Ultimate survey ... to trust or not to trust

[mcr]

I just saw this thread asking for Grace 101 users ... and big surprise, only one person turned out to own the Grace. I found a similar thread on audioforums.com with again only one owner.

I thought that's weird ... so many people recommend the Grace but noone really buys it. So, maybe that's the way things go on this forum. Everyone talks loud about A) but buys B). But if everybody recommends the $500 Grace 101, yet ends up buying the $200 DMP3, I conclude the Grace might "maybe" be a weenie-bit better but it's not really worth the money.

Here's my adhoc list of gear that I see around frequently. Each piece has it's own number. All I'm asking you is to please take the time and respond shortly. Just write the number that refers to the piece(s) of gear you own and say how many you have ...
e.g. if you have five dbx 376 ---> write 2) 5x
If you know personally a friend and know what gear he/she uses, it would be cool to add their numbers to yours to increase the sample size ... just mention the total number of people you're psot is representing.
I'll go through it all and post a summary once/if there's a decent number of responses

I'm really curious to see which gear people really own as supposed the gear everyone talks about


channel strips:

1) Behinger Ultra-Voice
2) dbx 376/386
3) dbx 576
4) Drawmer MX60
5) Focusrite Voicemaster
6) HHB Radius 40/50
.
8) Joemeek VC1/VC1Qcs/VC6Q
9) Mindprint Envoice
10) SPL Channel One
11) SPL Track One
12) Symetrix 528(E)
13) TLA 5051

preamps:

14) ART Tube MP/Studio/Channel
15) Mindprint DI
16) Grace 101
17) M-Audio DMP2/DMP3
18) Presonus Blue Tube

compressors:

19) Behringer Composer Pro
20) dbx 166/266
21) FMR RNC
22) Presonus MP20

later additions:

24) HHB 5/10
25) JoeMeek VC3Q/MQ3
26) Presonus BlueMax
27) Behringer Autocom/Multicom

[mcr]

8) 1x
9) 1x
19) 1x
21) 1x

[Track Rat]

I've brought this up before as well about people raveing about gear that they either don't own, haven't ever used or is not even on the market yet.
I have 1 DBX386
1 HHB Radius 5
1 HHB Radius 10
1 MindPrint Envoice (with the digital I/O)
1 Behringer Composer Pro
1 DBX 266
2 FMR RNC's
I have other toys but that's what I have that's on or near the list.

[Gidge]

Ok, here we go....i have a few friends that have Lexus's.....on occasion I have driven their cars as they have driven mine.....nice smooth beautiful ride....as friends of theirs, i know they have no mechanical problems or issues with dealer service....id definitely recommend someone buy one if they can afford it.....

on the other hand, i drive a Toyota Corolla....decent ride....not as roomy, but comfortable.....only minor mechanical issues....good dealer service.....its what I can afford......

do i have to OWN that Lexus to recommend it?....

so many people recommend the Grace but buy the DMP3?....this is HOME recording.com......there are gear sluts here, but most of us can't/won't shell out $550 for one channel of pre....it is a better pre than the DMP3, but is it worth $450/channel more than the DMP3?...that is up to the person putting out the cash.....it is more than a "weenie bit better", but not enuff for me....

i picked up my DMP2 for $80 and my 2 Joe Meek VC3Q's for$99 each...now i have 4 channels of good quality pre's for $278 with some different tonal qualities....thats about half of what i woulda paid for 1 channel of the Grace 101......

if you have the noodles to pay the $550 for the Grace, you wont go wrong....in that same range the VC1QCS is a real nice preamp.....

so in essence, im saying those with the $$$ to spend, get the Grace 101 or the Joe Meek VC1QCS.....stepping down, the DMP2/DMP3 and the Joe Meek VC3Q/MQ3 are nice....for the real cheapskates, theres the Audio Buddy......

i think what it comes down to when recommending preamps is the budget of the person looking for the preamp.....if the person wants t0 spend under a hundred, its the Art Tube MP or the Audio Buddy...under 200 the Delta or the Joe Meek i mentioned....around $500, the Grace 101 or the VC1QCS.....more than that, ask someone else...i dont touch preamps that expensive.......

so i have:
1 Shure sm57
1 Marshall MXLv67G
1 Delta DMP2
2 Joe Meek VC3Q's
1 Delta Audiophile 2496
1 Behringer Autocom Pro

so i think next time someone recommends gear, dont hesistate to "call them" on it...ask if they owned it or used it and in what situations.....

[Wide Awake]

The PreSonus MP20 is a preamp, not a compressor. I own that one.

ART Tube Channel. $300 channel strip. A nice direct box for the money for bass, guitar modelers, and synths. I really like the preamp on it too. I wish I had a two channel version so I could use it on drum machine stereo outputs.

ART Pro VLA compressor and PreSonus BlueMax compressor.

I haven't bought a single piece of equipment in 6 months, so I am losing my official status as a gear slut.

