I was just thinking a few weeks ago about the flood of gear we're bombarded with all the time, and the fact that some of that are going to be considered classics and further what a classic piece of gear really is. I mean, basically... WHAT is a classic piece of gear and WHY does it become a classic??
A short list of classic gear would be
........................................
Neumann U47/67/87
Pultec EQP1A
Neve 1073
Focusrite ISA 110
Fairchild 670
Teletronix LA2A
.........................................
I know people and clients that really dislike a piece or two of these holy grail gear and really prefer the newer stuff instead. I mean why does old have to mean good? I sometimes catch myself in the act of making gear \"classics\" that I once thought sounded really bad. You know... something totally new comes out on the market that sounds different and you don't like it at all... but then after a few years something else comes out that is a further development of THAT gear and once you hear that you realize that \"hey, that older stuff sounds really good compared to this...\"..... and you get the rolling snowball effect of it.... Like a good example would be the original 16-bit black face ADATs that actually sound horrible compared to todays digital standards but there are quite a few people who refers to them as having a magical sound.
Like, is all the new gear getting worse and worse and so we realize that the older stuff is much better, and the stuff that is older than the old stuff was much better cause... well..etc..... Or is it just that the new gear is \"different\" and you got to learn to appreciate the new flavour of things? I thought since there might be some older guys here that has gone through a few generations of gear could shed some light.
I mean, when the U47 was new, it wasn't a big thing. They cost just about what a Rode K2 or something would cost you today right? My feeling is that it's soooo much about nostalgia. I've not met a single person in the \"new breed of music artists/engineers\" that think the U47 (or similar classic piece of gear) is da bomb, not even the U87 for that matter. About 4 out of 5 people I've talked with really prefer the sound of the TLM103 to the U87. I've more or less only seen the old school engineers pushing the sound and use of the classics, and again... my feeling is that it's more like nostalgia and what you're used to hearing than a piece of gear actually being \"better\" than another.
I bet in 30 years people are going to go...
- Wow man... do you remember the sound of those UAD plugins? **** they really rocked da house!!
- Yeah, I have a friend who just got a hold of an old UAD-1 setup with three cards and the system to match for just under 20 000$
- WOOOW... imagine having the money to buy that kind of gear dude!
A short list of classic gear would be
........................................
Neumann U47/67/87
Pultec EQP1A
Neve 1073
Focusrite ISA 110
Fairchild 670
Teletronix LA2A
.........................................
I know people and clients that really dislike a piece or two of these holy grail gear and really prefer the newer stuff instead. I mean why does old have to mean good? I sometimes catch myself in the act of making gear \"classics\" that I once thought sounded really bad. You know... something totally new comes out on the market that sounds different and you don't like it at all... but then after a few years something else comes out that is a further development of THAT gear and once you hear that you realize that \"hey, that older stuff sounds really good compared to this...\"..... and you get the rolling snowball effect of it.... Like a good example would be the original 16-bit black face ADATs that actually sound horrible compared to todays digital standards but there are quite a few people who refers to them as having a magical sound.
Like, is all the new gear getting worse and worse and so we realize that the older stuff is much better, and the stuff that is older than the old stuff was much better cause... well..etc..... Or is it just that the new gear is \"different\" and you got to learn to appreciate the new flavour of things? I thought since there might be some older guys here that has gone through a few generations of gear could shed some light.
I mean, when the U47 was new, it wasn't a big thing. They cost just about what a Rode K2 or something would cost you today right? My feeling is that it's soooo much about nostalgia. I've not met a single person in the \"new breed of music artists/engineers\" that think the U47 (or similar classic piece of gear) is da bomb, not even the U87 for that matter. About 4 out of 5 people I've talked with really prefer the sound of the TLM103 to the U87. I've more or less only seen the old school engineers pushing the sound and use of the classics, and again... my feeling is that it's more like nostalgia and what you're used to hearing than a piece of gear actually being \"better\" than another.
I bet in 30 years people are going to go...
- Wow man... do you remember the sound of those UAD plugins? **** they really rocked da house!!
- Yeah, I have a friend who just got a hold of an old UAD-1 setup with three cards and the system to match for just under 20 000$
- WOOOW... imagine having the money to buy that kind of gear dude!