We interviewed John Cale in issue #156 around the time of his previous release, Mercy. He has just released POPtical Illusion, a collection of synth and keyboard heavy tunes that carry a heavy, and at times angry message about the state of the world. That is not to say that that Cale has lost all hope and there is optimism that we can still bring about change. POPtical Illusion was produced by Cale along with longtime artistic collaborator Nita Scott.
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...
I was amazed today to be informed that phonograph cylinders are still being manufactured. Madame Pamita dropped us a line a while back and surprised us with some cool music recorded on Cylinders by Peter Dilg, of the Edison Historical Site, and it...
Interviews, Stories, and the Truth
by Larry Crane
In Tape Op issue #53 I interviewed Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, authors of the then-recently released book, Recording The Beatles. One of the topics we discussed was interviewing...
The Decemberists' ninth album, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, is out now. In 2003 I got a call from Colin Meloy about maybe recording his band, The Decemberists. Tape Op contributor, Adam Selzer, had already recorded some tracks for what...
In editor Larry Crane's recent End Rant [Tape Op #127], he talked about how people are currently learning recording techniques, all of the misinformation on the internet, and how this leads to the homogenization of music making in general. All of the...
by John Baccigaluppi
We recently did an interview with producer Larry Klein that will run in an issue of Tape Op in 2020, but here's an excerpt about a recently-released project he worked on called Beyond Music.
A couple of years ago, these...
Here is a list of some of the books on recording and music that we have added to the reading (or re-reading!) queue recently.
Are We Still Rolling?by Phill BrownGreat studio session stories about The Rolling Stones, Talk Talk, Hendrix, Led...
It's no secret that we are serious Pink Floyd fans here at Tape Op. We have interviewed Floyd drummer Nick Mason, producer/engineers John Wood, Bob Ezrin, Alan Parsons, John Leckie, Youth, and Joe Boyd, and, of course, the band's...