Worst Piece(s) of Gear You've Purchased

[scrubs]

Perhaps this has been done before, but I'd like to know some of the worst gear purchases you've made...Things you really regret buying and have never found a good use for (C1000s, BBE sonic maximizer, etc.). Perhaps this could serve as a list of things to avoid for home recorders on a budget like myself.

As for me, I have a lot of cheap gear. Most of it is at least somewhat functional for different sounds. However, I bought an ALTO alpha MicPre a couple of months ago because I wanted a basic two-channel pre for acoustic guitar recording (and was too cheap to spring for a DMP3!). It was only $90, but if I turn the gain up past about 9 o'clock I get a sound that could best be described as a barrell full of cats rolling down a hill.

What other turds should I avoid?

[stevem554]

anything that rhymes with scare-inger.

[invisiblenemies]

anything zoom

[notbradsohner]

the alesis 3630 compessor, behringer mics..............................

[The Green Hornet]

Lemmesee:?:

Methinks it was a Sansui multitracker, way back.

I got it from a store in California named BANANAS. Being pretty new to buying gear and recording at that time, I didn't realize that the multitracker was in pretty bad shap--push buttons that didn't push too well or were pushed in and stuck. Calling back to the store for assistance a few times I discovered the "salesperson" who was never in the store when I called. Amazing. But, from that point it was uphill, mostly.

It's still a Sisyphus hobby but a hobby full of fun.

Green Hornet

[xstatic]

DBX 376 "Tube" pre/eq/comp

I don't consider Behringer or Alesis 3630's "bad" buys. Those are just what you buy when you can't afford anything else. The DBX cost me a bit more though and wasn't worth half that in my opinion.

[Garry Sharp]

Rickenbacker bass. (For a few weeks I loved it. Then I noticed that many famous rick players had moved onto something else fairly quickly. Then I gigged with it and realised why it's called the clickenbacker.)

[lansingxcore]

b.l.u.e. "the ball" mic. it sounds so dull, no high end definition whatsoever... i ruled it out as an option for guitar cabs. i still have to experiment to see if it will work as a stopgap on bass drum until i buy an audix d6.. (right now i'm rocking the nady drum prepack - nasty!)

[Middleman]

I'm gonna take some hits for this one but twas my experience...

C1 mic from SP - just too harsh on the high end to be usable.

Presonus Headphone Amp HP4 - I could have built this from my garage junk drawer and had higher quality.

TLM103 from Neumann - for the price there are better mics with more variety of use.

Behringer preamps ughhhh

[noisedude]

I'm going to be a little annoying and say "nothing"! My Behringer UB1204 served me well until my ears were educated enough to hear the step up (and it was very flexible for monitoring with its headphone source matrix etc), and my C1000S ... yeah it sucks balls soundwise but having a rugged battery-powered condenser has been really handy ... shame I'm getting rid of it ... almost

[scrubs]

thanks guys. keep 'em coming!

[MadAudio]

For me, it would have to be my old Yamaha 210 guitar amp, bought used from a high school friend in 1983. I still have it, and occasionally use it as a rehearsal monitor. Ugh, what a toneless transistor piece o' crap! I think the only reason I've kept it is that I once let the guitar player from the U.K. Subs use it.

[leddy]

A Nady TCM 1050 Tube Mic. The "meow" from an average-sized cat would overload the diaphragm, let alone a good singer. It sounded decent, it just couldn't handle any substantial sound pressure.

Sorry, I have to add the "B" word. I bought a feedback eliminator and small mixer for some live stuff. The noise was unbearable, and the mixer added this harsh, piercing high-end to the sound. Returned them before the engine in the car even cooled down. Behringer is some of the worst stuff ever, IMO.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by leddy

The noise was unbearable, and the mixer added this harsh, piercing high-end to the sound.

So what would you recommend for $50 if not a Behringer?
I just bought one, and yes there is a high-end sound - Not unbearable nor piercing but annoying. However, I can clean it out with my Software. For my application it works for now.

