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How often do you find yourself swapping out equipment?

As someone who has been producing for some years now, I'm always amazed when I go back and look at all the equipment I purchased, used and sold. My studio has undergone numerous transformations over the years, and I still find myself swapping out equipment in my studio on a semi-regular basis.

A lot of times this is because I purchased a piece of equipment that didn't quite work in my setup as I had hoped, maybe I found it cumbersome to use, or found a new way of doing things that negated the requirement of a certain piece of gear.

The only thing that has remained a constant in my studio is my Macs and my Roland JV-1080. I use the 1080 sparingly for "regular" sounds, but I am lucky if it shows up once every 2 - 3 tracks. Mostly I hold on to it because it was my first hardware synth, so I can't bear to part with it.

Every other piece of hardware seems to stay for a year or so, then I find myself not using it an selling it so I can put the money towards something else. Granted there is a decent amount of software plugins that I find indispensable, but on the hardware side, I'm finding that there is very little that I actually need.

So how much hardware turnover happens in your studio? Is there anything that you find you could not live without?

things i have now:

evolution mk-249c midi controller
event tr6 monitors
echo audiofire4

things i have sold/gotten rid of:

yamaha sy77 synth
sm pro audio m-patch 2
m-audio 24/96
m-audio firewire audiophile
edirol ma-10d monitors
behringer bcf2000
pioneer cdjs
numark dxm06

i need a new passive attenuator, to replace the m-patch. i want something better quality though, like a goldpoint. i'm often tempted to go and buy a few analog synths, just so i can get in on the "omfg analog" fad. however, after owning that sy77 and borrowing a jp8080 for a few weeks, i can honestly say that hardware kills my workflow. i'm going to stay 100% in the box until more synths like the virus ti come out. what i would really like is if more vst companies made custom controllers, like the ms-20 one that came with korg legacy. then you have the best of both worlds

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm i need a new passive attenuator, to replace the m-patch. i want something better quality though, like a goldpoint.

Have you taken a look at the Dangerous Music stuff? Its expensive, but I hear great things about it.

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm i'm often tempted to go and buy a few analog synths, just so i can get in on the "omfg analog" fad. however, after owning that sy77 and borrowing a jp8080 for a few weeks, i can honestly say that hardware kills my workflow.

Same here, but everytime I get an outboard synth, I rarely use it, hence why I always end up selling it.

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm i'm going to stay 100% in the box until more synths like the virus ti come out.

The TI is actually the only synth that I think would stay in my setup, simply because you can use it like software.

Yeah all the time mate, ditched my soundcard this week for 2xMotu 2408's

It's never ending!!!!

I thought it was all just part of the cycle of life?

Have:
Renoise
Dynaudio BM12A
Echo Audiofire12
Access Virus KC
Focusrite LiquidMix
Patchbay


Had:
Behringer Truths B2031A
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum (Version 1)
M-audio Audiophile 2496
Access Virus B Desktop
Access Virus C Desktop
Yamaha CS6R
Evolution mkc249c2


I seem to be liking the virus, having bought one 3 times now hahaha. Last one (the KC) was an awesome deal. For 50E I upgraded to the Virus KC coming from having a C desktop .

I used to borrow synths from friends as well which was great.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J Have you taken a look at the Dangerous Music stuff? Its expensive, but I hear great things about it.

this is all overkill for my setup and they don't have any "just an attenuator" products.

http://www.goldpt.com/prices.html

as far as i am aware, these are the best attenuators on the market. i think they use them in the cranesong avocet. but still... $440US just for an attenuator is hard to justify, when i have event tr6s haha. i'll probably end up just going the DIY route.

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm this is all overkill for my setup and they don't have any "just an attenuator" products. http://www.goldpt.com/prices.html as far as i am aware, these are the best attenuators on the market. i think they use them in the cranesong avocet. but still... $440US just for an attenuator is hard to justify, when i have event tr6s haha. i'll probably end up just going the DIY route.

i'll probably buy the tc level pilot. looks very sexy

quote:

Originally posted by thecYrus i'll probably buy the tc level pilot. looks very sexy

i wouldn't recommend this. the attenuator isn't stepped and is probably comparable to the one in the m-patch.

