ISSUE ARCHIVE
NO. 171 | Nov 2025
NO. 170 | Sep 2025
NO. 169 | Sep 2025
NO. 168 | Jul 2025
NO. 167 | May 2025
NO. 166 | Mar 2025
NO. 165 | Jan 2025
NO. 164 | Nov 2024
Jul/Aug 2000
Welcome to Tape Op #18. Some content in this issue may wind a few of our readers up.
I'll warn you now — people will take sides, people will write angry letters and we'll be here, attempting to sit on the fence. Analog or digital as a recording medium? People always assume Tape Op is pro- analog-heck, look at our name*. John and I might have our favorite ways to record, but we don't really care what other people use. Some of my favorite records of the last five years were recorded digitally, like Pinback's recent CD, Heatmiser's Mic City Sons, and many others I might not even know about. It only matters that the music moves you. A great, creative job of recording the music helps to move the listener. Having your recording gear preference, as an engineer, producer or artist, is part of this process. Why do people like Ford pickups over Chevy? Why do some like Mac over PC? I don't have a clue but I know what makes a great record has less to do with analog versus digital than it does with songs, performance and inspiration.
- Larry Crane
— LARRY CRANE,EDITOR & FOUNDER
Jon Brion is well known as a session musician, record producer, solo artist and now, with the work he did for Magnolia, a scorer of films. In his world, all of this is equally important and interrelat...
We get a lot of requests for future interview subjects and Bob Weston has easily been one of the most mentioned. Bob is known for his spacious, natural-sounding recording style and being a member of t...
We interviewed Phill Brown in issue #12 of Tape Op. Over the years he's worked with some of the greatest artists ever, like Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Ro...
Stuart Hallerman has run Seattle's Avast! studio since 1990. Stuart left his hometown of Chicago in 1980 to attend Evergreen College in Olympia,WA.After "the 5-year plan" at Evergreen's recording prog...
I caught up with Vicki Bennett when her solo project, People Like Us, performed at Subterranean in Chicago. While her live performances now include found video footage in addition to sound, Bennett ha...
When I first started recording music, my first purchase was a trusty and reliable TEAC 3340 4-track reel to reel recorder. That deck worked great for many years. I later upgraded to a Fostex 8-track,...