TapeOpCon 2002 Report (and Looper Sighting)

[Hans Lindauer <armatronix@charter.net>]

I'm just back from Sacramento, California, home of the 2002 TapeOp 
Magazine 
Conference.  It was a very interesting and informative weekend, and it 
would have been perfect if I hadn't had my rear windshield broken and my 
entire CD collection and my electronic repair kit stolen out of my 
car.  Even so, however, it was a great time.

Mr. Steve Albini gave the keynote address on Friday night, which was 
mostly 
an introduction to the Laffer Curve.  The Laffer Curve is a bell-shaped 
curve which essentially states that you need to keep your gear lust in 
check.  Someday I'd like to hear his entire speech concerning Spock's 
emotional and irrational behavior during his time of Pon Farr in Episode 
23, but he only gave the first ten minutes this weekend as a way of 
calling 
us all a bunch of loser geeks.

And geeks there were aplenty.  The kind with glasses and pocket protectors 
and garages or spare bedrooms full of the kind of gear that puts large 
studios out of business.  Rules were laid out in the beginning of the 
conference banning any type of analog vs. digital debate, Steely Dan 
bashing, or general gear-queerness, but we still were able to find lots to 
talk about.  There were excellent panel discussions on mastering, 
production, studio design, and the future of recording, just to name a 
few.  Q&A sessions followed each panel discussion, which was very nice.  I 
learned a lot during every panel.

The event was held at the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento, which is 
the most beautiful art deco theater I may ever see.  I was signed up as a 
volunteer, but ended up serving as Front of House Engineer by 
default.  Nobody else wanted to do it, I guess, and I had nothing to 
lose.  Anybody who reads TapeOp will see the absurdity of mixing FOH with 
a 
digital console to that crowd. :)

There were a number of great performances at night at two different 
venues.  I got tired and missed Calexico the first night, but caught a 
couple of really good bands the second night: the Freight Train Riders 
featuring one of the Fried Brothers on fiddle, and J. Mascis playing 
guitar 
and singing solo.  Mr. Mascis is an interesting character, who happens to 
be a Looper!  He was using one of those Z.Vex analog looper pedals, which 
I've been wondering about lately.  It did indeed sound crappy, just like 
in 
the advertisement, but not bad as long as you don't need any tone above 
about 5 KHz.  I considered telling him about some higher-fidelity looping 
gear, but he didn't really seem like he wanted to talk to anybody, and 
besides that he's an analog guy anyway....

This year went really well, so I'm sure there will be another TapeOpCon 
next year (not in Sacramento).  I'll be there for sure, and hopefully I'll 
see some of you there as well.

-Hans Lindauer