Tapco

The Tapco S8 are a set of monitors that are great for home use. Especially if you room where you will have them in is pretty small. I have used these off and on for about 5 years now in a room that is 10 by 10 and they continue to work great and cause no problems at all. You must keep these at a middle volumn and not turn the up too much. They seem to get a real sloppy sound when you turn them up high. So if you don’t blast your music and you have a small room where the sound doesn’t travel too far you will love the sound of them. Most importantly is the price of them, they are very affordable and as I stated they will last you a long time. SOUNDS I have used them in a larger room in the basement a few years ago and the sound just wasn’t good enough when they are being played loud in larger spaces. The sound was really muddy like and didn’t work for me so I kept it in a small room to eliminate that muddyness. I have tried tons of different monitors and not saying these sound better than most of them. But as far as price and value you wont get much more in todays music world. OVERALL OPINION Overall, I am glad I made the purchase and got these years ago. I still use them with my laptop and small audio interface today and will continue to use them as long as the hold up for me. These are some of the only Tapco monitors that I have used, I have maybe used 1 or 2 other types from Tapco. Tapco makes pretty good monitors but nothing that will blow your socks off. If you are on a small budget these will work for your set up.

The TAPCO Link USB is a two channel audio interface with low latency monitoring with the ability to power itself using the USB port. This is the ultimate mobile studio interface. The TAPCO USB has two microphone pre amps and each pre amp has phantom power for your don censer microphones. The price of the TAPCO Link USB is very low and affordable. Only downside is I feel that its lacks warmth in its recordings and does have a little recording latency but most of us didn’t care about the latency , but the warmth was a issue for me. The TAPCO will be an interface that you will out grow. I think it’s a perfect interface for a beginner or someone who is just doing music for fun, but once you get more in depth and get some better microphones you will outgrow this device pretty quickly. It doesn’t have the specs to keep up with your upgrades. UTILIZATION You can use this on multiple platforms though, I only used it on a Windows XP system at the time, for it to be a cheap device, it does use very little amount of CPU which is great if you are into running a lot of plug ins and effects. You don’t want your interface to use a lot of CPU and this one doesn’t. GETTING STARTED Installing it was simple and only took a few minutes, and it does come with a music production software but I wouldn’t dare to use it. Its called Tracktion Music Production software. Most people never use the software that comes with the interfaces unless its pro tools or Abelton. But just in case you are new to recording it does come with something so you can record right out of the box. OVERALL OPINION The lacking warmth of the TAPCO USB is the deal breaker for me, warmth is key for our recordings and I think that maybe we are just to advanced for a interface like this. That doesn’t mean that its not a decent interface, but you will eventually out grow it.

The Tapco S5 are an very affordable set of studio monitors that almost any one can afford to have for home. You wont find these in any major studio because they just aren't built for that. They are made for the everyday musician that is on a budget and cant afford to spend a bunch of money on gear, not just monitors. SOUNDS The sound is pretty good for a cheap pair of monitors. You wont be able to say that they can compare to some of the higher end monitors or any of the KRK line. But with that being said you will still get a great mix in them if you can understand how they sound compared to other systems. Even if you have to listen to some cd quality songs through them to kind of compare your own mixes to the ones on the cd will give you a better idea of how you need to mix and master. Most of the time with monitors its not the quality of the monitor its how well you understand how the monitor will respond to the levels and frequencies. If you can figure that out then almost any decent set of monitors will work for you. OVERALL OPINION Overall, they are decent monitors and for the price you can expect to get studio quality sound, but as I said if you take the time to understand them you will still get good mixes. I really don’t suggest mastering in them though just because I wouldn’t want to waste time trying to master in monitors that are sub par from the start. You will need to make a little better investment in some monitors for mastering in or let someone else master for you. All in all, they are good and they are cheap. You would need to listen to them to make your own decision if they could work for you though.

Pro-studio musician with forty years experience, playing all styles on Major Label recordings and National-tours. I bought this J-800 stereo power amplifier from Musician's Friend for $229.00, free shipping included. This amplifier performs favorably with those in the higher priced categories, like Crown, Crest, Mackie, and the very venerable QSC amps. Differences are: slight reduction in signal-to-noise ratio, less cooling / more heating, and a trifling reduction in low frequencies (below 60 Hz)and extreme high frequencies (above 18kHz.) That makes it perfect for super-quality reproduction of vocals and digital modeling guitar pre-amps, without going overboard in specs or bucks. Nothing, except perhaps that it is made overseas and I prefer to buy American stuff. Mackie knows how to engineer and spec-out production though, so I do not foresee any problems. To hit this low price point, it HAS to be made abroad. If there are any problems with this type of gear, it usually is user error. I run two 8-ohm QSC speakers, so I expect this thing will last. For a 200 watt amplifier ( at 8-ohms stereo,) it is a bit heavier than the high-priced amps. That isn't a big problem in a rolling rack though. Built with fully-shielded steel case and rack ears. All knobs and potentiometers feel solid. Pro-Connections are secure, thoughtfully laid-out and clearly labeled. Great big bang for the buck! If you power a small stereo portable PA, this is a fantastic bargain! If you are running a house PA for a rock band, this isn't enough juice, but for my small PA and Jazz guitar, it is overkill... far better than those cheap portable PAs and carrying a guitar amp too. I suppose Mackie engineered the amp to run at 4 or even 2 ohms, but I wouldn't try it. As it is, it sounds fine. Put it in a rack, run it right, give it air to cool, and I'll bet this thing will perform for many years. I bet $229 of my own on that wager! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com