Tape Op Magazine - Issue #29 - issue-29

Doug Martsch

Interviews

Tucker Martine

Interviews

Tony Visconti Bonus

Interviews

Chris Ballew

Interviews

Mark Neill

Interviews

The Basics of Patchbays

Interviews

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

AUGUST 21, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Seattle, WA Focus: Phil EK

Seattle, WA Focus: Phil EK: Recording Built To Spill

BY WILLIAM BERNHARD, KEVIN WILLIS

Hailing from Bremerton, Washington, Phil Ek grew up as a kid who was into music from the get-go. As a teenager he would travel across the Puget Sound to pick up the latest releases from SST and Sub Pop. Not wanting to stay in Bremerton, Phil moved to Seattle and ended up doing live sound at the now defunct Off Ramp. During this time he was introduced to Jack Endino [Tape Op #13] and became his assistant at Word Of Mouth studio, which is where Nirvana recorded Bleach (when it was called Reciprocal). After assisting Endino to record the likes of Nirvana, Hole, and the Supersuckers, Ek became the guy who ended up doing the demos for every cold call that came into the studio. He then went on to record a host of bands and is best known for his work on the past six Built to Spill recordings. When I spoke with Phil recently, we focused a lot on his work with Doug Martsch, the mastermind behind Built to Spill.

AUGUST 21, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Telephone Microphone

Telephone Microphone: How to Build A Telephone Microphone

BY STEVE MCALLISTER

You've had the idea — the sound was in your head. You've said to yourself, "Self, I'd sure like to make this voice (guitar, drum kit, etc.) sound like it was recorded with a telephone. But how?" Well, you can futz around with filters, EQ and compression to approximate the sound, or you can make your very own mic from an old telephone. It's the easiest mod you'll ever do.

AUGUST 21, 2025 INTERVIEWS

Tony Visconti

Tony Visconti: Producing Bowie, T-Rex and more

BY LARRY CRANE

There are very few record producers whose names grace large portions of my CD collection, and Tony Visconti is one of them. His production work with David Bowie (including the newest album, Heathen), T-Rex, Badfinger, Thin Lizzy, U2, The Stranglers, Sparks and many more has resulted in classic, great-sounding records, and his arrangement skills have shown up on even more records. A few years ago I went to listen to a panel of record producers talk about their craft, and, although there were some big-name talents there, the man I had come to listen to was Tony Visconti. During a break in the discussions I nervously handed Tony a copy of Tape Op and said we really liked his work. A week later Tony emailed me saying he had enjoyed the magazine very much (which thrilled me to no end) and we corresponded via email, with me eventually asking him if he would write an intro to the first Tape Op book, which he graciously and enthusiastically did. With Tony being such a great sport we knew he'd be up for a full-on interview, so while at AES in New York last year John and I got a chance to sit down and talk with him.

COLUMNS

GEAR REVIEWS

Gear Reviews

900-005 Cable Tie Tool

by 900-005 Cable Tie Tool | reviewed by Andy Hong

Being a DIY electronics geek, I think of the cable tie as one of the most amazing inventions of all time. They're cheap, they're easy to handle, and they can hold incredible amounts of weight (or provide incredible amounts of tension). I use cable ties (and the many mounting accessories available...

Gear Reviews

AT3035 Cardioid Condenser Mic

by AT3035 Cardioid Condenser Mic | reviewed by Larry Crane

As the world fills up with many low-cost Chinese condenser mics, the manufacturers who have been around a while have had to take notice of this and offer mics in a comparable price range. Shure recently introduced the KSM 27, and now AT introduces the AT3035, a mic which retails at a staggeringly...

Gear Reviews

ATH-M30 Headphones

by ATH-M30 Headphones | reviewed by Larry Crane

I've been on a quest for a variety of headphones for tracking use in my studio, as my trusty Sony 7506 cans are falling apart after 7 years of constant service. The ATH-M30 is the lower-cost Audio-Technica pro headphone, and I think in some ways I like it more than it's pricier 40 series brother....

Gear Reviews

iPod

by iPod | reviewed by Darrel Herbert

I recently got an Apple iPod MP3 player for my local commute, and found out that it has a lot of other uses that make it into a viable tool for the traveling engineer. By now you have seen ads for it all over the place touting its ability to hold 1000 MP3s with its 5 GB hard drive (10 GB now...

