Burnout?
by Larry Crane
For years I've thought about possibly interviewing a number of people who quit recording music for a living; people who had worked full time in studios and eventually decided that moving on to another...
Columns
Sporadic and regular articles from our contributors.
An Argument for Specialization
by Paul Abbott
We live in the era of technology democratization. As musicians, we now have affordable access to nearly any bit of technology you find useful. Powerful DAWs and plug-ins, exotic microphones, amp...
Gear Geeking #77
by Andy Hong
Allen Farmelo, who reviewed the Euphonix MC Mix, MC Control, and MC Transport (www.euphonix.com) for Tape Op #76, emailed me recently to clarify some points in his article. He wrote, "This is just a...
Proprietary Information
by Thomas Day
Forty years ago I began my career repairing industrial electronics equipment. Right out of tech school with a wife and a kid on the way, I worked on precision measurement equipment by day, and played...
Gear Geeking #76
by Andy Hong
Longtime readers know that I am a keyboard geek — a QWERTY keyboard geek — and my expectations for the perfect keyboard are hard to satisfy. I demand full-size keycaps throughout, as well...
Gear Manufacturers: Please Help Me Make Records
by Larry Crane, Garrett Haines, Steve Silverstein
I was sitting in my studio working on a mix session recently when it hit me — there were certain pieces of recording equipment that I tended to avoid. Over the years we've tried to weed out gear...
Gear Geeking #75
by Andy Hong
Back in 2003, I reviewed the VersiPanel roll-out wall (Tape Op #36), a freestanding partition made of LDPE (life- preserver) foam-core "runners" covered in heavy-duty fabric. I purchased two of them...
Cooking with Gas
by Larry Crane
Over the last few years I've gotten back into cooking at home. Partly this is because we moved from Portland, Oregon to a small town in the desert with few restaurants, but also it's a great "hobby"...
Gear Geeking #74
by Andy Hong
Cascade Microphones (cascademicrophones.com) sent Tape Op a number of ribbon mics to evaluate, so when JB and his crew at The Hangar were asked to set up a remote studio for Devendra Banhart's new...
Etiquette for the Studio Visitor?
by Larry Crane, Garrett Haines, Andy Hong, Steve Silverstein
We always come back to discussing all these human factors when talking about recording music. "Keep the vibe positive." "Make the client comfortable." "Discuss goals and money before a project...
Gear Geeking #73
by Andy Hong
Every now and then, I have to merge a stereo recording that's split into separate L and R files (like a Pro Tools stereo track) into a single, interleaved stereo file. There are plenty of ways to do...
Jay Bennett
by Jason T. Lewis
I feel like I have to say a little about Jay's passing. He was one of those rare people that came into my life at a time when I was ready to learn and he taught me more than I can say about recording,...