My Top 3 Musical Purchases Of All Time!
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:53 pm
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!
I was going through my gear the other day for insurance purposes, and started musing on which purchases were THE best I've ever made. I'd have to start with my 1963 Fender Stratocaster. I bought it down in Oklahoma city in the 70's (after my '65 Sunburst Strat was stolen). It was sitting on a guitar techie's bench with the finish all stripped off, just bare wood. I picked it up, played it, and loved it! So I asked the guy how much he'd let it go for, "as is." He thought for a second or two, and said "How about $200." I said "Sold!"... I still have her; she's my baby. And she's worth at least 100 times what I paid for her!
#2 is a Soundcraft 1-S 16x4 mixing board. It's one of the first ones Soundcraft ever made, and ironically was used on The Eurythmics' first album. Same setup as mine at the time: Soundcraft board and a 1/2" Tascam 8-track... The only thing was that board cost over $4000!!! Woah, baby. But it's worth every penny. I still use it every day in my studio. The mic preamps are amazing, as are the individual "English Parametric EQs" on each channel. It's a +4 (pro level) board, and still sounds amazing!
Finally, #3 is a piece of gear available to anyone with a modest budget (if they still make 'em). It's an Alesis Masterlink Digital Mastering Audio Recorder. That thing is astonishing in what it will do. It comes with a hard drive, multiple inputs and outputs, software such as compression, EQ, crop etc., and is so versatile. The final cool thing is you can arrange your tracks in any order you want, then they go into a CD burner drive! Since CD-R's are so cheap (I use Taiyo Yuden), you can burn a CD mix, take it out into the car etc., and if it sucks, make a coaster out of it and try it again until you get it right... I must've paid around $900 for it about 8 years ago, and that was a STEAL! It's NEVER failed me, and plugging XLR cables directly out of my Soundcraft into the Materlink is a breeze. It's a definite "must have" if you're at all serious about recording.
Next post: How I bought a Sennheiser K2-U condenser microphone at a garage sale for $5.00!
Peace,
Ern
I was going through my gear the other day for insurance purposes, and started musing on which purchases were THE best I've ever made. I'd have to start with my 1963 Fender Stratocaster. I bought it down in Oklahoma city in the 70's (after my '65 Sunburst Strat was stolen). It was sitting on a guitar techie's bench with the finish all stripped off, just bare wood. I picked it up, played it, and loved it! So I asked the guy how much he'd let it go for, "as is." He thought for a second or two, and said "How about $200." I said "Sold!"... I still have her; she's my baby. And she's worth at least 100 times what I paid for her!
#2 is a Soundcraft 1-S 16x4 mixing board. It's one of the first ones Soundcraft ever made, and ironically was used on The Eurythmics' first album. Same setup as mine at the time: Soundcraft board and a 1/2" Tascam 8-track... The only thing was that board cost over $4000!!! Woah, baby. But it's worth every penny. I still use it every day in my studio. The mic preamps are amazing, as are the individual "English Parametric EQs" on each channel. It's a +4 (pro level) board, and still sounds amazing!
Finally, #3 is a piece of gear available to anyone with a modest budget (if they still make 'em). It's an Alesis Masterlink Digital Mastering Audio Recorder. That thing is astonishing in what it will do. It comes with a hard drive, multiple inputs and outputs, software such as compression, EQ, crop etc., and is so versatile. The final cool thing is you can arrange your tracks in any order you want, then they go into a CD burner drive! Since CD-R's are so cheap (I use Taiyo Yuden), you can burn a CD mix, take it out into the car etc., and if it sucks, make a coaster out of it and try it again until you get it right... I must've paid around $900 for it about 8 years ago, and that was a STEAL! It's NEVER failed me, and plugging XLR cables directly out of my Soundcraft into the Materlink is a breeze. It's a definite "must have" if you're at all serious about recording.
Next post: How I bought a Sennheiser K2-U condenser microphone at a garage sale for $5.00!
Peace,
Ern