and
end up with beautiful, heartfelt recordings. A lot of my
own experience as an artist has greatly informed how I We worked on one song together, a cover of “Ordinary Guy”
run a recording session.
Do you end up singing and working on
vocal arrangements on projects that
you work on?
Yeah. I enjoy it, and I do end up in that position a lot. It’s
easy, because I’m right there and I always have an idea.
I’ll say, “Oh, someone should sing this harmony.” They’re
like, “Well, why don’t you go do it?” I never say it with the session?” I said, “Yes! I’m free.” So, the very next day
intention of, “Put me in!” It’s more that I have the ideas,
and I hear a lot of vocal melodies, and I can sing. Plus, it’s from scratch, and started by recording Jonathan
fun to put the pressure on someone else to hit record!
I met you when you were out at
Panoramic House working on a Zelma
Stone record.
I’ve engineered, produced, and mixed a few Zelma Stone
EPs. I started working with Chloe [Studebaker] a couple
years ago. She is such an incredible songwriter, singer,
and performer. She has such a strong vision for her
music and is very open to experimenting and
transforming her songs. I always have a lot of fun
working with Chloe because she’s not afraid of making
big bold choices on her songs.
You mentioned Sadie Dupuis. What was it
like working with her on the Sad13
record?
Sadie came to the Bay Area to work on three songs with
me for her record Haunted Painting. We worked at Tiny
Telephone in Oakland and in San Francisco. It was just
her and her drummer, Zoë Brecher. Like myself, Sadie
plays most of the instruments on her records except for
drums; though she is ten times more talented at every You worked with Thao & The Get Down
instrument than I am! Sadie loves to explore. We had
15 or 20 pedals that we played with, and definitely I have worked with both of them! I assisted the last Thao
plugged in every synth and mic’d every instrument. It
felt like working with someone who you already knew,
somebody who you’re familiar with, and you
understand what they’re trying to do and what they’re
wanting out of their music. It was easy to suggest
instruments, like the Moog Source or the Prophet VS;
knowing that these are definitely instruments that this
person’s going to use. At that time, Tiny Telephone in
si
San Francisco had a harpsichord, but some of the
strings were broken. I didn’t realize that Sadie wanted
to record it before she came to the studio; but it was
on the gear list, so she had prepared a part for
os
harpsichord that she wanted to play. There wasn’t an
easy way to tune it without breaking a string; in fact,
a few of the notes that she needed were already broken.
ir
So, I said, “Sorry, Sadie; I guess we can’t record this
harpsichord. But what if we record it on a piano, and
I’ll mess around with it a little bit and see what
happens?” I remembered that we have this box of tools
tt
for piano treatment, like ping-pong balls, metal chains,
and paperclips. So, we placed them over the strings of
the piano, and, in a weird way, it sounded kind of like
pe
a harpsichord because the bouncing ping-pong balls
42/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(continued on page 44)
and chains brought out the bright metal sounds of the
strings. It turned a bummer studio moment into a
unique recording. That was a pretty strong memory of
us working together.
The Mattson 2.
by Joe Bataan. I was working at Women’s Audio Mission
on another project, and Terri Winston – the founder at
WAM [Tape Op #78] – walked into the studio and said,
“What are you doing tomorrow?” I said, “I’m off.” But
you know what “off” means, right? [laughter] She said,
“Chaz [Bundick] of Toro y Moi wants to come record here
with The Mattson 2. Would you want to work on the
the three of them came over to WAM. We built the song
[Mattson, drums], Jared [Mattson, guitar] and Chaz
[bass and vocals] live in one room together. After that,
we layered all the different pieces of the song, one by
one. At one point, Chaz was messing around with some
keyboard sounds on a Korg Karma, an early-2000s
keyboard that only had super cheesy presets that
nobody ever wanted to use. We were listening to him
move through all the different presets, and he got to
these outrageous sounds that you definitely don’t want
to use – ever. We were all confident that there would be
nothing to be found in that keyboard that would work,
but we were proven wrong. Chaz found a cool sound
that we blended with an effect that ended up being on Do you feel you’re less “on an island” now
the song. I’ve found that great musicians can make any
instrument sound good, and both Chaz and The Mattson
h
2 are such incredible musicians. They’re so good at
playing their instruments that you don’t have to work I know a lot of women and non-binary folks who are
ya
very hard to make them sound great – all you have to
do is place the microphone in the right way and your
work is done.
and Tune-Yards as well, right?
t)
record, Temple, and engineered and assisted on Tune-
Yards’ I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life. For the engineers. Day by day, I see more of these people given
Thao record they recorded everything at Tiny Telephone
(a
San Francisco. It was Thao and her whole band
recording with her: Adam Thompson, Charlie Glenn, and <www.maryamqudus.com>
Jason Slota. Beau was engineering. They go really deep
into chopping up and processing everything they record, Beau Sorenson & Maryam Qudus
which is part of what makes their records sound so cool Working & Living Together
and unique. I also ended up singing background vocals
on “I’ve Got Something.” For Tune-Yards, we worked at
Tiny Telephone in Oakland. We set up a ton of different
instruments and drum machines to experiment with; I
was even live-dubbing a Lexicon PCM41 on a song or
two. There was also another moment where there was
this big group background vocal, and Merrill [Garbus]
said, “Maryam, come sing with us!” Nate [Brenner],
Merrill, John Vanderslice (who was visiting for lunch),
and I got in the live room and sang on “ABC 123” and
“Look At Your Hands.” The track that I engineered was
recording strings on “Heart Attack” at Women’s Audio
Mission with Dina Maccabee, who plays violin and viola.
She’s this amazing “string machine.” We recorded many
layers of violins and viola until it turned into a massive
string section. That was early on when I started
engineering, so I remember being so nervous. I was
thinking, “Oh, man! This is a Tune-Yards record. I’m
working with Merrill. We’re recording strings.” Strings
can be so hard to record, but it all went fine. I remember
we solo’d all of the strings, listening to them completely
dry, and Merrill said that the tonality of the strings
sounded like [The Beatle’s] “Eleanor Rigby.” I thought,
“I did okay!” Merrill is someone who I’ve continued to
work with outside of her records. When Red Bull Music
Academy was around, we worked on a radio show
together called Collaborative Legions of Artful Womxn.
It featured all of these different female-identifying
producers and engineers. The premise of the show was
an hour-long playlist of music by female-identifying
producers, along with an interview by a featured artist,
as well as a song collaboration between two producers.
It opened up my world to all of these different women
)
producers and engineers. Suzi Analogue [#130] was
someone I discovered while researching for the show.
ot
We worked on that for a couple of years, and we
continue to work on projects together from time to
time. Same with Nate Brenner, who’s the other half of
(d
Tune-Yards. He’s played bass and synths on some
spacemoth songs. I’ve played in his band, Naytronix –
sampling, playing synths, and singing. Nate and Merrill
are one of many artists where we started off working
together professionally and then blossomed into a
deeper friendship.
oo
as a female producer and engineer? Or
does it feel like you’re still looking for
other people on the same island?
producers and engineers – some are working
professionally with other artists, or they are successful
at producing their own music. That community keeps
growing, thanks to places like Women’s Audio Mission.
I don’t feel there is a lack of non-male producers and
engineers, but there is a lack of visibility, as well as
people hiring women and non-binary producers and
the spotlight, or the opportunity to work on something
great, and that gives me hope. r
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How did you two meet?
MQ: I had just finished my full-length Doe Eye record
[Television], that I had recorded at Tiny Telephone with John
Vanderslice [Tape Op #10]. I went to the San Francisco
Symphony with him and his girlfriend at the time. They
walked me back to my car, and I realized that I had parked
right in front of the Rickshaw Stop; a music venue in San
Francisco. A friend who works there fairly often is Aaron
Axelsen – who was the music director at Live 105. Chris
Walla [Death Cab for Cutie, #19, #111] was in town, and he
was talking to Aaron about some of the bands on his label
[Trans- Records] at the time. Aaron said, “Come meet Chris!”
Chris has a connection to Tiny Telephone, because he
loaned his Neotek Elite II to Tiny. Chris knew a bit about my
project and knew that I was working with JV. He said, “I’d
love to hear your record.” I gave him a burned CD. Chris
listened to my record, loved it, and we were talking about
him putting it out on his label. A few weeks passed, and I
BS: Music takes a lot of different forms; from listening to
something that you’re not working on, or listening to a
project that the other person is working on. As we’ve
been living together, working on more music in the
house, and as I’m getting older, I’ll spend more time
sitting in silence. I’ve mostly stopped listening to
music in the car, other than referencing mixes. I build
in some gaps, but there are no rules about it. There’s
always a respect for, “Do you want to hear this right
now, or not?” We can always say, “I’m not going to
think about a snare drum right now.” But, usually, it’s
fair game. Is that true?
MQ: Yeah, I think so. We are pretty big music nerds. We
really do love listening to music all the time. But, as you
said, the breaks naturally happen. If we do listen to a
record at the end of the day, it might be pretty soft and
minimal and can be in the background. At the same
time, we have days off where we do very deep listening.
BS: We’ve gotten better about that. I would say that most
times we get home by 9 or 10, unless there are special
circumstances where we need to work later. Because we
are both working a lot, it’s hard. If you do too many of
longer days, everything starts to collapse.
MQ: There was a period of time where we were both very busy
and working a lot. We weren’t giving ourselves time off. I
remember a stretch where we didn’t have a day off for 30
days. Then we had one day off, and we went on to another
two-week session immediately. What we’ve learned now is
to schedule everything. Arrange the session days so they
align with each other’s calendars as much as possible, and
have days off that are the same. Most nights we do end
up eating dinner by 9 or 10 p.m., which is not too bad.
Has it been easier since you both work out
of Tiny Telephone primarily, especially
now that there’s only one Tiny and only
one person can work there at a time?

)
got a message from Beau… We bought all these new records; “We’re going to sit on Easier than when you were both
BS: After working together at Smart [Studios, Tape Op #11] the couch and listen to these records, and there’s gonna working between the Oakland and San

ot
and on other projects, Chris and I had continued the be no talking.” Francisco locations?
relationship. We would send each other records, and he BS: There’s less passive listening in my life now. I either want BS: Yeah, it streamlined it a lot. We also work at New,
sent me the record that would be Television. I’ve usually to be engaged or not. Improved [Recording], which is in the same building as

resisted sending cold emails to people I want to work
with. [to Maryam] There was something about your record
that I wanted to send you a message about. It was
probably under the guise of hoping we could work
together in some way, but also trying to connect to
MQ: Same.
Do you discuss how your work is going, and
any gripes about sessions you’re on?
BS: We commiserate a lot. It’s a godsend to have someone
who understands the very specific – but very challenging
(d
Tiny. There will be days when we both go in and we’re
working in two studios, in the same building, which is
crazy. If one of us is working at Tiny, then the other person
can be working at home. We can throw a little laundry in
or put food in the oven early and then get back to work.

someone who I thought was making cool music.
MQ: Beau and I continued to be Twitter friends; an internet
audio/musician acquaintance. There was a point at which
Beau knew that he was going to be in San Francisco, and
– aspect of working in music creatively. When we take a
break, like a vacation, then it’s definitely no work time for
a while. But, other than that, it’s fair game, right?
MQ: It’s helpful, and we can be honest with each other about
oo
It’s a way to keep your life running at the same time.
How many days a month do you guys block off?
BS: For days off? You came up with this…
MQ: We have a system. Our system is we work sessions

had messaged me saying, “I’m in town and working on
this record. Do you want to meet up and get coffee?” At
the time he was working on Bob Mould’s record [Beauty &
Ruin] at Different Fur [Studios]. His session ran late, so we
met for dinner instead. I remember driving home and
thinking, “I like this person.”
BS: It was sort of a date that wasn’t intended to be a date.
h
how a session went. We don’t have to pretend everything
went great. By unpacking it with each other, we can give
ya
perspective. “Maybe you’re being too hard on a person.
Perhaps you’ve got to talk to them.” The emotional
dynamics in a session are a roller coaster. It’s nice to be
able to talk to somebody about that who understands it.
What about when you’ve both had a crappy
t)
four to five days a week, hopefully on the same days.
Then we will have a day off that is purely off. Then a
day to work on our own music, as well as a
miscellaneous catch-up day.
BS: There’s an allowance to poach a day if a project’s
important, or last-minute, or needs some extra time. But
there’s an understanding that you don’t get to pave over

We hung out a couple more times while I was here, and
we started talking. I went back to Portland, but we never
stopped talking.
What year was that?
day?
MQ: There aren’t very many days where we’ve both had a bad
or stressful day, but even when it does happen we let it
out. At a certain point, when we’re going in circles, we’ll
(a
all the days off. It’s a reminder of what a good balance
feels like. When it hits that balance, it’s cool: We’ve got
work, we’re earning enough money to survive, and our
creative projects have been nurtured.

