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
Mar/Apr 2012
Tape Op gets a certain kind of letter frequently, and they all basically say the same thing: "I'm young. I really like recording. Where do I go from here?" Part of me can empathize with and understand the situation, yet another part of me cannot. In most cases the writer's experience level, with clients and with equipment, is minimal. Yet I don't see them pushing themselves to go even further.
You have a few pieces of outboard gear? Then borrow and try out more. Do short term gear trades with friends. You don't have friends that have recording gear? Then find new friends. You've learned Pro Tools? Then learn Logic Pro... and then Reason, Live, Record, Studio One, Cakewalk, Cubase, Reaper, Tracktion, Digital Performer, Audacity, SAW, Nuendo and Sound Forge. There are no recording studios within 100 miles of where you live? Then move somewhere else and hit the pavement. And believe me, there are always people out there to record.
Look, you're young and hopefully have a long, interesting life ahead of you. You have to make these things happen for you. Compared to most other fields, education (whether trade school or college) is no guarantee that you will find any work or be a good recordist. To produce and engineer an album you need to know and understand a lot of different subjects — inside and out. You need to build up these personal experiences.
But first look inside yourself and make sure this is what you really want to do. Do you want to help other people work on their music? Or would you actually prefer to record your own music instead? Are you ready to listen to songs that you may not enjoy, for days on end, and still remain enthusiastic about the recordings while putting 100 percent of yourself into the project? Are you ready for the crippling self doubt that might accompany the start of a session that haunts you as you mix a song for a discerning, unrelenting and unsatisfied client?
Read the interviews in Tape Op. Every man and woman has a different story to tell about how they ended up making records. Yet they also have one thing in common — recording music wasn't something they could escape. It is their life.
— LARRY CRANE,EDITOR & FOUNDER
We talked to Jacquire King briefly in Tape Op #45 when he was working with producer Eric Valentine, but in the seven years since that time Jacquire has been involved with an impressive roster of album...
In issue #15 we ran a rather brief interview with Liam Watson about his London-based Toe Rag Studios. In the following 12 years I always remarked that Tape Op needed to revisit Toe Rag and chat with L...
Merrill Garbus is the founder and central figure of tUnE-yArDs, an extraordinary band that I have had the honor of traveling with over the past year in support of their fantastic album w h o k i l l (...
"I'm fundamentally a musician, although I've fallen into being sort of... I hate to refer to myself as a producer because I think there's a lot of pretension around that name. But I've learned how to...
I found hip-hop/dance music pioneer Jon Baker residing in Port Antonio, Jamaica — a town he decided to settle in after experiencing a blazing a career in New York and London. With a past that includes...
I became acquainted with Glenn Coleman when we shared a week together at the Audio Engineering Society Convention (AES) in New York. Glenn's early employer, MCI, was a leading manufacturer of pro audi...
We talked to Jacquire King briefly in Tape Op #45 when he was working with producer Eric Valentine, but in the seven years since that time Jacquire has been involved with an impressive roster of album...
In issue #15 we ran a rather brief interview with Liam Watson about his London-based Toe Rag Studios. In the following 12 years I always remarked that Tape Op needed to revisit Toe Rag and chat with L...
I became acquainted with Glenn Coleman when we shared a week together at the Audio Engineering Society Convention (AES) in New York. Glenn's early employer, MCI, was a leading manufacturer of pro audi...
When I was in high school my friend picked up a copy of Wire's 1979 album 154 based on a review in Rolling Stone. Little did I ever imagine how the sonics of that album, and so many other records by W...
A longtime San Francisco Bay Area engineer and producer, Eli Crews has been quietly churning out utterly unique albums for the past decade. He is probably best known for his work with Deerhoof, Erase...
I found hip-hop/dance music pioneer Jon Baker at his GeeJam Studios, an exclusive residential recording studio and hotel in Port Antonio. Jon has recently been working with the legendary Jamaican mento band, The Jolly Boys, including their covers album, Great Expectation. The rumba box mic'd for rehearsal The view from the main sound room GeeJam Studios Dale "Dr. Dizzle" Virgo recording Albert Minott of The Jolly Boys Albert playing a rumba box Mack Bay, GeeJam Dale "Dr. Dizzle" Virgo and The Jolly Boys at GeeJam Jon Baker, behind the board at GeeJam