[chessrock]

We used to have very regular "rollcalls" on this board last year when everyone just listed off what their rack / cabinet consisted of.

It was pretty convenient, because we'd just use the search function and we could sift through the results to find one of those threads, so then we'd know who owned what.

I would recommend that we do that again, now that our old lists have been pretty much wiped out from the bbs computer crash.

MCR, my recommendation would be to start a new thread, and just say something like, "Rollcall: What's your gear setup?"

That said, here's mine:

Mics: Marshall mxl v93, v67 and 603S, Shure SM7, Oktava mc012, Behringer ecm8000. Shure sm57s and 58s. Used to own a Behringer B1 and a Rode NT2, as well. I have also worked with an electrovoice RE20 and have test-driven just about everything.

Pres: Mindprint D.I. Port, M-audio DMP2, Mackie VLZ Pro, Joemeek VC6Q, ART Tube MP.

Comp: Behringer Multicom Pro. Have worked with Composer Pro, RNC, and unfortunately an Empiracle Labs Distressor. Unfortunately I say only because I can only dream of actually owning one right now.

Card: Delta 1010LT.

Effects: Waves Native Gold, Sonic Timeworks, various other odds and ends. Have tried and worked with demo versions of just about everything that's PC-based.

My favorites: Depends on the application, but I like the Marshall mxl v93 through the Mackie board on a lot of things. When I'm looking for a warmer, more aggressive sound for something like rock vocals and guitars, I'll grab the SM7 (with bass rolloff engaged) and run it through a Joemeek.

For things like accoustic guitar I always run my mics through the Mindprint, because it's impedence going in is rather high, which gives a small boost to everything above 1K or so - gives a subtle boost to the high-end (and it seems to do it just as well or better than my plugin equalizer).

As a D.I. for bass I always use the ART tube mp (sounds awesome for that, by the way).

[MISTERQCUE]

I have EVERYTHING!!!!

[mcr]

Here're the results so far. I added/changed a few numbers on the original list. Scroll up to check:

1)
2) I
3)
4)
5)
6)
.
8) II
9) II
10)
11)
12)
13)
14) III
15) I
16)
17) II
18)
19) II
20) I
21) III
22) I

24) II
25) II
26) I
27) II

hey chess,
I thought about some more honest/informative title for this thread but I was afraid people wouldn't even drop into a thread called "please vote ...".
I hope people keep on coming in here and adding their gear. I'm very sure a lot of people here make great music with decent budget gear.

Where are all the 101/Voicemaster/MX60/Gold users?

Please add your gear ...

[Dolemite]

I record everything through my pet pygmy goat, Turd Ferguson.

I demand that he be added to the list.

[Hard2Hear]

Stuff on your list I regularly use (in 1 of the 3 studios I do work in)

3) 1x
5) none, but both an ISA110 and a Red7, close...well, not really
12) 1x
14) 2x
19) 8x
20) 2x

and lots of stuff NOT on your list

H2H

[chessrock]

Originally posted by mcr
hey chess,
I thought about some more honest/informative title for this thread but I was afraid people wouldn't even drop into a thread called "please vote ...".

We used to just have periodic rollcalls on gear we own. Were you around here last year? Certainly you have to remember all the "List Your Gear" threads. It's probably about time we have some more, since the threads from last year have all gone bye-bye.

What I liked about it is you could do a search function on the gear, check out those threads to see who owned it, and then private message them asking what they thought about it. I didn't do it too much, but a few PM'ed me about some of my Joemeek gear and mics I owned.

[mcr]

I wasn't around last year but I found a few threads from this year where people tried to get responses to their "list your gear" threads. Not with much success though ... guess I'm hoping we're luckier this time. The search function on this board sucks bad and isn't really helpful (e.g. can't search for 2-letter words).

Such a gear list/ gear show-off competition might be a bit boring but I agree with Chess that for somebody who needs reliable info it's essential.

C'mon people. Give yourself a push and spare the 30 seconds to list your gear - use the indexed gear in the first post to save time.

[Track Rat]

