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Tape Op

25 stories

Tape OpStudios & prosCar Seat Headrest revisit "Teens of Denial" The "new" Car Seat Headrest album, Teen of Denial (Joe’s Story) , has been out since May 20th, 2026, and (as usual) the web is filled with paranoia, misinformation, and assumptions. I get...

Tape OpStudios & prosGrateful Dead: Merriweather 6/30/85 The Grateful Dead show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland on June 30th, 1985 has a star next to it on many Deadheads

Tape OpStudios & prosNew Beck Album: Ride Lonesome The sunshine memories of a long-lost Laurel Canyon have continued to seep into Beck Hansen

Tape OpStudios & prosHidden Musics By 2014, I'd already been transitioning for more than five years from working in traditional studios to almost exclusively doing field recordings overseas.

Tape OpStudios & prosJoe Boles Read our interview with Joe Boles in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

Tape OpStudios & prosRostam Batmanglij Ever since Rostam Batmanglij burst onto the scene as a founding member of Vampire Weekend, he’s been known for his penchant for baroque and leftfield sounds in pop-leaning indie music.

Tape OpStudios & prosFloating Points Although I had heard of Floating Points, the project of London-based musician Sam Shepherd, it was the 2021 album Promises – made in collaboration with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony…

Tape OpStudios & prosMelina Duterte Melina Duterte began recording her own music armed with little more than a laptop, a budget mic, and a fascination with how records are made.

Tape OpStudios & prosSharon Van Etten Since early in her career, Sharon Van Etten has been refreshingly open about her recording process and the lifelong learning aspect of it.

Tape OpStudios & prosYves Jarvis Yves Jarvis is the moniker of Canadian musician Jean-Sébastien Yves Jarvis. His latest release, All Cylinders , won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize for best album of 2025, a record on which Jarvis wrote…

Tape OpStudios & prosOli Jacobs A graduate of the Tonmeister course, a former Head Engineer at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios [ Tape Op #63 ], and now an in-demand mixer, engineer, and collaborator with Jack Antonoff and Laura…

Tape OpStudios & prosCatherine Anne Davies: is Still The Anchoress In issue #149 of Tape Op , I was lucky enough to interview Catherine Anne Davies about her musical career as The Anchoress.

Tape OpStudios & prosWelcome to issue #175 of Tape Op. As we've been doing publicity for our recently released book, Making Music: Conversations With Record Producers , many of the people interviewing John Baccigaluppi and me have asked, "So, what is a…

Tape OpStudios & prosLanguage as a Barrier I had a session coming in that was seeking to record, overdub, and mix three songs in one 10-hour day. I figured I

Tape OpStudios & prosGear Geeking - Issue 175 A sound pressure level meter is a great tool for promoting safe monitoring volumes, but it

Tape OpStudios & prosEpisode 122: Ed O'Brien Ed O'Brien needs no introduction. As a founding member and guitarist for Radiohead, he has helped shape a generation of music creators and listeners with his unique style and otherworldly sonics.

Tape OpStudios & prosAdrian Younge Releases Afro-Disco Makossa This new release from Adrian Younge [ Tape Op #119 ] is a modern day Afrobeat offering that has some modern sensibilities, but a foot firmly planted in the era of the genre

Tape OpStudios & prosMaking Music: Conversations With Record Producers is Out Now Our new book, Making Music: Conversations With Record Producers, is out now and you can find it at your favorite book store and online! If you want to buy a copy online, weâd appreciate it if you buy...

Tape OpStudios & prosQuantum LT 2, 4, & 16 audio interfaces Review of Quantum LT 2, 4, & 16 audio interfaces by Fender. Read the full review in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

Tape OpStudios & prosDirect In analog amp emulator DI Review of Direct In analog amp emulator DI by Skreddy Pedals. Read the full review in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

Tape OpStudios & prosSC2 500 Optical Stereo Compressor Review of SC2 500 Optical Stereo Compressor by Trident Audio. Read the full review in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

Tape OpStudios & prosIER-M500 in-ear monitors Review of IER-M500 in-ear monitors by Sony. Read the full review in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

Tape OpStudios & prosType 40 Mains monitor speakers Review of Type 40 Mains monitor speakers by HEDD. Read the full review in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

Tape OpStudios & prosBig Time Analog/Digital Echo Review of Big Time Analog/Digital Echo by Chase Bliss. Read the full review in Tape Op Magazine Issue #175.

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

On view

This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every six hours, linked to the original

About

Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.