I'm in Two Bridges off of Pike and Monroe, right under the Manhattan bridge.

Just as I'm getting back into guitar my practice amp breaks down Apartment is to small for the kitty + cab, at least I'm moving in July

definitely a subway ride away. ok. I will PM and we can set something up one day

Yeah... Gots me an ART Pro VLA II as well, and another DBX 163x; hopefully I can score another one o' them cheep to have a pair...

You know what I need now? A friggin' patchbay. Actually, two patchbays. I have a nice li'l analog setup going these days. My console needs some routine maintenance, but it works- came out of a theater at the university, so it hasn't been subjected to forty years of smokes and spilled beers. One burned-out VU meter bulb, some scratchy pots, but nothing major. Could probably use a recap just due to age. Not clean or modern sounding by any means; sounds like rock and roll. Vibe for days. I am seriously looking forward to using the EQ on electric guitars. Paid a hundred bucks for it. This will certainly make drum recording a bit easier. Heavy-ass thing, though.

Soon, I will have the time to make records again. Right now, I sleep, read, write, repeat as necessary.

Hail yeah, that sounds like an excellent rig. What's da console look like?

I did kinda post it on the previous page, but for reference porpoises, it looks an awful lot like this guy (someone else's stock photo):


Old '70s Yamaha; same series as the PM2000s, just a bit smaller. Mic pres and EQs are basically the same... Along with the somewhat wonky routing. That being said, they usually go for a lot more than a hundred bucks. Like, a lot a lot. Dude I bought it from runs a sound company, and is the building manager at the ol' Snaxodrome building. Literally no one ever rented it. He offered me the hundred-dollar price tag as he could use the nine cubic feet or so of space in his storeroom. Since I am not wholly stupid and am willing to essentially buy money, I didn't say no. There is a mod kit for the EQs based off the Neve 1081- though the stock EQ, which is a quasi-API-ish thing, I gather, definitely has a "rip yer face off" quality. The thing is full of transformers, and definitely Has A Sound.

So yeah, I have that, a couple Warm TB12s and their 1176 clone, a Symetrix 501 compressor, the Pro VLA II, hopefully soon a pair of DBX 163xs, an Alesis 3630 doorstop I inherited from an old bassplayer (I'm sure I can make it work for something...) and if I'm sensible I'll track down a few more funky-cheap compressors, a Yamaha SPX 90, and some other old 'verb or delay unit. If I'm gonna have hardware kicking around, it had better sound like something.

I'mma need a metric fucktonne of cabling, though.

Dang, that is hot and on the stealystealyz!!!!

No shit, right? The gentlemen on Gearslutz told me not to pay more than $2k for it. To my building manager, it is worthless. Everyone wants digital now, it weighs a metric tonne and is old, and shipping it is awkward. He got it, I believe, for free, when the university was throwing it away some years ago. Only studio nerds would want this. Only studio nerds would know what it was.

I don't have anything particularly prestigious, but I do have your value-for-money options. Respectable stuff. I am just waiting to get back into actually making music instead of just thinking about it and accumulating a small mountain of gear. I suppose that has been my outlet as of late- I can't actually get anything useful accomplished, so I will stock up for the future.

Managed to pick up a cheap matching double cream BKP Black Dog for the neck position of my Pearl LP. I reckon it looks the nuts and sounds awesome as well. The 498t/490r are back in my SG as stock, which actually sounds really good with them after all the fucking about I've done with pickups it's funny that I've ended back with the stock ones I do want something like the 498t but clearer/less grainy sounding but I really can't be bothered to mess around again for the time being.

I have been working too many works and am now finally happily currently out of works to work.

Unfortunately, this means that now i must do all of the yardwork/general bs that i have been too busy/not here, to do.

ahhh, works can be good, works can be bad. my full day makes me away about 12 hours a day now. Not so much fun, but it does pay the bills, and beautiful days like today are great in NY

Just scored a matched pair of SE Electronics SE1a's for $150 Wit da stereo bar and an aluminum flightcase. Fucking stoked to have dedicated OHs/stereo room mics.

