[ READER'S TAPES ]

Sponsored by:

Here are links to MP3 files of most of the songs we’ve featured in our Readers’ Tapes column in recent years.

Readers’ Tapes is Recording’s oldest continuous column, beginning in our second issue in November 1987 and running without a break since then. Nowadays, of course, we don’t get many tapes—most submissions arrive on CD or CD-R. But the column hasn’t changed: we listen to your submissions, and let you know how you can make them sound better.

This job is handled by Marty Peters, a professional recording engineer and producer in New York who’s been dispensing solid advice to our readers since taking over the column in February 1997. Are you using the wrong mic technique? Not listening on honest monitors? Letting your effects get out of hand? Check out Marty's critiques and advice in the pages of Recording.

There may be a few tracks featured in the column that aren’t available on MP3 -- this can be for a number of reasons, such as a damaged or mishandled CDR that wouldn’t rip properly, or a question of copyright on the song itself (we can’t upload covers, or songs that weren’t written by the person submitting them). They’re marked in bold.

Also, as we offer this feature for the first time in the Spring of 2006, it’s not yet clear how many years’ worth of files we’ll be able to offer on a permanent basis. But for now, our archive goes back to our April 2004 issue, when we first began saving MP3s of submitted songs.

If you’d like to submit a song for Readers’ Tapes, you’ll find full instructions in any issue of Recording, at the start of the column. We do not accept any submissions via email, or any submission that does not follow the rules laid out in the magazine.

Have fun listening, and many thanks to all the artists who have made Readers’ Tapes the longest-running and most successful demo column in any pro audio magazine