Interviews
Scott Litt: R.E.M., the Replacements & Nirvana
by Chris Stamey
Scott Litt is perhaps best known as the producer of six of R.E.M.'s most successful albums, including Out of Time and Automatic for the People. He's had something of a golden touch, both as a producer...
Interviews
Recording the Workhouse Album "The Coldroom Sessions"
by Christopher Taylor
Like many musicians, I have what could be described as an ambivalent attitude towards recording studios. On one hand, we have certain images etched on our minds — the sleek rows of gleaming...
Interviews
Recording & Music Creation Podcasts
by Rob Christensen
I love listening to people talk about recording and making music. Because I'm more of a home recording hobbyist, I don't get the opportunity to engage in this sort of conversation as often as I'd...
Interviews
John Congleton: St. Vincent, Explosions in the Sky & the Walkmen
by Shane Mehling
John Congleton has a lot to say about "character." It's what he looks for in his equipment, his rooms and the bands he works with. This intangible desire seems to fuel the Dallas-based producer's...
Behind the Gear
Rob Roy Campbell: Behind the Gear with Electronaut
by Larry Crane
Years ago I ran into a guy showing his tube mic preamp at a booth in the basement of the 2005 NAMM show. He'd built the unit with metal brackets from Home Depot — I kid you not. Since then he's...
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Reinhold Mack: ELO, Queen, Black Sabbath & T. Rex
by Larry Crane
"I did everything I did against the grain and in spite of people's opinions. All those supposedly great songs were done with no 'No's' — I don't think I could have done it any better doing it...
Danny Kroger and Lars Falck
by Bo W. Lauritsen
Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, The Script, The Raveonettes, Kaizers Orchestro or Tricky — it probably won't cross your mind that artists like these have worked in Copenhagen. In only five years...
Joe Barresi Revisited
by Daniel Rolnik
We first interviewed Joe Barresi in Tape Op #23. Heck, we even spelled his name wrong on the cover (sorry again, Joe). Here’s an interview from 2010 with some more of Joe’s history and...
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End Rant
Four Tracks and an Attitude
by Luther Russell
As a teenager in 1985 I slaved away all summer as a prep cook to buy a $500 Tascam Porta One 4- track cassette recorder. I proceeded to do what a lot of musicians of my generation did: record like...
Gear Geeking
Gear Geeking #81
by Andy Hong
I travel a lot — enough that I've been awarded a lifetime Platinum membership with American Airlines for flying two million miles, and I recently converted my Amtrak points into $2000 worth of...
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Gear Reviews See more →
HD I/O
by Avid | reviewed by Allen Farmelo
Converters and clocks are hotly debated topics, and it’s been my opinion for a while now that the reason they’re such sore topics is that people are often trying to establish objective and...
Creamer mic preamp
by Sonic Farm | reviewed by Kirt Shearer
I’ve said it before; I really like being in audio production right now. There is a seemingly endless supply of small manufacturers that are bringing innovative products to the market. This is...
Silent Way plug-in suite
by Expert Sleepers | reviewed by Dana Gumbiner
Do you love analog synthesis? Great, let’s nerd out on Control Voltage for a bit. CV is essentially the analog equivalent and predecessor to MIDI. It’s a tried and true method used to...
Yardstick 2496
by Quantec | reviewed by Joel Hamilton, Andy Hong
Here I am, Tape Op’s Gear Geek, butting into an otherwise enthralling review from Joel Hamilton. After reading Joel’s draft of this review of the Yardstick, I asked him to send me the unit...
The Indie Band Survival Guide
by Randy Chertkow & Jason Feehan | reviewed by Garrett Haines
Like it or not, bands view audio engineers as subject-matter experts when it comes to “the music industry.” And while you probably don’t mind providing pointers and suggestions,...
1608 recording console
by API | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi, Marc Alan Goodman
Two opinions, the first from contributor Marc Alan Goodman, who is the owner/operator of Strange Weather in Brooklyn, and a second from publisher John Baccigaluppi, who owns The Hangar in Sacramento....
Mbox
by Avid | reviewed by Andy Hong
Just preceding the launch of Pro Tools 9, Avid released new versions of their venerable Mbox audio interfaces. Confusingly, the product names are now simply Mbox, Mbox Mini, and Mbox Pro, while...
Pro Tools 9
by Avid | reviewed by Allen Farmelo, Andy Hong
A couple months before the official unveiling of Pro Tools 9, Avid shared with the press that it was implementing significant changes to its customer value proposition. We were given a few sparse...
XILS 3 LE
by XILS L | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi
This “matrix based modular synthesizer” softsynth, based on the EMS VCS 3, was an impulse purchase for me on AudioMIDI.com’s eBay store – one of their “No Brainer”...
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Music Reviews
Frames of Mind, Boundaries of Time, Looking for Anything, Release, Razzmatazz
by Chris Hickey | reviewed by Larry Crane
In 1985 my pal, Jane Rovente, and I were the music directors of KCSC - a small college radio station in Chico, CA. We used to go to the post office, pick up the bins full of promo LPs in their...