Interviews
Mark Howard: Listen Up!
by Roman Sokal
Born in the UK and raised in Canada, Grammy-winning veteran engineer/producer Mark Howard has traveled the globe, combining whatever vibe he conjures while oftentimes applying an experimental and...
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Interviews
Annie Clark: Down the Rabbit Hole with St. Vincent
by Cian Riordan
From the early days of touring with indie luminaries The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, to releasing six albums as St. Vincent and recently wrapping up production on a record for...
Interviews
Andrew Sarlo: Sanctuary of Possibility
by Ryan Sommer
Andrew Sarlo's sense of being grounded, coupled with his simultaneous respect for personality and human emotion made for a unique and rewarding interview experience. Even with credits like Nick...
Interviews
Erin Barra: The Dream I Never Knew I Had
by Ainjel Emme
Erin Barra – nicknamed "Mamma Barra" by her many clients and students due to her nurturing, hands-on approach – is a woman of many hats. She is the founder of Beats By Girlz, an...
Interviews
Working Happy
by Justin Douglas
When I was an assistant engineer at a prominent studio – back when those two things existed – I worked a short stint with a well-known rock producer. After a long first day that featured...
Interviews
Greg Laswell: Writing, Recording, Golfing
by Larry Crane
The career of songwriter Greg Laswell may seem atypical, yet it fits in with how the music world works these days. From early on in his solo career songs seemed to magically get placed on popular...
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Detroit Remembers Audio Ace Norm Druce
by Geoff Stanfield
Nice piece in the Detroit Free Press about audio and electronics guru Norman Druce who died October 6th....
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...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
Ever since I reviewed a silent, ionizing air purifier almost 20years ago [Tape Op #25], I've received countless requests to recommend an air cleaner for studio use. Just last month, I was asked this...
Ian Sefchick: This Issue's Master of Magic
by John Baccigaluppi
One of my favorite bands in the early aughts was Creeper Lagoon. I saw them live several times, and they were always amazing. They put out two great albums and then seemed to disappear. Then a few...
<strike>Remixing</strike> Restoring The Replacement’s <i>Don’t Tell a Soul</i> with Matt Wallace
by John Baccigaluppi
When The Replacements released Don't Tell a Soul in 1989, many of their fans felt like the record was too polished and too pop. Producer Matt Wallace [Tape Op #128] took a good portion of the blame...
Intro / TOC #134
by John Baccigaluppi
Larry is Tape Op's editor and founder; and his duties also include overseeing all the editorial for this magazine. But although I'm known as the "publisher," we always confer about what interviews we...
Mark Hornsby: Serving the Song
by Jeff Touzeau
When you're young and picking a career, everyone always tells you to "do what you love." In the music industry however, sometimes such lofty platitudes aren't enough to pay the bills – even if...
Erin Barra: The Dream I Never Knew I Had
by Ainjel Emme
Erin Barra – nicknamed "Mamma Barra" by her many clients and students due to her nurturing, hands-on approach – is a woman of many hats. She is the founder of Beats By Girlz, an...
Mixing It Up for Kids: What Makes Recording Children's Music Unique?
by Beth Blenz-Clucas
Since the technological and industry shifts in the ‘90s, a golden age of independent family music has grown up. No longer do parents have to suffer through simplistic, repetitive musical dreck....
Annie Clark: Down the Rabbit Hole with St. Vincent
by Cian Riordan
From the early days of touring with indie luminaries The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, to releasing six albums as St. Vincent and recently wrapping up production on a record for...
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Let's DIY
Let's DIY
DIY Diffusors
by Brad Williams
While hardly a glamorous concept, room acoustics represent a critical link in the recording or playback chain. While comprehensive room design is a complex cocktail of science, math and chance...
Let's DIY
Build Your Own Spring Reverb
by Scott Hampton
I have been a big fan of spring and plate reverbs for decades, and over the past three years I have spent a significant amount of time diving into the wormhole of designing and building them,...
Let's DIY
DIY Reverb
by Nicolas Collins
In the disembodied world of today's computer-based multitrack mixing, one can spend a lot of time crafting a unifying sense of "space." Despite the dozens of reverb plug-ins and rack devices...
Let's DIY
DIY Shockmount: Build Your Own Microphone Shock Mount
by Tom Rogers
Here's a ridiculously cheap and simple way to make a pretty nice microphone shock mount. Cost is under 10 bucks (way under if you build more than one) and it shouldn't take too much more than a half...
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The Problem with A-B'ing and Why Neil Young is Right about Sound Quality.
by Allen Farmelo
With news of Neil Young pushing to get studio quality audio out to the consumer, it occurred to me that it would be good to get some perspective on how we go about comparing audio quality. One of the most problematic issues surrounding audio...
Music Buying Habits of Teens Changes...
by Larry Crane
Expect to see more changes in the music purchasing/acquiring habits of teenagers as time goes by. Courtesy of the NPD Group's press release: "teens (age 13 to 17) acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007. CD purchasing declined 26...
Sound City, Dave Grohl, and the Changing Business of Recording Music
by Larry Crane
Everyone has been talking about Dave Grohl's new documentary Sound City a lot lately. That's cool; it's a fun romp of a movie, even if Dave can't decide whether he's making a film about a Neve console, a dying studio, a rock star jam session or an...
On Spotify (and Why I'm not a Conspiracy Theorist After All)
by Allen Farmelo
In a fascinating and really open Facebook debate initiated by fellow producer, cycling enthuiasist, and coffee-drinking pal, Eric Ambel (www.ericambel.com), I was alerted to what was finally a clear insight into how and why Spotify could possibly...
Analog Investment in the Age of Pono
by Allen Farmelo
I'm about to write something that at first will seem like another gray-beard waxing nostalgic for a by-gone analog era. But, stick with me, because I think the tables are turning to where going analog might be as forward-thinking as it gets. Let's...
I Have A Credit Problem
by Count
Over the last few years we've seen an explosion of online music services. Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, Soundcloud and dozens of other platforms are touted as groundbreaking ways to deliver music to listeners. But this success is on the...
Legendary Malibu Studio Indigo Ranch Is Auctioning Off Its Remaining Collection of Gear
by Dave Middleton
Richard Kaplan, owner engineer of famed recording studio Indigo Ranch [Tape Op #103] is selling the remainder of his classic equipment collection. It includes vintage and rare pieces by API, Aengus, Fairchild, Teletronix, Neumann and...
Avid and Pro Tools
by Larry Crane
Wall Street PR reports on the woes of Avid, the company behind Pro Tools. What does the future hold? I'm just terrified of having to learn a new platform, buying more gear and software, and there not being a de facto DAW standard for professional...
Why do the Folks at APPLE Inc. think they can use my Business Name?
by Larry Crane
A reader just informed me that APPLE's recent Logic Pro X includes "Drummer", a virtual drummer plug-in. One of the virtual drummers is named "aidan", who apparently cannot find the CAPS key on his virtual MacBook. In Aidan's "Portland Kit" we...
Carol Kaye: Session Bassist Extraordinaire
by Jon Erickson
Carol Kaye is one of the most recorded bass players of all time, with 10,000 sessions and 40,000 songs under her belt, including a staggering list of hits for Ray Charles, The Righteous Brothers,...