Allen Farmelo has been writing Tape Op gear reviews for a decade. His reviews are always engaging, educational, and importantly, inspirational. Allen always seems to find an arc up to a concept, convention, or belief that goes beyond the specific product being reviewed. He has a way of placing the gear into a more meaningful context — how it fits into the broader spectrum of what we do as recordists. I spoke to him about his new online venture, Pink Noise. "Engineers default to gear conversations because it's comfortable turf. It's not always easy to talk about ideas, creativity, vulnerable topics, and ineffable things. With Pink Noise, I'm often trying to take us — as an industry and a group of people making music — out of that comfort zone. I want to pull focus from the tools and get closer to why we make records."