While other studios might only use "modeled emulators" for their "plugins" - I've often preferred instead to use the real deal, whether tube, transformer or tape, whenever the coloration of these has been desired. While it's super rare that I do layback to tape, for this album of contemporary afrobeat I did last week, where the client name checked the likes of Fela Kuti, Antibalas, along with some albums I did for the likes of Budos Band, Sharon Jones, and St. Paul & The Broken Bones, as the vibe they were wanting for their digital mixes - recording their tracks first onto 1/4" 15ips 2-track analog reel via my Otari MX5050-B2 has been just the thing to bring out some sweet sounding grime, saturation & punch that works perfectly for their goals. Shout out to local South Austin tech Tim Allen for getting this machine purring recently. And for any out there looking for a similar funkification of their mixes, give me a holla.
Was excellent hanging out with fellow Texan mastering engineer, and all around mensch, Harold Larue for the start of this year's downsized SXSW. Started last night with a delish dinner at Ramen Tatsuya and then went next door to the iconic Saxon Pub, where we took in amazing sets by Cari Hutson & Good Company, and The Reverent Few. Followed the next morning with breakfast hosted Recording Academy at the Parkside, where I got to also meet & hangout with KUTX's awesome DJ Shani, who turned out (as one would expect given the high quality of her radio show) to be super friendly and super smart. Harold had to depart after that, but I took in Austin Chronicle's block party at the Hotel Vegas, where I caught sets by Égaux Sells and Free Hamze.
Check out
TSM's SXSW 2026 photo gallery for photos we will be posting from SXSW 2026.
We have updated this page to using the old school
Serendipity blogging software, so that we can make posts from pretty much anywhere now.
Here's a recent view of the studio, showing off on the desk to the right the also recently acquired
Antelope Amari mastering interface. The Amari ties truly excellent sounding 384kHz capable analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters from our desk to our M4 MacMini main DAW, as well as to our monitoring systems. Also seen on screen is
Ardour 9, the cross platform, open source DAW software we are using now for capture, editing, processing and assembly of our masters. With its recent update, allowing for better navigation and region (aka object) based fx, Ardour has added even more capabilities, on top of its already easy editing and huge plugin compatibilities. Onward & upward!