Opinions

The Sony MDR 7506 are not quite as good as the others on this page, but nothing else in that price range can touch them. I’ve mixed a lot of stuff with the Sony’s (live and in the studio) and they’ve always shown me what I need to hear. Another bonus of the Sony is that you can drive it with anything - if you’re looking at any others, make sure your headphone amp can drive them.

Take my money companies

“Oh, you have a new product? Ok, I bought it now tell me what it is and tell me why it’s going to make me happy this time.” These companies are above Top Tier and created a new class for themselves.

• Fractal Audio
• Townsend Labs (Not sure yet whether the UAD merger will take this down a notch)
• FabFilter

Top Tier Companies

If you’re thinking about one of these companies, there is only one question. Can you afford it. If yes - just buy it. Don’t waste time looking for alternatives. There aren’t any. (Unless you really can’t afford it and are willing to compromise a lot).

These are some of our favorite effects and processing tools.

Reverbs

• Exposed solo vocal: UAD Capitol Chambers
• Ambience on everything: UAD Ocean Way Studios
• Lush Digital: Liquid Sonics Seventh Heaven

Delays

• Messy tape smear: UAD Tape Echo
• Everything else: FabFilter Timeless

Equalizers

• Subtle color: TDR Slick EQ
• Tube Vibe: UAD Pultecs
• Everything Else: FabFilter

Compressors

• In your face: UAD 1176’s
• Smooth and vibey: UAD LA2(a)’s
• Smooth and clean: UAD/Softube Tube Tech
• Bus: UAD SSL or API
• Drums: UAD Distressor or DBX

Meters

• Track: mvMeter2
• Loudness: iZotope insight
• Everything: Decibel

Cleaning

• Noise: iZotope RX

Mastering

• Surgical EQ: FabFilter set to Natural Phase
• Shaping EQ: TDR Slick M
• Vibe Compressor: Shadow Hills or SPL Iron
• Transparent compressor: TDR Kotelnikov
• Limiters: TDR Limiter, Ozone, or FabFilter
• Magic: Gulfoss or Soothe2

Opinions

The Sony MDR 7506 are not quite as good as the others on this page, but nothing else in that price range can touch them. I’ve mixed a lot of stuff with the Sony’s (live and in the studio) and they’ve always shown me what I need to hear. Another bonus of the Sony is that you can drive it with anything - if you’re looking at any others, make sure your headphone amp can drive them.

Take my money companies

“Oh, you have a new product? Ok, I bought it now tell me what it is and tell me why it’s going to make me happy this time.” These companies are above Top Tier and created a new class for themselves.

• Fractal Audio
• Townsend Labs (Not sure yet whether the UAD merger will take this down a notch)
• FabFilter

Top Tier Companies

If you’re thinking about one of these companies, there is only one question. Can you afford it. If yes - just buy it. Don’t waste time looking for alternatives. There aren’t any. (Unless you really can’t afford it and are willing to compromise a lot).

These are some of our favorite effects and processing tools.

Reverbs

• Exposed solo vocal: UAD Capitol Chambers
• Ambience on everything: UAD Ocean Way Studios
• Lush Digital: Liquid Sonics Seventh Heaven

Delays

• Messy tape smear: UAD Tape Echo
• Everything else: FabFilter Timeless

Equalizers

• Subtle color: TDR Slick EQ
• Tube Vibe: UAD Pultecs
• Everything Else: FabFilter

Compressors

• In your face: UAD 1176’s
• Smooth and vibey: UAD LA2(a)’s
• Smooth and clean: UAD/Softube Tube Tech
• Bus: UAD SSL or API
• Drums: UAD Distressor or DBX

Meters

• Track: mvMeter2
• Loudness: iZotope insight
• Everything: Decibel

Cleaning

• Noise: iZotope RX

Mastering

• Surgical EQ: FabFilter set to Natural Phase
• Shaping EQ: TDR Slick M
• Vibe Compressor: Shadow Hills or SPL Iron
• Transparent compressor: TDR Kotelnikov
• Limiters: TDR Limiter, Ozone, or FabFilter
• Magic: Gulfoss or Soothe2

Production is finished on the Root Cellar Sessions from 2018. Although the band was playing out publically as “The Invasive Species”, the album is being released under “John Grover” with “Invasive Species” as the album name. This keeps it grouped with earlier releases under “John Grover”.

Check out the Invasive Species album page

Production is finished on the Root Cellar Sessions from 2018. Although the band was playing out publically as “The Invasive Species”, the album is being released under “John Grover” with “Invasive Species” as the album name. This keeps it grouped with earlier releases under “John Grover”.

