Miles wrote:I was astounded by Andy's, John's and Larry's comments about gear reviews in the letters section of the most recent Tape Op. Apparently negative comments in gear reviews are inappropriate ("if something sucks I just don't have the time to use it or review it"). This makes absolutely no sense to me for at least three reasons.
1. A person has to try out the gear to decide it sucks. Why is it a waste of time to share that negative opinion with readers? It takes just as much time to write a one-column review whether is filled with glowing positive remarks or negative ones.
2. Providing negative comments about a piece of gear can be very informative to readers. If you say, "Mackie VLZ mixers have limited headroom" (true story!), this allows readers to make an informed decision about the pros and cons of that piece of gear. If you only point out the positive stuff, you're leaving out useful information that can help people decide what gear they need.
3. This policy of "only mention the positive stuff" undermines the credibility of the reviews. Most readers notice the gear ads placed strategically near the glowing reviews of the same piece of gear, and it's clearly in the interests of companies advertising in Tape Op to be assured that any gear reviews about their products will receive positive evaluations. Whether or not it's true, from the readers' perspective, this looks like a quid pro quo: Tape Op will happily take gear companies' money to advertise their products in the mag, and the Tape Op editors willl make sure reviewers don't say bad things about any gear the companies sell. To be candid, this smells pretty bad, and it will encourage readers to disregard or trivialize the gear reviews.
I've been a loyal reader of Tape Op since the early days, and I've learned a lot from the mag over the years. However, this "no negative comments" gear review policy is misguided. The Tape Op zine I know and love is better than this.
A review should be biased. News reporting should not.
If a review has no judgment of value- good or bad, then it's merely a press release- so who cares?
The press release for a magazine should come in the form of a 'paid advertisement'. Must be delicate ground for TapeOp to tread if a gear manufacturers started to pull their advertising. As I've been responsible for getting about 1000 people to subscribe to this magazine over the past 4 years, I think TapeOp has the clout. Gear manufacturers NEED TapeOp, not the other way around.
Larry (and crew), cut to the chase on this crap. I don't need to read press release-style reviews.
Anyways, I have learned so much from your magazine and your hospitality when I was up at one of your fine recording classes. So don't let them get you down.