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We're in Texas, so we and our consoles drink nothing but Lone Star(that's Alamo beer if you don't live in Texas and watch king of the hill). Tall boys preferably. I've got an eight foot console.

Erik Wofford
Stapes Audio

Finished up tracking a project for a friend in town from L.A. He's been doing indie rock for the last couple of years, but recently he's decided to not listen to anything made after 1975 and start doing country music. It's great stuff, in the vein of My Morning Jacket, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young,...

Yes they sound pretty awful when they're actually wet. The extra weight from the water really slows down their response time. I never said they were waterproof. I just said they were weatherproof, which means they can be outside, but I'm sure the rain takes it's toll on them after a while. They're t...

I set up some speakers out on the deck behind the studio as an extra listening room. They are "weatherproof" and really cheap, so I just keep them on all the time. It's really helped me in my mixing by checking the mix in a totally nonflective environment, and on crappy speakers. The other day I wen...

Ahh, Emmit Rhodes has some really cool piano sounds on his records. All about the tape and compressing the hell out of it. As tiresome as the overcompressed piano sound can be, it sure is the trick for some things like a dense rock mix. It's near impossible to find room for a natural sounding huge p...

I know Trail of Dead and Mike McCarthy personally, so I can put some authority into this. Mike doesn't track to anything but 456 2", and usually mixes that on a neve to a 1/2" ATR. Usually only tape splicing, vintage gear and a very old school way of working. He is the fifth beatle in this band, and...

I hear ya man. Live sound is kind of a dangerous thing for a tracking/mixing/mastering engineer. I've been doing it for a while now, and the only thing that has saved me is the musician's earplugs that you get molded for your ears specifically. You can go in for a hearing exam, and get fitted for th...

I work in a one room environment and love it. It definately helps that it is a fabulous sounding room with great gear, and really big windows with a view of the Colorodo River from it. I think it's much more inspiring for the people to be working together in the same environment, musician and engine...

I know there's a lot of people asking about clock distribution through spdif and optical, so I felt like I should address that. You will still notice a profound difference in your gear if you clock the recorder through spdif/optical. You don't need to sync the clocks through the bnc connector that s...

Does anyone know Jackson C. Frank? A MASSIVE influence on him. Actually I'd say that an even bigger influence on Nick Drake would be his mother. I saw a documentary on him a few years ago, and they talked about how his mother was a music teacher and she also wrote songs. There were a few recordings...

For really big and beefy, nothing in my locker can beat the Oktava ML-16 ribbon mic. The communist orchestra mic. Similar to the old RCA ribbons in that it has a lot of reach when you back it off, and it has a huge bottom end. The Peluso 22 47 works very nicely when I want big and clear. Spaced beye...

Here we have a recently serviced Drawmer 1960. I sent it into Thermal Relief authorized Drawmer repair shop about a month ago, and they told me what was wrong with it. I performed all service duties on the unit, and it has been brought up to spec. All the tubes have been replaced with new ones. The ...

I got the standard duty ones, and they don't seem too tight at all. They're pretty comfortable, actually. If anything, they might not be quite as tight as they need to be for me, but it just takes some moving them around. It's amazing how just moving them a little bit on your head changes how well t...

Anybody that doesn't already have a place to stay for the tapeopcon want to go in on a room? I'm a nice guy, and I'm sure all you guys are too. Email me and we'll talk.

Erik Wofford
Stapes Audio

There ARE headphones that give you the amount of isolation and sound quality that you seek. It'll cost ya, though, just like any good pair of monitors. I myself have been searching for headphones to use in my controm room-less studio with a very live sounding drum room. The only way I could get an a...