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)....
Columns
Sporadic and regular articles from our contributors.
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...
Gear Geeking w/ Andy
by Andy Hong
For almost two decades now, a crucial component of my cross-platform file-sharing and backup strategies in my home and personal studio has been Network Attached Storage (NAS). My first NAS appliance...
Tough Love
by Larry Crane
Is there a fine line between naive encouragement and pessimistic, dour warnings of possible failure? (i.e. "Just do it! DIY!" vs. "Give up. It's impossible.") Over twenty years ago I was making plans...
Set Yourself Apart
by Larry Crane
I'm worried about the current state of how people are learning recording. When I first started tracking myself (and others) out of my home studio, learning how to record on a budget was a difficult...