General Info | Reviews | Subscriptions | Website | Writing

GENERAL INFO:

Who started the magazine?
Larry Crane founded Tape Op in April 1996. John Baccigaluppi and Larry became partners late 1999. Larry primarily is the editor and John the publisher, though they confer on most issues and John has input as to content.

Who works for Tape Op?
Be aware that Tape Op is nobody's full time job. All of us own or work at recording studios, except for Laura whose husband has a nice home studio!

Larry Crane: Editor/Writer
John Baccigaluppi: Publisher/Design/Photography/Advertising Sales
Laura Thurmond: Advertising Sales
Hillary Johnson: Website Design/Writer
Andy Hong: Gear Reviews Editor/Writer
Garrett Haines: Recording Tips Editor/Writer
Craig Schumacher: Conference Director/Writer
AJ Wilhelm: PHP Developer
Plus many other freelance writers!

Can I intern for the magazine?
We never need one at the Portland office.
If you really want to do some menial office work, contact John at the Sacramento office.

Can I run an ad in Tape Op?
Of course! Please fill out this contact form.

What issue was _____ in?
Soon there will be a search engine for this. For now please peruse the back issues and archives pages on this website. Most of the articles from issues 1-10 are in the Tape Op book. Please do the legwork on your own!

Can I get Daniel Lanois' (insert any other interview subject here) email address?
Many times we don't have email addresses for some of our "bigger" interviews. Most "smaller" folks are more than happy to have us run their contact info with their interview, so please check the magazine for these. Please at least do some internet searches before asking us!!!!

Can I post a question to the letters section of Tape Op?
Sure, but keep in mind the lead time in producing a magazine!

Can you tell me if I should buy this vintage ______?
Not usually. It's not our specialty. Plus we haven't used every obscure tape deck and mic that our readers seem to dig up.

I'm interested in advertising in Tape Op. What do I do?
Click here to get in touch with us.

Do you want to sell Tape Op in our retail store?
Contact one of our distributors and they'd be happy to set that up:
Carrot Top - Chicago, IL 312-432-1194
Ubiquity - Brooklyn, NY 718-875-5491
Revolver - San Francisco, CA [email]
Scratch - Vancouver, BC 604-687-6355
Sequioa Pubs - Burnaby, BC [email]
Small Changes - Seattle, WA [email]

Tape Op Conference questions?
Go here.

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REVIEWS:

Can I send Andy Hong my CD for review?
No! Andy is the Gear Reviews editor. That's recording equipment, not CDs! Larry Crane is the editor and person responsible for the "What's in the Tape Op CD Player" column. It's not really reviews so much as some info about some cool newer CDs and where and how they were recorded and by who.

Can I send our finished CD for review?
Sure, send one copy each to Larry and John:

Tape Op Editorial
Larry Crane
P.O. Box 14517
Portland, OR 97293

Tape Op Magazine
John Baccigaluppi
P.O. Box 160995
Sacramento, CA 95816-0995

Realize that we review six CDs every two months and that we get sent about 20 per week. Do not make follow up calls or emails asking us if we've received it or if we will we write about it, as they will not be returned.

Can I send you my demo to critique the recording we've done?
You can send anything you want to Tape Op, just do not expect that we have the time or energy to listen to everything we get sent or personally reply to its sender.

Can I send you the new mic preamp (etc.) that my company is selling for review?
Contact Andy Hong, Gear Reviews Editor for more information.
Please be patient as Andy is an international man of mystery. Do not attempt to bombard him with phone calls or faxes - it won't work!

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SUBSCRIPTIONS:

I'd like a subscription. How do I do that?
We offer free and paid subscriptions. Please visit our subscriptions page for more info. Please note:
You must provide us with your e-mail address for the free third class subscriptions. Tape Op is no longer able to offer free 3rd class subscriptions to anyone without a valid e-mail address. Your free subscription will be sent for six issues (one year) and when the last issue has been sent, you will be notified by e-mail and given the option to renew your free subscription for another year. Without your e-mail address we cannot cost effectively verify your address and offer the free subscription. After your free 6-issue subscription expires, we will send you an e-mail that will allow you to easily renew your subscription for 6 more free issues. This is why it is important to keep your database record updated with your current e-mail address.

Why do international subscriptions cost so much?
That's just the way it is because of the cost of postage. Between sorting out addresses and subs, printing and mailing we don't make any money on the international subscribers as it is. Stop whining.

Can I use Paypal, etc to pay for my subscription?
No, sorry.

Can I start my subscription with issue number___?
No. Subscriptions start with the next issue to be sent out, not with one that's already out.
Back issues are available here.

A recent issue didn't show up. Can you please send me a replacement copy?
We will replace missed copies of the first class paid and foreign subscriptions. We do not replace missed free subscriptions. It seems the postal service loses about 2% of them each issue, which is unfortunately a fair amount of magazines when you're mailing 35,000 copies. But hey, it is a free subscription and 98% of them get there just fine!
Back issues are available here.

If you had a FREE subscription and then stopped receiving issues, several things may have occurred. Subscription renewal is handled via an email to you, once a year. If you have changed your email address between signing up and renewal, then you will not receive this notice and your subscription will be cancelled. If your spam filter grabs it, you will not receive this notice of renewal. If you signed up long ago, before we required an email, then randomly you may be dropped form the mailing list as the list is purged of non-email addresses. In all of these cases, for a free subscription the easiest thing to do is sign up for a new subscription. If you do start receiving extra copies, email subscriptions@tapeop.com and give your address, name and email address used to sign up.

