A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by cgarges » Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:24 am

Here's the guide:

Call or email Andy Hong. You can call or email Larry or John, too, but they'll just refer you to Andy. Ask if you can submit a review. If the piece has already been reviewed, he'll probably tell you no unless the review is actually for a specific mod for a piece of gear. He will probably assign you a word count. Write your review in an informed, intelligent, and easy-to-edit manner with a bit of perspective to it within the space allotted. Submit the reivew. Andy will usually send out an email noting the deadlines. If the review is interesting and well-written, they will probably publish it. If it is a negative review, they probably won't for all the reasons they've explained both here and in the mag numerous times.

(I left out the "buy, borrow, or rent and actually use the piece of gear" part, by the way.)

This is how it's worked for me for every review so far.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:28 am

AlSmith wrote:I think I'd rather be an asshole -- no offense.
mission accomplished.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:30 am

lonesome_tone wrote:
TapeOpLarry wrote:Can you tell people they can start their own magazines, especially if they're naive enough to think they can do one without selling ads and not lose money!
now, i like tape op very much, but i'm not sure i like what this quote is implying.
what? simple economic reality?

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by Scodiddly » Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:36 am

It's surprisingly easy to get involved. A while back we had a "who would you like to see interviewed" thread here, and Adrian Belew came up. I offered to try to interview him, and was a bit startled to be taken completely seriously by Larry and crew. And I would have done it, but things got rather busy right then so I couldn't do it justice. One day, though...

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by inverseroom » Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:50 am

I like synths and wanted to see some articles about them in the mag. So I wrote a couple, on spec, for the hell of it. Lo and behold, they went into the mag. I am not a professional and have no "connections", I just sent some shit in. There are lots of people on here who say really interesting things who should do the same, if they have the time. Even our pal AlSmith.

I like Chris's reviews, too, BTW, because he has a knack for finding cool forgotten stuff that is nonetheless useful. And much of what he writes is not gonna make a single penny for any of TO's advertisers. And yet everyone likes it.

Scodiddly, the "Alice" mic review is in Andy's hands, BTW. Don't know if & when he means to run it, but I still dig the mic.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by cgarges » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:11 pm

Here's another interesting story about submitting material:

I recently had an opportunity to talk with someone whose work I have really enjoyed over the years and though that asking him some questions through the forum of a TapeOp interview would be A) interesting for someone other than myself and B) a better excuse to get to ask him some questions.

I emailed Larry and asked him if he thought it would be a good interview. Larry was skeptical because this guy has a reputation for doing work based on a projects' potential commercial success and he wasn't familiar with much of this guy's output. BUT, he agreed that I should do the interview and thought that it it was an interesting-enough read, he'd publish it.

It turned out that this interview never happened because the guy wound up not doing the job in Charlotte as originally planned, but I appreciated Larry's open-mindedness. I wasn't sure that this guy was TapeOp material in the mind of many of the readers either (even though he built PLENTY of gear early in his career), but Larry's "run with it and we'll see how it goes" attitude really impressed me.

It's amazing to me how simple it is to get involved in the publication of this magazine and how genuinely nice and enthusiastic the guys behind it are.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by AlSmith » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:31 pm

Say what you want, but I've felt an increasing need to look elsewhere outside of this magazine and forum for recording information and for inspiration about recording. To this magazine's credit, the competition is worse. Having said that, more and more this magazine and forum is reading like a trade journal for "independent" wannabe rockstars, butt smooching, and self promotion -- and I'm hearing alot less form people who truly love recording and producing music outside of the confines of an industry which destroys creativity. That's just the way it is. I'll still read this magazine as long as it's free, and I'll occassionally go to this forum for info -- but I wouldn't buy this magazine. Just my 2 cents. See you later.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by AlSmith » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:31 pm

Say what you want, but I've felt an increasing need to look elsewhere outside of this magazine and forum for recording information and for inspiration about recording. To this magazine's credit, the competition is worse. Having said that, more and more this magazine and forum is reading like a trade journal for "independent" wannabe rockstars, butt smooching, and self promotion -- and I'm hearing alot less form people who truly love recording and producing music outside of the confines of an industry which destroys creativity. That's just the way it is. I'll still read this magazine as long as it's free, and I'll occassionally go to this forum for info -- but I wouldn't buy this magazine. Just my 2 cents. See you later.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by Fieryjack » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:51 pm

Say what you want, but I've felt an increasing need to look elsewhere outside of this magazine and forum for recording information and for inspiration about recording.
First, I would be highly surprised if anyone here only looked to Tape Op for recording information and inspiration about recording.

As far as Tape Op is concerned, as cheesy as it may sound, I think Tape Op has more integrity than ANY other recording mag, period. I WOULD pay for it (don't get any ideas, larry 8) ).

I also dig Sound On Sound. Others, IMO are crap.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by bigtoe » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:00 pm

'Say what you want, but I've felt an increasing need to look elsewhere outside of this magazine and forum for recording information and for inspiration about recording.'

as well everyone should...yeesh - i'm a TO MB addict at work here...but some folks take this stuff a bit too far.

happy v day... :hearts:
Mike

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by TapeOpLarry » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:15 pm

No one ever claimed Tape Op was the only source of recording information in the world. I read most of th other mags and many books and browse online all the time.

"a trade journal for "independent" wannabe rockstars, butt smooching, and self promotion -- and I'm hearing alot less form people who truly love recording and producing music outside of the confines of an industry which destroys creativity"

Yeah, it was sad to see self-serving industry folks like The Residents and Chazz Lyons in the last issue. And boy, Larry Levine, what a sell-out wannabe rockstar.

I'm curious what this butt smooching and self-promotion is that you claim to see. Really, I'd love to know because I have no fucking idea.

Al, you obviously have a problem with Eric Valentine. We'll occasionally have L.A.-based engineers in there as there's a ton of the bastards. Deal with it. And if EV is such a self-promoting butt smoocher how come he wouldn't even let John take a photo?
Larry Crane, Editor/Founder Tape Op Magazine
please visit www.tapeop.com for contact information
(do not send private messages via this board!)
www.larry-crane.com

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by soundguy » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:19 pm

Larry, I think he was talking about the time I kissed your A.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by inverseroom » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:46 pm

AlSmith wrote:Just my 2 cents. See you later.
Frankly, that felt more like negative six hundred dollars.

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by TapeOpLarry » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:46 pm

Oh yeah, we keep running those articles on Dave...
Larry Crane, Editor/Founder Tape Op Magazine
please visit www.tapeop.com for contact information
(do not send private messages via this board!)
www.larry-crane.com

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Re: A Disturbing Trend in the Tape OP Reviews...

Post by Coco » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:50 pm

Girl Toes wrote:my one suggestion on reviews would be to find random things on ebay and review those. Simply because I never by anything new.[/i]
Didn't someone review an old Urei LA22 compressor a while back? Same with some old Altec salt shaker mics. That could be a new section of the gear reviews. Maybe one vintage or used piece per issue so some people can be aware of clasic recording tools. Now that I think of it there was also a Reslo ribbon mic review too a couple of yearsback. There ya go!
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