Product Reviews
Revive Audio ART VLA Custom Modification – A Real-World Review
Rob Tavaglione tried out Revive Audio’s mail-in modification service on an ART Pro VLA compressor and was impressed with the results, noting, “In many...
Rob is a journalist, producer/engineer, musician and songwriter who started with Pro Audio Review magazine in 2007, moved with PAR to Pro Sound News in 2015 and in turn moved to Mix with PSN. Rob opened Catalyst Recording in 1993, focusing on mobile recording, winning two Emmy’s along the way towards becoming an audio Jack-of-all-trades; mixing FOH and monitors, broadcast TV A1 and A2, mixing live sporting events, mixing theatre, chief engineer at the nation's top (Fortune 500) karaoke production studio, recording/mixing radio commercials, scoring film, mastering, teaching college-level audio courses, producing audio books and mixing streams/podcasts. Today Rob mostly records/produces/remixes musical artists across the spectrum and does lots of web-based mixing and mastering (Mac, smart-plugs and analog-summing, fwiw).
Product Reviews
Maat thEQblue 12 – A Real-World Review
Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione puts the Maat thEQblue 12 parametric stereo equalizer plug-in to the test and declares it may be the best of its...
Product Reviews
Austrian Audio OC818 Microphone – A Real-World Review
Reviewer Rob Tavaglione finds Austrian Audio has put out a new microphone that combines the best of the old with a healthy dose of...
Product Reviews
Audio-Technica ATH-M Series Headphone Ear Pads – A Real-World Review
Several options are available for replacing the ear pads on Audio-Technica's ATH-M50x professional monitor headphones.
Product Reviews
Newfangled Audio Elevate Bundle – A Real-World Review
Rob Tavaglione evaluates the Elevate Bundle, a package that consists of the component pieces of the Elevate Mastering Limiter (Punctuate, Saturate and Equivocate) as...
Product Reviews
AKG K275 and K371 Headphones – A Real-World Review
Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione puts his favorite AKG headphones aside to put the company’s new K275 and K371 Headphones to the test inside his recording...
Product Reviews
Cranborne Audio Camden 500 Mic Amp – A Real-World Review
"Once I read their claims...my curiosity was piqued." Rob Tavaglione checks out the Cranborne Audio Camden 500 Mic Amp and calls it "a game-changer."
Product Reviews
KRK Audio Tools App – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione tries out KRK’s new smartphone app for setting up any studio monitors, including the company’s new G4 ROKITs.
Product Reviews
sE Electronics V Pack Arena Drum Mic Kit – A Real-World Review
The sE Electronics V Pack Arena Drum Mic Kit delivers a punchy, mids-heavy rock sound that would be great with really loud bands.
Product Reviews
Vanguard Audio Labs V1S+LOLLI Mic System – A Real-World Review
Vanguard Labs’ V1S+LOLLI studio microphone kit offers a full palette of mic options that are readily available and easy to implement.
Product Reviews
KRK ROKIT8 G4 Monitors – A Real-World Review
What do you do for an encore if you’ve already got the best-selling line of monitors in the world? Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione puts KRK's...
Product Reviews
Aston Stealth Microphone – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione puts Aston Microphones' latest model through the paces and finds the Stealth is ready to make its presence...
Product Reviews
Focal Trio11 Be Monitors – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. Never a fan of Focal’s SM9 studio monitors, longtime PSN reviewer producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione puts the company’s new Trio11 Be monitors...
Product Reviews
KEF LSX Monitors – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. New LSX monitors from KEF aim squarely at the intersection between pro and consumer and satisfies both camps with app-driven operation,...
Product Reviews
Wilkinson Audio DeBleeder – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. This plug-in intelligently suppresses drum bleed and leakage from close mics while retaining the drum's natural decay. It requires a bit...
Product Reviews
Revive Audio Vintage Audio MSL-Mk2 Compressor – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. The MSL really is very good at mix compression, where it does punchy, clean and powerful work without any muss or...
Product Reviews
RME Babyface Pro Interface – A Real-World Review
Rob Tavaglione takes a look at the pro-level performance of RME's 24-channel, 192 kHz bus-powered USB audio interface.
Product Reviews
AudioSourceRE’s DeMIX Pro – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. AudioSourceRE is up to some seriously revolutionary stuff, especially considering that this is nascent technology.
Product Reviews
UK Sound 1173 Mic Pre Compressor – A Real-World Review
By Rob Tavaglione. The 1173 brings the best of both worlds into a single unit, offering a Neve-style 1073 preamp and Universal Audio 1176...