Where do I change my address?
You can modify your subscription information here.

I'm not sure if my address change went through. Can you check?
Email our subscriptions department and be sure to include your email address, mailing addresses (old and new) and CMR number. Be patient, we only check these right before shipping out the next issue so you may not hear anything for a few months. Make sure to indicate whether it's a paid or free subscription. Do not call any of the phone numbers with subscription problems! We don't have time to deal with them and Larry doesn't even have access to the database at the Portland office.

Where can I find a copy of Tape Op in my town?
We don't know. Our distributors send them to stores across the country and Canada, but we don't know what stores carry them for sure. Sorry!

What's your policy with renting your "free subscribers" information to advertisers?
As you know, Tape Op is a free magazine that's supported by our advertisers. That's how we can afford to print and mail it to you for free. This will include an occasional snail mail piece from some of our advertisers as well as these semi-regular e-zines. We'd like to be a bit more clear about how this works for those of you who are interested in this:
- Anytime we rent our list, it is for a 'one-time' usage. You are not being added to anyone else's database.
- We usually send out our list to a bonded third party mailing house, which further prevents your data from being pirated.
- We will only rent out our list to our advertisers who are professional audio companies. You won't be getting anything from long distance companies or timeshared condos in Cabo San Lucas.
- Any e-mailed 'spam' will only come from us. We will not give out e-mail addresses to any third party, all e-mail will be forwarded to us and sent to you by us.

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WEBSITE and LINKS:

Can I put a link on your website?
If you have a link to an "information resource" that isn't trying to sell us on gear, a studio, services or some band then contact Hillary. Non "information resource" links are considered advertising. Contact John for ads.

Can I redesign your website to show you how great a designer I am?
Hillary Johnson is our website designer and updater with much help from AJ and Ryan. You can't have their jobs!

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WRITING AND WRITERS:

Can I send Tape Op an idea for an article?
We are usually backlogged with too many articles we can't find room for, but contact Larry with your idea. Please make sure that it hasn't been done before by checking the archives and back issues. You'd be surprised how many readers haven't read all the back issues and book. Please make it clear if this is just an idea you are passing along or if you intend to write it yourself.

Can I write for Tape Op?
Drop Larry a line with what you'd like to write about and your qualifications to do so. Ask for the Writer's Guidelines too. Please be aware that we have a mass of articles already in motion and many on deck that need to run. There isn't enough space for all the articles we get. Also be aware that if you have never interviewed someone and transcribed three hours of talking and then edited it down that it is a lot of work. Many people have started interviews that they never finished. That sucks and makes Tape Op look lame. Don't be one of those people!

Can I write a column for Tape Op?
Notice there are no regular columns in Tape Op besides letters, gear and CD reviews, table of contents and Larry's endrant. This is because space is at a premium and we want to offer a variety of features. So the answer is no.


Sometimes I see an ad for a product that you review right next to the review. This seems biased to me and I don't trust the review to not be influenced by the ad. Also, all the reviews seem to be positive. How come I never read bad reviews in Tape Op?

Tape Op is a free magazine that our advertisers essentially pay us to give to you the reader. We try to be pretty up front about this with the small blurbs throughout the mag that read "Tape Op is made possible by our advertisers. Please support them and tell them you saw their ad in Tape Op." There are several points concerning ads and reviews that are relevant:


-Like all audio magazines, there is an interaction between our advertisers and our editorial staff to coordinate reviews. We strive to review products that we think are relevant to our readers and often pass on reviewing products we think are less relevant or that we feel aren't something we would want to use ourselves. Space in the magazine is very limited and we almost always have far more editorial than we have space for. Our feeling is to write about products and gear that we think is worth buying and not waste space writing about things we think suck. These products will dissapear soon enough anyway. We do not view ourselves as the Consumer Reports of audio engineering.

-When we've finished a review, we send it to the manufacturer for a fact check. If we have written something in error, we will correct it. If the manufacturer thinks we've completely missed the point of the product, we may pull the review for that issue and re-assign it to another reviewer. Having someone who routinely works in high end studios review a $100 mic pre was probably a mistake in the first place for instance. Since Andy has taken over the gear review editing job, this doesn't happen as much anymore. If the manufacturer strongly disagrees with something we've said, we'll sometimes add their comments into the review. Other than this however, the reviews are pretty much what the writer wrote after using a particular piece of gear for several recording sessions or projects.

-We do not run photos of gear in the reviews for several reasons. One reason is that we'd rather run more interviews than reviews and photos just take up more space. We also think gear photos are usually pretty boring. The other reason is to be able to run more reviews. We'd rather see four reviews without photos than two reviews with photos. You can find photos of gear on numerous websites, why waste space reprinting them in the magazine?

-When we know that we are going to run a review, we contact the manufacturer and let them know the opportunity exists for them to advertise that same product in the magazine and support the review. We are already going to run the review, if they decide to buy an ad because of that, it allows us to add more editorial to that issue. The more ads we have the more editorial we can run. If the ad has a photo of the product, and if our page layout allows us, we will often put the ad next to the review so that you can see a photo of the piece of gear being reviewed. This makes sense to us so that if we're reading a review we can reference the manufacturers take on that product and see what it looks like.

-This is how we do it. If our editorial process seems flawed to you, there are of course many other options for you to read about recording equipment.

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If you have a not-so-frequently asked question that wasn't answered on this page, please contact us.