Interviews
Ivan Julian: Let’s Try It
by Larry Crane
I’ve long been a fan of the seminal punk records that Richard Hell & The Voidoids made in the late ‘70s. Ivan Julian was a founding member, and he’s done quite a bit since,...
I’ve long been a fan of the seminal punk records that Richard Hell & The Voidoids made in the late ‘70s. Ivan Julian was a founding member, and he’s done quite a bit since,...
I first met Alan Parsons in 2004, when I interviewed him for Tape Op issue #42. We’ve been lucky enough to work together on Recording Academy presentations and meet up socially a few times...
A few years ago, my studio manager, Zach Bloomstein, needed to do a session in the Santa Barbara area, and his client hooked them up with Alan Parsons’ ParSonics Studio in Goleta, California....
With a diverse discography that includes everyone from The Lumineers to Lenny Kravitz, David Baron has carved out a career as a keyboardist, producer, and arranger who can do it all. While he...
We interviewed Molly Rankin and Alec O'Hanley from the Toronto-based Alvvays, and producer/mixer Shawn Everett [Tape Op #115] for the Tape Op Podcast in May of 2023 to chat about crafting their...
Jordan Brooke Hamlin is multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer, and owner of MOXE Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Jordan's portfolio boasts collaborations with Grammy-winning legends such as the...
I first met engineer/producer/studio owner Clay Blair some ten years ago, and we did a short interview that ended up running later as a bonus feature with Tape Op #111. His Hollywood-based studio,...
Nestled in a commercial building in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, you can find Crackle & Pop! Recording. Open since 2006, Johnny Sangster, with his business partner Andy...
In an industry where evolution is key to an artist's longevity, Damon McMahon, known as Amen Dunes, is redefining his musical journey by coming home. The self-described “luddite” –...
With roots in Toronto, the most populated and diverse city in Canada, Alfio Annibalini has been working steadily in recording, mixing, teaching audio, producing albums, and playing as a musician...
The inscrutably monikered Blood Incantation burst out of Denver in 2015 with their Interdimensional Extinction EP. Expanding their sound over two breakthrough full lengths and the...
I’ve come to the conclusion that recording studios don’t really make money. I’m not about to discuss the actual numbers of what my place, Jackpot! Recording Studio, brings in and...
The buildout of my commercial studio building is still in progress (ugh), but over the next couple months I’m looking forward to completing my Nashville home studio (also ugh). Long story short,...
In an effort to cover all of the bases, Universal Audio has taken some of their ever growing and uber useful line of UAFX pedals [Tape Op #159] and turned them into plug-ins. When I heard that they...
I’m a songwriter and musician who composes and records at home. Once in a while, I may bring in another musician buddy with a special skill on a particular instrument, but when it comes to...
The latest release of Cakewalk’s PC-only DAW is out, and what a long, strange road it’s been. Is it called Cakewalk now? Or SONAR? Before the 20th century ended, Cakewalk began the new...
Just as one must “settle in” to a new set of monitors, getting accustomed to new headphones can also be challenging. However, if you’ve ever sat down in an unfamiliar control room,...
A 9-inch square, 32-page hardcover book, ABCs of Audio Recording is a delightful children’s read featuring a page-by-page alphabet of audio terms, with short descriptions and simple...
Kendra Lynn, our former long-term studio manager and now staff engineer at Jackpot! Recording Studio, recently gifted me with a very unique-looking (and sounding) microphone. Housed in a vintage steel...
In over 20 years of talking shop with notable engineers and producers, I’d never heard one mention of Datamix consoles. But then I had a very informative conversation with a good friend who is a...
A new delay plug-in, you say? I already have dozens of delays and have been pretty happy with my options – but sure, I’ll check it out. Mountainroad DSP may not be a familiar name, but...
Like a lot of Tape Op-ers, I started my recording expedition with a cassette 4-track. For a young songwriter, the 4-track was nothing less than a joy engine – a new way to capture ideas and...
In a climate where it sometimes seems like a race to the bottom, with companies trying to build the cheapest audio outboard equipment they can, it’s refreshing to come across gear like...
This 399-page, large format book, Historic Recording Studios: America’s Sound Factories and the People Who Made Them, is actually Volume One (A to M) of “A Scrapbook and...
I had ruled out mic mounts that attach to a drum’s rim after trying some in my studio years ago, only to find that they transmitted way too many bad sounds directly through the mount. I’ve...
I’m a faithful Trident user and have had several Trident recording consoles over the years. Trident Studios was formed by two brothers, Norman and Barry Sheffield, in 1968, with artists such as...
I have always loved a good sounding reverb unit, one that is authentic and usable in real life mixes. I used to own the magnificent AKG BX20E spring reverb, housed in a beautiful 3.5 foot tall wooden...
If you asked me whether you should try this UA LA-6176 Signature Channel Strip plug-in – or any of the company's plug-ins, Apollo hardware units, or their near zero latency console-like digital...
In this large format, 90-page full-color book, Simone Corelli takes on a tutorial ride through iZotope’s RX audio restoration app and plug-in suite, and is updated for the current RX 11 [see...
I’ve been using iZotope RX [Tape Op #123] for over a decade, starting with RX 3 [#100], and this "audio repair toolkit" has become an integrated part of my workflow on every music project I do....
The Sony C37A may be the last classic tube mic without ubiquitous modern clones. There are a million variations of the Neumann and AKG classics at all sorts of price points, which is wonderful...
I was mixing the record that would never die – or at least would never go to mastering. You may have been there yourself; you start mixing, and then the artist goes to another studio and adds a...
In this large format, 90-page full-color book, Simone Corelli takes on a tutorial ride through iZotope’s RX audio restoration app and plug-in suite, and is updated for the current RX 11 [see...