What the hell.
StudioMaster 8 buss console with a Mackie 1604VLZ as a side car.
Alesis HD24
Two 20 bit ADATs
MOTU2408mkII
Lucid GenX6
700MHz PIII Coppermine with 640M of ram, two 40 Quantum drives and a HP CD-RW writer.
Cakewalk9 and Vegas multi trackers, SoundForge5, Waves, Anteres auto tune, etc...
Sony A-7 DAT
Sony JE-520 mini disc recorder
Tascam A7010 reel to reel
HHB Radius 5 mic preamp/compressor
HHB Radius 10 mic preamp (four pre's in one)
DBX386 preamp
Envoice MindPrint preamp
Groove Tubes AM-52
Octava MC-319
2 Octava MC-012's
2 AT-4033's
AKG C-3000B
2 AKG C-1000's
2 AKG D-112's
Apex 420
2 Earthworks SR-71's
Neumann KM-184
7 SM-57's
2 SM-58's
EV PL-80
2 Tascam PE-80's
ART DR-x
ART LT-X
ART SGX-2000
Alesis Midiverb II
Crate GFX-1000
Yamaha E-1005 analog delay
DOD R-866 compressor/gate
Behringer Composer Pro
DBX 266 Compressor
2 FMR RNC compressors
3 Radio Design Labs Compressors
Tom Shultz Rockman
The Pod
Johnson J Station
Hughs & Kettner B.A.T.T.
Line 6 AX2
Peavy Bandit
2 Acoustic 450's with a folded horn enclosure loaded with 2 15's in each
'74 Martin D-41
'55 Martin 000-18
'75 Alverez 12 string
'72 Fender Telecaster
'98 Fender Stratocaster
'64 Gibson Melody Maker
'41 Gibson A-50 Mandolin
'99 Danelectro 12 string
'75 Rickenbacker 4001 stereo bass
'99 Fender P bass
'55? National electric guitar
P.O.S. Bently nylon string guitar
hand made lap steel
Alesis QS-8
I'm tired of typing.

[Stefan Elmblad]

Man, you're no gear slut. You're the gear slut pimp queen.

[Track Rat]

So..you boys lookin fo a date?

[dragnalus]

um..is it ok to ask "newbie" questions about listed gear in this thread? if not, i'll delete this annoying post. but anyway...
hey trackrat, how do you like that studiomaster board? i think i have an opportunity to get a 16 channel board of theirs for around $250, and if that's your main board, judging from the rest of your setup i would think it's not bad at all.
also, what kind of use do you get out of the midiverb II? i've heard some say that it has some great reverbs for drums but others say it's too dated. ok.

[mikeh]

I find your observation that people recommend gear they don't own to be both interesting and probably more true than it should be.

Although Gidge has an interesting point that someone could have hands on with certain gear, but not actually own that gear - thus they are still in a position to make a recommendation. The only debate I would have with Gidge's point is that most processing gear has to be tried in several applications to really get a feel for what it does and doesn't do well. I've have some exposure to high end gear for brief periods of mixing in pro studios, but that doen't qualify my opinion.

That being said what I use for pre's and condensers are:

Channel Strips - Focusrite Voicemaster, Behringer V2000

Mic Pres - Presonus MP20, Art MP1 (2)

Compressors - Presonus ACP22, DBX 163x (2), DBX 363x

I plan to pick up 2 - RNC's soon!!!

[c7sus]

I'm not sure I trust any of you bastards as far as I can throw you...............

[heylow]

yeah....


See thats what sucks about this thread.

I have regularly used MUCH cooler gear than I own. I had a couple of old API pres here last weekend. I have used THE Neve broadcast console that was once used at Nickelodian (spelling?), I have used Bell tube mics, I have used royer ribbons, I have used a MCI 600 series board, I have used Nuemann mics, I have used the old Telefunken "beatles" tube pre.

The things I OWN are entirely less cool.

That said, if someone starts a "what do you got" thread, I'll be happy to list gear but this thread is about specific gear, and defending one's self or something.

I dunno....just seems less fun. I DO unstand the point though.


heylow

[mcr]

That said, if someone starts a "what do you got" thread, I'll be happy to list gear ...

Oh c'mon heylow, tell us what you got?!

[Track Rat]

Heylow, in my book, experience definately counts. I've also used MUCH cooler gear than I own and I don't mind discussing that. It's when I hear someone tell a newbie "Hey don't buy "X" microphone, wait for the new B-3, IT ROCKS!!" when the fuckin thing has never seen the light of day.
dragnalus, I like StudioMaster VERY much. 100mm faders, great EQ, 8 busses, direct outputs on every channel and it's pretty quiet. I prefer it over Mackie 8 buss analog consoles (and I HAVE used both enough to form an opinion). And as far as the Midiverb II, that's where I use it the most is on drums. I feel it's still very useable.
If you want to hear what comes out of a StudioMaster, click on my www and check out a couple of tunes I have posted at NoWhereRadio. All mixed in the analog domain through the StudioMaster.

[Roel]

My recording gear:
1 symetrix 528e
1 broken behringer 1604 mixer
1 AKG C3000b
1 AKG C419 clipon
1 sm57
1 cheap sm58 clone
1 VS1880

best gear I worked with 'till now: look here
Console with all API eq's and neve comp's. Good reference. But my experience with it is still limited. Another session coming end of may though.

[Track Rat]

100 faders. Pfff. Either you forgot to put mm in between or you are talking out of yo' ass here.

Check it again Mr Poopy Pants. And besides, I have 2000 faders so put that in your pipe and smoke it (Pffffffffttt.......and then pass it over ear......)

[Roel]

Originally posted by Track Rat

Check it again Mr Poopy Pants. And besides, I have 2000 faders so put that in your pipe and smoke it (Pffffffffttt.......and then pass it over ear......)

What the hell are you talking about??? 2000 faders? You must be talking outta yo' ass!

[Track Rat]