Once great, always great?

[pwpi]

Vintage gear has always been the thing to have. Even when I was starting out as an Engineer in the 80's the desire for vintage gear was very popular. To be honest, I've kinda lost touch with what's desirable these days in so far as vintage studio gear is concerned so I'm curious to hear from you guys and girls what's still great, and what you can't live without.

My fav's were Pultec tube EQ's and LA compressors. AMS began production back then, of what would come to be a staple for for studio rack with their delays and harmonizers along with the older Eventide's of course. What of the old Plate reverbs that require their own living space? You guys still use 'em?

[Steffmo]

Generally speaking, great is and will always be. The stuff you mentioned will always have a certain mojo.

I have an 8 foot echoplate and still use when appropriate. I don't have Pultec...but i do have a pair of Langs that see a lot of use, as do DBX 160 VU, dynamites, and my compex.

If you have been out of it, you also need to know that in many ways this is a second golden age of great analog gear. As much as some complain about the DAW era...one BIG upside is that it has freed studios from the expense of buying a pricey console. As aresult there is ahuge amount of great new gear that we buy in 2, 4 or 8 channel configuration....even single channel pres and strips. Designers can come up with stuff that is a 1000 a channel and up...because studios don't need to get 30 of them to make the session fly.

And that doesn't even begin to address the great mics that are being made today. The only thig that separates some of these mics from the classics are the history the U47s and Elam251s have already written.

Have fun....

[pwpi]

Thanks for the contribution. You make a great point in that we're entering a second phase of vintage. I wonder if there's going to ever be such a thing as vintage DAW? I can't see it happening, but then, it wouldn't have been the first time I've been short sighted about the future.

I've pretty much, kind of sort of, kept abreast of the DAW and softsynth/VST arena and am actually stepping back in it for real. I've been looking at the Ardour DAW mainly because of it's support factor. Being an open source program, it's continuously being improved. The last console I worked with was an SSL 4000 G series so the programming aspects are don't frighten me as I can see how they'd certainly be intimidating to an engineer who retired prior to these major innovations/changes.

I've managed to update my DP software and added new plugs to it for the last 10 years but don't operate it that often. It's gonna take a few passes to get back in the swing of it but I'm looking forward to that.

[Jim Williams]

The biggest change since the 80's.....

Audio is now fashion.

Used to be about results....

If you've been listening to some of the newer stuff, it's not about results anymore.

Get used to it.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[soundbarnfool]

RCA 77DX
Fred Cameron Large Capsule Condenser (C12 capsule and 87 electronics)
Beyer M500's
Beyer M130
Beyer M160's
Sennheiser 406's
Telefunken V72a's (Racked by Ron Laury)
Scullly Mic Pres
AEA TRP Mic Pre's
Langevin AM16 Mic pre
MCI JH110 series 8TK & 2 TK
Stocktronics Plate Reverb
2 Klemt Echolettes
Urei LA-4s (which I intend to get the op amp mod on)
A crazy Fairchild (transistors) compressor modded by the late Fred Cameron
Daking FET II Compressor

And an old guitar and amp or two (1952 J-45, 1969 D-28, 1963 Jaguar, 1955 GA-20, 1952 Vega w/ blue Jensen and Vibrato

Nothing digital. Certainly no protools. My most recent acquisitions have been the Beyer M160s and M130, along with the TRP and the Daking. So it's a combination of vintage and "future vintage", I think (hope?)

[seaneldon]

the same, sadly, cannot be said for bands: