Having recorded some of the planet’s top musical artists, such as U2, R.E.M., Daniel Lanois [Tape Op #37, #127], Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, and Lucinda Williams, engineer/producer Mark...
There have been several beautifully designed and written coffee table books published in the last few years that focus on music gear, including guitar pedals, modular synthesizers, microphones, and...
While covering a place and time with far-reaching consequences, Richard Barone’s [Tape Op #54] new book is a delight to read. From civil disobedience to coffee house folk singers to confessional...
Subtitled “Recording the Stars in a Golden Era of Live Music,” this book follows the mobile recording career of the esteemed engineer David W. Hewitt. With early days at The Record Plant...
This book, subtitled Bridging Science and Creativity, covers everything that its title implies: How do drums work? Why tune them? How can we record them? What about mixing drums? Author Rob Toulson is...
It wasn’t until a few years ago, that I finally built my own mixing template for mixing in the box with Pro Tools. I based it on workflows I’d built up in the analog realm, with the goal...
As a longtime electric guitarist, studio operator, and fan of well-done coffee table books, I must admit to having a somewhat embarrassingly sprawling collection of the latter. There’s no...
Ah, vintage recording equipment. Where did this world come from? In the late-‘60s and into the ‘70s, cheaper electronics and manufacturing filled the market of pro audio. As the ‘70s...
In Tape Op #83 – ten years ago – I favorably reviewed the original Zen & the Art of Mixing book, noting that it was “ideal for someone who is unhappy with their mixes and wants...
Subtitled “The People and Processes Behind Self-Recorded Music,” this is a beautiful, hardbound coffee-table-style tome about making recordings that matter. Featuring excellent photos by...
The late Tommy LiPuma's career covered seven hit-making decades of music, and musician/writer/etc. Ben Sidran [father of Leo Sidran, Tape Op #135], who worked with Tommy extensively in the studio,...
Audio engineering was almost a non-existent academic career when I was growing up in Colombia during the nineties. Few universities in Latin America offered an audio engineering program, and the...
This book, subtitled Stompbox Effects for Creative Music Making, is a welcome guide to how the conversation around instrument pedals and recording has evolved over the past few years, especially with...
