by Larry Crane
January 12, 2012   -   Comments (2)
I was fortunate enough to get an Apogee Duet 2 recently. This device hooks up to your computer's USB port (and is powered from there) and allows you to monitor audio. I'm not gonna go into all the details, see our review of the original Duet. At first I thought I'd never really need it, but after a few rounds of stem mixing and editing in Pro Tools on my laptop via the headphone jack it became obvious that something had to give. I set it up on my desk and hooked up my tiny Tascam VL-M3...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
January 11, 2012   -   Comments (1)
Some Maybe Not-So-Obvious Items Every Studio Needs  In the past we've run a few columns about items every studio should have, like Sharpie pens and masking tape, but here I decided to look around me and think about all the items that aren't that obvious and don't usually relate directly to sound and recording. And most are things I've gone without while at other studios...   Coffee Grinder Drinking Water 1/8" Stereo Audio Cables Clipboards Flashlights Fingernail Clippers Drum...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
November 25, 2011  
Eddie Ashworth dropped me a line about the work he and many other scholars are doing with the Art of Record Production folks. Be sure to read The Journal for the Art of Record Production online. It's densely full of articles, interviews, reviews and more, and while maybe a bit academic for my taste (I hated college, to be honest) but there are a lot of great thoughts and writing going on here and more people need to be awareof this resource.   < KEEP READING >
by Vijith Assar
November 4, 2011   -   Comments (1)
Last week Cycling 74 released the tremendous version 6 update to Max/MSP, their flagship multimedia programming platform, which provides an appealingly artistic interface into audio, MIDI, and video focused logic at a nonetheless intimidatingly fundamental level. The most notable addition is the certainly the optional new "Gen" object add-on, which blurs the lines between Max patches and the compiled C code used to create custom external objects, and then there's also a partial...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
November 3, 2011   -   Comments (2)
Artist/writer Keri Smith came up with this list some time back and it took on a life of its own. During a chat a client showed this to me as we were discussing being a musician and people that were "unhappy" with their lack of success. This sure seems to apply...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
October 24, 2011  
Submissions are now being accepted for Silver Sound's 3rd Annual Music Video Film Festival + Band Battle, taking place on January 10th, 2012 at Brooklyn Bowl. Silver Sound is a studio in NY that provides production, post-production, and live sound services in addition to music recording. Each year this event brings musicians and filmmakers together in a unique competition that you will not want to miss.The night is comprised of two simultaneous competitions: a music video film festival and a...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
October 5, 2011   -   Comments (1)
When we ran a page featuring senior contributor Garrett Haines' "Building Troubleshooting Skills" in Tape Op #84 I never expected to get the kind of replies we did below. The Letters section for upcoming issues was too full, so I'm posting these letters here on our blog. -LC   Wow! I don't know if I've ever read an article that I disagreed with so quickly. When Mr. Haines led off by claiming anyone can become a competent troubleshooter/technician, I went straight to the computer. I...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
October 4, 2011  
I just finished reading your article, "My Unwritten (Until Now) "Rules" in the studio," Tape Op #85. Let me offer up a few words of wisdom on your well-written points.  - Don't play music by other artists: In 1978 I was working with a national act that was on the Columbia label. The assistant played a record (yes, scratchy vinyl) by Jeff Beck. Turns out the national act had an ongoing disagreement with Jeff. We were both replaced the next day.  - Don't trash talk other...  < KEEP READING >
by John Baccigaluppi
August 17, 2011  
  Larry and I recently spent a few weeks in the UK doing some interviews for the mag that you'll be seeing soon. Over the weekend I left Larry in London to play some gigs in Oxford and Cornwall with my friends in Sea of Bees. One of the funnest parts of the trip was a stop at a small garden shed near Clevedon where we did a short three song acoustic set for Songs From The Shed. Very basic and very simple, it was really fun. The shed proprietor, Jon Earl, then treated us to...  < KEEP READING >
by Larry Crane
August 16, 2011  
Our pal, Marc Bianchi of Her Space Holiday is guest editing Magnet Magazine this week. He has some nice things to say about Tape Op, and as one of our original readers we thank him for the log time support and writing about us. Plus adding the video for a panel from TapeOpCon 2006 was a nice touch! Thanks Marc!  < KEEP READING >
Welcome to Tape Op Magazine's official "blog." We'll be calling this the Tape Log, like those sheets of paper that keep track of what tracks were on a reel of tape, y'know? Like in the old days? Remember?

Anyone is encouraged to add comments to the postings on here. Thanks for taking the time to peruse this site, and for reading Tape Op Magazine!
-LC