Equalizers and Equality
by Larry Crane
One of the cities in the United States that changed the face of popular music more than anywhere else has to be Memphis, Tennessee. It’s also a very important story of racial integration; of...
Columns
by Larry Crane
Intro / TOC #138
by Larry Crane
In one week, I'll be helming my first attended studio session in over three months. It's with one of my favorite long-time clients, and we're knocking out basic tracks for a single song; a short,...
Future Collaboration
by Larry Crane
The history of humankind shows that only in recent centuries have we have become less social creatures. I've long advocated in the pages of Tape Op that we all need to find time to get together...
Intro / TOC #137
by Larry Crane
None of us exist in a vacuum. Building tracks, mixing, editing, and mastering can sometimes feel like a solitary existence, but it shouldn't always be so. As I write this, in April of 2020, the...
Intro / TOC #136
by Larry Crane
Dub. Even the word is a technical term from the studio, making a copy of a recording to another media. But what do we mean when we talk about dub music? Musique concrète, later works by The...
What Makes a Great Recording?
by Larry Crane
I've listened to music critically for most of my life. First, as a teenage music fan, I would sit with headphones on poring over masterpieces by Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Yes, the Beach Boys, King...
Intro / TOC #135
by Larry Crane
I recently had the experience of listening to hundreds of new albums in a slightly disassociated context; many times I knew nothing about who the artists were or what style of music they were...
The Guessing Game
by Larry Crane
In issue #133 of Tape Op, I interviewed Andrew Scheps. "I take everything personally. I curl up in a ball," Andrew told me when we discussed dealing with mix revisions from clients. I've been...
Intro / TOC #133
by Larry Crane
Is there a simple answer to this? Does a quick proclamation that explains everything one needs to know about music recording in a nutshell exist? I keep deluding myself, thinking that I can somehow...
Letting the Process Happen
by Larry Crane
I don't remember a time while growing up when there wasn't clay, glaze, and kilns in my house. My mother had studied art when I was a baby, and she began producing a series of decorative and useful...
Intro / TOC #132
by Larry Crane
"How do we stay interested in the art of recording?" It's a question I was considering recently, and I feel fortunate that I remain excited about mixing songs, producing records, running a studio,...
Intro / TOC #131
by Larry Crane
Since founding this magazine 23 years ago, it's been interesting to me the many ways Tape Op reflects my own journey through music and audio, but also the many facets in which it doesn't. Sure, I own...