Recording Engineer/Producer archive and so much more

Thanks much for the tip on that site. I just sampled the first issue of R E/P, a wealth of useful info for anyone today and great nostalgic ads for a guy like me.

Look at the articles for the first issue in 1970!

Eddie Bracket (United Recording, Sinatra, etc.)
Rus Gary (Wally Heider SF, Creedence)
Roy Hale (CBS legend, S+G, BST etc.)
Reice Hamel (Remote recorder)
GeorgeKlabin
(with engineer Geof Daking, Sound Ideas Studio, NY on recording drums)

This is gold. What a resource for folks like us. Recording techniques from the golden age are endangered by the dying days of the guild system. Resources like this site help keep the knowledge alive.

And the magazine only cost $.60.
 Next issue, George Martin from A.I.R. London (!)

Lol. Very true. Maybe it's different when you have 200,000 members. Probably a lot different when you reach 20,000!

Not me though. I'm an arse. But a lovable one!

Anyone else feel like Tapeop is mostly fluff, like advertisements and very lenient reviews and pretty sparse on anything else? I mean occasionally they have a good interview, but it seems like it's all about the advertisements.

I get that it's a mostly free publication and they have to pay for it, but I've gotten other free rags that had far more content and much less advertisements.. And the reviews.. It's like every review in Tapeop is positive to the point of seeming shill.

Or am I the only one that feels this way?

That being said, I'm not gonna let people come on here and smear products. "It sucks" is not a valid criticism.

"Note to self, replace it sucks with " it blows"..

Ask Jim Williams what happens when you write a bad review!
Subscription, and News stand sales are a pittance, it's all about ad revenue, and your right who's going to bite the hand that feeds you? So much of this industry is comped by the publishers, I think at one point I was getting 12 different free Audio subscriptions ( we were also a big advertiser).
So much about what we do is about esthetic, would a painter say a color "sucks" and be taken seriously? The only legitimate reason for dissing a piece in a review is if its faulty or The imperial performance is below spec or sub par, and even then somebody is probably going to find a use as vibe piece. Nobody wants to read about per ent of distortion and freq response though we want an idea of how it sounds thus the review reads like ad copy because the best ad for the publication is to be quoted in the manufacturers ad in another publication.
A Negative review pisses off the manufacturers, and distribuvutors and makes it harder to get samples to review. People in this industry have long memories and move on to other jobs so a bad review of say the latest say Eventide could result in not being able to get DBX products if the wrong person moves from Eventide to DBX.
The other thing is nobody ever listed any possible conflicts (Hi I the primary reviewer also write copy for one of the largest dealers).

For a while, I did a column and some gear reviews for Guitar For The Practcing Musician mag. I was asked to review an entry level wireless in ear monitor system from a familiar name in wireless products. After using it as you would typically, I called my editor and told him I couldn't say anything good about the product.  He said no problem and they wound up not reviewing it.  

Here's my assumptions when reading tapeOp and SOS reviews:

-they're only reviewing products that they think are at least decent for the money.
-unless they're absolutely raving about a product, it's probably just average.
-they're probably failing to mention some important negative qualities of the product.


It kills me when they say things like "Cons: none, considering the price" ... which is total nonsense.

The problem is when the manufacturer threatens to pull there ads if there isn't a review no less the implied positive one!

I never wrote for an audio mag. but back when I got my kicks from going fast, I occasionally wrote and took photos for certain motorcycle mags. It was the same there as every type of trade mag: no review means it sucked. Decent review means it was okay. Rave review means it might actually be good. I think it is a fair system, given that the mags that are still around depend on ad revenue. If you can't say anything nice...

I also saw it from the other side when I was a product manager for an audio manufacturer, and later, marketing manager for an audio post house. We would commission articles and submit them to the publications. Never reviews, but often interviews or news (advertorials) where the subject was using the gear in question. Again, the editor would choose to run it, or would politely say, no, thank-you.

I agree with jimwilliams that REP's reviews were particularly useful because of the tech data. I think TV Technology still does "On the Bench" type supplements to their reviews with real test data. That said, the review and supplement wouldn't make the mag if the product wasn't good in the first place. See above.