Every issue of Tape Op comes together in slightly different ways. John Baccigaluppi and I will juggle different interviews to run, looking for some magical balance of genres, styles of recording, and...
I sat down to try and write an End Rant describing how to know when a mix is done, and then I became stuck. Everyone’s experience with this can be different, so I dropped a line to some...
Somewhere along the line, when working on any recording project, there are points where the "real work" needs to be done. Real work, to me, is the time where intense listening skills are brought...
In this issue, we were lucky to speak with friends, family, and bandmates of the late Mark Linkous, aka Sparklehorse, about his recently released posthumous album, Bird Machine. In 1999, we...
Photo by Roman Sokal, courtesy of Audio Crowbar Dynamics. Having recently spent more time working on the Tape Op Gear Reviews section of this magazine, one thought keeps creeping into my mind and...
As an adjunct to the End Rant this issue, I should explain something about myself and how I work in the studio; something that will likely seem incongruous with my position as Tape Op's founder and...
In 1975, Brian Eno [Tape Op #85] and multimedia artist Peter Schmidt published their first set of Oblique Strategies: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas. These cards work as creativity resets,...
While brainstorming the "Not So Oblique Strategies" End Rant for this issue, I was reminded of a very simple, but truthful (and not so oblique), thought I've been trying to convey via Tape Op for...
In 1996, not long before I opened the doors at Jackpot! Recording Studio, I had to decide what format we would track to. I had been using a Tascam 8-track tape deck for the previous couple of years...
After receiving negative feedback regarding her release, a talented artist I’d worked with dropped me a line. Apparently a random critic of her album had declared that “the song was...
This issue’s guest End Rant, “Industry Standard,” by my pal Garrett Haines, led me to recall a session and album from nearly two decades ago. John Vecchiarelli was a busy, gigging...
Over the last 15 years, my studio career has leaned more and more towards the mixing process. I'm still involved in producing many tracking and overdubbing sessions, but even long before the...
The recent sale of Bob Dylan’s one-off recording of “Blowin’ in the Wind” for $1.7 million dollars has left me reflecting on a very different way of evaluating art and...
