A Bit of Gear Humor...

Post by **TapeOpLarry** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:36 pm

An engineer/producer confided in me recently that many young engineers weaned on plug-ins were coming in for sessions at his studio and requesting (real) Fairchild limiters and Pultec EQs. It seems they'd been using them as plug-ins and assumed every studio had racks of these ready to go. Needless to say, his studio is well-equipped but not [i]that[/i] well-equipped!

What's next? Requesting the hardware versions of gear that [i]only[/i] exist as plug-ins? "Can you patch in a Massey L2007 for me?"

dsw · Post by **dsw** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:36 pm

Larry,
this was over on the PSW forum yesterday:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index. ... 628/20026/

copied from above link:

This morning at NYU a student showed up shortly after nine to check in for his session, the first of the day. After a few minutes in the studio, he came to find me, a worried expression on his face. "Some hardware plug-ins are on", he moaned. I told him I'd be right there, and thought to myself, "hardware plug-ins?! Does he mean... no... He couldn't..."

Sure enough, he's pointing to an 1176 and asking if it's okay that it was left on all night.

It's not outboard gear now, it's a hardware plug-in. And now, as I said in the subject line, I feel old.

Noah

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:51 pm

From here on, the "play" button my tape machine will be called the space bar.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:55 pm

Is there a rackmount version of Reaper?

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:05 pm

It's funny how other people my age of younger barely think of hardware and tend to mix everything in the box. I've had classes with people who didn't know there were other preamps than on a mixer. They also don't know expensive it gets....sometimes I envy them.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:33 pm

ott0bot wrote: I've had classes with people who didn't know there were other preamps than on a mixer.

That's not altogether surprising. We weren't taught about outboard mic pres in college, 20 years ago. Of course, that was 15 years before the big Mic Pre Marketing Push we've seen recently. All through my first 2 or 3 jobs in pro studios everybody just used the pres on the console. I think I'd been working in studios for 6 years before I used -or saw anyone else use- an outboard pre.

Waltz Mastering · Post by **Waltz Mastering** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:42 pm

Yeah, It's getting very confusing know a days... Someone say's "I have or use the API blah blah blah or ssl comp..." Is it real or Kodak? not in sound.. but in name.

There's nothing wrong with using the plugs or whatever you have at the disposal to do the job, but taking for granted if someones talking about the plug or the real thing is a crap shoot more times that not.

Virtual reality...

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 4:43 pm

dwlb wrote:
ott0bot wrote: I've had classes with people who didn't know there were other preamps than on a mixer.
That's not altogether surprising. We weren't taught about outboard mic pres in college, 20 years ago. Of course, that was 15 years before the big Mic Pre Marketing Push we've seen recently. All through my first 2 or 3 jobs in pro studios everybody just used the pres on the console. I think I'd been working in studios for 6 years before I used -or saw anyone else use- an outboard pre.

Thats good to know. Maybe it's just because I did alot of home recording and I was a little older before I went to school that I had a bit more gear knowledge. Or maybe it's because now it seems that the boards they make that are afforable have such bland preamps. Older consoles seemed to pride themselves on their quality pre's and eq's....but now it seems like they are just a small volume knob and some other knobs you genrally avoid so you don't ruin your signal. I couldn't afford anything nice, so I just bought outboard pre's instead of buying a cheap board. My school had two Mackie 32x8 boards and there wasn't much variety besides a Eureka...and most people wouldn't even think of using it. They were generally just trying to get a sigal and they didn't want to worry about using a patch bay.

also....
I think it's that there is so much you can do in the box now and before you didn't have a choice. You had to use more outboard gear before DAW's so thats what people learned. Now you really can do almost everything in the box....maybe it doesn't sound the same, but you can do nearly everything. For me it's much more fun to mess with knobs that it is to click a mouse...so I try to do both instead of being super DAW centric. But I know from working with people my own age it's not a shared feeling by everyone.

NewAndImprov · Post by **NewAndImprov** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:43 pm

A few years ago, I had a couple of techno kids in the studio who referred to everything as "Filters." As in "Wow, that compression filter sounds really good."

farview · Post by **farview** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:57 pm

What do you mean your LA2A isn't stereo!!!!!

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:38 pm

"why are you writing a bunch of stuff down and putting tape and marker all over those things?"

tubetapexfmr · Post by **tubetapexfmr** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:12 am

You mean you have to use your hands?

That's like a baby's toy!

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:27 am

I couldn't find a plug-in, but I did find a USB powered lava-lamp.

mikeyc · Post by **mikeyc** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:51 am

jessemesasavage wrote:You mean you have to use your hands?

That's like a baby's toy!

Next thing they'll want a Pepsi Free.

I teach an audio class once a year and it's a challenge to introduce the non-software concept to younger students, without it sounding like "when I was your age... both ways uphill in the snow... and we liked it!"

Leopold · Post by **Leopold** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:01 am

While tracking a band to tape a few weeks ago, " Can you put a Fender Bassman plugin on my track?"
Also one guy looked over at me while we were listening to the playback, pointed to the tape machine and said, "What is that?"

Ok

Eddie

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A Bit of Gear Humor...

A Bit of Gear Humor...

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