MQ: 2013. say, “Maybe we should stop talking about this for right You’re probably doing fewer two- to three-
When did you two get married? now.” week sessions these days, right? Nobody
MQ: We got married in 2017. BS: I feel we’re lucky enough where even if there’s something does that anymore.
BS: There was about a year or so where I was still living in challenging, there’s always good in there. The fact that we BS: I wish I had a couple more of those a year, because I do
Portland, and you were living in the Bay Area. both make music creatively also helps us have empathy for like them. I couldn’t do them all the time. These days, for
si

MQ: We’d travel back and forth to see each other, and the people who are on the other side of the glass. both of us, a week is probably the max. Almost everybody
eventually JV was building Tiny Telephone Oakland. He What do you guys do to get away from music we work with needs to either catch up with their work or
said, “What if we get Beau to work at Tiny Telephone?” He when you’re at home? take care of their family.
offered Beau a job at the studio, and also to live upstairs BS: We go on a lot of walks and a lot of hikes. We enjoy Do you guys have anything else you want
os

at Tiny Telephone. cooking immensely, and it’s a great way to spend time to add?
BS: There was a small apartment space that was available for together. It’s been a lot more reading lately, and movies BS: I feel that covers the way that we work together. My hope
very, very cheap rent for the Bay Area. I thought, “I have from time to time. is that it could help people – even when they’re not in this
ir

to do this.”
Did Chris make it to the wedding?
MQ: Yes, he did! He officiated our wedding!
BS: We got married at City Hall in San Francisco, and we felt
tt
MQ: Most of our days off are focused on keeping things situation where they’re both engineer/producers – to
simple. Going on a hike. Getting a nice cup of coffee manage their life with another person. After I moved here
somewhere. Making dinner. If we go out of town, it’s and was working a lot, we went through a period that was
usually somewhere in nature and very quiet. pretty rough – with a bit of friction about time off – but

Chris was the most appropriate person to do the ceremony. Do both of you have fairly late hours being this has helped us get through that. r
He got ordained on the internet. in the studio? Are you guys able to get Thanks to Daniel Villarreal for photos:
You both have the same job. Are there home at a somewhat reasonable hour, <www.daniel-villarreal.com>
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boundaries that you have come up with? or are you cooking dinner at midnight?
44/Tape Op#148/B. Sorenson & M. Qudus/(Fin.)
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/45

 Suzanne Ciani is one of my neighbors (who has become a good Next up, Suzanne embarked on a solo music career,
friend), so it’s almost too easy for me to overlook how massive her becoming one of the most successful artists in what came to
contribution to music and record production is. That is also due in part be called “new age” music. During those years, she recorded
to the fact that she is a very warm and open person, and is offhandedly with artists such as Vangelis and Elliott Randall, and released
modest about her life’s work. She’s quite happy to let me store my many albums. She’s been nominated for Grammys, taken home
surfboard at her house, as it’s right next to my favorite surf break. Clio Awards (for advertising work), and was presented a
When I see her, we’re just as likely to talk about cooking Italian food as Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women in Audio Section of
making music, so this interview is long overdue. When I was in college, the Audio Engineering Society. She’s also had a full-length
I read interviews with Suzanne in Keyboard and dB magazines. feature documentary created about her, A Life in Waves,
Given all of this history, I was pretty psyched to finally be able released in 2017, as well as being featured in the new, highly-
to interview her for Tape Op. acclaimed documentary Sisters With Transistors. And this is
Suzanne has a wide circle of friends and professional colleagues; as still only scratching the surface of all she’s accomplished. In
such, she is always busy and on the go. She holds a dual citizenship 1992 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and, after a full
passport, traveling yearly to visit her Italian family. I’m continually recovery, she decided to move to a small home in West Marin
impressed by how much activity she can pack into a year. One of the County, California, overlooking the ocean and to simplify her life.
main things that really impresses me about Suzanne is that she is That didn’t last long, however, as a new, younger audience
essentially now on her fourth career. She began as a composer, working discovered her music in the 2000s, and she’s now an in-

)
in the then very new electronic music field. From Boston, she came out to demand lecturer and concert performer on her modular Buchla
U.C. Berkeley for a master’s degree in composition, moonlighted at the synthesizer. Beau Sorenson and I managed to catch up with her

ot
San Francisco Tape Music Center at Mills College in the early 1970s, and at her home in early fall of 2021, a few days before she left for
worked closely with seminal electronic music designer/builder Don Buchla. concerts in Europe and a visit with her Italian family.
Next, after a brief stop in L.A., she moved to New York City and opened

(d
Ciani/Musica, Inc., one of the busiest commercial music studios of the day
and one of the first to use synthesis to generate sounds for radio and TV
commercials. Her synthesized sound of a bottle of Coca-Cola being opened
and poured became one of the most iconic sounds in TV commercial audio.
During this period, she scored the Lily Tomlin film The Incredible Shrinking
Woman, played on a classic Star Wars disco album (Meco’s Star Wars

oo
and Other Galactic Funk), designed the sound for Bally’s Xenon pinball
game, and even appeared on Late Night with David Letterman demoing
her vocal processing “voice box.”

h
ya
t)

left: At Ciani Musica, NYC,

(a

late 1970’s.
above: At home in
West Marin, CA, with
Buchla modular synthesizer.
c Sean Hellfritsch
right: Live performance
at Terraforma Milan, Italy, 2017.
c Michela Di Savino
si
os
ir
tt
pe

Most people have a hard time doing one
thing well. You’ve had four distinct
careers. How have you managed to
explore it all?
I’m a double Gemini. This is what happens. There are
four people living in me, and I’m just now getting
to know them. I’m always incredulous that things
do change. I always said when I started the Buchla
that I would not go back to the piano again. Then
when I started the piano, I said I would never go
back to the Buchla. Well, then I went back to the
Buchla and I said I wouldn’t go back to the piano!
Now I don’t believe myself at all. I know that I
don’t know what’s going to happen. So, this is a
surprise to me; but I’m used to surprises. Getting
out of New York and commercial production, that
was really a health issue. I got sick. Maybe it had
nothing to do with my life there, which was
intense; I loved it. But I got early breast cancer. It
was a signal to me that I was supposed to change
my life. I left the big city and came to the end of
this dirt road, after my treatments.
You embrace the surprises?
I’m a follower. I have an instinct for a path, and I
explore it, as if it’s opening up in front of me. I don’t
come up with an idea and then pre-plan how to go
there. I’m organic. I go with the flow.
I’m curious about your time in NYC
when you started Ciani/Musica. That
was groundbreaking at the time, not
only to pack up and go to New York,
but to have this idea of starting a
studio that made noises for people.
Well, I went to New York to do a live Buchla performance
si
in quadraphonic. I fell in love with New York. I loved
the smell. I loved the energy. I felt the minute that I
got there that that was where I belonged. So, I never
os
went back to L.A. I didn’t even have my belongings
with me. I had them put in storage. I just had my
Buchla for that concert, and I stayed in New York. How many people did you have working
Then I got hungry; I was starving. My brain said,
ir
“You’ve gotta find a solution to this.” I had done a Well, I’ve been working on my archives, and I recently
commercial when I was still in northern California. I
had done more when I was in L.A. I had worked in
film in L.A., teaching technology to film composers.
tt
There was a real interest back then in the film world
for this new thing. In New York, I tried to make a
career as a performer on the Buchla. What stopped
pe
me was that they wouldn’t put up four speakers
Suzanne Ciani
The Fourth Wave
Were you able to move a lot of the
interview by John Baccigaluppi,
with Beau Sorenson
Yes, and we also investigated computer systems. In
anyplace in a theater. I’d be at Lincoln Center with a
concert scheduled and I needed two more speakers in
the back of the room, and they’d say, “What? Are you
crazy?” I said, “Well, if you don’t put them up, I can’t
play.” That was a dealbreaker. Then I worked for a
year and a half trying to get the theaters to change.
I started a non-profit corporation called The
Electronic Center for New Music. I had a lot of people Aside from the Buchla, you were an early
from the AES on my board, people from the speaker
industry, and folks like that. I got to the point where
nobody would listen to me because I wasn’t rich and
famous. I thought to myself, “Well, I’d better become The Synclavier was an amazing tool for production of
rich and famous.” That’s what triggered my appetite
for moving forward commercially. I stopped wanting
to be the Buchla performer, and I started to go after
making money with a vengeance.
Where was Ciani/Musica?
h
I had an apartment at 40 Park Avenue. With the first
iteration of Ciani/Musica, the studio was in my
ya
apartment, and the office was at 1650 Broadway; the
classic music building of all time, right near the Brill
Building. It was wonderful. I didn’t have to be near
the office activity. The studio I initially put in was On top of working with synthesis and
when I got money to do The Incredible Shrinking
t)
Woman soundtrack. I got a big check for that, and I
put a home studio in my apartment. There weren’t
any home studios back then. It was a doorman
building, and the guys just let me do it! I didn’t allow There’s a reason for that. For my own music, I can’t sing.
(a
shoes in the studio, so sometimes there’d be 15 pairs
of shoes outside my door when I had clients in. I
always felt nervous that I might be threatened to
have to move out, but that never happened. For
about ten years I ran it in my apartment. I had a view
of the Empire State Building. It was tiny, though.
Gear was piling up to the ceiling. It was wonderful,
but then I felt obliged – because the company got big
– to build an outside, big studio. But I was never as
happy as I was when I was working at home.
for you?
came across a telephone list of contacts for
Ciani/Musica staff. There were about 30 people on
that contact list. I had employees, but I also had
studio interns. Frequently that was how you got in.
You’d come in as an intern, and you’d work your way
up. That’s how it was done. The woman who
eventually ran my company, Marina Belica, came in as
S. Ciani/(continued on page 48)/Tape Op#148/47
an intern. Initially I didn’t want to hire her because
she was too smart. She’d gone to Yale. She was going
to be coiling cables and sharpening pencils. I said, “I
think you should go get a real job someplace.” She
said, “Hire the person you want to hire, and I’ll come
in anyway.” She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
She became the head of the company.
management of these 30 employees
over to her so you could focus on the
music side?
those days, computers were pretty new. They weren’t
personal computers. I hired a company to
computerize our bidding systems, our production
reports, our interfaces with the clients, our billing,
and all that. It took a year to design this computer
system. They installed it. It cost $40,000 to get this
)
thing in, and it blew up immediately. Later I found
out that they took my software design and sold it to
ot
other music houses, but you have to pick your
battles. There are too many. I let that one go.
(d
proponent of digital synthesizers,
like the Synclavier, which was
essentially a computer.
commercial music. I really didn’t use it for my art
oo
music. I didn’t like the sound. It does get credit on
some of my albums; I did use it judiciously. But the
sound was too hungry. It ate up the track. It was
really good for sampling. Without the Synclavier,
sampling was a nightmare. With the Synclavier, you
just popped a sound in. You could transpose it. You
could filter it. You could surgically alter it. You could
sequence it. It was so fast. Without the Synclavier, I
don’t know how people did it.
doing sampling, you were one of the
first people to get heavily into vocal
processing with the vocoder and
various other tools.
Early on, I did a promotional tour for Sennheiser with
Herbie Hancock. For part of the tour, we came out to
the West Coast, and I was in Herbie’s studio. My use of
the vocoder was for gracing my tracks with a feminine
aura. He was using it to produce an album [Sunlight]
singing! It sounded insane. I thought, “Are you kidding
me? This is not to make you a singer.” I wanted just
the vocal breath component, so Harald Bode did a mod
for me on my Bode Vocoder that was brilliant. Most of
the filter bandwidth is cut off in the vocoder, because
the speech part was only in a certain bandwidth, so
you missed the breathiness, the air of the female voice,
and the humanity. Harald put this pass-through filter
in for me, and my breath came through. It made all the
difference in the world for the sound of the vocoder.
My first album uses that heavily. I always used it. It’s
on everything I did, even though it’s not that obvious.
Here’s the other reason: For my artistic work, I wanted
my breath. I wanted my presence. I couldn’t sing, so I
gave it my presence through that. In commercials,
 there were several unions that governed usage of
recordings. There was the Musicians Union, that paid
you as a musician, and there was the Screen Actors
Guild, that paid actors and singers. The SAG contract
was negotiated by Ronald Reagan. It was a much
better contract. I would do a whole production,
compose, arrange, record, and produce, and a singer
would come in for 20 minutes and they would get paid
a fortune. I said, “This is not working for me. I can’t
accept that. You have to pay me as a singer. If I’m
going to do all this work, I want to make as much
money as the guy who comes in for 20 minutes.” So,
some of them said, “Fine.” Some of them said, “Can’t
you give us some excuse for doing this?” So, I said, “I’ll
use my voice.” I had the Voice Box – a rack of multiple
pieces of gear I’d use to process my vocals – and use
them on tracks so I could get paid as a “singer.” Rob Are you digitizing everything?
Zantay was one of my production assistants, and he
helped me build it.
The Voice Box
Along with engineer Robert
Zantay (photo @ right) , Suzanne
designed her pioneering “Voice
Box,” a rack of gear that she
could quickly patch into in
order to manipulate her voice.
Along with the basics of a patchbay, MXR graphic
equalizer, and a dbx compressor, the rack had a
Polyfusion Frequency Follower Model FF-1, Bode 700
Vocoder, Eventide H949 Harmonizer, and a Marshall
Time Modulator. These were cutting edge pieces of
gear at that time, and most engineers and producers
in that era had not yet figured out the possibilities
within them, let alone created a dedicated traveling
rack like this one. Famously, you can see Suzanne
demo this rack on David Letterman’s show in 1980.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZscRHkLMt0>
I am. My title is “Scholar of Electronic Music.” I have
si
os
You’re in the middle of cataloging your
archives. How is that project going?
Well, I’m an impulsive mover, as we’ve noticed. I moved
ir
from L.A. to New York without knowing it. I also moved I don’t think too many people know this
out here lickety-split from New York City. All my stuff
came out with me and went into storage here. It’s been
there for 30 years; I paid no attention to it. When the
tt
pandemic hit, I had to confront it. I had no more Oh, my god, yeah. That was a trip. It was for CTI
excuse. I’d been so busy, busy, busy. “I can’t deal with
that stuff.” But now, suddenly, I was grounded. I’m
pe
home. And I said, “Okay, let’s take it on.” I started
48/Tape Op#148/S. Ciani/(continued on page 50)
bringing that stuff out here to the beach, one box at a
time. I hired somebody to help me catalog it. Now I
have a functional archive. I’m not sure what I’m going
to do with it. At first, I thought I would separate it into
different categories, because there is an archive at
Duke University that is for commercials and
advertising. I thought, “Maybe I’ll give them the
advertising part.” I have tons of scores, contracts, and
the legal work from the heyday of advertising. The ‘80s
was the peak; it’s when creativity reigned. Before the
suits came. Before they had invented business school.
[laughs] Cornell [University] has the Moog archive. I’ve
spoken with them. I’ve been so busy doing the work
that I haven’t yet decided on a home for it. That’s what
I have to do next. It’s interesting; it’s an encapsulated
era. When there was paper.
Scanning?
I’m not doing the scanning. Let them do that. I’m
cataloging. I have scanned some of the articles. Then
there are a lot of audiotapes. I have hundreds and
hundreds of commercials. They’re on these
gargantuan reels. There must be six super big reels.
I’ve found that audio archiving gets messy quickly.
You can find somebody who will do a transfer, but will
they do the bookkeeping so that you know what it is
that’s been transferred? I haven’t dealt with that yet.
I have a lot of video. I have stuff from my dual
identity as a performer. I also have my “light cape”
from my performance in Dallas, Texas. Because I was
trying to do high-tech, I designed a light cape. It was
supposed to be a MIDI cape. This was in 1980. It was
h
supposed to respond to the sound from the stage. In
the end, the tech didn’t implement MIDI. It
ya
responded to volume and the lights, and instead of
being LEDs there were little bulbs, so it weighed a
ton; about a hundred pounds.
Another thing you’re doing now
is teaching. You’re a professor at
t)
Berklee, right?
been invited about twice per year to go to the Boston
campus and work with the students in the EPD
(a
[Electronic Production and Design] department. One
of the big topics now is spatial control in electronics.
The big obstacle to all of this is that very few analog
modular designers are making hardware that controls
space. Yes, there are software solutions, like Atmos or
Envelop for Ableton, but not the actual hardware for
being able to do live, spatial performance. My main
interest now is in live analog modular performance in
quad. Prior to the pandemic, I went out there several
times a year. I love Berklee. I wish I had known about
it when I was a kid in Boston. I wanted to learn jazz,
but I didn’t know where to go. It was right there!
about you, but you did a fair amount
of work with Rudy Van Gelder when
you were in New York.
Records. When I was hot, there was this mystique
that happened. People needed to have me on their
albums, out of the blue.
Beau Sorenson: So, you would get cold
calls from people you had no idea
about, saying, “Can you come play
on this?”
Yeah. Creed Taylor had this thing where he wanted me
on all of his productions. I even remember he redid
some. I was clueless. They would pick me up and
bring me out to New Jersey. I had my Buchla. Rudy
Van Gelder was the engineer. As you know, he wore
white gloves in the studio; he was very meticulous.
You couldn’t eat or even breathe in the studio. I have
no idea what I did. I’d like to listen to some of those
records and see what happened! [laughter] I did a lot
of session work back then. I did sessions for Atlantic
and Warner Bros. I almost did something for Joni
Mitchell. I had done a new audio logo for ABC at a
studio in L.A. with her engineer, Henry Lewy. Henry
looked at the Buchla, and he started salivating. He
)
said, “Oh, my god. I want you to play on Joni’s
album.” I said, “Well, sure.” He said, “Just one thing.
ot
She has to take credit for it.” I said, “Are you kidding?
Nobody’s going to believe that she’s playing this
machine.” It was like, “Excuse me? I’m the only one
(d
who plays this machine.” It was so weird. I declined.
In retrospect, after all these years, I don’t care about
anything anymore, so maybe it would have been fun
to do it, but I didn’t.
What was working with Rudy like? I’ve
heard he was such a taskmaster, but
oo
he probably didn’t understand your
instrument at all.
I had great respect for producers who made the opening
for something they didn’t understand.
BS: They left the space for you to do what
you were going to do?
They left the space. I remember working on [Starland
Vocal Band’s] “Afternoon Delight” with Phil Ramone
[Tape Op #50], who was producing and engineering.
It was a search. It was a conversation. I’d come into
a studio; I’d be in a control room with the producer,
and I’d start to explore. I knew what it could do, but
they didn’t know what it could do. They might have
ideas about what they wanted…
BS: They might not even be able to
articulate those clearly.
Exactly. It was exploratory. A lot of it was my coming up
with ideas and them saying, “Yeah! Hold that.” The
spaceship sounds, the stuff in [Meco’s] Star Wars...,
was easier, because we were replicating sounds from
the film.
Session work back then, they were fairly
short sessions, right?
Yes. Three hours. It was regular union length.
When we were here with Mark Ronson
[Tape Op #105] for the Apple music
series, Watch the Sound, you were
talking about mixing Seven Waves.
You’d been super frustrated,
because none of the mixes were
working out. Then you had a female
engineer take over the mix, and it
all started to work.
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 iPad, Moog’s Animoog, & Eventide H9
“What a surprise to me. I was working with Cyril Lance, a Moog engineer, for a
year trying to solve some of my Buchla problems. Moog became a real ally to me. He
randomly introduced me to the Animoog, and, of course, it’s perfect. It’s so compact.
That’s one of the limitations of performing. You have to be able to get around.
Also, the Eventide H9s [effects pedals], which I use extensively, and the iPad
interface for those [H9 Control], which is awesome. You have control over two
parameters in a visual screen. It’s wonderful for performing. And the processing, we
didn’t have that in the old days. We had a spring reverb. Now I feel a little guilty, but
what the heck? The software version is so deep. I used to get one Blackhole [reverb].
Now I get it all in the one small box.”
Seven Waves was my first album, and it took two years. It was a process of my making
enough money to afford to go into the studio, putting down the tracks, and then
mixing. Because it was so piecemeal, I used different engineers. It was an all-
electronic album. Over that two-year period, technology changed and NECAM
[console automation] came into being. That helped when we had so many elements
to control. From working in advertising, I had access to the top studios, like
Automated Sound Studios, and the top engineers. I went in to mix the third piece

