Welcome to issue #168 of Tape Op.

While I was editing Chris Tabron's interview that Greg Wells [Tape Op #123] did for this issue, his points about how people misunderstand their roles while recording really hit home, as it's so well-spoken. He mentioned that folks are frequently "emulating the tactics of people but not emulating their strategies." Understanding how others strategize while recording is so much more important than knowing how they bring these thoughts into action. Using a known engineer's plug-in setting is not the same as that engineer figuring out the “why or what” to use "when" in order to get great sounds or mixes. It's a point we come back to over and over in Tape Op. You won't see a yearly "How to Get Killer Guitar Tones" article here because that choice has to be made in the moment, based on reactions to everything going on right then, and – by the way – many times the worst guitar sound is the killer one!

Having a personal bag of technical recording tricks on hand is great. We all carry those around. But knowing why, what, and when to implement them is the key. And making mostly correct choices over and over means you're probably getting it right.