Gear Reviews

Live Music Software

by Live Music Software | reviewed by Chachi Jones

For over 5 years I've struggled with a dilemma common among electronic music producers - how do you take compositions that took weeks to painstakingly compose and sequence and perform them to an audience in a way that is dynamic and exciting and not simply "playback" and "mixing" of finished songs....

Gear Reviews

LTD-1 Mic Pre/EQ

by LTD-1 Mic Pre/EQ | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

The first mic pre I ever bought was a Brent Averill Neve 1272 and it remains one of my all-time favorite mic pres for guitars, vocals, snare - just about anything. It has this cool gritty kind of sound that is identifiable in the same way a Fender guitar and amp are. I have to completely agree with...

Gear Reviews

MOTM Analog Synthesizer

by MOTM Analog Synthesizer | reviewed by Greg Costano

Synthesis Technology makes its MOTM synthesizers the old fashioned way: modular and analog. A modular synthesizer is a collection of individual units ("modules"), each of which shapes an audio signal. Modular synthesizers resemble telephone switchboards with all of the interconnecting patch cables....

Gear Reviews

PM-PRO 20-Amp Power Conditioner

by PM-PRO 20-Amp Power Conditioner | reviewed by Andy Hong

One of the easiest ways to clean up your audio is to buy a power conditioner and plug all your audio gear into it. A good power conditioner will filter out noise (both electrostatic and electromagnetic) that can make its way into your signal chain - via incorrectly grounded circuits or poorly...

Gear Reviews

Q5 Headphone Amp

by Q5 Headphone Amp | reviewed by Andy Hong

One of the most important aspects of recording music is providing the artist with a good cue mix. Nothing can make or break a studio performance as easily as the quality of the cue mix. That's why a good headphone monitoring system is crucial. When you consider the big-picture cost of assembling...

Gear Reviews

SE3500 Microphone

by SE3500 Microphone | reviewed by Steve McAllister

Recently the mic market has been swamped with a bunch of low cost alternatives to high end classics. You've seen the ads and reviews that claim they're "just as good a Neumann (AKG, Telefunken, etc.)". Some of these companies use low cost capsules that originate in China ("but made to 'our' specs")...

Gear Reviews

Sigma 6.2 Reference Monitors

by Sigma 6.2 Reference Monitors | reviewed by Eric Broyhill

Easily the most surgical speakers I have ever heard. A good analogy would be that if the Meyer HD-1 were 16 bit these are 24. Flat within 2 dB from 40 Hz all the way up to 40 kHz with a low frequency response that almost approaches DC - these babies are accurate. The imaging is amazing, almost like...

Gear Reviews

UltraPhones

by UltraPhones | reviewed by Andy Hong

Two of the biggest issues with recording at home are trying to protect your ears from the drums pounding and amps blaring only a few feet away and attempting to hear what you're recording while protecting your ears from the aforementioned drums and amps. Up until recently, I only worried about the...

Gear Reviews

US-428 Control Surface

by US-428 Control Surface | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

I have recently been doing more mixing within the digital domain using a computer and recording software. While I like the flexibility of working this way, having to use a mouse for everything really sucks. With this in mind, I started to look at some of the control surfaces available and decided...

Gear Reviews

Vintage Warmer Plug-In

by Vintage Warmer Plug-In | reviewed by John Baccigaluppi

As a two inch 16-track recordist, I'm pretty wary of digital plug-ins that claim to offer the "analog" sound. But, I'd heard really good things about this plug-in from a few people so I wanted to give it a try. Bottom line is that this really does sound great and it looks, feels and sounds like...

Gear Reviews

VMP-2 Two Channel Mic Preamp

by VMP-2 Two Channel Mic Preamp | reviewed by Ian Swanke

Unlike many microphone preamplifiers in this price range (around $700), the VMP-2 uses Jensen input transformers and 12AX7 tubes to get the job done, as opposed to a solid state chip using a starved tube as a buffer. Included at no extra cost are 100 Hz and 10 kHz tube shelving EQs with cut or...

Gear Reviews

VT-747SP Stereo Compressor/EQ

by VT-747SP Stereo Compressor/EQ | reviewed by Eric Broyhill

Avalon was kind enough to grace me with the presence of their solid state/tube compressor/limiter which also includes a 6 band EQ. The first thing that impressed me about the unit was the sound of the high frequency boost/cut on the EQ. Boosting the high frequency on this EQ reminded me of a sound...