Check out the Invasive Species album page

[2022-07-12]

John Grover Announces New Album “Invasive Species” featuring Devin Sylva, Josh Greenbaum, and Berto Prieto

Haiku, HI - John Grover, who has been billed as writing “The most familiar music you’ve never heard”, has announced the release of his highly anticipated new album, “Invasive Species,” featuring Devin Sylva on guitar, Josh Greenbaum on drums and bass, and Berto Prieto on percussion. The album will be available on all major streaming platforms on July 12, 2022.

[2022-07-12]

John Grover Announces New Album “Invasive Species” featuring Devin Sylva, Josh Greenbaum, and Berto Prieto

Haiku, HI - John Grover, who has been billed as writing “The most familiar music you’ve never heard”, has announced the release of his highly anticipated new album, “Invasive Species,” featuring Devin Sylva on guitar, Josh Greenbaum on drums and bass, and Berto Prieto on percussion. The album will be available on all major streaming platforms on July 12, 2022.

[2022-07-12]

John Grover Announces New Album “Invasive Species” featuring Devin Sylva, Josh Greenbaum, and Berto Prieto

Haiku, HI - John Grover, who has been billed as writing “The most familiar music you’ve never heard”, has announced the release of his highly anticipated new album, “Invasive Species,” featuring Devin Sylva on guitar, Josh Greenbaum on drums and bass, and Berto Prieto on percussion. The album will be available on all major streaming platforms on July 12, 2022.

I finally got a chance to A/B the Neural DSP SLO against the AxeFX SLOs. They both sounded very good, and there was not that “one sounds like cardboard” thing that you usually hear when comparing two modelers (especially when one of them is Native’s Guitar Rig). However, there were some interesting differences. As before, I switched off the cabinet modeling in each one and used a third party (Melda) cabinet simulation so that neither had the advantage of a matched cab. Both shared the same dry input track. Both were level matched and the A/B test used Hofa’s blind comparison plugin so I didn’t know which was witch until after I commented on each one. That was hardly necessary though because I could always tell which was which from listening.

Connections

AES Out of AxeFX at 48khz into RME Converter ADAT Out of RME Converter at 96khz or native rate (clocked and switchable by Apollo) ADAT In to Apollo with sample rate already converted

ADAT Out of Apollo with switchable Clock into RME Converter AES Out of RME Converter into AxeFX at 48khz

Analog Output 1 stereo in to Apollo for monitoring

Tracking

Settings On AxeFX

Switch Input 1 to Analog Switch AES output to Input 1

Here are the results of some listening tests that I did on some popular UAD tube preamp emulation plugins. I was curious which preamps would sound better on each source, so I did some science and the result wasn’t quite what I expected.

Preamps on acoustic Guitar

In order of preference

• Avalon (Magic)
• V76 (Instant Neil Young vibe)
• Helios (Classic)
• Century
• 610-B
• Manley
• 610-A

Preamps for Vocals

• Manley (Polished)
• Avalon (Vibey)
• Helios
• Century
• 610-B
• V76
• 610-A

I finally got a chance to A/B the Neural DSP SLO against the AxeFX SLOs. They both sounded very good, and there was not that “one sounds like cardboard” thing that you usually hear when comparing two modelers (especially when one of them is Native’s Guitar Rig). However, there were some interesting differences. As before, I switched off the cabinet modeling in each one and used a third party (Melda) cabinet simulation so that neither had the advantage of a matched cab. Both shared the same dry input track. Both were level matched and the A/B test used Hofa’s blind comparison plugin so I didn’t know which was witch until after I commented on each one. That was hardly necessary though because I could always tell which was which from listening.

Here are the results of some listening tests that I did on some popular UAD tube preamp emulation plugins. I was curious which preamps would sound better on each source, so I did some science and the result wasn’t quite what I expected.

Preamps on acoustic Guitar

In order of preference

• Avalon (Magic)
• V76 (Instant Neil Young vibe)
• Helios (Classic)
• Century
• 610-B
• Manley
• 610-A

Preamps for Vocals

• Manley (Polished)
• Avalon (Vibey)
• Helios
• Century
• 610-B
• V76
• 610-A

Connections

AES Out of AxeFX at 48khz into RME Converter ADAT Out of RME Converter at 96khz or native rate (clocked and switchable by Apollo) ADAT In to Apollo with sample rate already converted

ADAT Out of Apollo with switchable Clock into RME Converter AES Out of RME Converter into AxeFX at 48khz

Analog Output 1 stereo in to Apollo for monitoring

Tracking

Settings On AxeFX

Switch Input 1 to Analog Switch AES output to Input 1