After half way filling up my new API lunchbox, I got to thinking of which companies and products I would love to see develop for the 500 series. So here is a wish list of 5 of those companies and products.
- Summit Audio - The TLA100 is one of my favorite vocal compressors. And I’ve always wanted to use Summit EQ’s (I recently got the new Softube Summit Grand Channel). If Summit could find a way to shrink their products into the 500 series you can put me down for one of each. Summit is known for their tube gear so this would be quite a challenge.
- Tube-tech CL 1B - Oh the classic blue beast. Tubetech opticalness in 500 series. One word. Yes! Tube-tech has their own proprietary modules similar to the 500 series, but sadly its not 500 series.
- Empirical Labs 500 series pre - The mike-e is one of my favorite vocal pre’s and channels strips. If Dave Derr where to make a 500 series pre with say the saturation from mike-e I’d be on it like LED’s on all the other Empirical Labs gear.
- Dave Hill Designs - Dave Hill gave me the most impressive demo at Gearfest this year at Sweetwater. If Dave was to make anything 500 series no doubt it would be great. For those who don’t know Dave Hill he is more known as the mastermind behind the Cranesong gear.
- Solid State Logic - Because SSL makes the X-rack,modules, their own proprietary smaller modules, I doubt we’ll ever see them design for the 500 series. In my opinion the 500 series is way more popular than the X-rack stuff. I think SSL could make a killing with the 500 series format, especially if they did their EQ.
These are of course dreams but the Empirical Labs pre I can see really becoming a reality. What companies or products do you want to see in the 500 series?
Just a theory here, but if you were trying to decide between the legendary API gear, and their more affordable brand JDK, then the recent API price increase may help you make your decision. I'm in the market for a stereo compressor and been strongly considering the JDK R22, and giving the API 2500 a light consideration. Before yesterday these two compressors where separated by $1,500. Few days ago some API gear got a price increase. The API 2500 has gone up to $2,800. With more distance between these two brands people who were considering API may now try the JDK, Its hard to pay more for something you've been looking at a certain price for so long. People who really want API will buy API, so I don't think the price increase will hurt their sales. But for those who were struggling between the two brands may find a pleasant surprise in the lesser known JDK audio gear. I still use my JDK R24 every mix I do. Hopefully the JDK stuff doesn't go up to because I will likely be adding more to my rack.
Gearfest 2012 was another great experience for me, once attended with my friend D. Lyles. This was my third time attending the event and I had just as much fun as the last two years. I got to see a lot of familiar faces, chat with some important people, and drool at sale prices at every tent. I noticed some products weren’t on sale for as low as they were the previous year. Sales were still were still good and you’d have to be a fool to come and not buy anything. I always put together a wishlist of what I want but after seeing other products on sale it makes it hard to make a final decision. Though I’m not in the market for a new mic the Miktek C7 was on sale for $749! Thats $150 off regular price. Another great sale was the Radial Q3 for $529, down from the regular price of $599 (which I actually ordered last night). The workshops last year I think were “ok” but this year they were good. Though I spent most my time in the tents with manufactures, I got to check out seminars from George Massenburg, Fab Dupont, Mike Wells, and one from Mojave showing off their mics in different configurations on acoustic guitars. Gearfest isn’t a place where new products are introduced, but It caught me off guard to see the new Daking Hybird compressor for the 500 series in Geoffe Daking’s lunchbox. Geoffe told me last year he was working on it but I didn’t expect to see until NAMM or maybe AES later this year. He said its called a hybird compressor because its VCA that acts like a FET. He said it was shipping now (though I haven’t seen on it any sites yet, including Daking’s) and he actually offered to sell me the one right out of his lunchbox. Dave HIll gave us a demo of his Europa mic pre and Titan compressor. I was blown away at what the Europa could do. You really could hear a difference with each knob twist. I ended up leaving gearfest with a API 6 slot lunchbox, Chandler Little Devil Pre, and tascam pr-10. People I noticed I didn’t see this year were Waves, Slate audio (and digital), and McDSP. Overall though another successful event for Sweetwater and I look forward to next year. Gearfest, unlike other similar events, is completely free. All you need to do is get there. With events like NAMM in LA and AES in NY out of reach for me, Fort Wayne is a tolerable 6 hour drive for me from Nashville. If you're like me and can get to Indiana faster than NY or LA I highly recommend checking out Gearfest next year. I forgot my digital camera so I had to take pics with my galaxy nexus, but here is a link to some photos I took. https://plus.google.com/b/113269535296910365369/113269535296910365369/posts/FLbNQUfxLGG