Product Reviews
Roswell Colares Condenser Mic – A Real-World Review
Two mics in one, the Roswell Colares can lay on attitude and grit to spare, whether capturing vocals or guitars, but the flip of...
Product Reviews
Auralex Mudguard v2 Microphone Isolation Shield – A Real-World Review
Rob Tavaglione set out to test three factors: Can these shields reduce noisy DAWs effectively? Which shield produces the best vocal sound? And which...
Product Reviews
Sonarworks Reference 4 Monitoring Correction Software – A Real-World Review
Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione reviewed Sonarworks' Reference 3 in 2016; does the new edition measure up?
Product Reviews
Beyerdynamic FOX USB Microphone – A Real-World Review
The Beyerdynamic FOX USB studio microphone captures solo speakers and performers well, but loud groups, not so much.
Product Reviews
Ehrlund EHR-M Condenser Microphone Review
If you’re looking for a studio microphone that is the opposite of your typical passive ribbon mic, the Ehrlund EHR-M might be your secret...
Blog
Hurricanes, Studios and Preparing for the Worst
Producer/engineer and regular PSN contributor Rob Tavaglione takes stock of what he got right—and wrong—when Hurricane Florence hit his North Carolina studio in September,...
Product Reviews
Review: Flares Pro Earphones
Rob Tavaglione believes there is some audiophile gear that can excel in our professional world, including these earphones.
Product Reviews
Review: Sterling MX5 and MX8 Studio Monitors
By Rob Tavaglione. Sterling Audio, a division of Guitar Center, has brought its MX line to market, which includes models with 3”, 5” and...
Product Reviews
Review: Krotos Reformer, Reformer Pro, Dehumaniser II and Dehumaniser Simple Monsters
By Rob Tavaglione. Krotos’ Reformer and Dehumaniser lines offer a new approach to sound design.
Product Reviews
Review: Eve Audio SC207 Nearfield Monitors
By Rob Tavaglione. I’m quite familiar with the unique response of ribbon tweeters, especially from my previous reviews of ADAM Audio monitors—Eve’s founder was...
Product Reviews
Review: Soundtheory Gullfoss Intelligent EQ
By Rob Tavaglione. Gullfoss is not truly AI, just quite intelligent; it requires your experience to gauge severity, appropriateness and artistry.
Product Reviews
Review: Neumann KH80 DSP Monitors
By Rob Tavaglione. At right around $1K per pair at retail, these KH80 DSPs are hardly the most affordable of the micro-monitors out there...
Product Reviews
Review: Audio-Technica AT5047 Condenser Microphone
Producer/engineer Rob Tavaglione put Audio-Technica's AT5047 to the test on a variety of sources. And the verdict was...?
Blog
Gullfoss EQ inventor Andreas Tell Tells All
By Rob Tavaglione. The man behind the Soundtheory Gullfoss intelligent EQ discusses development, psycho-acoustic perception and more.
Product Reviews
Review: PreSonus Eris E66 Powered Studio Monitors
By Rob Tavaglione. What do PreSonus' Eris E66 studio monitors bring to the table in the crowded 'under $1,000' marketplace? We find out.
Blog
How to Beat the Five Trickiest Aspects of Recording the Naked Voice
By Rob Tavaglione. Recording a naked speaking voice is tough. Here's five problems you'll encounter and need to solve to meet ever-increasing marketplace standards.
Studio Sense
Five Tracking Solutions (in order of importance)
If an ounce of prevention is preferred over a pound of cure, then it begs the question, “How do we prevent tracking sessions from...
Music Production
Ambisonics, VR and New Audio Frontiers
By Rob Tavaglione. The acronyms with the most buzz this year must be VR and AR: virtual reality and augmented reality, respectively. They brought...
Music Production
Studio Showcase: Deep River Sound Studio
SANFORD, NC—There are sometimes pivotal events in life that define our destiny, even if it takes decades to get to our destination.
Studio Sense
Bizarro World
No matter your political persuasion, you must admit that the recent election cycle has been crazy and has taken some sort of toll...
Studio Sense
Scam Alert!
If you’re a small pro audio-oriented business owner—studio owner, audio engineer, live sound provider, all of the above—you’ve surely warded off attempted scams, phishing,...
Studio Sense
Dear American High School Student
Audio engineering does provide some challenging and lucrative opportunity, but frankly those positions are under heavy competition. With today’s audio educators doing a fantastic...
2016
New Tools for Sound-for-Picture
“Sound-for-picture” has traditionally meant audio-for-film, television and video; think of all our usual needs and considerations in pursuit of sonic quality now merged with...