Remember Henry Hirsch from issue ? He's moved locations yet again, and his new studio (in Hudson, NY) looks fabulous. Check it out here. An unreal space and an amazing engineer/producer.... [KEEP READING]
Welcome to the beginning of Tape Op Magazine's first official "blog" (oh, how I hate some of these computer geek terms). 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?
Anyway, mostly there will be comments and information dredged up by myself, Larry Crane (editor/founder). I'll also have some of our writers/contributors join the fold as we move along, and anyone is encouraged to add comments to the postings on here. With the publication of each physical copy of Tape Op Magazine, there will also be posts here with bonus interview comments that we edited out for space or continuity reasons, writer's feedback and stories on articles we have run, bonus features that we have laying around and more. Plus I will fill you lovely readers in on the exciting life of a magazine editor, teasing you with stories about places we've been lately, where we'll be soon and interviews as they happen - and maybe even some of my cooking and home remodeling exploits if you're lucky. If you have ideas for items to post on this site, please drop me a line. Thanks for taking the time to peruse this site, and for reading Tape Op Magazine!
-LC
Anyway, mostly there will be comments and information dredged up by myself, Larry Crane (editor/founder). I'll also have some of our writers/contributors join the fold as we move along, and anyone is encouraged to add comments to the postings on here. With the publication of each physical copy of Tape Op Magazine, there will also be posts here with bonus interview comments that we edited out for space or continuity reasons, writer's feedback and stories on articles we have run, bonus features that we have laying around and more. Plus I will fill you lovely readers in on the exciting life of a magazine editor, teasing you with stories about places we've been lately, where we'll be soon and interviews as they happen - and maybe even some of my cooking and home remodeling exploits if you're lucky. If you have ideas for items to post on this site, please drop me a line. Thanks for taking the time to peruse this site, and for reading Tape Op Magazine!
-LC
Our compatriots over at Australia's fine Audio Technology magazine posted this video of a visit to Behringer City. See Video Here. It's a curious visit and Chris Holder offers some good insight into this man and his company. Thanks to Steven Massey's blog for this tidbit.... [KEEP READING]
By November 24th we will have installed a new Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console at my studio, Jackpot! Recording Studio, in Portland, OR. Excited? Of course. And look, no EQ, no preamps and no automation. Just pure, perfect analog mixdown heaven. You want an EQ? Patch it in. Really. -LC... [KEEP READING]
I just bought the crazy app for my iPhone by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers called Bloom. It creates, or allows you to create, ambient type music on your iPhone or iPod touch. It's well thought out and a blast to mess with. It's nice to see people creating instruments for a platform which don't attempt to emulate "real world"... [KEEP READING]
That’s right, somehow a lowly engineer and magazine editor that can’t even type has been asked to read some excerpts from Tape Op: The Book About Creative Music Recording Vol. II and moderate a panel at world-renowned literary event, Wordstock. Wordstock is Portland's Book & Literary Festival, and there’s a music theme this year - maybe that’s how I snuck... [KEEP READING]
I'm posting this for John as he's finishing up the next issue of Tape Op. -LC John Baccigaluppi’s 2008 AES Surf Report This year’s AES show in San Francisco was a lot of fun. The day before the show, I drove with our UK publisher Al Lawson and his wife Nadia to Pacifica, a small coastal city just south of... [KEEP READING]
Reader Mike Petkau dropped a line about the cool site and collaboration he started: "I wanted to point you to a project I've currently wrapped up. For 16 weeks, every Wednesday, I've brought 3 very different musicians from different backgrounds to the studio. They never know who else will be coming until they arrive. Over the course of an evening,... [KEEP READING]
You've probably heard stuff about the stupid-loud Metallica album. Idolator rang me up for some comments. Check it out.... [KEEP READING]
My pals Scott and Lindsey have a fantastic record store in Portland, OR called Exiled Records. Lindsey and I used to be in the Vomit Launch band mentioned below. This store is super hand-picked cool music - lots of out there shit, cool dub reggae, freak folk, vinyl and such. In fact, I dropped off thousands of CDs from my... [KEEP READING]
I'm in the middle of cataloging 1.5 TB of audio files. This is the work I do for the Estate of Elliott Smith. Two computers keep Pro Tools on the top one and FileMaker Pro and Excel for track sheets on the bottom one. Otherwise the MacBook Pro chokes to a stop! The fine folks at Mr. Toad's did... [KEEP READING]
My lady and I just spent a week in Seattle and took in the fabulous Bumbershoot festival. M Ward, Neko Case, John Vanderslice and Superchunk were highlights for me. I also got to see a NY band called Ravens & Chimes whom Howard Bilerman and I are recording in the spring at Hotel 2 Tango in Montreal - great band.... [KEEP READING]
Tape Op is sponsoring an event at The Hangar, aka Tape Op Publishing HQ. When: Saturday, September 6, 10am-6pm. Where: The Hangar Studios, Sacramento, CA What: The first Audio Underground Roadshow What’s that and who will be there: Demos of gear from AUG manufacturers; Ryan Hewitt (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182, Tom Petty, John Frusciante) who was profiled in... [KEEP READING]
