Worst Piece(s) of Gear You've Purchased

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by fritzmusic

Alesis DM5. Used it to trigger my bass drum one gig and the wall wart went out. Replaced the wall wart, pulled it off the kit since it proved unreliable then moved it to Midi function only. Then the thing would lock up on dual triggered MIDI events and then spike out by outputting only whast I describe as a Midi infarction by spilling all built up missed events in one big audible cocphony of unwanted dum sounds.

From what I've seen, MIDI overload is more likely to be caused by a software glitch than a problem with the device on the other end of the MIDI connection. I used to have that problem a lot with serial MIDI interfaces. Not once have I seen it with a more modern MIDI interface (USB, FireWire, PCI). YMMV, of course.

[mandrum]

Ok, perhaps not the worst piece of gear I have howevernot worth the price...
I have just bought into all the stuff on the adam a7 power monitors which if you you want to find bad reviews these days its easy for these they were almost impossible to find even then, minor quibbles. Ok, whats my quibble?
Every time i mix on these and it sounds fairly balanced not bass heavy(with computer), quite light actually, I then try the recording out on my hi fi system and what I get is quite different. My system is very good quality and uses b&w 604s speakers (which are a bit bass heavy i find). However match my recordings done with the adam's up to any industry standard, you will find mine are silly, bass mud fever!!!
Now before anyone crits the recordings, yeah ok I am no mutt lang, however I do know simple balance( i am a semi pro conductor/musical director). And dont try to tell me about bass woofers, i have spent enough already for a home studio. Just wish i had bought something which were more realistic. Isnt there another way to help with what i've got though, so that the recordings i mix can be more realistic as i mix?

[Dogbreath]

Sounds like a room issue...

Check out either one of these guys for acoustic stuff...

http://www.gikacoustics.com/

http://www.realtraps.com/

It doesn't really matter how good your monitors are til you fix the room.

[Sickoe]

i must agree Mobilepre has done nothing but waste my time

[dintymoore]

I've had pretty good luck with gear, but 20 years ago I bought a Tascam M-216
and I could never get myself to like the sound. I don't know if it really was all that bad or because the mixers I used before and after it were so much better in comparison. But it did something I could never accept to the sound.

In the 1980's I bought a MIDI merger called a YMM2 from Yamaha. It never worked right, and later I read that they never DID work right. So Mr. Yamaha, if you read this, you owe me $80.

For the last 10 years or so I've been using M-Audio keyboards. I've had 4, the current ones are the MK-461C and the MK-361C. I use them because they are light for gigs, the wheels aren't bad and it's got lots of assignable knobs.

But quality wise that thing is the worst garbage I've ever come across. It sets new ground for breakfast cereal prize construction. I've replaced 4 keys - they just broke off. And I've had the thing apart so many times it's crazy. I ended up buying a broken one 'cause the keys were costing me so much to replace individually. Compared to the repair history of the DX7S that it replaced... whew... but the weight of the Yamaha did me in.

Ableton Live is a useful program but dealing with them you feel like it's not a real company. For whatever reason they still don't make the program comply with the 1983 MIDI standard that every other company and MIDI product I have ever heard of complies with. They are on an island by themselves. Ableton Live does not recognize all the Control Changes up to 127 for instance, and Program Changes in the middle of a bar are mysteriously ignored (?)... stuff like that... and when you phone them... you get nowhere... they say "ya, we're gonna do that soon", and they've been telling me that for a couple of years.

[Victory Pete]

One of the first Alesis ADATs, and just recently an Alesis Masterlink, couldnt get the door to open. And ironically enough now Alesis's World Headquarters are north of me by about a half hour, no one was willing to help. I traded the ADAT in for a Tascam TSR-8 that I still use to this day. I returned the Masterlink to GC with a note in the box to Alesis about how pathetic they are.
VP

[ibleedburgundy]

1) Martin bottom of the line accoustic cutaway with built in pickup and fake back and sides. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. It says "Martin" on it but frankly, it sounds like shit, plays like shit, and the electronics inside broke after a few Months.

2) Audix drum mounted Mic set. These things totally suck. They are worthless. And the worst part about it is I already had enough SM57s to do the job. The only good thing about this set was the kick mic, which I still use.

3) Alesis ADAT XT. The damn thing worked for maybe 6 Months. I sent it in for repairs twice and both time they sent it back with the same problem as before and charged me $80 for cleaning the heads-which they may or may not have done. The only reason this purchase was not a total waste is because the ADAT now serves as an AD/DA converter if I ever need more than the 8 tracks that the digi 002 offers. So the ADAT still gets used at least.

4) VOX tonelab SE. I actually don't hate the sound on this thing but recording is almost impossible because there is a surprising amount of hiss. And it sends a very weak signal. So I spend two hours calibrating the various volumes/gains/levels to minimize hiss. And I'm still not thrilled.

[Jim Lad]

Windows Vista!
Not a piece of gear, I know but it deserves a mention.
I ended up switching over to a stand alone recorder.

[suprstar]

Digitech RP-series guitar pedals, freakin plastic junk... I went thru an RP-200 and an RP-300. Oh, and I have a Digitech Vocalist 300 that uses the same crappy plastic chassis as the guitar pedals. ONE of the 4 pedals still works, if I want to go up one channel, I have to go down 79 instead..

[ibleedburgundy]

Originally Posted by suprstar

Digitech RP-series guitar pedals, freakin plastic junk... I went thru an RP-200 and an RP-300. Oh, and I have a Digitech Vocalist 300 that uses the same crappy plastic chassis as the guitar pedals. ONE of the 4 pedals still works, if I want to go up one channel, I have to go down 79 instead..

Dude. If they suck so bad, why do you keep buying their stuff?!?

[suprstar]

lol, I didn't buy em one after another! Had the rp200 and the vox first, the 200 died for unknown reasons, but it had some good features (not the amp modeling..) Replaced it with the rp300, then that AND the vox puked out within a couple years. The guitar units could tune my whole guitar down a whole step from D to C without sounding weird, so I could take 2 guitars to a gig instead of 4. That was real convenient, too bad they were built so cheapy...

I'm surprised about your audix experience, what mics? D6/I5's? Just the clips shitty, or you really not like the mics?