The Guessing Game
by Larry Crane
In issue #133 of Tape Op, I interviewed Andrew Scheps. "I take everything personally. I curl up in a ball," Andrew told me when we discussed dealing with mix revisions from clients. I've been...
Columns
Sporadic and regular articles from our contributors.
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
Ever since I reviewed a silent, ionizing air purifier almost 20years ago [Tape Op #25], I've received countless requests to recommend an air cleaner for studio use. Just last month, I was asked this...
Zip it Up
by John Baccigaluppi
It was a simple thing, really. Just a short one-page lease agreement I'd helped broker between a beekeeper and my adjacent neighbors, whose property I help manage. I had sent two copies of the...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
A few nights before sitting down to write this column, I had a fascinating discussion about speaker design and acoustics with Eric Blackmer, son of the late David Blackmer (whose initials are in dbx)....
Letting the Process Happen
by Larry Crane
I don't remember a time while growing up when there wasn't clay, glaze, and kilns in my house. My mother had studied art when I was a baby, and she began producing a series of decorative and useful...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
After reading Tom Fine's informative review of the Mini Maglite Pro [Tape Op #130], I realized that it's been a while since I've talked about flashlights. My favorite task light is the Bosch FL12 Max...
Think Like Tape
by Tony SanFilippo
A while back, Larry Crane – Tape Op's editor – tweeted an observation implying that many producers, engineers, and artists fill up their productions with tons of tracks simply because the...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
Recently, a reader asked me to recommend a cable tester, and that got me thinking about what would be appropriate for today’s needs — with networked audio being as ubiquitous as...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
Recently, I was recommending a soldering iron to a Tape Op contributor who was excited to start fixing cables on his own. I suggested the Weller WLC100 40Watt Soldering Station weller-tools.com....
At the Feet of the Masters
by Larry Crane
Last year I bought The Beatles’ super deluxe 50th anniversary box set edition of The BEATLES (commonly known as “The White Album”). The new mixes that Giles Martin [Tape Op #103]...
What’s Your Time Worth?
by Larry Crane
Not long after I first opened my recording studio, (some 20 years ago, when people actually booked time via a landline), I got a call one day about a booking request. Client: "Hi, we'd like to book...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
Let’s talk tape. In 2015, I wrote about my favorite “sort of sticky” tapes for labeling and repairing things [Tape Op #107]. Recently, I needed to measure the diameter of a mic, so I...