)
on Seven Waves, and I was depressed because I couldn’t get what I wanted. I am

ot
not an engineer. I was brought up in commercial music, so I always worked with an
engineer and went into a big studio. Now people work at home, and they do
everything. Sometimes I do that too. But, at that time, I was looking for an
engineer. I needed that pair of hands. This one guy was supposed to be the top

(d
engineer in New York. He had beautiful, white shoes. He looked so cool. And it
sounded like shit. Because the top engineers in those days knew how to EQ a drum
or whatever the go-to sounds were for normal music. Acoustic music is what they
were doing. This was non-acoustic. There was no go-to solution. The guys who were
deeply entrenched and successful were at a disadvantage. I found this woman,

oo
Leslie Mona-Mathus, and she is an engineer. She comes at it for what it is. She’s not
invested in some protocol of rock music or whatever. She grew up with a deaf
brother, and her listening was primal. It was a match made in heaven. When she
started working on the mix it had a completely different energy from what the rock

h
guy was doing, and she became my engineer.
You worked with her over several records after that?
ya
Yeah, even out here. When I moved out here, she came out and did an album with me.
She’s amazing. She got a job with ABC [News Creative and Marketing], and she does
that for her steady income.
BS: Throughout your career you have continually embraced
new technology. But I often wonder about a balance. There
t)

are so many tools. Every day I wake up and there’s a new

plug-in, synth module, or effect. What do you think about
staying with something for a long time to really know it,
(a

like the Buchla, versus reaching for new tools or

instruments?
I do think it takes time to develop a relationship with something so that the tool
becomes meaningful and personal. I’ve seen some wonderful instruments that I
respect, but I can’t incorporate them. There are instrument designers now who make
some beautiful tools, like Make Noise [Tape Op #104] for one. A beautiful system;
si

I love it. But, for me, I choose the Buchla as it is. It’s always morphing, right? That’s
the nature of it. We love it and we hate it. There’s something new, and it’s like,
“Wow!” It’s not like playing a piano, where you develop a linear advancement in
os

your technique, because it’s there. No. What you’re doing is always morphing. I do
think that my deepest relationship is with the Buchla, and that’s what I’m doing
now. I have a lot of respect. I keep an eye out on new analog music designs. I saw
one last night that incorporated a visual interface that looked interesting. It’s an
ir

exciting field. I’ve gotta keep aware. At this point though, I’m the old-timer who
committed to the Buchla. The Buchla was so ahead of its time that if it weren’t
ahead of its time, I would be moving to something else. But until somebody gets
tt

the control of randomness that Don has, the control of space that he has, the
multiple arbitrary function generator that allows you to do tiered control of data,
I’m sticking with the Buchla until everybody else catches up! r
pe

<www.sevwave.com>

50/Tape Op#148/S. Ciani/(Fin.)

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 Beginning in 1974, when bands needed label
attention and access to a proper studio to get their
music out and heard, visionary power-pop band
Shoes created their own terms – building a home
studio in their living room while learning how to play
music and record simultaneously. Shoes’ unique
approach to songwriting and sonic identity under
these circumstances have been a  blueprint for
bedroom pop projects everywhere for the last few
decades – whether these projects know it or not. I
recently got the chance to chat  with founding
members Jeff Murphy and Gary Klebe. They went
into the history of their home-recorded process in the GK: Without the TEAC [A-]3340S tape machine, there’d be
1970s, recording and mixing classics albums like
Black Vinyl Shoes, and what their experiences are
today with all the endless options available.
What inspired you to get into home
recording records like Black Vinyl Shoes?
Gary Klebe: It was really through necessity. At the time,
we weren’t musicians. In fact, I’m still reluctant to call JM: Gary and I both had stereo reel-to-reel tape machines
myself a musician. We didn’t play live; it was a band in
name only. Recording was our only way to be in music.
Playing live wasn’t a realistic option. That came along
later, but it was always secondary to recording. We
weren’t capable of doing anything but record. There
was a lot of punching in and out, and redoing. We
weren’t natural virtuosos at singing or playing guitars.
Jeff Murphy: We would say to each other, “You’ve only got
to get it right one time.” While we were learning how
si
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At BFD Studio, 1978.
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L-R: Gary Klebe, John Murphy, Skip Meyer, Jeff Murph
52/Tape Op#148/Shoes/(continued on page 54)
to play, we were stumbling, and it was like, “I’ve just record on one track and then listen to it in sync mode
got to get one good take that I can keep, and then while recording on another track in perfect time.
we’ll move on to the next thing.” That helped us learn Without that sync capability, we wouldn’t have been
and mature. We’re more songwriters, arrangers, and able to bounce tracks around. Recording Black Vinyl
producers than musicians. Musically, we learned to play Shoes would have been impossible.
by trying to write a song and play what we heard in What planning did you do to make the
our heads, which is kind of the backwards way of doing best of the low track count availability
it. Most musicians learn their craft by playing first, and on the TEAC deck?
then later learning how to write songs. We came up the GK: Jeff had a formula for it.
exact opposite. We were born in the studio; it was our JM: In the very first recordings, we simply recorded one
home. Now, home recording is more the norm, with Pro instrument directly to each of the four tracks. But
Tools and other DAW software. then we got more sophisticated. We remembered
reading about how The Beatles recorded. They would
no band. That’s what allowed us to put our foot in the talk about making “reductions.” We called it “ping-
door and see if we could do this. We were very sheepish ponging” or “bouncing.” We would record on three of
about it at the time. Anyone we knew – friends, the channels and then mix those together and
acquaintances, or whatever – would make fun of us. “If “bounce” them down to the fourth channel as we
)
you don’t play live, then what good are you?” We plugged in and played along to it. Now, the fourth
thought, “Well, you might be right, but this is all that channel contained what was bounced from the first
ot
we can do right now.” three channels, plus whatever additional instruments,
handclaps, or background vocals that we mixed in
that had the sound-on-sound function. One day, in during the bounce. Then we could go back and erase
(d
early 1974, this friend of mine who worked at an audio the first three channels and record new instruments
store said, “Oh, you’ve gotta check out this new TEAC on them. Using the same process, we’d continue
machine that’s coming. You can do four channels. bouncing between channels as we mixed in new
They’ll be in time with each other, because there’s a instruments or vocals. It was all recorded piecemeal,
sync switch. You can do overdubs!” Now, with Pro bit by bit. The real challenge was that we’d have to
Tools, most people don’t realize the whole challenge of guess in advance how loud an instrument needed to
oo
recording with the limitation of using only four be in comparison with instruments that weren’t even
channels on analog tape. With the 3340S, we could recorded yet. We learned to record the bass last,
h
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 because the bass guitar would get mushy if you JM: Right. The normal way of establishing times between
bounced it. As we recorded the bass, we might play a songs is by splicing in leader tape. When we made the
tambourine or something with high frequencies, like master reel for those early recordings, including Black
maracas, along with it. Later on, if we thought the Vinyl Shoes, we would actually roll back the 2-track
mix wasn’t quite right between the bass and master to the tail end of the previously mixed song.
percussion, because they were recorded together, we Then we’d listen together as the song was fading out
couldn’t change the volume between the two. But we and say, “Here! The next song should start right here!”
could still go in with EQ and make the tambourine We’d hit the stop button and start recording the next
feel a little louder by adding around 7 kHz or so, and mix. If you’ve worked around tape before, you know
that it wouldn’t affect the bass. So, we would sub-mix there’s a little bias dump at the beginning when you
the channels this way and EQ the difference. We hit record. It leaves a little thump sound on the tape.
learned that we could not ping-pong more than twice If it was too loud, we’d go, “Damn, gotta do it over!”
without the quality really deteriorating. Instead of editing that noise out, we’d go back,
GK: It was like in the mastering stage these days, where reposition the tape, and start it all over again until we
EQ and compression are used to bring up the vocals, or got it right.
bass, or whatever. We were using a cheap Peavey live GK: If we punched in too early, we’d ruin the previous
mixer for everything. song and have to go back and mix it all over again! I’ll
JM: Yeah, we had a Peavey 1200S mixer, which to us back never forget when we recorded our first record for

