Located near Mount Shasta in Northern California is a thriving complex known as RadioStar Studios. In four different rooms people are making music — mixing, tracking and overdubbing constantly....
Scott Evans Longtime Tape Op contributor Scott Evans has played in a band called Kowloon Walled City for many years. In October of 2021, KWC released their fourth LP, Piecework. Recorded by Scott...
There is a portal inside of a garage in Van Nuys, California, that leads to another world. A world of crushing heaviness, monstrous sounds, and violently compelling breakdowns. Despite its modest...
Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, Stormtroopers of Death, Nuclear Assault, Vio-lence... Alex Perialas is responsible for dozens of classic metal records from the '80s and '90s, mostly made in his studio,...
Over the past four decades, producer/engineer Terry Date has racked up a gallery of multi-platinum monuments to his golden ears. Unforgettable moments from his catalog include the important role he...
We did three and a half records with Terry. When we first got signed in the mid ‘90s, our label [Maverick] asked us who we wanted to produce our debut album. We didn’t know at first; we...
Bob Rock is a foundational pillar of modern day rock and metal production, the architect of a drum and guitar sound he pioneered on cornerstone releases, including Mötley Crüe’s Dr....
Randall Dunn is creating what might be Seattle's next chapter in the dark and loud tradition of Northwest music. From the Sonics and Jimi Hendrix, to the U-Men and grunge, the Pacific Northwest has a...
For the past 11 years, Greg Wilkinson has recorded the Bay Area's crustiest punk/hardcore/grindcore/death metal/doom/black metal at Earhammer, his warehouse studio in West Oakland. He's also played...
New York City's independent metal scene has recently burst into mainstream view. At least two venues are primarily putting on heavy music shows nearly every night of the week. Several of the best...
Everyone needs an audio guru. Magazines and the Internet are great, but nothing compares to a veteran who knows you and your work. My guru is Greg Thompson. Greg is an accomplished pro engineer in New...
There used to be a television show called What's My Line, wherein panelists interviewed a contestant and had to guess his or her occupation. Michael Beinhorn would have been an ideal contestant. The...
Recording involves several processes — preproduction, tracking, mixing, and mastering. The methods involved in each step have changed greatly over time. Musicians, engineers, mixers, and...
Ross Robinson has over 20 years of album production experience spanning genres of intense alternative, metal and experimental rock, and is known for his evocative psychological manipulation as well as...
If you listen to modern hardcore or metal, you know Kurt Ballou's work. Kurt is a founding member of the band Converge and an accomplished, prolific recordist. "Extreme" music magazine, Decibel,...
You've seen the spikes and corpse paint, Satanic or ancient themes, or maybe even the blood and guts album covers. Maybe you assumed death and black metal was something not to be taken seriously, but...
Legendary producer/engineer Chris Tsangarides [pronounced tang-uh- reed-ez] opened his studio, The Ecology Rooms, a few years ago. Located on the southeast coast of England and perched atop the famous...
I first learned about Joey Vera in the mid-1980s, when he emerged on the L.A. rock scene as the bass player for the band Armored Saint. Signed to Chrysalis and then Metal Blade/Warner Brothers,...
Mike Patton keeps busy — that’s for sure. Since his early days with rock band Faith No More (pioneering the rap-rock genre with their seminal hit “Epic”), through the...
Ross Hogarth is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. His career spans multiple genres, years, and artists, and his discography reads like a Who's Who of the music industry. Having worked on...
Billy Anderson recorded one of hard rock's most intriguing and fucking coolest albums in history — Jerusalem, by the now-defunct legendary stoner-rock band Sleep. It was a lengthy one-track...
