He's always had big ideas, been involved with big projects and had hits with countless artists in his many decades in the music business. Although Bob will be the first to acknowledge how lucky he's...
Hailing from the Boston area, Josh Hager, aka Garvy J, has been spinning knobs and turning ears for almost two decades now. In the '90s, as a member and producer of The Elevator Drops, he helped usher...
Gerald "Jerry" Casale formed Devo with Mark Mothersbaugh and his brother, Bob Casale, in Akron, Ohio, in 1973. The band went on to record some of the most creative, subversive and often abrasive music...
Guitar amps are wonderful, mysterious things. Like any other amplifying or processing device, guitar amps impart varying degrees and types of coloration to the input signal, and can have character...
Years ago I met a young woman who was assisting at several studios and working with music people around New York City. She hooked Tape Op up with an interesting interview with stomp box designer John...
Justin Frankel has always pushed the envelopes of music and software. In 1997 he dropped out of college to release Winamp and found Nullsoft, which was later sold to AOL. Justin started a new company,...
I'm an iMusician — I like making music on iPhones and iPads. While I also like making music with a drum machine, in the studio or on a guitar, I consider the iPhone and iPad to be musical...
Up until a few years ago, efficient switch-mode DC-to-DC converters were too noisy to use in audio applications. That's why until recently, you didn't see 500-series modules that require internal...
I was an analog snob. Having fallen foul of a few ADATs back in the day, I badmouthed the sonics of digital: the crispiness, the sterility, the lack of depth, etc. In the last couple of years,...
When the Royer R-121 ribbon mic (Tape Op #19) came out in 1998, word on the street from working engineers was overwhelmingly positive. I borrowed one from Jeff Stuart Saltzman and soon bought my own....
ck when they were first introduced, I was skeptical of the Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers monitor pads (Tape Op #62) that have since become something of an industry standard. Having little or no...
Next on the 500-series hit parade is Shadow Hills Industries' gorgeous Dual Vandergraph! It's a stereo compressor with roots in Shadow Hills' own Mastering Compressor, a behemoth that has found its...
When contemporary music intersects with the world of classical music, certain things can be lost in translation. How many times have you heard a guitar player mention that he doesn't really know...
If you've mastered the skills necessary to build something like a Seventh Circle Audio preamp (Tape Op #35, #54), you might want to move to something a little more challenging. Eisen Audio has just...
This past March, I had my first experience recording to tape with CLASP (Closed Loop Analog Signal Processor). CLASP inventor Chris Estes was at Yellow Dog Studios in Austin to help us get started...
How many good vocal mics are there out there today? Probably way too many, but how many are truly great vocal mics? Now we can narrow the field, with the choice mics being mostly of the vintage or...
I can't think of a recording studio that doesn't require acoustic treatment. Like many Tape Op readers, we've done our fair share of DIY blended with commercial off-the-shelf solutions. If you run a...
Focusrite's compact, 16 in, 8 out, 24-bit, 96 kHz FireWire audio interface includes 4 analog inputs (2 mic/line/instrument, 2 line/instrument), 6 analog outputs, S/PDIF I/O, and ADAT in. Under the...
The DrMS plug-in is based on Mid/Side processing, a powerful way of manipulating stereo signals that grew out of a recording technique patented by Alan Blumlein in the 1930s. There's really no way to...
If you've heard of Steven Slate and his sample libraries, you're aware of one thing; Steven Slate loves drums. All kinds of drums - big ones, small ones, drums up close, drums far away...... drums,...
This standalone, cross-platform application allows mastering engineers to provide complete evaluation masters to artists. If you're wondering why this matters, it means that artists can review masters...
The Launchpad has, well, landed and seems certain to become a ubiquitous tool for users of Ableton Live (Tape Op #72). It's a compact and lightweight USB MIDI interface organized around an 8x8 grid of...
There are many jobs for which hardware still rules the music roost. But there are some that software does better - synths, for example. Though no software will replace my analog Minimoog, many...
In issue #76 I cornered Mac McCaughan in a donut shop and picked his brain about different recording scenarios. Mac hinted that producer/engineer Scott Solter (issue #67) would be an interesting...
In issue #20 we caught Tobin post-Guided ByVoices and picked his brain about his lovely solo albums. Years on, this one is just as melodic and beautiful as ever. Recorded in his home-based Moonflower...
For album number five, The Thermals hook up with producer Chris Walla (issue #19) at Jackpot! Recording in Portland, OR (I know, that's my studio, but screw you if you think I'm doing this to serve my...
In issue #70 we got the scoop on Sufjan's unorthodox recording techniques. This new album is more "electronic-y" with some "real" instruments mucked around with in some crazy ways. I think I like it a...
I interviewed drummer/recordist/producer Alan Evans in issue #76, and found his positive, creative attitude infectious. Here the band delivers instrumental versions of Beatles songs (not all from...
With guitarist/co-producer Buddy Miller (issue #34) and two surprising covers of songs by Low (issue #31) it's a Tape Op love fest here. Fans of Plant's collaboration with Alison Krauss will love...
In issue #12 we chatted with guitarist Stephen about the Blasting Room Studios and his time recording in The Descendents and All. Here he delivers an album chock full of guest vocalists (members of...
Dan Stuart (Green on Red) and JD Foster (issue #34) got together and recorded this interesting, kinda low-key collection of songs. I've worked with JD in the studio, and I can hear the touches that he...
In issue #71 I chatted with Pall Jenkins (bass/vox) about his SDRL studio in San Diego. Here his "original" band returns after 13 years and their projects, like Black Heart Procession and Pinback. The...
In issue #47 we chatted with these guys about their unique way of constructing songs on their first album using member Brent Knopf's Deeler program. Four albums later their sound remains similar yet...
In issue #66 Roy Silverstein checked out Paleo (David Andrew Strackany) and his song-a-day for a year project. Here he presents comparatively modest set of 13 songs in his ragged, enthusiastic style....
The leader of Varnaline and a member of Space Needle, Anders was interviewed way back in issue #2. Wow. Here he presents two albums for the price of one: Skyscraper and Crow. It's pretty cool, as...
In issue #71 I interviewed guitarist Andy Gill at his private studio in London. He mentioned Go4 would be working on new material. Here it is. They made it at Andy's. It rocks.
In issue #63 I found head Master Chris Goss working on an album at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, CA (along with Dave Catching, who pops up here on guitar). Here Chris gets back to his band and...
I interviewed Amsterdam's Zea (Arnold De Boer) in issue #52 at his home studio, where most of this fun, hyperkinetic album was recorded. Other sessions took place at Next to Jaap Studio in Voorhout,...
