What is your favorite piece of gear costing less than $600

gaotu · Post by **gaotu** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:03 pm

Since many of us are on a budget, I thought I'd reiterate the other posting but with a price-tag limit! This includes items that you know to be relatively easily purchased used at less than $600.

What's your favorite piece of studio gear -$600.

My favorite items are:

(1) ART PRO VLA Compressor - it just seems to always sound good on any source.

(2) Focusrite Voicemaster Plus - it has tons of coloration options and can really get a track to stand out from others in a mix. "Plays" nicely with any mic.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:40 pm

gaotu wrote:Since many of us are on a budget, I thought I'd reiterate the other posting but with a price-tag limit! This includes items that you know to be relatively easily purchased used at less than $600.

What's your favorite piece of studio gear -$600.

My favorite items are:

(1) ART PRO VLA Compressor - it just seems to always sound good on any source.

(2) Focusrite Voicemaster Plus - it has tons of coloration options and can really get a track to stand out from others in a mix. "Plays" nicely with any mic.

Many things i have gotten under 600...

Original GT Md1a tube mic... $575. Amazing microphone. One of my all time favorites for vocals of all types.

Spectra Sonics 610 complimiter... 500 dollars each. Totally mutant squishers that distort easily, but are totally musical and quite amazing when used properly. I have been using this particular one for about 12 years now. I sold the other one of the pair to make space in the rack...

Symetrix 501 complimiter... 50 dollars. Totally great. poor mans distressor IMO. Will make room mics explosive, or snare drums pop, or bass "hold still." Totally great. Like a more fun Dbx 160 A.

Dbx 160 "A" or "X" or "XT"...... 75-250 dollars. Totally useful. Always work on anything. Sometimes I go through an entire record with an "X" on the bass and the patch doesnt move from song to song. It just works, and always sounds good.

Avalon U5 DI.... 500 dollars +-... I wont use anything else for direct bass anymore. Period. Better than anything I have ever used in a long line of "anythings" I have used for Bass DI. Changed the way I feel about recording bass.

Sage electronics "BOVA ball.".... 579 CDN, so ... like 500? $USA? ish?
My favorite omni microphone. A spherical omni mic like if your head was mono... Totally amazing for anything where an omni is appropriate, and even some jobs where it really isnt, because the spherical thing makes certain frequencies more directional than others.... incredible on many sources. I have earthworks TC30k's that I still love, but the bova really is more musical and completely one of the most "open" microphones I own. Just amazing at any price, but totally affordable to boot!

Deltalab effectron II...20 dollars-150 dollars. one of my favorite delays, bar none. With Xformers they REALLY kill. A little noisy, but whatever. They rock.

Orban 536A two channel De-esser....75 dollars. Works really well, has a really weird amount of make up gain, sounds really cool and 70's radio-ish. can be an amazing "grinder" when overloaded as a part of a mono room mic compression chain. it freaks out in a fun way.

Tons of others.... Those are my favorites tonight anyway...

jrepro · Post by **jrepro** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:27 pm

API preamps: come on thier API!
UREI LA-4a great on bass and vocals
WardBeck 402 Geranium based EQ's.. got that great NEVE-ish sound
Melcor EQs any of them are just very cool
DBX 160X or XT
Neve 1272 module converted to mic pre
Joe Meek SC 2 compressor for drums

Cellotron · Post by **Cellotron** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:38 pm

Here's some stuff to fit the mid end budget that I like:

Grace Design Model 101 - $560 street - just a really great uncolored pre - very solid and clean sound - and I actually personally prefer it over other more expensive "transparent" choices like Millenia HV3 or Focusrite Red

Shiny Box 23L - $325 direct - I just got this Chinese made ribbon upgrade with the Lundahl transformer and got to say after just one session micing up my 5-string contra cello I'm pretty darned impressed. http://www.shinybox.com

Sonoris Multiband Compressor - $125 direct - this is a plugin in SAWStudio native format only - but it is one of the best sounding digital multiband comps I've heard - it seriously makes the Waves C4 sound ridiculous. Folks should bug its author, Pieter Stenekes to do a port of it to VST because it's a really great piece of code - actually pretty much all of his stuff comes highly recommended. http://www.sonoris.nl

GIK Acoustics bass traps - about $140 including shipping per pair of 2' x 4' x 4" panels - just hung up 14 of these in my room and they really do work well. Sure - you can DIY it - but at this price the money is well worth the hassle save to me. http://www.gikacoustics.com

Ultrasone PROline 650 - $300 streeet - not the most comfortable headphone I've had - but sonically really nice and full range and accurate and unhyped.