)
then was like, “Woo-hoo! Now we’re in it for real!” Elektra [Records] with Mike Stone at The Manor in
That’s so rad. I was going to ask about the England. The first time we saw him edit tape with a

ot
Roland Space Echo you had. Was it razor blade, I remember us looking at each other,
always recorded and mixed in as you “That’s all we had to do?”
went along, or were you adding any of JM: There was a song where Mike said, “Boy, it’d be cool

it in later?
JM: It was always recorded with the instrument, mixed
together as we recorded. Since that was our only
effects unit, it was the only way to be able to put
varied effects on each instrument. But that
(d
if there was a double chorus at the end.” We said, “Oh,
shoot; too bad we didn’t record it that way.” He says,
“No problem!” Then he runs a copy onto another
machine, gets the razor blade out, and goes to town.
We had no idea you could do that! Right in the middle

oo
relationship between the instrument and the effect of the song, he’s chopping this tape and taping it
was locked in. We couldn’t change it later. One of the together. We’re like, “What? Now we’ve got a double
examples is Gary’s guitar on “Tragedy,” which is very chorus!” We had never seen that done before.
effected, washy, dreamy, and spacey. That was that GK: After that, we were cutting and editing and looping

h
Space Echo. He’s using it for those effects, so it had to tape like crazy. If only we had known!
be recorded along with that guitar. In the final mix, we I’d love to hear about how you got the
ya
would pan it left, or right, or whatever. But mixing is drum sounds on those home-recorded
a deceiving term with that album. Everything was records with the resources available.
already set in stone because of all the ping-ponging. JM: Those drum sounds are really identifiable, even
All we could really do with those four tracks was decide though they’re not necessarily that good. We recorded
where to pan them and add EQ. One channel would be the drum kit in stereo with six mics: four [Shure]
t)

panned left, one would be on the right, one would be
in the center because it had the bass, and another
would be in the center because it had the main vocal.
There wasn’t a whole lot of mixing that could be done
(a
SM57s and two cheapo mics. Skip [Meyer], our
drummer, had this set of old red sparkle Ludwig drums.
They weren’t great sounding drums, but they did have
a distinctive character that became the sound of Black

at that last stage.
GK: But we felt lucky. We were like, “Wow, four tracks!
That’s a lot!” Another thing that’s interesting, thinking
back, I don’t know how we did it, but we didn’t have
monitors. We just used headphones.
si
Vinyl Shoes. When we were negotiating with Elektra
Records, they brought us out to L.A., and they said,
“Hey, do you guys want to go in the studio and mess
around?” Of course we said, “Sure!” So, they booked
time at the Village Recorder, not some little demo

Until the end with the mixing?
GK: All the recording was done with headphones only.
When it was time to mix, we used some Advent
speakers from Jeff’s stereo system as monitors. That
os
studio. Fleetwood Mac was working on Tusk in another
room. They weren’t in the studio at the time, and they
let us peek in. We noticed that Mick had a Sonor drum
kit, and they had SM57s on the snare and toms. We

was the first time we’d used actual speakers in the were like, “Yes! That’s what we use!” We loved it. The
recording process. SM57 was the only decent mic we had! Soon after, Skip
JM: There was a guy I worked with who had a 2-track went out and bought some Sonor drums.
ir

machine, so we rented that from him to mix down to With all the available resources and
and set up my speakers in the living room. We used options now, what do you still carry
two Tapco 2200 stereo EQs and no bus effects. That with you from back then that keeps
was all we had! you focused?
tt

GK: Everything we did we had to figure out on our own. GK: When you only have four tracks and so many
We couldn’t turn to the internet for help! We mixed and limitations, well, your options are limited. Most of our
sequenced songs, straight to the master reel live. We gear was inexpensive, consumer quality. I mean we
pe

didn’t even know we could edit tape with a razor blade. didn’t even have a single high-end preamp. But we
54/Tape Op#148/Shoes/
 made do with what little we had. We learned our gear
inside and out. We squeezed every drop of potential
out of everything we had. Then we signed with a
major label. Suddenly, we were thrown into a foreign
environment. We began recording in “real’ studios. All
the gear we’d ever dreamed of was at our disposal.
That was great, but it never occurred to us that we
might miss our trusty MXR and Electro-Harmonix
pedals and homemade stompboxes. Sometimes it’s
best to grab the gear that you’re most familiar with.
JM: I think one thing we learned is that every single
piece of gear has its own unique sound. We were big
into the old MXR blue-face Flanger/Doubler and
their early delay and chorus units. They have such a
great sound to them. Sometimes I think that
software-based recording has too many options; it’s
easy to get lost in the decision making. It’s like
going into a restaurant and they hand over the
menu and it’s the size of a bible. “I just wanted a
burger.” When you’ve got 40 pages you have to sort
through, your enthusiasm fades. In recording, it’s
not as tactile now as it was in the earlier years. Back
then you felt like you were part of the machine.
You’re working on a song, and you reach over and
turn the knob until it sounds the way you want it to
sound. It’s different now. The potential of digital
recording is pretty staggering. It allows you to do
some great things, but, in many ways, it can be
more cumbersome and unnatural.
GK: We always assumed that we’d make better records
using better equipment. We learned something
valuable early on. We were recording the Present Tense
album at The Manor in England, which had this
incredible Helios console. We were playing a guitar
part through an MXR Distortion Plus going directly
into the board. You’d think it would sound at least as
good, if not better, than what we got from our board
back home, but it wasn’t even close. Our cheap Peavey
mixer killed it. Obviously, the Helios was an infinitely
better console, but it goes to show that every piece of
gear has its own unique advantage. We had a similar
problem when Jeff tried to reproduce this creamy,
modulated left-to-right delay guitar effect that we got
from our MXR Digital Delay. Our engineer tried to
convince us that he could replicate anything an MXR
could do. Not so. The studio delay units were cleaner,
but lacked all the warmth and color of the MXR. Once
again, cheap was the winner.
si
JM: Another example was a song called “Your
Imagination” which is on Tongue Twister, our second
Elektra album. I had started recording a demo for the
song, and I had gone away for the weekend. John and
os
Gary came in over the weekend and decided to work
on this song. When I came back and listened to it, the
song started with this fantastic bass sound. I thought,
ir
“What the heck?” It was this rolling, growling bass.
They had used an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff and a
Small Stone phase shifter. It sounded so unique and
so cool. When we went to record the album at United
tt
Western Studio A in L.A., which is a fantastic studio,
we couldn’t reproduce the same effect Gary and John
had come up with on the demo with those cheap
pe
effect pedals. Ironically, most pro studio gear is
designed NOT to distort. Yet, oftentimes, the unique
distortions are what give character to a sound. When
we first started out, I took the guts out of an old
portable tape recorder and used it for my distortion
box. We called it a synthesized guitar, but it was just
a guitar direct into the mixer through that gadget.
But even that sounded cooler on our demos through
our cheap mixer than it did through those expensive
pro studio consoles!
What advice do you have for home
recording artists today?
JM: Don’t wait until you can buy the best gear around.
Work with what you have. Just get started. Newer and
bigger and cleaner isn’t always better. I used to say to
people that a straight road is perfect, and it’s also
boring as hell to drive on. Music can be the same way.
It’s the same with a guitar amplifier. If a guitar amp
is too clean, it might be too sterile. Distortion may
)
work better, because it creates all these weird
overtones and character flaws. The distortion and
ot
harmonic details create character and thickness. We
learned that by accident, by trial and error. If you’re
going to use a plug-in, rather than a real amp and
(d
mic, alter it, change it up; don’t always just go with
the standard presets.
GK: The first thing I’d say is to read less and experiment
more. Sometimes I think that with digital recording
there are almost too many options. It can be hard to
oo
know where to start and, more importantly, when to
quit. “Which of these 100 compressor plug-ins should
I use on this track? I guess I’d better read all the
reviews and download the demos to compare them.”
h
Creativity can become the real casualty. When you’re
making your own record, you don’t want art to take a
ya
back seat to the technology. There are so many great
online tutorials for learning what your gear is capable
of doing. The problem is that information overload
can become a huge distraction. All the reviews, ads,
and forums will lead you to believe that your studio is
t)
lacking if it doesn’t have a certain microphone,
preamp, EQ, or plug-in. The fact is that you don’t need
all the gear that they claim you need in order to get
the job done. If you can afford an API console and
(a
vintage Neumann mics, that’s great, but with
experimentation, you’ll be amazed at what you can
accomplish with minimal gear. Never underestimate
what that old beat up stompbox can do. The results
depend more on the person using the gear than the
gear itself. Jump right in. r
<www.shoeswire.com>
John Rau is a home recording experimenter and live FOH sound
engineer for artists LIARS, Jessy Lanza, HEALTH, and many
others, and is based out of NYC/Portland.
Shoes/(Fin.)/Tape Op#148/55

