TapeOp: The Book About Creative Music Recording Edited by Larry Crane Introduction by Tony Visconti Feral House, 2001 216 pp. $19.95 Available at Amazon

That said, let's talk about TapeOp: The Book About Creative Music Recording. It also rocks, and you should read it, too, particularly if you're only just discovering TapeOp the magazine. The contents of the book are largely drawn from early issues of the magazine, although there's some new content as well.

While the magazine tends to be a crazy mishmash of interviews, gear reviews, technical discussions and whatnot, the book is a much more organized and well-structured affair. After the introduction by Tony Visconti (of David Bowie, T. Rex, Iggy Pop, etc. fame) the material is divided up into five chapters: Home Recordists; Artists and Bands; Engineers, Producers and Studios; Knowledge and Techniques; and Recording Equipment. The first three chapters are mostly interviews, while the latter two are a mix of interviews, how-to tips and technical articles.

There's so much in here that it's tough to give an overall impression of the book. There's a definite slant toward the experimental/alt-rock world, which is only fair, as that's the place where the DIY aesthetic that drives TapeOp normally thrives. Fame-wise, editor Larry Crane has done a good job of selecting materials based on their content rather then on their marquee value. Some of the people are well-known (The Apples in Stereo, Elliott Smith, GBV, Steve Albini, Mitchell Froom), while many of the others will simply leave you wondering how there can be so many interesting folks out there that you've never even heard of! Like the music industry itself, the book is male heavy, but TapeOp makes it a point to actively support and encourage women who want to get involved in the recording world.

As the title implies, the book is primarily concerned with the actual act of recording music, as opposed to song writing, playing gigs and so on. That focus gives the secret geek inside many musicians the chance to peek out and to explain to the world just what is so cool about the half-working $5 drum machine they found at a garage sale, or their new experimental cricket miking technique. While most of the articles are by and about the people that are actually pushing the record button and setting up the mics (whether it's a professional engineer, the kid with a four-track down the street or the guitarist in the band), there's also a fair amount of material about producing records, including lots of anecdotal evidence and advice that should interest any band that's considering working with a producer on their next recording.

The interviews are really at the heart of TapeOp, and they're probably what will turn most people on about this book. The gear reviews are also generally insightful and well written. Yet while much of the other information is useful and interesting ("How to Build a Mic Preamp", "4-Track Basics", "I'm No Expert: Capacitors"), a lot of it is stuff that's covered fairly well elsewhere. Besides, some topics, like "A Beginners Guide to Digital Recording with Your PC" are sort of doomed to be a bit dated and incomplete. A printed book isn't really the best medium for distributing information about the specifics of current technology.

Thankfully, TapeOp is much more about the spirit in which things are done than it is the gear that's used to do them. That's ultimately why this book and the magazine that spawned it are such great resources; making music is in the end a creative cultural act, not a technological one. You can go to recording school and learn lots of technical information about the latest gear, but the real art of recording comes only from practice and, ideally, from exposure to the ideas and imaginations of those who came before you. TapeOp gives you the chance to listen in as creative people, well-known and unknown, discuss the process of making and recording music. And that's priceless.

-- Irving Bellemead