Here I am at Powell's City of Books in Portland doing the book reading. Quite fun to get up and make an ass of myself in a book store. Thanks to Leigh Marble and Ben for playing sweet music, to Kevin Sampsell for arranging this for Powell's, and to Jenna Sather for arranging this on our end. Buy the... [KEEP READING]
I got an email the other day from a PR person looking for Tape Op to write an article about several "known" engineer/producers and their drum recording techniques in the studio. These guys are known, and one of them we've written about and I think he's a pretty great engineer, but the other two have really worked on some mainstream... [KEEP READING]
I ran the end rant about "Lies" I hear in the studio from musicians. I asked for "Lies" that engineers tell people, but only got these two. But they're pretty good! Please take with a sense of humor, according to Arthur, but there may be some truths in here too. -LC I am a recording artist, who tracks and mixes... [KEEP READING]
One of the local Portland weeklies did a blurb on me and the Tape Op book for the reading tonight. Mercury... [KEEP READING]
Quantegy , despite the oddity of still being an active link, posted this announcement recently: "Plans are being formulated for the revival of Quantegy 499 Gold Studio Mastering and GP9 Platinum Studio Mastering audio products, as well as the Black Diamond Hard Disk Drive series of products." Peter Hutt and Jahret Sylvester give their names as the people to contact.... [KEEP READING]
In issue #62, Josh Boughey reviewed the Monome 40h, a minimalist button-and-light interface which can be used to run musical applications. It's absolutely captivating in its simplicity; I'm writing this as an outsider, but as far as I can tell, the buttons act as the inputs and the lights are the outputs, and the relationship between the two is... [KEEP READING]
In line with Andy Hong's list of gear (issue #66) he's reviewed in the past that he still finds amazing, here's a list of stuff I was using this last month that I think deserves special credit for the amount of times I fall back on these pieces and how well they were designed and built. We're also installing a... [KEEP READING]
If you're sending tracks to other folks for mixing and/or sorting out, here's a suggestion from our pal Goat(boy), Andrew Gilchrist. -LC Larry, Sitting on a plane, flying today from Spain to Switzerland, on my seemingly endless tour. Finally getting a chance to dig into the march/april Tapop that's been sitting in my briefcase for the last couple of weeks...... [KEEP READING]
From reader David Matysiak: "I would love to talk to you about audio experiment that I've been working on. It's a project called Telephono. Based on the children's game where you whisper a message and it gets around a circle of people, then sounds totally different. In the spirit of the recording 'process,' I have launched telephono.org to archive this... [KEEP READING]
Vinnie Castaldo was in the new issue of Tape Op. Check out his reviews of his two fave educational DVDs. -LC Trust Your Ears: The Drum Tech Explorations of Jeff Ocheltree If you’re like me, always getting stuck tuning drums before a session, this DVD is way helpful. Jeff Ocheltree explains in detail the importance of tuning both top and... [KEEP READING]
Tape Op editor Larry Crane to do book reading and signing in Portland Friday, August 15th @ 7:30PM at Powell's City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside (800) 878-7323 http://www.powells.com/info/places/burnsideinfo.html Featuring readings from Tape Op: The Book about Creative Music Recording, Vol. II, a musical performance by Leigh Marble, long-time Tape Op contributor, home recordist and artist, questions and... [KEEP READING]
Yup. From 1985 to 1993 I was in a band with the polite name of Vomit Launch. One of our songs, "Exit Lines" is in a movie called "The Wackness", in theaters now. A pretty damn good movie, and our song fits the scene too well! Most of our back catalog will be on iTunes and Amazon by Sept. The... [KEEP READING]
Some Tape Op readers started this site/podcast some time back. More home recorded music. -LC "creot radio is produced by an international collective of independent artists. shows are recorded by individual hosts and are intended to reflect the musical associations and influences of that artist. music is not mined from a music database or internet site. this collective of artists... [KEEP READING]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-50magazines-story,0,2109988.story?page=1 It's an eclectic collection and somehow we made the cut. We're guessing it was an inside job... Thanks Chicago!... [KEEP READING]
Speaking of the art world, reader Halsey Burgund sent a link to his installation that “involves some unconventional recording techniques, mainly doing it wirelessly and using lots of open-source and customized software.” Looks like fun and chaos. [LINK]... [KEEP READING]
Tape Op Magazines and the Tape Op Book Vol. II are featured in the reading materials section of the "Sonic Youth, etc: Sensation Fix" traveling art exhibition. Thanks, Sonic Youth! "The exhibition Sonic Youth, etc: Sensation Fix focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of the groundbreaking experimental group Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. It features the band’s collaborations with... [KEEP READING]
Reader Brent E (bcengels at yahoo dot com) sent in some cool links about audio. The possibility of and “acoustic cloak” is discussed. The future of studio soundproofing? Music and Auditory illusions are discussed in the New Scientist... [KEEP READING]
Support the Future of Music Coalition! [donate!] The FMC is "a small, Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that fights to get musicians a seat at the table in debates about the future of music. FMC's HINT (Health Insurance Navigation Tool) program, which provides free consultations for musicians about their health insurance options, continues to have a positive impact on the lives of... [KEEP READING]