Mr. Hell, this is relevant to my interests. I know you have a few of the SE Electronics mics kicking about- what are your experiences with them and how do they compare sonically with the rest of your collection?

I am really quite into them! The X1R ribbon dealer has turned out to be one of my favorite mics I own. Bought it with the intention to be my go-to vocal mic for my own voice and other more skronkish tones, or really any time I'm going for a darker, roomier vocal sound. The uberpolished U87 vocal sound really just ain't my bag, tbh. Anyhow, that thing kills. Really warm sound, not muddy at all though. Plenty of top to be had, especially if you wanna EQ it in. However, it's really got that "velvet-y" characteristic to it. V, v, v smooth. Sounds killer in complement to a Beta 57 on bass, as well.

I've also the Magneto which is their most budget oriented LDC they've made, or atleast close. It's a back electret design, but all moderned out and not so shitty. Granted, I've never used a back electret design before this, but there seems to be much stigma. Anyhow, the mic's sick. Just kind of a fat, thick sound. Not super hyped on this top end or anything like one might expect, quite an accurate mic you could say. Not as hi-fi as the KSM27s but certainly a very usable mic. I also scored that shit for like $70 bucks so bang-for-buck would be the phrase. Also, the thing is fucking purple so I mean what the fuck else could you ask for.


As for these incoming suckas, I am very enthusiastic. Every review I have read has been very favorable even when comparing them to more expensive microphones. I have been much more inclined to use LDCs for OHs for a long while but I am at a point where I think it would be very beneficial to go SDC. I already am sort of habitually going for room mic oriented mixes anyhow and also going for condensers on the toms half the time. I could see great advantage to getting a really crisp, focused (stereo) cymbal sound out of the OHs rather than a more whole kit image sort of deal. Also, considering how often I track bands live the cutdown on the bleed getting into the OHs would be helpful as hell. A lot of the time I feel like what I am really missing in my mixes is having control over the initial transients and sustain on my cymbals without "muddying" up the drum mix with excessive bleed from guitars and bass.

Anyhow, sorta ranty but YEAH!

Noted, and thanks. I don't mind ranty- details are useful!

I suspect I will be using SDCs in ORTF for my session(s) coming up next month. I've been looking at ribbon mice lately- just browsing for something more affordable than an AEA/Beyer/Royer/vintage RCA, and the SE caught my eye.

Re: darker vocal mics, if you're curious about condensers and don't want the fig-8 thing of the ribbon all the time, the Oktava MK-319 and original Latvian-made Blue Baby Bottle (you want the original; the badge on the back is different... I should take a picture of mine) might be up yer alley. Neither are particularly bright/crispy, and both are pretty damn cheap.

I kinda hate myself for spending the money, as it's really unsexy stuff, but I just picked up a 12-space rack stand (the server rack has lived in my basement for a while now... no room, alas), a patchbay, and a metric fucklot of cabling. At least most of it passes audio. It was time, I suppose. And it will only get worse once I am living somewhere that allows me to set up the console at home. I could now, I guess, but it would be a tight squeeze.

My stuff arrived. Is it wrong of me to be excited over a patchbay?

Got some nice blisters removing every knob from the console. I don't think those pots have ever been cleaned. It was made in 1980.

On the plus side, after a liberal- we're talking Franklin Roosevelt levels of liberal- application of contact cleaner, it's very quiet unless you crank the input gain and channel faders. Nice little board, for a given value of little.

And in reply to your prior post, I don't think it's at all silly to get excited about comparatively clinical, utility pieces. I'm excited just to own a stereo bar.

I've been meaning to pick up the AEA one with the angle markers. The cheap thirty-dollar one, not the two hundred-dollar one.



The rack, assembled, weighs a metric assload. Which is a technical term. Even without cabling.