Best / Worst - purchases

Presonus Firestation, worst purchase ever. MLan wouldn't work. Never worked as a soundcard. Presonus passed the buck to Yamaha, and then dropped all support for it. Makes a good 8 channel a/d converter though.

I actually wish I had gotten just a good 8x8 card or something like that (like a Delta 1010), and then an Alesis HD24 for (worry-free, hassle free) remote recording. Import into Sonar and mix to my heart's content.

Best? hmmm... software=Project5, hands down. Hardware I've gotta go with my Fatar SL-990 hammer-action controller.

Best: Sonar; Kurzweil keyboard; Fender Baja Telecaster; Gretsch Electromatic G5120; Very-Tone pedal

Worst: Roland SI24 control surface (great audio interface, but many functions and the motorized faders just don't work in Sonar); one of the very first rackmount digital guitar effects processors; miniature Kustom guitar amp

I notice that even the worst stuff eventually becomes useful. It took well over 10 years before I went back to the rackmount processor, and started to find ways to get sounds I could enjoy.

Definitely the SP Tech monitors (Continumum AD's here) have made by far the biggest impact. I keep them in my sig' just to help get the word out. I know a lot of people won't know about them and may not want to stray from the known paths.
On the bargain end, the Chameleon 7602. A no brainer at that price.

Wayne

Best: Guitar Tracks Pro 2, Taylor 110, US Fender Strat 1994 (now sold), Presonus Firebox, M-Audio BX5's

Worst: Nothing comes to mind...maybe a wah wah peddle I just had to have when I was 19.

What I want to get: A really sweet condensor mic for recording acoustic guitar, a nice electric guitar and amp and Sonar...and a really comfortable recording environment rather than my stingy bedroom.

my worst: Mackie onix 1620 with firewire card ( a bunch of input channels and only stereo out) and for some reason the driver never work in asio, Protools Mpower I lost the Ilok and still waiting for the #$%#$@ new licence.

Best---Sonar , soundcraft 328xd digital desk, Roland fantom s88, Roland V-synth, Rode nt2 mic, joe meek preamp, Brian moore custom shope c90p guitar, mesa heartbreaker stack, boss gt8, evesham laptop , NI guitar rig 2, takamine acoustic, bass coleection bass, wavelab (version 4 still used everytime I'm in the studio), garritan libraries

Worst--Cubase VST 5, NI absynth (great sounds terrible copy protection), M audio quattro interface, time laptop, behringer bass v-amp, yamaha DTX drum kit

most regretted sold----amazing 62 reissue strat, leather trousers , my soul ----doh

Worst - Any recent purchase from Native Instruments (IE in the last year), EMU Xboard,

syrath,

What don't you like about the xboard? I just received my new xboard 61 yesterday and I like the feel of the keys. Admittedly I am having problems with the software/drivers. I'll need to call support on Monday. First, my computer won't boot up if the xboard is turned on when I turn on the computer. When I put the computer into standby the xboard loses its USB connection with the computer, etc etc etc. A big pain in the rear. A potentially big problem -- Hopefully tech support will help. But the feel of the keys are good to me, and contrary to the complaints about the wobbly knobs, I just don't see it -- they are tight on my board. Overall, the keyboard is solid There is a little sloppiness in quality control -- minor scratches here and there -- but that will happen sooner or later. Haven't had a chance to try out the controller side. After one day -- I like the keyboard itself, assuming I can resolve the software problem.

Hello,

This one is a no-brainer: Behringer 32x8 mixer. I loved it, then three of them failed in my studio. After six months of unplugging 64 connection and stuffing the thing in my smallish sedan, I settled with the store for a replacement, a Mackie SR32-4 which works like a champ.

GK

ORIGINAL: Lost Souls

Hey cryophonik, how come your onyx was such a nightmare?

Why do you make me bring back such painful memories?! Actually, I bought it when it first hit the streets. The first model was a dud - wouldn't even power up. I took it back to the GC where I purchased it, had to wait a week for them to get another one in stock. Got a new one, installed it, and, to make a very long story short, there were nothing but problems with the drivers. I found out later by looking at the Mackie forums that it was a widespread problem, not sure if it's been resolved. We were trying to get a bunch of songs recorded during those weeks, but it was nearly impossible with all the crashes, freezeups, etc. On several occasions, the unit/drivers froze my computer to the point that the only way to reboot was to yank the plug. And Mackie's (lack of) customer support - don't even get me started . In their defense, I believe that they were overwhlemed with the number of users experiencing problems and/or busy trying to help R&D prepare driver patches. Anyway, I pulled my hair out for about a week, before returning it for a different brand/model. Ultimately, I bought a MOTU 828mkII and I've never been happier with a soundcard.

Best> Sonar P3 and PSP Vintage Warmer.

WORST> Edirol PCR 50 Midi Controller. The keys just stops working one by one as though they planning to shut down my business. Edirol 15 watt monitors. Just gave up on me and a Zoom MRS 1044. I had to sell it for next to nothing after paying $745.00 for it. Forgot to mention my Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS soundcard.

Best purchases: Apex 460 tube mic. In terms of bang-for-buck and frequency of use, great purchase. AKG d12. Lovely kick mic. Fireface. Freeing me from the blue-screen filled world of Aardvark. Soundworkshop Logex 8 & studiomaster 8 into 4 consoles. Nice front ends for drum recordings. I once got a vox ac50 at an estate sale for $5, with the sticker "fire hazard" on it. Needed a retube and a new output transformer, but sounds amazing. Behringer Vamp2. Still going strong 6 years or so later, still gets a good deal of use.

Worst purchases: AKG D112. One of the few mics I've sold just to get rid of. Horrible, clicky sounding kick mic. Behringer Bass Vamp pro. With how much I like the guitar version, I figured the bass version would be a great compliment, and might be a nice addition to the mobile rig. Totally useless. And I'm a bassist. Considering I prefer a plain DI to an amp for bass recording, maybe this is just me. Monster prolink 500 snake cable I got at employee cost from a friend. Even with the employee discount (of about 80% off retail, for those who think you get what you pay for), it was still the absolute worst cable I've ever worked with. Should have bought the mogami (or belden, canare, gepco...) at retail (which was only about 10% more than the 'discounted' monster cable).

It wasn't so much that I disliked the product, just that I haven't found much use for it.

It was my first excursion into the world of software samplers. I had visions of ultra-realistic orchestral parts. The reality was that it sucked the life out of my CPU and drained my RAM while delivering little that I couldn't get from my hardware synths. It required too much tweaking to get usable string sounds. The only useful samples were the Steinway, but my Yamaha MO8 does a better piano. And then there's the annoying bug where Kontakt resets its volume, ignoring any CC7 events telling it otherwise.

I may still find a use for Kontakt 2 some day, but if I had my 400 bucks back today I'd spend it on something that would truly expand my musical palette, such as East West Symphonic Choirs.

Traded a Teac 2 channel reel to reel tape deck in 1974 for a 69 Gibson Les Paul Custom. Still got the Les Paul. I imagine the tape deck is in a land fill somewhere.

Best Godin LG Hum Guitar as it plays and sounds superb.

Worst SaxLab it sounds like wind but not from a sax.

Worst: Buying a Dell
Best: Everything I put into this crappy Dell

Mike