Focusrite
Clarett+ 8Pre interface
I’ve been fiercely loyal to my older computer audio
interfaces, ignoring the glut of new options over the years.
Yes, I’ve had to buy a host of over-priced Apple connectors to
keep my legacy devices hooked up, but that seemed a small
price to pay to defy the culture of planned obsolescence! As
publisher John Baccigaluppi put it in an End Rant a few years
back (Give Me a Hammer [Tape Op #102]), I want something
that works well and that I don’t have to think about, let alone
constantly upgrade. That said, smart people have been hard
at work on improving interfaces, and – now that I’m pulling
my head out of the sand – I am excited to discover how these
make digital recording easier and more efficient.
Enter the Focusrite Clarett+ 8Pre, an 18-in/20-out USB 2.0
audio interface with eight mic preamps (featuring the famous
Focusrite Air effect), and an included software bundle (the
Hitmaker Expansion) with lots of useful plug-ins. In addition,
Focusrite has upgraded the converters and clocking on the
Clarett+ line while retaining the basic layout and functionality
of the earlier Clarett 8Pre USB [Tape Op #126].
First off, the Clarett+ 8Pre integrated seamlessly with both
my 2019 MacBook Pro and my studio computer (a 2013 iMac),
thanks to its inclusion of two different USB cables – your
choice of USB-C or Type-A. The 8Pre is controlled via
Focusrite’s elegant software mixer, which also installed
without any issues (though be sure to download the version
specific to the current interface as the older versions are
incompatible). Some features of the software mixer can be
controlled remotely with an iPad or iPhone, which can save
time running back to the control room while trying to set up
headphone mixes. I wish the preamp volumes could also be
adjusted remotely, because that would allow setting levels in
the live room or while sitting at an instrument.
The front of the single rack space Clarett+ 8Pre features ten,
si
six-segment LED meters for the monitors and eight preamps,
plus two XLR (mic/line/instrument) combo jacks – handy for
plugging in a guitar or keyboard quickly (which I often do,
especially when writing a song). Front panel controls include
os
gain controls for the preamps, a monitor volume knob with
Dim and Mute buttons, and two independent standard-sized
headphone jacks with separate volume knobs. The back hosts
ten balanced line outputs, the six additional XLR combo input
ir
jacks, ADAT, S/PDIF, and MIDI I/O, plus word clock out. One
of many features that I appreciate about the 8Pre is that it
will grow with me as an engineer. I can get great sounds with
tt
the eight included preamps, and patch in an ever-increasing
number of outboard preamps as my studio grows. Though I
tend to prefer the colorful sound of my CAPI VP26 preamps [Tape
Op #77], I found the Focusrite’s pres perfectly serviceable,
pe
suggesting the 8Pre’s potential for remote recording. In fact,
56/Tape Op#148/Gear Reviews/
these are the best interface preamps I’ve ever heard! With the
Air feature engaged, I immediately got a fantastic vocal
sound with my sE Electronics V7 mic [#122] – and drums and
guitars also sounded stellar. The Focusrite preamp may be
cleaner than a classic transformer pre, but I was surprised by
the smooth high frequencies and strong, not overbearing,
lows. If you’re looking for an interface with eight new
preamps in one package, the Clarett+ 8Pre is incontestably
the way to go.
I do have one complaint. Lately, I’ve been acquiring ribbon
mics, and I don’t love that phantom power is toggled in banks
of four channels. Of course, this requires judicious decisions
about which mics you plug in where (or possibly risk frying
touchy ribbons), but I can also appreciate that grouping the
phantom power cuts down on costs. On the plus side, the
front of the interface features dedicated gain controls for all
eight preamps and the two independent headphone jacks,
eliminating what could have been a lot of mousing around.
Intrigued by the upgraded converters, I integrated the
Clarett+ 8Pre into my patchbay and got to work. When
tracking some demos for the next Fine Motor LP, the first thing
I noticed was that drummer Casey Bell’s sticks when she was
counting off sounded three-dimensional. The 8Pre
immediately called to mind the wonder of hitting drum sticks
together and feeling their vibration instead of my usual
experience of dismissing them as mere two-dimensional
tempo indicators. I won’t pretend to understand how
Focusrite did this, except to note that the Clarett+ 8Pre uses
separate A/D and D/A converters, both of which were carefully
sourced after their old supplier suffered an industrial fire. The
upshot is an expanded dynamic range with a higher signal-to-
noise ratio than previous models, which translated through
my monitors to a richer, clearer, more three-dimensional
h
sound stage. The increased space around each element in the
mix was immediate, unmistakable, and joy-inducing.
ya
The Clarett+ 8Pre proved handy on recent projects. To give
an example of when I’m simultaneously engineer and
musician, I recently added bass to some demos and simply
plugged directly into the JFET instrument input on the front,
selected a few plug-ins in my DAW, monitored through my
studio speakers, and captured my ideas quickly and efficiently.
t)
Next, I put it to work on some mixes. I like to record at 96
kHz, as the cymbals sound more realistic to my ears. This
interface offers ten analog outputs, with up to 20 analog outs
at 48 kHz. I plugged in one of my other interfaces via ADAT
(a
(S/MUX) and S/PDIF to get a total of 16 analog outs at 96
kHz, the perfect number to take full advantage of my Tonelux
OTB 16-channel Summer [Tape Op #86]. I pulled up some
drum tracks that I was mixing for Adrien Kanter (of the
criminally under-appreciated Parisian post-punk band Looking
for John G.). Currently, Kanter is based at the foot of the Alps
in southeastern France, with the environment imprinting a
more contemplative air to his compositions. For a guitar and
synth-laden track, I compressed the room mic almost out of
recognition and tucked clearer snare, kick, and tom tracks
underneath for foundation. The 8Pre sounded fantastic. The
sense of space around the instruments it conveyed allowed
me to quickly balance these various mix elements.
When I consider everything the Clarett+ 8Pre offers,
including eight musical preamps and its three-dimensional
soundstage, it’s clear that Focusrite offers a great deal to
home recordists and project studios. I decided to purchase the
review unit. Yes, as stubborn as I am, working with the
Clarett+ 8Pre in my studio convinced me that it’s time for an
upgrade. ($999 street; focusrite.com)
-Daniel Ryan Morse <danielryanmorse.com>
Peluso Microphones
P-414 microphone
Modeled after the sought-after AKG C 414 EB from 1976,
the Peluso Microphone Lab P-414 is reviving a cult classic
with a few upgrades to help it thrive in the modern world of
recording. Just as original C 414 EBs are becoming
increasingly hard to find and used prices are skyrocketing,
the team at Peluso Microphone Lab has given engineers and
studios access to a classic sound at a fraction of the cost. The
P-414 is a multi-pattern large diaphragm condenser
microphone that is hand built in Virginia. The four polar
patterns (cardioid, hyper-cardioid, omni, and figure-eight)
can be easily selected via a switch on the front of the
microphone. Two more selectors located on the rear of the P-
414 include a pad (-10 dB and -20 dB) and a high-pass filter
(75 Hz and 100 Hz). The Peluso Microphone Lab P-414 looks
almost identical to the original C 414 EB – silver and boxy,
with a heavy-duty head grill. The only differences in
)
aesthetics are the stem (longer than the AKG’s), the color of
the head grill on the backside of the mic (silver on the P-414;
ot
black on the AKG), and the respective logos. The Peluso P-
414 comes with a sturdy shock mount, foam windscreen,
velvet mic bag, and heavy-duty flight case.
(d
The C 414 EB is well known for its powerful midrange
capabilities – with a very musical and broad boost between
300 Hz and its airy top end – primarily due to its CK12-style
brass capsule. Dedicated to re-creating the unique charm of
the C 414 EB, the team at Peluso Microphone Lab use the
same brass dual-backplate edge-terminated 34 mm capsule
oo
as the original. The P-414 is equipped with a custom
transformer in order to ensure an extremely low noise floor,
making it ideal for modern recording studios.
The hype around the famous brass capsule is well deserved.
The P-414 won head-to-head vocal mic competitions more
times than not in my studio, and for good reason. As stated
above, the midrange and airiness are undeniably musical,
which can be useful for vocalists of many types. Getting vocal
tracks to fit in the mix is extremely easy with this mic,
whether they’re lead, backing, and/or group vocals. The P-
414 might also be my go-to mic for rack and floor toms.
Never have I been excited about mic’ing up toms, but again,
that midrange just adds something special.
I had the opportunity to bring the P-414s to an orchestra
recording with an ensemble I’d been working with for over a
decade. The P-414 helped add a beautiful amount of life to
the recording – correction: a shocking amount. I placed a pair
of mics about ten feet in front of the conductor, spaced
about ten feet apart, in the middle of the string section,
and... WOW. The depth, presence, and heartiness that the P-
414s added were immediately apparent. I’m going to use
them every single time I work with large ensembles.
The Peluso P-414s have quickly become the go-to mics in
my studio. Clients love them, guest engineers love them, and
I love them. They’re workhorses and can add some booty to
almost anything they’re in front of. Do yourself a favor and
pick up one (or more) of these immediately.
($1,099 street; pelusomicrophonelab.com)
-Slater Swan <anjunarecording.com>
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 Universal Audio
Volt 276 USB-C interface
This handsome little wood-sided box houses what is
effectively Universal Audio’s first entry into the low-cost USB
audio interface market, representing a bit of a paradigm shift
for the company’s approach. Unlike UA’s audio interfaces in
the past, the new Volt range has no onboard DSP to run their
ever-popular UAD plug-ins. The Volt family are plug-n-play
24-bit/192 kHz audio interfaces that break from the UA
Apollo range in that they don’t require proprietary drivers.
Although they do not allow for Unison-style tracking through
plug-ins hosted by onboard DSP, they have some attractive
built-in options evolved from UA’s storied recording pedigree
– plus a “curated suite” of audio software to get users into
production on day one.
The Volt range of interfaces is functionally close (and in
some ways incomparable) to industry-standard USB audio
interfaces from Focusrite, MOTU, Audient, and others – all five
of the Volts are designed for ease of use and recording quickly.
The three Volt models with “76” in their name have a magic
bullet: an inline 1176-style FET analog compressor with super-
simple one-button presets that range from mild to aggressive
compression at the input stage. The version UA sent to us is
the Volt 276, with two analog mic/line preamps tuned to
emulate the definitive UA 610 Tube Preamplifier [Tape Op #27]
when the Vintage mode switch is engaged. I can confirm:
Vintage mode has a sweet spot for driven, saturated sounds
reminiscent of my rack-mounted 610 hardware, despite the
apparent lack of actual tubes and transformers.
The most exciting element for me is that unlike other bus-
powered interfaces such as the Apollo Solo [Tape Op #140], the
Volt 276 is a fully class-compliant device. In practice, this means
no drivers are required for use with Windows, Mac, or iOS devices
– it just works right out of the box (UA recommends Windows
users install Volt’s ASIO driver for superior performance). I was
honestly hard-pressed to find a device that DOESN’T work with
it; Straight out of the box plugged into a MacBook Pro? Yep.
Okay, what about an iPad Pro bus-powering the Volt 276 for
backyard AUv3 (Audio Unit extensions) app sessions? Yep.
Hmm, well, what about attaching it to an Akai MPC Live 2 USB
host port to use the Volt 276’s AD/DA when sampling vinyl –
YES, this box has got it covered, and by the way, would you like
that bus-powered and with 5-pin MIDI I/O as well? Cool!
Naturally, this flexibility and (ahem) universal interoperability
opens up a world of new possibilities, especially if (like me)
you’re experimenting with mobile music-making. Having a
lightweight and rock-solid 24-bit, 192 kHz I/O signal path for
apps such as AUM, Gauss, Samplr, or even GarageBand is a bit
of a game-changer. I had a lot of fun tracking vocals and guitar
si
into Samplr in my backyard and found that the Vintage mode
preamps paired up nicely with an AKG C 414 B-ULS with the Volt
276’s 1176-style compressor VOC (vocal) preset activated. I
tested this interface with several other mics, including a Shure
os
SM7B and a Sennheiser MD 441-U, and found that with a few
tweaks to the gain, Vintage coloration, and compressor preset,
I had a range in tonal choice that I hadn’t expected in such an
affordable package.
ir
But is this something I’d want to throw into my backpack?
Given the boxy, retro-ish aluminum enclosure with wood sides
it seems it’ll go the distance – only time will tell. The build
tt
quality is commensurate with other interfaces at higher price
points; everything is clearly labeled, and again, easy as hell to
use. Five-segment LED metering is included for both inputs and
outputs. There are straightforward, direct monitoring options
pe
available with a button press, and the single headphone amp
is clear and powerful enough to drive my low impedance IEMs
(in ear monitors). I also want to commend UA on a simple but
highly desirable design choice – an actual, switchable power
button! (Side note: C’mon gear designers, do what UA does: Put
a nice toggle switch on that sucker!)
Nice-to-haves? Although I have yet to find something that
wouldn’t provide bus power to the Volt 276, the interface doesn’t
come with a power supply (buy one separately or use the
included USB-A to barrel connector adapter with any standard 5V
USB power supply). In addition, I would like to have had the
option to enable phantom power individually for either channel
(both XLR inputs receive +48V when the phantom button is
enabled). And I was surprised to find that UA’s own LUNA
recording environment couldn’t address the Volt 276 interface as
a hardware interface. Although I’m confident there are valid
technical reasons behind this; it seems a bit awkward.
Regardless, this is a solid interface that I would keep handy
for the potency of its signal path and ease of use alone, not to
mention that it expands my mobile recording palette
significantly. It even “legitimizes” my noodlings on the iPad
and brings that whole iOS recording habitat into the studio
with serious fidelity. High voltage! ($299 MSRP; uaudio.com)
-Dana Gumbiner <danagumbiner.com>
WAGO  sit by the fire after dinner, prep a mix, do session
Lever Nuts 221 Series
splicing connectors
Most studio owners have to do some electrical wiring. Always
check local codes to make sure you’re follow safety and legal
guidelines. Traditionally, spliced wires are twirled together and
bound by wire twist nuts. The twist types are problematic
because a good bond requires the correct sized cap. Otherwise,
they’re prone to coming loose, which makes a rework difficult.
h
Not to mention, they never seem to do a good job joining
solid-core and twisted-pair wires.
ya
I would have never thought about reviewing electrical parts
if it weren’t for a studio situation I encountered. I needed to
terminate an XLR into a TT patch cable on the spot. The
recording was going well, and a premade cable failed. I didn’t
have time to waste 30 minutes looking for one, or to solder a
replacement cable. Fortunately, an electrician told me about
t)
WAGO Lever Nuts. They’re an ingenious way to join wires.
Available in two to five slot models, a Lever Nut is a small,
compact splicing connector with levers that resemble a
Starburst candy or a mini-pitch pipe. Each cable slot runs
(a
beneath an orange lever. Lift the lever, insert the cable, and
push the lever back down. Most of the casing is transparent,
permitting visual confirmation that the wire sufficiently
penetrates the channel. Plus, there are test slots on both sides
of each connection to check voltage, and if something goes
wrong simply lift the lever and try again.
Back to the session: I happen to own the Capri Tools
CP20010 self-adjusting wire stripper/cutter [Tape Op #142] and
some Lever Nuts. I cut donor TT and XLR cables, exposed the
wires, stripped them using the CP20010, and used three Lever
Nuts to clamp the wires (ground/positive/negative). Done. The
total time was around five minutes. This splice was a temporary
fix, but keeping a session moving is an unsung studio
requirement. WAGO’s 221 Series works with 10 to 24 AWG (0.14
to 6 mm) wires – solid or twisted. A word of caution: There are
many look-alike brands, but they don’t work as smoothly as the
WAGO version, and I’ve had several imitations fail due to
quality control issues. Available in assortment packs, or by
capacity. WAGO even offers free samples from their website!
(pricing based on selection; wago.com)
-Garrett Haines <treelady.com>
Antelope Audio
Galaxy 32 Synergy Core interface
The new Galaxy 32 Synergy Core 32-channel interface from
Antelope Audio is something special. Advances in
technology have made almost every converter on the market
a viable option for professional studios. Of course, they all
have a thing or two that makes them a little unique, but
overall, everything within a certain price point sounds damn
good these days.
It was time – perhaps long overdue. I had put off a major
upgrade for one of my recording/mixing rigs as long as
possible. My older Mac Pro tower and three loaded Avid HD
192s were a reliable setup for years. However, I got to the
point most of us eventually do where I was simply unable to
update software, use new plug-ins, etc. I mix using a hybrid
setup, floating between a console or summing mixer, and I
use a small to moderate amount of plug-ins. At the same
time, I had been using the newest version of Pro Tools and
)
the Cranborne Audio 500R8 500 Series chassis and interface
[Tape Op #135] on a separate rig. For smaller mix projects,
ot
rough mixes, and demoing, this has been fantastic.
However, I wanted to be able to bring a hard drive home,
(d
organization, and then be able to open that session at my
studio. This was problematic with incompatible software
versions, and session transfer from an older version of Pro
Tools to the latest was a bit of a chore. After much research,
I found myself enamored with the idea of Antelope’s new
Galaxy 32 Synergy Core interface. It is a single rack space unit
oo
with 32 analog inputs and outputs, plus a fantastic
complement of connectivity that includes Thunderbolt 3, 64-
channels of Dante, 64-channels of MADI, as well as ADAT,
S/PDIF, and two HDX ports with 64-channels of Pro Tools I/O.
It also has one of the best interface clocks available, with
word clock I/O, for connecting other converters to the Galaxy
32 Synergy Core. Whew. Did I mention you can use all this I/O
simultaneously? Yeah. This interface gives you the flexibility
to work in Pro Tools over HDX and another DAW application
over Thunderbolt while using a total of up to 598 channels
of I/O at the same time! Bonkers. It makes the unit incredibly
flexible and useful in ways I may have not even considered.
The front panel has two small LCD screens that display a
variety of metering options and a volume knob, used to either
scroll through various menus or control the Galaxy 32 Synergy
Core’s excellent sounding monitor section. A direct
monitoring option is also available for no latency tracking.
One thing that sets this interface apart from many others
is its unique software control panel.
At first, I must admit that I was a bit baffled and maybe
intimidated when first installing the software and opening the
control panel. I like to plug gear in and never think about it
again. But after watching a bunch of videos, some trial and a
bit of error on my part, and a couple of email exchanges with
Antelope tech support, I started to get my head around the
concept of this super flexible software patchbay. I also called
my pal Riccardo Damian, a longtime Antelope user. I knew he’d
have a more artistic and holistic explanation for this software.
After a call or two to discuss getting my real-world signal flow
to translate into the control panel, we got it all dialed in. It may
be a slightly more complex setup than most because I mix with
a lot of outboard gear, mix bus processing, and my Crane Song
HEDD Quantum [Tape Op #129] for color before the mix prints
back into Pro Tools. My physical patchbay was never an issue,
but I was getting feedback loops, not hearing anything in some
configurations, and a few other strange problems that were
Gear Reviews/(continued on page 58)/57
 quickly resolved with a few simple drag and drop moves and a
layman’s explanation of how Antelope’s control panel works.
You can save different configurations for different setups, and
once all physical connections are made on the device all
routing can be done within the software. I work alone, so a “set
it and forget it” approach works fine for me, but in a studio
where multiple engineers had custom setup and routing
preferences, they can all be stored and recalled easily. Yes, it is
a tad overwhelming at first, but undoubtedly revolutionary
once you get your head around it. Thanks, Riccardo!
The other thing worth mentioning is the Synergy Core
processing onboard the Galaxy 32 Synergy Core. This section
of the device offers six DSP and two FPGA processors to
handle up to 128 simultaneous AFX (Antelope’s proprietary
processing) plug-in instances without touching the
computer’s CPU or memory. You do this all via the control
panel, but Antelope will soon be introducing a plug-in that
will set up the AFX plug-ins as instances within a DAW.
I found it a minor interruption in the workflow to move to
the control panel from the DAW to instantiate a plug-in, but
it was not that big a deal once I got the flow down. I’ll likely
use more of their plug-ins when Antelope can provide the
ability to do it right in my Pro Tools session.
I was shocked to see the array of AFX plug-ins and
impressed by the sound of what I used. Since I am familiar
with several of the hardware versions on which many of their
plug-ins are based, I have to say I appreciated what I have
used so far. The essence of each model was there, and I
found them useful for many aspects of the mix.
In use, the Galaxy 32 Synergy Core is quite transparent.
Everything was very clear, precise, and untouched. Mixes
have come together with improved speed and confidence.
The first mix I sent to a client came back with this reply:
h
“Sounds amazing. Like, done amazing. Did you get this
mastered?” What else do we want to hear from our clients?
ya
Subsequent mixes have also come together easily and
quickly, with very few comments and nothing about
balances, tones, relationships of instruments, or EQ choices.
I am spoiled with great monitors and an excellent
sounding room, but the Galaxy 32 Synergy Core has made
everything present in an honest and uncolored way. I feel
t)
confident that choices regarding levels, tone-shaping, and
compression are the right ones.
To recap: pristine and transparent conversion, high-
quality clocking, loads of connectivity (all available
(a
simultaneously), a drag and drop virtual patchbay, four
onboard low-latency stereo mixers with 32 input channels
each that can be split into individual cue mixes and sub-
mixes (allowing one to adjust levels and panning while
applying reverb and other effects), direct monitoring,
si
custom presets, and insane amounts of onboard DSP
processing power all in a single rack space unit. It can be
painful to essentially chuck old hardware in the trash (I’m
donating mine), but once I heard what I was missing, there
os
was no going back. Fewer rack spaces, more power, and
better sound with improved efficiency and workflow. It’s a
no-brainer. I highly recommend the Galaxy 32 Synergy Core.
($5495 MSRP; antelopeaudio.com) -GS
ir
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see more of our
tt
bonus/archived
reviews online!
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58/Tape Op#148/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 60)
PSPaudioware
PSP InfiniStrip WIND plug-in
When digital audio workstations were in their infancy, third-
party plug-ins were scarce. Even more rare were ones that
sounded good. But in those early years, Poland’s PSPaudioware
released a masterpiece: The PSP VintageWarmer [Tape Op #29]
combined compression and analog emulation to make computer
audio less sterile. Widely regarded as one of the first “must-
have” plug-ins, professionals still rely on (the updated) PSP
VintageWarmer2 all these years later. So, if PSPaudioware
releases something significant, I pay attention.
The PSP InfiniStrip is the in the box software equivalent of
having as many 500 Series modules as your computer can
handle. Included (as of this writing) are 25 processing units
covering eight categories: preamps, filters, gate/expander/
ducker, compressors, equalizers, limiters, control, and special.
Each instance of PSP InfiniStrip is a self-contained virtual
nine-slot rack. However, there are some rules about loading.
)
Seven of the slots are assigned by processing group – and only
that group. Each processor type gets to load one module.
ot
Modules are restricted to certain slot types. For example, only EQ
modules can use the equalizer slot. This may seem restrictive,
but modules can be in any order desired. Need a limiter first and
(d
a preamp last? No problem. The remaining two slots are called
Flexible insert slots and can host any modules. Want three
preamps in the chain? Use the preamp slot and two flexible
insert slots. If you still require a more complex order, instantiate
another PSP InfiniStrip and build any desired path.
PSPaudioware also made provisions that speed up workflow.
oo
Intelligent parameter matching means you can swap different
compressors or EQs to find a preferred color and flavor, as basic
effect parameters carry over during these changes. Each module
has individual sidechain support, mono or stereo processing
(based on track), and flexible view modes to accommodate
screen resolutions and workflows.
I expected a plug-in claiming this much power would come
with long latency and significant latency processing
requirements. But somehow, PSPaudioware claims that the PSP
InfiniStrip has “zero-latency processing.” I can attest that this
plug-in eats up minimal CPU resources. Rapid parameter changes,
patch loading, and module rearranging never crashed my system.
Audio engineers often say, “Good, fast, cheap – pick two” [Tape
Op #87]. But for plug-in reviews, we say “DSP, latency, stability
– pick one.” I have no idea how PSPaudioware writes such
efficient, hearty code, but I’m not going to complain.
I spent the majority of my evaluation working with individual
modules. I kept going back to the FET Pressor (compressor
module) for the unmistakable, tight smack it could provide. I was
happy to see the PreQursor EQ module (a version of the PSP
preQursor [Tape Op #70] redesigned explicitly for implementation
in the PSP InfiniStrip). I confess, I often leaned on the Opto Lim
(limiter module) for its round, buttery vibe. Combined with the
S.C. (sidechain) Filters, PSP InfiniStrip dynamics units are more
powerful than many of their hardware inspirations.
I enlisted the help of producer/mixer Greg Gordon to put the
PSP InfiniStrip through some tests with large track count mixes.
Regarding audio quality, flexibility, and usage, PSP InfiniStrip
surpassed other plug-ins for multiple reasons. First, the inclusion
of a Drive control at each stage is crucial. Having the ability to
adjust or bypass the Drive on each module allows PSP InfiniStrip
to mimic the gain staging abilities of a large-scale console. You
can drive a signal without adding noise, using the clean Gain
module. Conversely, other modules can be pushed to saturate a
chain. Most hardware is not this flexible.
 )
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/59