[leddy]

Originally Posted by Dracon

So what would you recommend for $50 if not a Behringer?

For $50 bucks, I'd recommend a better job, or a second one.

I can understand not being able to afford an Allen & Heath board or some good outboard pres. You have to draw the financial line somewhere. If you dig Behringer and you don't have an issue with it, then live well and be happy.

Yamaha MG boards sound better than the Behringers (and probably more reliable), IMO, and they are about the same price, maybe slightly more.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by leddy

I can understand not being able to afford an Allen & Heath board or some good outboard pres. You have to draw the financial line somewhere. If you dig Behringer and you don't have an issue with it, then live well and be happy.

It really has nothing to do with affordability. If I were to do this as a hobbie or didn't care then money would not have been an issue. However, since all I wanted to do is record some voice for demo and testing I wanted to get a decent sound, and not break the bank. My wife just wanted to record the voice on a hand held tape recorder while the music came out of the stereo.
No one other than my family and myself will listen to this stuff. In fact, I finished my first track last night (not perfect - needs a little teawking) and it just sounds phenomenal. It's going to be for meditation, and I have bought several CDs with guided meditation. I have to say that (and not because I made it) I preffer mine to any of the other meditation tapes.
The other tapes while not bad in sound quality or music, the EQ engineer did nothing, and some of these people do not have a voice I like to listen to.

I have no beef with Yamaha, or any other mixer. Heck I don't know anything of this industry to have a beef with any of the equipment. (Although I did test the MXL 990 and while not bad, not for me)

I just wanted to make sure that it's clear that I was not ranting or being sarcastic when I asked the question of whether he knew of a mixer for $50. If he had an alternative I would have liked to know.

[leddy]

Sorry, I did not mean to make any assumptions. Your situation is more unique than most around here. Sounds like Behringer gear is suitable for your needs, then.

[Monsoon]

M-Audio MobilePre. Just a terrible, unuseable piece of ... equipment.

[cellardweller]

For what I've paid for my cheap stuff, I'd have to say I got what I paid for....

However, my Dell computer, I feel I did NOT get what I paid for. There finance charges come down to forced prison sex, shi!!y onboard soundchip, no vid. card...

My other crap, though cheap, has served me well to the point I've invested.

[maskedman72]

orban 622b eq....total crap.

[mattkw80]

I like the M-Audio mobile pre. It got me by for about 1 year, than I upgraded to a Boss Br-1600Cd.

I really dislike Digitech pedals and Zoom pedals.
Digitech and DOD Bullsh*t breaks too easily.

Matt

[jeff5xo]

POD and Flextone XL2. Thought they were awesome...................until I played through a tube amp! Line 6 are very cheaply made and not worth the money. Don't believe me, try gigging with one for a year. Plastic input jacks break (you have to unsolder old one from circuit board and resolder new ones, hours of fun!) "film strips" for the wah and volume pedals snap. Just total junk!

[LemonTree]

recording wise, I've spent a lot of time on this board researching and reading and reading before going to the store and doing the ear test so no bad buys there.

Years ago I remeber buying a Peavy Bandit 65W I think it was...that thing just sucked. The fart channel sounded like bees on helium fighting in a jam jar


As far as the behringer stuff goes I have an HA4700 headphone amp that does a decent enough job for the price and a V-Amp Pro that nothing else on the market can touch for the price. If you get in past the presets there's some killer guitar sounds in there

[noisedude]

Peavey Bandit ... that's the worst piece of gear I ALMOST bought!! I was this close to buying it before I spotted a 2nd-hand Fender Performer in the corner of the shop, and everything changed ... my first Fender clean sound.

[LemonTree]

INoisedude, I traded it later further down the line for an all tube Ashton Viper 50 50W combo...that thing shreaded. Sold it years ago when I was out of work and never seen one since. 8(

no pics but I found a review... Ashton Viper 50

What I'd give to have it back