My first interface Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, sold it 2 day later and bought Apogee Duet 2.

I'm not going to say it was the worst purchase, but the Thermionic Culture Phoenix was somewhat disappointing to me. I had really high expectations but I didn't feel the mojo that others do from it... Am I crazy?

I also have a Shadow Hills MC and a Smart C2.

Moog Slim Phatty ...controversial

ART Pro VLA II .....nuff said

Really.. Guys dig them around here.
:(

Steinberg CMC Series. Just not for me... Good controllers but can't get into them.

alesis microverb. shoulda been called micro-turd

you're right, it does get its fair share of praise around here. I'll admit I wouldn't call it an outright BAD compressor. its just the least-good out of everything I've owned.

Which comps do you own? Thanks for the info.

Yamaha kx controller

M audio firewire solo

Ableton live 4

Sent from my SGH-T989

Considering what I paid for it, an Ibanez JEM 7V was arguably the worst purchase I ever made.

Oh, and a Line 6 Spider 30 watt amp that I had. Hideous.

Pace iLok. Biggest little piece of **** known to mankind!

Cubase 7.

Gotta be Ilok. I've lost so much money due to that piece of crap manager. Never again.

I'll take it off your hands for free. Don't worry, your buddy Jazz will ensure you never have to suffer at the hands of this compressor ever again.

Whats wrong with the Scarlett 2i2? I have one on the way to replace my old tascam us-428... I had read pretty good reviews on it

Inexpensive sounding compared to Duet.
Maybe he had driver issues or pres and conversion weren't in he's liking?

Arturia Laboratory 49 keyboard. The hardware is solid, but soooo buggy and their authorization system for software is just broken. They rarely answer trouble tickets, and when they do they're more defensive than helpful. On their forums, they are notorious for taking down posts that seem to lead to wide scale, unflattering problems. Crazy company, crappy products. So done with them.

yamaha 01x and i88x.
usefull as a standalone mixer and daw controller and i88's 2 front channels are fine but both not supported on newer operating systems and discontinued by manufacturer, that makes 'em a waste of money.
will never buy yamaha again, i was sceptic from the first moment tbh but other options like tascam fw etc was not around back then.
lots of ppl are on the same boat..

Oh yeah I'm effing done with Cakewalk products too. I bought Rapture synth for Mac i guess a few years or so ago via download. It was before they disclaimed it would only work in 10.6 Snow Leopard. I actually used Rapture heavily in a few projects - it was actually a cool synth.

Well imagine my surprise when I lost a HDD and had to update to 10.8 for other development reasons and my fave synth stopped working. But the I contacted Cakewalks god-awful customer service. They told me that it's Apple's fault that they dropped Rosetta and are pushing people to 64bit!?

I would have no problem if they sunsetted this product, suggested an alternative or did what many good companies would do - update the frikkin thing to be more compatible with a newer, more secure OS. Dropping Rosetta and 64bit didn't just sneak up on developers. But they still sell it like it's a new, fresh product with fine print..

Oh yeah I'm effing done with Cakewalk products too. I bought Rapture synth for Mac i guess a few years or so ago via download. It was before they disclaimed it would only work in 10.6 Snow Leopard. I actually used Rapture heavily in a few projects - it was actually a cool synth.

Well imagine my surprise when I lost a HDD and had to update to 10.8 for other development reasons and my fave synth stopped working. But the I contacted Cakewalks god-awful customer service. They told me that it's Apple's fault that they dropped Rosetta and are pushing people to 64bit!?

I would have no problem if they sunsetted this product, suggested an alternative or did what many good companies would do - update the frikkin thing to be more compatible with a newer, more secure OS. Dropping Rosetta and 64bit didn't just sneak up on developers. But they still sell it like it's a new, fresh product with fine print..

Ok, don't laugh... my audio needs are very simplistic. As a videographer, all my audio is spoken voice, so awesome sounding gear isn't as necessary as it is for most of you. There's a "good enough" luxury involved with this kind of work that most of you guys don't get to enjoy. Many of the compressors that get dissed on GS would sound fine in my application as a mix leveler.

That being said, the SM Pro Audio XPM1 preamp wasn't good enough even for my reduced standards. I carried it as a way to get another mic into my mixer through one of the unused line inputs. I was only able to use about half its gain before white noise hiss set in. Plus, it picked up nearby radio stations when none of my other gear did. I know it was only about $50, so there's the "what did you expect" coming, buy hey, Midiman was able to get the Audio Buddy fairly quiet in the same price range...

Nowadays I use neither. I moved up to an 8 XLR mixer.

I wouldn't say "worst" but my most disappointing purchase of the past year has been the Grace M102 compressor/limiter.

More chokey than a cheap dbx unit.

Beat Thang-easily. Unequivocally, it has the worst implementation of OS programming in the history of digital beat machines. Complete garbage and completely useless in the studio as it crashes all the time.

I've made many purchases over the years I've been learning to record.

Some based on budget constraints/availability, some based on hype/"shiny new product that eliminates the need for actual knowledge".

some based on..... well, a gut feeling taking into consideration the company/maker, the parts involved in production, and a few well placed questions to folks that have been in the game longer than I.

Also, sometimes on a session, I'll hear a piece of gear being used to record something I'm playing and I'll dig/not dig what I'm hearing and make/not make a purchase based on that.

I have very little interest in audio "shootouts" done by folks and posted on the internet. There are too many variables on either end of that spectrum (varying mic placement, their level of knowledge relating to the settings of the gear, etc. My monitor setup, room sound, etc) to ensure that I'd be purchasing what it is I think Im hearing the equipment doing.

I too have a small collection of mics/fx, etc that aren't worth the trouble to sell, but 99 out of 100 times aren't goint to hold up sound-wise to the higher end products I've been able to work my way into over the years.


Although the thread is sort of fun to read, there are many folks at the beginning of their journey who may be able to afford only mxl mics, M-audio preamps, etc. They served me well at that time to get work done. That's also what it took for me to start learning the difference in what things sounded like to me, and what I would gain with the purchase of more expensive gear.

WORST PURCHASE?!?!?!? Probably my first set of golf clubs. That little obsession I blame for most of my back problems, wrist problems, substance abuse problems and violent tendancies. Good lord.

+1

My worst purchases were GS hype darlings years ago before I got wise to that.

Slate Dragon, MR816x, Art Pro VLA2.

The Slate was noisy as hell and sounded scooped. The VLA is bested by any good plugin compressor.

I'm a long time owner of one and I think it's a pretty nice piece of kit.. what is it you don't like?

It wasn't nearly as poor a purchase as the other two. I bought mine after the big thread about how it stood up to a Prism Orpheus in here. It was a classic case of hasty testing and conclusion & bandwagon jumping though. Easy to find cleaner & better conversion. You're unable to bypass the preamps in the unit but people said the secret is to record through the inserts if you want to. I tested the inserts with an analyzer and they were significantly worse. Would not recommend anyone use them. I posted the test results years ago. If memory serves it also wouldn't follow sample rate changes automatically.

Prism Orpheus quality at a $600 price it is not.

Good interface for someone needing 8 pres for the price though. I know plenty of people get on just fine with them.

If you've got the money and the calibre of your rig and work is high enough a Symphony for eg is a much better choice.

yes its not fast at all but good to round harsh vocals and fit them in mix. Its extremely jazzy sounding comp, to some it's not what they look for.