 From a workflow standpoint, the PSP InfiniStrip can hasten mixing. The audition features
facilitate rapid decisions without undue fuss. The intelligent parameter matching feature is a
massive efficiency feature. No need to configure different candidates; you can A/B different
styles and eras of Pre/EQ/Comp – with the same settings – just by toggling among
permutations. PSP InfiniStrip’s ability to change module order in real-time on the fly is an
excellent feature (try moving that fast with a TT patchbay). Finally, meaningful comparison
tools are among the long list of impressive features in the PSP InfiniStrip. Dialing in awesome
sounds quickly can translate to less ear fatigue, allowing for more time to focus on showcase
elements – and clients are getting reference mixes sooner rather than later. The PSP InfiniStrip
is one plug-in that substantively improves workflow.
In a perfect world, other vendors would create modules compatible with the PSP InfiniStrip
engine. Engineers could buy them like real-world 500 Series modules. Sure, that’s unlikely, and
with the included processors someone could confidently mix an album using only the PSP
InfiniStrip. (Wish list: I would also want PSPaudioware’s authorized 2445 EMT reverb, but that’s
another review for another time). Rest assured, the PSP InfiniStrip is not some marketing
gimmick to sell old plug-ins with a new interface – this is a significant development in
workflow, flexibility, and sound sculpting. Efficient DSP use, low latency, and great sound –
PSPaudioware brings it all with the PSP InfiniStrip. Seriously, go try this software now. Purchase

)
includes a license for three locations. ($199 direct; pspaudioware.com)
-Garrett Haines <treelady.com>, Greg Gordon <gregordon.com>

ot
Klevgrand
Rum room simulator plug-in
Rum (pronounced “room”) is an interesting effect from Klevgrand, a Swedish developer that’s

(d
been cranking out innovative plug-ins for the last handful of years. Rum provides room
simulation for recorded audio or software instruments.
As stated on Klevgrand’s website, Rum is intended to provide different room reverbs, “As if
the audio source was recorded in stereo from the other side of the room, a common technique
for recording acoustic instruments in order to breathe life into a dry source.” Like most of us,

oo
I’ve been doing this for years with lots of different reverb plug-ins, albeit not one specifically
designed to simulate small and medium sized rooms.
Rum’s GUI is thoughtfully laid out from left to right, providing a Gain knob to drive signal
into the plug-in, Low Cut and High Cut input filter controls, a list of the room types, an omni

h
or cardioid selector, a three-mode Character switch, a Pre Delay adjustment knob, (tempo) Sync
with note selector, plus Ducker and Fatness controls, and three stereo Spread options.
ya
Independent Dry and Wet knobs finish it off for further tweakability.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s start with what’s unusual for a reverb plug-in, namely
having all of the different reverb types and models displayed in a list right in the GUI. Rum
offers Hallway, two Bedrooms, Office, Studios A & B, Kitchen, Staircase, Corridor, and Workshop.
It’s nice to have the different reverb types at one’s fingertips, instead of in a categorized
t)

dropdown list. It makes comparing easy, especially between subtle effects like small room
reverbs that are only blended in 20 to 50 percent with the dry signal. Finding the right room
vibe for a sound is quick and painless with Rum. Once you discover a reverb type that works,
Rum offers lots of options for tweaking. One feature I didn’t know I needed is Rum’s Ducker,
(a

which prevents the hottest transients of the signal from affecting the reverb in an unnatural
way. Using the Ducker can result in a much smoother reverb sound, which might be helpful for
particular sources. The Character knob is also pretty interesting – I wasn’t sure what to do with
it at first, as the changes aren’t immediately better or worse in isolation. But once I started
switching between Characters in the context of my mix, it was plainly obvious which mode sat
the best with everything else that was going on. In fact, that’s the case with a lot of Rum’s
si

features; they don’t sound particularly useful until using them in context, and then it’s blaringly
obvious why they’re available.
In use, I found Rum to be the most helpful in scenarios where I wanted my source to be more
os

“live” sounding and not quite as one-dimensional. Examples include snare drum, electric guitars,
vocals, and other in the box sounds like synths and plug-in instruments. For example, at the time
of this review, I was mixing a song where an electric guitar and mandolin play the hook, but it
wasn’t quite effective enough, so we added some canned acoustic instruments playing the same
ir

part in several layers. These sounded rather bland as one would expect, but with Rum I was able
to add a bit of space to open up the virtual acoustic instrument tracks a bit and convince the
ear that they weren’t necessarily fake. The Hallway room setting is pretty magical in that, to my
ear, it sounds like what my brain thinks of when I want “more space.” In a similar manner, the
tt

more reflective Workshop room setting provides slap. Rum can also be a bit of a lifesaver when we’re
short on time or gear, and not looking to set up additional room mics. Rum is definitely worth checking
out if you find yourself in the aforementioned situations – at a price that won’t break the bank!
pe

($39.99 direct; klevgrand.com) -Dave Hidek <thechurchrecordingstudio.com>

60/Tape Op#148/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 62)

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 BABY Audio
TAIP tape emulation plug-in
BABY Audio’s TAIP is a unique plug-in. Lately, we’ve been
exposed to some fantastic tape machine plug-in emulations,
but TAIP takes it one step further by offering an AI-powered
emulation that is incredibly intuitive, musical, and inspiring
– perfect for sound designers, mixers, producers, and anyone
wanting easy access to the fun side of working with tape.
Let’s start with how BABY Audio designed TAIP – after all,
the words “AI” are right in the name. They tout an AI
algorithm that is (according to their website) “Designed to
decipher the invisible nuances of analog circuits.” They say
that they feed their algorithm various training data relative
to unprocessed audio. The AI learns the differences, which
can then be applied to new audio as simulated tape sound.
It makes sense to me, but how does it sound? Well, the first
thing you’ll notice is that there are no GP9 or Ampex 456
modes to select because the point of TAIP isn’t to recreate a
specific tape characteristic, formula, or machine; others have
already done that to various degrees. Instead, TAIP takes the
way that tape reacts when you hit it at various levels, then
provides that to the user via a large Drive dial,
complemented with various tone-shaping parameters. So,
it’s less about recreating the Police’s Synchronicity or Steely
Dan’s Aja, and more about the creative process of using the
unique qualities of tape, quickly and intuitively, to take your
sounds to another level.
In use, TAIP is a lot of fun. BABY Audio has nailed the
explosive qualities of hitting tape hard and overdriving it
into oblivion. For starters, you can drive your signal to get
the desired amount of saturation or back it off for a cleaner
tone. TAIP features auto gain to keep your level under
control, or you can disable it to live dangerously. You can
also crank up the output and hit TAIP’s brickwall limiter for
something more bombastic. At the bottom of the GUI are
eight options to sculpt your signal: NOISE, WEAR, GLUE,
INPUT (level), MODEL, PRESENCE, HI-SHAPE, and LO-SHAPE.
Several of those are self-explanatory, but it’s important to
note that INPUT toggles between NORMAL and HOT modes;
MODEL offers a SINGLE tape mode and a DUAL mode that
runs your signal through a model of a duplicate tape deck for
twice as much vibe. HI-SHAPE and LO-SHAPE adjust the bias
of the drive to preserve portions of your signal or to attack
them harder. Finally, a wet-dry slider becomes a tape flange
control when you move the WEAR slider (which introduces
wow and flutter). It should also be noted that the GLUE
slider offers some super punchy compression even at fairly
conservative input levels, should that be all you require. In
all, it’s a pretty ingenious and straightforward set of controls
si
that allows you to cannonball quickly into the deep end of
tape saturation.
The most attractive of TAIP’s features is its price. On the
surface, it may appear to be a one-trick pony of sorts, but
os
TAIP offers versatility beyond its $69 price point, which is
well worth the price of admission for this robust take on a
classic phenomenon. ($69 direct; babyaud.io)
-Dave Hidek <thechurchrecordingstudio.com>
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62/Tape Op#148/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 64)
Focal
Sub One active subwoofer
It may be a rhetorical question, but when did it become
necessary to integrate a subwoofer into our monitoring setups?
I can remember a time in the early 2000s when subs seemed
more of an inconvenient “option,” one that seemingly
interfered with session efficiency instead of offering a helpful
look at frequencies that I often ignored – what a silly engineer
I was! Early in my audio career, I naively decided it was better
to avoid what I couldn’t hear than to deal with it. Aren’t two
speakers difficult enough? In the busy studio where I was
working, the same subwoofer sounded different on almost
every session. Maybe the last engineer turned it up too loud or
threw it out of phase? Perhaps it was never configured correctly
in the first place? The answer was that frequencies below 80
Hz simply confused my dumb ears, and the subwoofer was
definitely not configured correctly – for me, anyway.
The question “to sub or not to sub?” is no longer a question
– it’s definitely “to sub.” Consumer playback systems (not
counting your phone) have improved low end response these
days, plus surround and Dolby Atmos configurations require a
subwoofer. So, unless you plan on living under a rock for the
rest of your life, you’re going to have to deal with the low
end. On the plus side, subwoofers take care of your bottom’s
bottom end and let your loudspeakers do what they do best:
project the high and mid-bass frequencies. What I (stupidly)
used to consider a luxury item is now a necessity, and up until
recently I would argue that there hasn’t been much of a
middle class in low end support.
Enter the Sub One all analog (no DSP) active subwoofer,
designed to accompany (but not restricted to) Focal’s
affordable Alpha Evo [Tape Op #145] and mid-priced Shape
[#126] monitor lines. Equipped with two side-firing eight-
h
inch double-skinned slatefiber (more on this later) cone
ya
drivers, and powered by a pair of low distortion 100 watt
Class D amplifiers, the Sub One offers a big, pro studio sound
at a small studio price. Of course, price is always relative to
what you have left in your wallet at the end of the month.
However, once you’ve struggled with an entry-level
subwoofer, saying “goodbye” to your hard-earned cash will
t)
hurt a little less when you feel the difference in playback and
experience the confidence of mixing with accurate low end. I
frequently use the word “feel” rather than words like “hear”
or “sound” when describing a subwoofer – I don’t want to
(a
really hear it – or even see it, for that matter – I don’t even
want to know it’s there.
Though the Sub One can’t be described as small (19x12x20-
inches), its dual front port design and built-in rubber feet
allow for sneaky placement right up against the wall or under
a desk, which is where I put it in my project studio. Controls
and connections are located on the rear of the sub. Options
for integration include XLR input and output ports for LFE
(low-frequency effects) setup within a surround (or Atmos)
matrix or as a sub-bass in a 2.1 configuration. I opted for the
latter, taking advantage of the Sub One’s built-in adjustable
low-pass crossover to set the sub response and switchable (60
or 90 Hz) high-pass crossover for the mains. Additional
controls include adjustments for level and phase, plus a
polarity switch. An input for a bypass footswitch and output
for linking to additional subwoofers are also provided. I
appreciated the simple Enable/Disable Auto Stand-by switch.
True to the Sub One’s aesthetic of disappearing into the
shadows, the only power indication is a small, dimly lit LED
near the top rear of the unit. Power switch and an IEC power
connection are also located on the back.
Over the course of an hour, I adjusted crossovers and phase
by ear, then ran some pink noise through my system to
calibrate the loudspeaker level with my trusty old RadioShack
Sound Level Meter to about 6 dB hotter against the Sub One.
I continued to tweak to taste, then recalibrate for a few more
days. Reaching behind a heavy subwoofer under a desk against
a wall is never fun, but it is a reality – and once you get things
set, you don’t want to bump any controls. Though not directly
related to this review, lately, I’ve been using a Wobsion LED
Lighted Travel Makeup Mirror ($9.99; amazon.com) for poking
around behind monitors and racks.
The Sub One’s frequency response is rated at 32 to 120 Hz.
In use, the subwoofer’s low end extension felt smooth,
natural, and expensive. I did my testing with Focal’s Alpha 65
monitors [Tape Op #104] as mains. The newer Evo class
professional Focal monitors, including the just-introduced
)
Alpha Twin Evo and the Sub One, employ slatefiber woofer
cones with an aforementioned Class D amplifier. Focal’s
ot
slatefiber cone technology is a composite of recycled non-
woven carbon fibers and thermoplastic polymer, which offers
high rigidity, resulting in increased accurate bass response.
(d
The thermoplastic polymer bonds the fibers, which also
improves damping. Because carbon fibers are very light in
mass, the resulting speaker driver’s sensitivity is also
optimized. So, what does all this have to do with a
subwoofer? Definition. At no time did I feel like playback was
ooze-y or subwoofer-y. It was just good, fully integrated,
oo
solid low end.
I could go on about how well my mixes were referencing and
how happy my clients were, etc., but instead, I want to talk
about my confidence level and efficiency. We all go through
our mix struggle phases. One month all my electric guitars
sounded weird. For a few weeks, I might be boosting too much
high end. Why did every song I mix this summer have the
overheads up too loud? Kick and bass guitar are struggles I go
through on every mix, which is why I was excited to get the
Sub One into my space. By providing a natural separation
between the presence and “boom” of a low end source, my
choices became immediately obvious with the Sub One in
place. I spent some time reviewing recent mixes that I wasn’t
happy with, and in most cases, they were improved with
simple adjustments – now that I could feel the low end energy
moving in my room correctly. Surprisingly, I could often hear
where I was over-compressing at problematic frequencies and
where release times were completely wrong! When your sonic
world opens up (even just a little), a wash of voices screaming,
“What were you thinking” rains down on your head while you
gape open-mouthed at your previously poor and sonically
underinformed decisions. The shortcomings of your playback
system are always in the back of your mind, whether you’re
consciously aware of them or not. You make adjustments and
decisions based on those shortcomings. With no reliable low
end below about 80 Hz, I’ve been hedging my bets for the last
two years. With the Focal Sub One upgrade to my playback
system, I’m now confidently reaching for better sounds.
($999 MSRP; focal.com) -SM
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them you saw their ad in Tape Op.
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/63

 Ingram Engineering
EQ52 500 Series EQ
Calling the EQ52 from Ingram Engineering a plain old “EQ” is like calling a
rocketship a paper airplane – not correct. You can’t just insert this module into
your 500 Series rack, twiddle a few knobs, call yourself a genius, and go home
early on your first try. This EQ is one of those pieces of gear that’s not like any
other piece of gear. You’ll need to read the instructions, then maybe reread them
before you start goofing around with the Ingram EQ52, which is a high-pass/low-
pass/see-saw filter. I’ll wait a moment for you to collect your thoughts.
Before we go any further, it should be understood that this EQ is a tone shaper,
not a tone maker – no transformers. Though it’s certainly musical and boosts are
pleasing to the ear at modest amounts, it’s more corrective than colorful. The
EQ52 is differential throughout input and output stages, with a high current active
output buffer with constant gain for balanced or unbalanced operation.
If you’re still trying to visualize what a see-saw filter actually is, I’ll provide my
interpretation. First, we start with a pivot frequency (effectively 120 Hz to 26 kHz
on this EQ). The selected pivot point is the center frequency upon which the see-
saw filter balances. The see-saw simultaneously boosts one frequency band while

)
at the same time cutting another. Clockwise boosts highs and cuts lows, and
counterclockwise swings the other way – boosting lows and cutting highs.

ot
But we’re jumping ahead. At the top of the faceplate is a necessary hardwire
OM7 MIC
C bypass EQ IN button. A/B’ing your moves on the EQ52 is essential, and though
taking notes about the choices you make will be helpful in the beginning,

(d
Bring vocals forward in
n eventually you’ll get the swing of it, and the EQ52 will feel right at home under
your fingers. The Low Cut button provides unusually smooth high-pass filtering
the mix with the OM7 andd
from 50 Hz to 5 kHz. This filter sounds so natural that I found myself regularly
minimize bleed from other
m patching the EQ52 in for that purpose alone – they feel like the best high-pass
onstage instruments. The e filters in my rack right now! Next down is the see-saw/pivot section, with ranges
from 120 Hz to 26 kHz. The simultaneous boost/cut really swings fast! You can
O
OM7’s tight, hyper cardioid
d

oo
easily push 8 dB on an EQ swing, so be sure to watch your gain-staging and make
pattern provides isolation
n sure you’re going into the EQ52 at 0 dB or less. I initially found that subtlety is the
and a crystal-clear soundd way to go with the see-saw filter, but there have been instances (when correcting
bad recordings) that some extreme pushes/pulls have proven immensely useful. I’d

h
when
h usingi IEM
IEMss.
been yanking my hair out recently trying to smooth out a shrill-sounding electric
ya
guitar track, and spent a few hours with some trick plug-ins to make the sound
palatable. But with the EQ52, I dialed in a pivot point at about 3 kHz, set the high-
A10 EARPHONES
S pass to about 100 Hz, then pushed the lows / pulled the highs on the see-saw at
1.5 dB, and – boom! In less than two minutes, I had a tone that worked! For
The A10 Earphones are
electric bass, I simply set my high cut, boosted the see-saw lows / pulled the highs
engineered to deliver a few dBs, then swept for an ideal frequency pivot… which took the bass tone from
t)

studio quality performance
for live sound monitoring g
with linear bass, articulate
(a
Jaco to Jamerson nearly instantly. I think I’m getting the hang of this thing! Pivot
at 8 kHz on the drum bus please. Can the EQ52 help with the proximity build-up
of a large diaphragm condenser on an acoustic guitar? With a few knob twists! The
corrective (and enhancing) applications are pretty much endless with this EQ. Did

midrange and smooth h I mention smoothing out the 2-bus on a mix?

You’re getting where I’m going with this, I think? One: It’s not as hard to use
highss. the EQ52 as it looks. Two: I will be reaching for the EQ52 before I instantiate a
corrective plug-in to fix problematic timbres, bad mic’ing techniques, or just plain
shitty sounds. Some other things to note: The EQ52 is quiet as hell with tons of
si

headroom. It’s also ideal for sidechaining with a compressor.