Latin Percussion UDU drums - around $90 street - these things are really quiet compared to any other hand drum I've ever had - so you have to mic them very close - but for me the burbly sound they make is perfect for late night trancing out when you just need to hit something that makes an organic sound to be able to chill out after a long day. Makes a cool sound to mix into some hip-hop loops too.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

junkstar · Post by **junkstar** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:28 am

Fav under $600 would be my 421.

vsr600 · Post by **vsr600** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:02 am

Cellotron wrote: Here's some stuff to fit the mid end budget that I like:

...
GIK Acoustics bass traps - about $140 including shipping per pair of 2' x 4' x 4" panels - just hung up 14 of these in my room and they really do work well. Sure - you can DIY it - but at this price the money is well worth the hassle save to me. http://www.gikacoustics.com
...

I dunno, GIK is one of those companies that list their absorbtion coefficients being greater than one. This just bothers me since that means it can absorb more sound than is put into it (kinda like some weird quazi negative vaccume). I'm sure it's because of the way the measure the coefficients and assumptions they made in doing that. But still I was always taught to not trust companies that do that.

vsr600 · Post by **vsr600** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:18 am

But in regards to the topic,
I like:
Of course the obvious FMR RNCs and Oktava MK012's..
I have a Blue Bluebird that's quite nice on some people's voices.
The Groove Tubes GT57 has come in handy when I needed a decent multipattern mic even if it is a little "dark" sounding (again sounds good on some voices).
Audio Technica AT4033's work well on most things.
Also the Presonus Central Station really is a central part of my studio, it probably gets used more than any other piece of gear in a session.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:01 am

Gosh, I must really like my studio, because everything except for my HD24 and a couple of guitars was under $600. Even my computer was $50 plus a brand new XP OS.

Cellotron · Post by **Cellotron** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:12 am

vsr600 wrote:
Cellotron wrote: Here's some stuff to fit the mid end budget that I like:

...
GIK Acoustics bass traps - about $140 including shipping per pair of 2' x 4' x 4" panels - just hung up 14 of these in my room and they really do work well. Sure - you can DIY it - but at this price the money is well worth the hassle save to me. http://www.gikacoustics.com
...
I dunno, GIK is one of those companies that list their absorbtion coefficients being greater than one. This just bothers me since that means it can absorb more sound than is put into it (kinda like some weird quazi negative vaccume). I'm sure it's because of the way the measure the coefficients and assumptions they made in doing that. But still I was always taught to not trust companies that do that.

I can't speak regarding any inaccuracies they have listed on their absorption coefficients on their site - as they indeed have had them professionally measured recently - but to me those things are moot because in my real world use hanging them cured a big ol' ugly 200-500Hz bump at my listening spot, and the bass response from my B&W N802's does indeed sound a lot more focused now.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

curtiswyant · Post by **curtiswyant** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:22 am

Three letters: 388

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:45 am

I picked up a Coleman M3 monitor switcher on eBay for $550. That's probably the most useful (and most frequently used) item in my studio for less than 6 bills.

Red Rockets Glare · Post by **Red Rockets Glare** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:10 am

Summit TLA-50, it is something I track almost every overdub through when going str8 to hard drive. Makes it sound like really mild tape compression, only it has more control than tape saturation does.
It's fun to push the signal a bit though as well to drive the tube a bit.

Brian Brock · Post by **Brian Brock** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:26 am

I like the Korg Microkorg - it's small, easy and great as a filter, vocoder or synth.

Audio Technica 4047 - great a few feet in front of the kick drum with a couple of overheads and a snare mic.

Soundcraft Folio Notepad - again, it's small and easy to use, so I use it a lot, so I like it.

Kurzweil Rumour. Sounds good.

Well the Hamptone tube kit costs less than 600 per channel and it fucking rocks.

Little Labs's IBP is partially responsible for my favorite guitar sound ever, and their redeye contributed to my second favorite.

OK.

b

billiamwalker · Post by **billiamwalker** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:36 am

curtiswyant wrote:Three letters: 388

those are numbers

hopeless_opus · Post by **hopeless_opus** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:08 am

Hamptone HJFP2
FMR RNC
AT4047
Blueridge BR-43

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What is your favorite piece of gear costing less than $600

What is your favorite piece of gear costing less than $600

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