Check out the new St. Vincent LP, All Born Screaming, and video for the track "Broken Man" out now. The album was recorded and mixed by Cian Riordan who interviewed Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) for Tape Op #134.
I got to see ex-Grandaddy Jason Lytle play a semi-secret first band-backed show (with ex-bandmate Aaron Burtch) last Saturday. Quite fun and a great set of new songs. Jasons' album, Yours Truly, the Commuter, comes out May 19 on ANTI- records. We...
A pal who deals in pro audio recording gear (some good shit) sent an email our way complaining about people recording with cheap gear at home and the inevitable loss that this presents to the pro audio industry. My response:
XXX,
Look on the Tape...
I don't want to explore this concept with as many words as I might for a Tape Op "End Rant", but I had to dump this shit out of my mind immediately. Someone dropped me a line recently; "I'd like you to hear this record I worked on. We didn't use EQ,...
I just read an excellent new essay called The Case Against Free in which the author suggests that the "free economy" is drying up the economic resources needed to make quality creative works. The article focuses on recordings. It's a well...
I've received a few pretty odd emails recently. I know times are tough, unemployment sucks, but really, expecting any sort of "bailout" from the music biz has got to be the most delusional crap I've come across. Making a living in music requires hard...
I just received the first promo cassette in a long time from Odessa Records' Shit Horse. Alright! Wait, what year is it? Fucking A. I have a cassette player in the basement, and I could go down there, grab it, plug it all in and give this a...
Across more than 100 tracks, MEMPHIS captures Elvis from the earliest stages of his career at Sun Records/Memphis Recording Service to his final recordings in Graceland’s Jungle Room, with stops at other iconic studios such as American and...
It is often challenging within a review period to fully explore a piece of gear and integrate it into the daily workflow. It's not that reviewers won't use the feature set and put it to task in at least a few applications, but to truly get to know...
I opened my commercial recording studio (Jackpot! Recording) in 1997, after years of simultaneously having a busy home studio while working day jobs to pay the rent. Making this leap to a full-time recording engineer/studio owner was terrifying. I...