Though the EQ52 works well in stereo applications (mixing or mastering),
there is no way to link filter controls between two units. A step-by-step
matching procedure accompanies the Owner’s Manual. It’s entirely likely that
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you’ve never heard of the EQ52. Still, if you’re looking for unique tools to
improve results for your clients, you’ll probably need to have at least one of
these analog magic fixer/enhancer modules in your 500 Series rack immediately.
($375 MSRP; ingramengineering.net) -SM
ir

tapeop.com
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Bonus & archived

reviews online!
Learn more at audixusa.com
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64/Tape Op#148/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 66)

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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/65

 Gear Geeking w/ Andy…
The YouTube collaboration between Acoustics Insider
<acousticsinsider.com> and HEDD Audio <hedd.audio> has
me sincerely excited. I’ve been a subscriber to Jesco Lohan’s
YouTube channel <youtube.com/c/AcousticsInsider> for
several years, and during that time, Jesco has published
several dozen videos explaining acoustic principles that
actually matter when it comes to setting up and working in
home and project studios. Yes, there are countless other
channels that have a similar focus, but I find that Jesco
consistently offers advice that’s practical, affordable, and
easy to implement — without falling into endless rabbit
holes or recommending solutions that require too much
money or time. For example, if you’re setting up a single-
room home studio for mixing and recording, prioritize the
mix environment first because that’s the greater hurdle,
then add any treatment necessary for mic’ing vocals or
instruments. Or, if you’re experiencing mix translation
issues, adding a second set of speakers of the same type
(e.g., nearfield) is usually the least effective way to gain
more insight into your mixes; instead try a mono single-
driver speaker placed in a different location from your main
speakers, or use high-quality headphones for secondary
monitoring. Moreover, listen to your mixes elsewhere (home
hi-fi, car, etc.) and decide what needs fixing before you
return to your studio to implement those fixes, so that you
are employing your studio effectively as a tool, not as the
end-all for determining mix balances. And, when you’re
aligning your speakers for a strong phantom center, use
your ears with mono pink-noise playback in lieu of
measurements, because any small asymmetries in the room
will cause disparities in the speaker-room response. The
ultimate judge of those imbalances should be your ears —
not graphs that rely on numbers rather than your actual
perception. Much of Jesco’s advice boils down to finding the
best listening position first, then the right speaker position,
then treating the room with acoustic materials
appropriately. Why? Because your position in relation to the
geometry of the room has the greatest effect on bass
response due to standing waves. Meanwhile, low-frequency
problems are the most difficult to treat, while reflections of
midrange and high frequencies are much easier to control.
In fact, if you sign up for the Acoustics Insider mailing list,
you can download a single-page PDF that walks you
through Jesco’s “Bass Hunter” process of determining the
optimal listening position, regardless of room geometry. It’s
something many of us have already completed, perhaps
with a bunch of test gear and test tones, but Jesco explains
how to do it with just your ears, a single speaker, and your
favorite music. Again, practical and easy to implement by
anyone. And what about his collaboration with HEDD? Let
me first state that I absolutely love my HEDD Type 30
monitors [Tape Op #118] as well as my HEDDphone
headphones, so I’m admittedly biased. With that disclaimer
si
out of the way — the partnership has so far presented
topics that are arguably more esoteric than Jesco typically
covers, but are still related to acoustic principles that can
have a dramatic effect on what we hear. For example, ported
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speaker cabinets are resonators by design, and therefore
contribute to bass ringing; but closed speaker designs
require more power. There are advantages and tradeoffs to
both methodologies in terms of frequency response and
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decay time, and HEDD MK2 speakers can be operated in
ported or unported modes. Also, all MK2 models offer
integrated phase-compensation. Standard speakers will
emit higher frequencies before lower frequencies, resulting
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in time-domain smearing. Using DSP, HEDD Lineariser re-
aligns those frequencies and flattens the phase response
from 80 Hz upward, which allows us to hear greater detail.
As always, Jesco explains the science and engineering
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behind these matters in a very approachable way. –AH
66/Tape Op#148/Gear Reviews/(Fin.)
Sennheiser
HD 400 PRO headphones
Sennheiser, a German business run today by the founder’s
grandsons, took a new direction last year. A longtime player
in consumer and professional headphones, microphones,
and other technologies (in addition to owning Neumann
since 1991), Sennheiser spun off its consumer electronics
division to Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Sonova. With
their focus completely on the “PRO” audio marketplace, the
HD 400 PRO open-back headphones are well suited for
recording and mixing engineers.
As such, the company describes the HD 400 PRO as “A
professional’s tool with neutral sound reproduction.”
Features include angled transducers (designed to hold
together at high SPLs), lightweight construction “for all-
day usage,” velour earpads, and a choice of either coiled
or straight cables. (Note: driving headphones to SPLs that
cause well-designed drivers to break up audibly and
distort WILL damage your hearing, so don’t do it!) In
short, these ‘phones are designed for people who do much
or most of their recording and mixing on headphones –
an ever-growing market. The HD 400 PRO’s affordable
price puts them in reach for home recordists and
professionals just starting out. Note to recordists: Open-
back headphones cranked loud enough will bleed into
microphones. Also, they aren’t always practical for
recording a loud sound source you are near, or recording
in an ensemble of loud instruments. For these jobs,
choose closed-back headphones.
Sound-wise, Sennheiser variously describes the HD 400
PRO as, “honest across the board, especially when it comes
to the lower end of the spectrum,” “what goes in is what
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comes out,” and as “reproducing analytical audio.” This
should make them an excellent open-back complement to
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the company’s Neumann NDH 20 closed-backs, which I
reviewed in Tape Op #132. So, the first thing I did was
listen back and forth between the two models, using my
Grace m900 headphone amp (which I reviewed in #124). I
spent hours with each, listening to a variety of music
streaming on Qobuz, editing my recent tape transfers, and
t)
putting together a CD compilation mixtape for an
upcoming road trip.
Before I describe the sound of the HD 400 PRO and how
it compared to the Neumann NDH 20, I need to say that
(a
everyone hears headphones differently, due to our unique
hearing curves, head size, and shape – and, in the case of
fellow middle-aged audio pros, how damaged our high-
frequency perception is at this stage of life. So, net-to-net,
all I can tell you is what I heard; your results may vary.
The HD 400 PRO sound is lively, especially in the
midrange. Not in a bad or hyped way, but rather in a way
that is helpful for mixing a stereo sound field. It’s not
“screamy” – like vintage Altec studio monitors – but it
definitely has a strong emphasis on the focus frequencies
for mixing. In contrast, the Neumann ‘phones are darker
and more laid back. The Neumann’s impedance is 150
ohms, compared to 120 ohms for the Sennheiser’s, so the
output volume needs to be slightly higher to drive the
Neumanns. The Grace m900 headphone amp used in my
testing has plenty of current to drive the impedances of
both headphones, so I don’t consider the amp to be a
factor in the comparison.
The Neumanns sound more like close-proximity
monitor speakers (and reserved ones at that), whereas
the HD 400 PROs definitely sound like headphones,
with the stereophony somewhat spread out and “in the
skull.” With this in mind, I’d always check my mixes on
trusted full-range speakers at comfortable listening levels.
Be careful not to overdo the low end or underdo the upper
midrange with these ‘phones. Do a few mixes, and your ears
will adjust the differences. Dear Reality, a subsidiary of
Sennheiser, has recently released a software plug-in called
dearVR MIX (review upcoming), which simulates the sound
of various rooms and speaker setups and works with other
headphones beyond the HD 400 PRO.
For a final comparison, I hauled out my favorite
headphones, the Sennheiser HD 650 [Tape Op #43]. I know
these headphones back and forth and understand how they
differ from my various monitor speakers. Like the HD 400
PRO, the HD 650 puts the sound more “in your head” than
speakers in a room. But, the HD 650 has less of that upper
midrange shine and heavier low end response – more akin
to how full-range speakers sound if they can accurately and
quickly resolve bass information.
)
It’s important to know both the Sennheiser HD 650 and
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the Neumann NDH 20 cost twice as much as the HD 400
PRO. I wouldn’t say they’re both twice as good, but both
are more honest about how the low end will sound with
full-range speakers. I think the HD 400 PRO would be more
(d
useful than the Neumanns for constructing a complex mix
because they define the stereo field more sharply, allowing
precise placement of sounds. But, as I said earlier, check
the mix on good speakers in a known room.
As far as physical comfort, the HD 400 PRO are the
lightest weight of the three, and the fit and feel of the
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earpads are similar to the more expensive HD 650s.
That’s a solid “thumbs up” if you’re wearing headphones
for long periods. As for the choice of coiled or straight-
wire cables, the coiled cable has an annoying resonance
that makes any rubbing or scraping very audible in the
left ear, from the top of the cable through the first few
coils. From there to the connector, no resonance. The
straight cable doesn’t have that resonance below the
first few inches from the ear, meaning it won’t distract
as it rubs against your shirt. Both cables connect to the
left earcup with a somewhat finicky, but secure, twist-
lock mechanism.
Because everyone’s hearing ability and head shape are
different, headphone preferences are about the most
personal thing in pro audio. If you’re seeking a comfortable
headphone good at reproducing location-cue information
without sounding harsh or overhyped, the Sennheiser HD
400 PRO is worth an audition. ($249 MSRP; sennheiser.com)
-Tom Fine <tom.fine@gmail.com>
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/67

 Tape Op is Made
Possible by our
advertisers.
PUT YOUR AD
ON THIS PAGE: New Artist in Residence Program
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68/Tape Op#148/Please Support Our Advertisers/

 Tape Op Magazine is proud to partner with our
friends at GIK Acoustics to bring you six curated
issue covers as 242 Acoustic Art Panels.

These 24” x 36” x 3.625” broadband absorption

panels offer clean edges and hang flush against
the wall like a picture frame. Made from 100%
recycled materials, they offer a handsome choice
for treating early reflection points, flutter

)
echo, or general decay.

Available now @ gikacoustics.com

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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#148/69

 Rob Christensen, a Big Star to Me
by Larry Crane

When I founded Tape Op twenty-six years ago, I had no concept of the ways
in which this magazine would change my life. Professionally, it’s been amazing
to visit studios and recordists all over the world, as well as to have meaningful
conversations that I get to share with our readers. It’s also been a perfect
adjunct to a career as a recordist and studio owner; allowing me to have two
streams of income that stabilize each other at times. But, personally, the
biggest impact on my life has been the friendships
that have blossomed out of this magazine. Many of the people that
reached out in the first few years of Tape Op are still in my life, and though
they may not be as directly involved in the magazine these days, they still
remain good friends, like Steve Silverstein, Hillary Johnson, Laura Thurmond,
Andy Hong, and others. One such person was Rob Christensen, who sadly
passed away in early January 2022 after dealing with leukemia for the previous
two years.

)
Rob and I became pals after he stumbled across Tape Op at Peoples Records

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in Arcata, California, where he was living at the time. He contacted me, mailing
a cassette copy of his first album, Smile Slightly, my way. I remember lying in
bed late one night listening intently to his home-recorded songs, and thinking,
“This is pretty darn good.” I later dropped him a line with some helpful

(d
recording ideas for the future. He visited Portland a few times, and even lived
here for a while.
We had both started out recording in order to simply capture our own
music. As I began moving into the professional recordist and studio owner
realm, Rob was content to slowly learn more about recording, while making a

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few carefully considered gear purchases and focusing mainly on his songcraft.
Our conversations about his journey always helped me consider the interests
of a large portion of our readership. There are so many people out there, with

h
just enough gear to get it done, just like Rob.
In 1997, for Tape Op #8, Rob became the author/instigator of the “Cassette
ya
Corner” column, where he “jumped at the chance to hear what my taping peers
are doing” by working up some informative reviews and interviews. In issue
#16, as releases started showing up on CD-R, we renamed his column “Under
The Radar,” and, after many years of contributing, Rob eventually passed the
column-writing duties over to Matt Mair Lowery in 2001. Rob continued to be
t)

involved, even performing and moderating panels at TapeOpCon, and we were

always in touch. He’d frequently have observations about Tape Op that helped
me consider our focus and content in new ways.
(a

Previous to the pandemic, Rob and I would meet up in Nashville where he’d
help us run the Tape Op booth at the Summer NAMM Show, or attend the
Welcome to 1979 Recording Summit. It was always great to reconnect, talk
about music and instruments, and hit up all the parties around town in the
evenings. I was looking forward to seeing him in 2020, but everything
si

changed in the outside world, and then Rob received his damned cancer
diagnosis.
Rob’s fifth album, Ghosts (under the name Saturday’s Radio), came out in
2017. It has some great songs, and I almost ended up mixing it, but eventually
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Rob decided to wrap it up on his own, doing a fine job. Please check out his
music at the website below, and think some good thoughts for a friend of ours
who is no longer with us.
ir

Music and Tape Op have both led me to so many friendships, and it was an
honor to spend time and have adventures with my pal Rob Christensen for
several decades. He will be missed. r
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<saturdaysradio.com>
Thanks to Lamar Sorrento for the awesome art <lamarsorrento.com> and to Mark
Rubel for instigating this painting, Matt Boudreau for helping out, and Matt Ross-
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Spang for picking up the art and taking photos.

70/Tape Op#148/End Rant/

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