I never went to school to learn how to become a recording engineer.* But, regardless, some studio fundamentals and skills took me years to learn, and every time I did gain knowledge it was often under...
It's no secret that ever since the internet took over our lives that we live in an "I want it now" culture. That is the opposite of how I started recording music and running a studio. It was 30-plus...
What are the personal rewards of making and recording music? Or, maybe more tellingly, what are the rewards of recording other people's music? Steve Albini & Lil BUB — Mark Pallman from...
In this issue, we present the second of our interviews with recording engineer and producer Donn Landee, as first seen in issue #157. To say I was thrilled to get Donn into Tape Op is an...
Every issue of Tape Op comes together in slightly different ways. John Baccigaluppi and I will juggle different interviews to run, looking for some magical balance of genres, styles of recording, and...
In this issue, we were lucky to speak with friends, family, and bandmates of the late Mark Linkous, aka Sparklehorse, about his recently released posthumous album, Bird Machine. In 1999, we...
As an adjunct to the End Rant this issue, I should explain something about myself and how I work in the studio; something that will likely seem incongruous with my position as Tape Op's founder and...
While brainstorming the "Not So Oblique Strategies" End Rant for this issue, I was reminded of a very simple, but truthful (and not so oblique), thought I've been trying to convey via Tape Op for...
In 1996, not long before I opened the doors at Jackpot! Recording Studio, I had to decide what format we would track to. I had been using a Tascam 8-track tape deck for the previous couple of years...
This issue’s guest End Rant, “Industry Standard,” by my pal Garrett Haines, led me to recall a session and album from nearly two decades ago. John Vecchiarelli was a busy, gigging...
Over the last 15 years, my studio career has leaned more and more towards the mixing process. I'm still involved in producing many tracking and overdubbing sessions, but even long before the...
When this magazine began, one aspect of the music creation process I decided not to write about was how the finished recordings actually get to the listener. I’d already seen several iterations...
When we hit milestones (such as 150 issues of this magazine!), I always pause and think about what it all means. This magazine is named Tape Op for a reason. What is a tape op? Well, as we get further...
