Worst:
1. Antares Autotune
2. M-Audio 1010 on E-bay 3 weeks ago. Input channels 2 and 4 don't work. It advertised as only being used 4 times!

Best:

1. AKG TL2 Microphone
2. Taylor Acoustic
3. Yamaha S90 Keyboard


Hawky

Best purchase was my AMD dual core 5200

Worst purchase was a Chia Pet

Cj

Going back a few years for these:

Best: Ensoniq ESQ1...groundbreaking at the time, limited but very useful sounds, and built-in sequencer - this unit just inspired creativity.

Worst: Alesis reverb unit. Nothing wrong with the unit, but it was new so everything I recorded at that time I added GALLONS of reverb to...!

Two of my worst purchases were Pentagon and Pristine Space Light, not because there was anything wrong with them, but because they ended up being included in Sonar shortly after I bought them.

Worsts:
DOD Flashback Fuzz.

Fun thread, and easy if I stick to software:

Best = Ableton Live. Wish I jumped on this sooner, "first product I'd replace if..."

Worst = Gigasampler (+ a bzillion versions of Giga-this-and-that.) Stuff that never worked more than two days in a row. Coulda been using something simpler and maybe, ya know, playing music.

I've got a LOT of stuff (hardware & software) that has done me VERY well...but I can unequivocally say that my BEST musical purchase was this cool little fold up hand truck thing that I bought at an office supply place. Every time I load my gear in on the thing, I say "I gotta get me one of these".

By the way...I've seen a lot of people busting Pyro. Noted that prior to Pyro 5 it had pretty serious issues, but I also have WaveLab 4 and find that I'll STILL use Pyro for burning CD's unless I really need the features that WaveLab has.

ORIGINAL: subtlearts

I will point out that it did crash the computer twice in that 10 minute store demo however, which kind of pushed me away.

Oh my... I could see where that wouldn't be a positive experience...
Thank you both for the kind words.

My best? There's been a lot of them. Keeping it just in the computer realm, I'd have to say Sonar, Reaktor, Absynth and my Terratec EWX 24/96.

My worst? A SBLive I bought when just starting out and an Emagic Audiowerks that I'd bought as a second soundcard for one of my machines.

ew

Great Thread.

i do alot of research and testing before i buy anything, it makes the nerd in me happy, so i havent yet bought anything that i've really regretted.
i love my software.. uhh.. suite. sonar, acid, vegas, audition, reason. love em all to pieces.

worst must be... maybe komplete 2. the only pieces of it i use regularly is the kontakt sampler. i had high hopes for reaktor and the vocoder etc.. but for some reason, there's always something that sounds better for whatever i am doing (like the RHINO synth or the sonic flavours refills)... and audiomulch is letting me do alot of things that i thought i would do in reaktor.

Worst : Korg legacy collection with the Vintage MS-20 controler (750$ When it came out ) I like the software and use it quite often but to me that stupid controller is useless. You still have to rely to your mouse alot Plus a years later it was selling for 250$ with the controler. Boss SP505. I red the reviews but i guess i didn't read between the lines cause that sampler is so not good enough for todays needs. Sequencer is ok but sampler is so limited.

Best : M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 midi controller, ART Prochannel tube mic pre/comp/eq. Rode NT1-A, Yamaha Bass BBG5S, a second monitor for my computer, and ****box that actually sounds better then my main speakers wich are Samson Resol v65a