I'll bet many of you wonder where to find gear for your studio or home recording setup.  Even if you live in a decent sized city it's hard to find blank tape, microphones, headphones and other necessities at decent prices.  

  First off, I heartily endorse scanning the classifieds for used gear.  Try your local daily (though I'm sick of wading through the used piano ads) or any free Nickel Trader/Bargain Hunter thing.  Make sure you have a good idea of the "new" price of the items you're looking for by checking out music shops or catalogs, and try not to pay more than 2/3 of that.  Remember, you're not getting a warranty and you can't (usually) take it back.  

Other Cool Stuff to Read

I've stumbled across a few articles that may be of interest to our faithful Tape Op readers.  

No Depression (Vol 2, No 1), the alternative country magazine , ran a feature on producers that have worked in that genre.  There's brief interviews with Brian Paulson, Eric Ambel, Lloyd Maines, T Bone Burnett and R.S. Field.  Also in the issue is an interview with Jeff Tweedy about the making of the new Wilco album, Misunderstood, and a fine interview with the wonderful Lambchop.  

PO Box 31332, Seattle, WA 98103

Grand Royal (Issue #3), the Beastie Boys magazine, has a huge section about electronic instruments, featuring interviews with Robert Moog, Wendy Carlos, Dick Hyman, Walter Sear (of Sear Sound) and others, an article on building a theremin from scratch (that is hilarious), a bit on Audities (a vintage keyboard instrument studio), and a trip to the New England Synthesizer Museum.  All of this section should be required reading for all of you.

You can buy reels of tape used, but I've had one disintegrate all over my tape heads before (no, I didn't try "baking" it first) and it took days to clean off.  One of the best prices I've found for tape is through a local cassette duplicating and CD brokerage company (Northwestern, Inc).  It turns out they have a catalog of recording supplies at inexpensive prices and you just call up, order stuff, and pick it up at the front desk.  The cost for a ½" Ampex 456 reel is $37.85, a full $8.15 less than other shops in town!  It's even cheaper than most mail order catalogs, unless you order in large quantities.  

Speaking of catalogs, some of the best-priced ones I've found are:

  • Thoroughbred has a brief but fine studio section plus lots of music gear and smart sales folks 1-800-800-4654
  • Full Compass features a wide selection of audio gear.  They supply A/V (audio/video) people and have lots of cables at good prices, tons of mics, etc. 1-800-356-5844
  • Pro Sound and Stage Lighting is geared toward live sound and DJ stuff but has cheap mic prices and some good, affordable monitor amps. 1-800-945-9300
  • Polyline, the place for tape, CDR, and any tape related supplies.  They actually have the lowest reel prices I know of.  1-847-357-1259 (East/Midwest) or 1-818-969-8555 (West Coast)--ask for catalog 96A3
  • Markertek carries a lot of A/V gear but has such an extensive collection of pro-audio goodies that I had to mention it.  Plus it's the biggest catalog I've got.  1-800-522-2025.  
  • American Musical Supply has the best prices on instrument and recording cables and some of the DAT machines seem pretty reasonable. 1-800-458-4076
  • PAIA  makes these great kits you can get and build stuff for your studio at low prices.  Theremins, headphone amps, tube mic preamps, spring reverbs, compressors and a cool looking stereo mic are just some of the neat things they have.  1-405-340-6300

You can just call these companies and they'll gladly send you a catalog.  The prices on most stuff is comparable but you'll notice that one place may price  certain items quite a bit higher than the other companies.  I'm all for supporting local businesses, but when I walk into some noisy store and a mullet-head tries to convince me that a Shure SM57 is worth $130  it's time to try mail order!  If you've got a great source of gear and supplies let me know, even if it's regional, and I'll mention it here for others to use.  It's taken me a few years, and a few extra bucks, to figure this stuff out and I'm here to help others out.

Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.

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