Tape Op Magazine - Issue #20

Article

Phill Niblock

[ image niblock1 type=center ] While most subjects of Tape Op interviews have discussed their interest in recording, Phill Niblock thinks far more about reproduction of sound. He composes his pieces, which are often described as minimalist, for playback in large rooms with loud, clean reproduction...

Interviews

AN INTRO TO ANALOG TAPE DECK CALIBRATION FUN

By David Patterson, Larry Crane

Bias and equalization; you've probably heard and used the terms for years, possibly without really understanding their effect on the quality of your recordings. If you're an engineer working with analog tape decks, you should know how to set decks up for different operating levels, bias...

Interviews

Roger Moutenot: Producer for Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney...

By Kevin Robinson

Every now and then a record comes out where the production and recording techniques work together with some really unique songwriting to make a masterpiece album. The kind you listen to hundreds of times and still wonder, "How did they get that sound?" The Beatles Revolver, Beach Boys Pet...

Article

Brooklyn Studios

[ image rare2 type=center ] Brooklyn, New York, has become a hot studio spot during the...

Interviews

Under The Radar: Under The Radar

By Rob Christensen

No description available.

Interviews

Tobin Sprout: Post Guided by Voices

By Nick McDermott

Tobin Sprout has been looming large in the basement recording scene for quite some time...

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

FEBRUARY 27, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Scott Fritz of KRCW: Live radio recording

BY LARRY HIRSHOWITZ, LARRY CRANE

Years ago a friend of mine sent me a cassete with a live broadcast of the Go-Betweens, Downey Mildew and Glass Eye that he recorded off the radio from KCRW (public radio 89.9FM) in Santa Monica, California. These weren't crummy recordings by any means, and when I saw that compilations of tracks from KCRW sessions were being released (via Mammoth records) I wasn't surprised. The show is called Morning Becomes Electric and Scott Fritz has born one of the main engineers for the show for the last eight years.

FEBRUARY 27, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Walford Studio: Special Ed?

BY PAUL MIDDLETON

Now I know a lot of people established in the industry today say, "A school can't teach you about recording, what could a class possibly teach you about the complexities of the recording industry?"

FEBRUARY 27, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Adam Lasus

BY PAUL FITZGERALD

Deep in the industrial wasteland of Red Hook, Brooklyn, Adam Lasus has turned an old firehouse into a recording outpost called Fireproof Recording. With the pole still intact, the firehouse proves an interesting place to make records. After checking out other studios, my band North Sea Story, decided to do our record Working for Wellness there. Having never worked with Adam before, the time spent at his studio developed into a perfect opportunity to observe and ask him questions about many things. Adam's work can be heard on records by Yo La Tengo, Space Needle, Versus, Gigolo Aunts, Varnaline, Ditchcroaker, Mark Mulcahy, the Lilys, Sugar Plant and many others. After his start in Philadelphia with Studio Red, he relocated to New York City to discover that there is more than just a tree that grows in Brooklyn.

FEBRUARY 27, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Andy Hong

BY SCOTT CRAGGS

I first became aware of this Andy Hong fella after hearing the latest Karate record "The Bed Is In the Ocean." Besides having great songs and equally great performances, the recording is just beautiful. He's also put out a compilation called In My Living Room (reviewed in Tape Op awhile back) featuring hi-fi recordings of different artists in the said living room. He recently recorded the Wicked Farleys, the band solely responsible for renewing my faith in ROCK. So I figured I would track him down and get the info. We met over beers and hummus at indie-rock ground zero, The Middle East, in Cambridge, MA.

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

52270

BY 52270 | reviewed by Larry Crane

When I first started Tape Op I wanted to only talk about inexpensive gear (PZMs!) and records that were done on small budgets. Now I find myself stretching out a bit - my 8-track studio is long behind me and I just spent $10,000 on a used 24-track. And gear has piled up around me - some of it not...

Gear Reviews

Ashbory Bass Guitar

BY Ashbory Bass Guitar | reviewed by D. Matz

This strange bass is none other than a 31 inch (with a 13-1/4 inch fretboard), rubber stringed, fretless bass guitar. You tune it like a regular 4-string bass (E, A, D, G), and it sounds absolutely outrageous! I'm serious! It even comes with it's own, little case! It has one active piezo-style pick...

Gear Reviews

AT4047/SV

BY AT4047/SV | reviewed by Larry Crane

This is the first time it's happened. As I was packing up the loaner 4047 to send back to Audio- Technica I got kinda sad. I'd been using this $500 beauty on everything - guitar amps, vocals, drums - you name it, it sounded great. I could set it up as a room mic for drums in spots where other mics...

Gear Reviews

E-350

BY E-350 | reviewed by Eric Broyhill

Many of the new large diaphragm condenser microphones coming out lately make the claim that their mic sounds just like a Neumann U-67 or U-87. Sadly though, none that I have tried even come close. The irony of this situation is that when I recently tried the new Cad E-350, it's characteristics...

Gear Reviews

E-Magic Software

BY E-Magic Software | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

I briefly reviewed this software in Tape Op #18, but now I have been able to really spend some time with it. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. This software, when compared to Cubase or especially Pro Tools, is not easy to get started with, nor is it very intuitive. The reason for this...

Gear Reviews

Pro Tools Free

BY Pro Tools Free | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

At the recent AES show, Digidesign was handing out postcards that promoed their new free version of Pro Tools. It's an 8 audio/48 MIDI track version of Pro Tools 5.0.1 that will run on a Mac or PC without any additional hardware. This is a cool way to get your feet wet with hard drive recording...

Gear Reviews

Rosetta AD Analog to Digital Converter

BY Rosetta AD Analog to Digital Converter | reviewed by Larry Crane

Recently I got to try out the Apogee Rosetta (street price, $1100). Using this in place of the DAT machine's analog to digital conversion seems to preserve more of the qualities of the mix so it sounds like what I have up on the board. It doesn't add that special "something" of analog tape, but it...

Gear Reviews

Sony Playstation

BY Sony Playstation | reviewed by Jonathan Kreinek

Not the soon-to-be released one, but the standard-issue one has a built-in CD player. Most people who have come into contact with them know that. Some may even know that when you hit the "select" button you get to scroll through different screens of "eye candy" whose images respond to the amplitude...

Gear Reviews

Tape Recorder to Instrument Amplifier Interface

BY Tape Recorder to Instrument Amplifier Interface | reviewed by Larry Crane

It's amazing how one little box could change what I do so much. Simply put, this is an impedence matcher for going from the output of tape/board/line-level type signal to the input of guitar amps, stomp boxes and the like. Boy this opened up a lot. Now drum busses are feeding distortion pedals and...