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm i wouldn't recommend this. the attenuator isn't stepped and is probably comparable to the one in the m-patch.

i don't care if it's stepped or not. makes no difference for me. and as long as it's passive it shouldn't make a difference in sound quality.

quote:

Originally posted by thecYrus i don't care if it's stepped or not. makes no difference for me. and as long as it's passive it shouldn't make a difference in sound quality.

there is bad passive attenuators and then there is good ones

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm there is bad passive attenuators and then there is good ones

you mean the active passive ones :P

quote:

Originally posted by thecYrus you mean the active passive ones :P

no, just because an attenuator is passive, does not mean it does not affect the signal. in particular, poor passive attenuators cause problems with the stereo image. this is why i sold the m-patch.

off topic - another important thing to be aware of with passive attenuators is that the cables running from it essentially become a filter. the longer they are, the more high frequency gets cut out. you must keep all cable lengths as short as possible.

I don't swap out my recording hardware gear very often - I've used the same preamp/channel strip, soundcard, and headphone amp for years, although I have swapped out a few mics.

Synths are another story. I've probably owned 4 dozen hardware synths over the past 5 years. I buy and sell them all the time. That's the beauty of hardware - you can find good deals, use them for a while, then sell them for the same price or more. Once that initial investment is made, there's little out-of-pocket cost and, if you're good/lucky, you can even pocket a little extra with each transaction. Six months ago, I had 5 synths. Of those 5, I currently only have 2 of those synths, but, I've purchased 6 others in the meantime. My current lineup consists of:

- Access Virus Polar TI
- Nord Rack 3
- Dave Smith Poly Evolver Rack
- Dave Smith Mono Evolver Keyboard
- Dave Smith Mopho
- Moog Voyager Rack
- Alesis QS8.2
- Roland Fantom X8

My plan is to sell off 3 or 4 of those and get back to having 5 synths. I'll definitely be keeping the Polar, the Alesis, and the Nord. I'll probably replace the Fantom with something rackmountable (e.g., Fantom XR, XV-5080, XV-5050) because, like Eric J, I use those for my "real" sounds and I have several of the Roland expansion boards (Classical, World, pianos, etc.).

Well, I like to say that the only thing in my studio that I've been using since day 1 is nothing.

I'm always switching shit up... hopefully I now have something that is pretty damn close to what I'll have 5 years from now. I don't imagine I'll be upgrading my monitoring or converters...

But I have decided to sell my Blofld because it's a pain in the ass to use (not "knobby" enough... I don't see how they intended for it to be used for more than preset editing). Also I'm selling the Prophet 08 because my new Poly Evolver is quite literally capable of the exact same sounds and much much more.

So I guess there are two reasons people will commonly sell equipment. Financial reasons are always high on the list, tooo. I certainly wouldn't be selling those instruments if I wasn't confident that I was going to get back what I paid for them.

So I definitely agree with Cryo on the instrument part... I'm always switching that up. I was riding the same $700 the entire time I was in college.

But I don't think I'll be getting anything new this time. The Andromeda is so much a be-all-end-all synth. It's practically a 16 voice Moog and Oberheim rolled into one... so I don't feel a need for instruments from either of those manufacturers. It's also capable of acting as 16 mono synths.. each with their own output. With that fuc*er around, I really didn't feel a need for any additional excess. And besides, I was feeling overwhelmed with 6 instruments. I'm definitely in the place where getting a new instrument means I must dedicate the time to designing an entire patch bank for it (so long as I like the instrument). I think I'll stick with a max of four...


For shits and giggles, here's a full list of the gear I've acquired and sold... in as much chronological order as I can :

M-Audio Audiophile USB
Alesis QS 6.1
Event TR6 (pair)
Novation A-Station
Access Virus Rack
Roland JP-8000
Novation Supernova II Rack
Access virus Powercore
Several Powercore cards (PCI mkI and mkII)
Several UAD-1 PCI cards and plugins
Access Virus B
Access Virus XL
Access Virus Classic
Nord Lead 3 Rack
Mackie HR824 (pair)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
M-Audio Delta 1010-lt

(soon)
DSI Prophet 08
Waldorf Blofeld

THREE CHEERS FOR EBAY *HIP HIP HOORAY!!*

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