Sweetwater Gearfest 2012

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

Sweetwater Gearfest 2012 Wishlist

Sweetwater's Gearfest 2012 is coming up and of course I will be in attendance. Last year picked up the JDK R24 and couldn't be happier with my purchase. Here is whats on my wishlist for this year. Its hard to decide on what to purchase next but I don't feel I really need anything, but also don't want to buy gear that won't see regular use. Depending on deals going on I'll be leaving with an order placed for on the following. 

1. tonelux V4 roadster w/ little devil pre
2. tonelux V4 roadster w/ tonelux mp5a
3. Miktek C7
4. dangerous bax eq

After researching all the 500 series racks on the market I've decided on the tonelux V4, and the little devil pre has been on my wishlist since it was announced. If the little devil is not on sale and the mp5a is then I'll likely go with that. If Tonelux isn't running any specials thenJDK R22 can fill my want for a new stereo compressor, especially one thats good on vocals. Also haven't ruled out the Miktek C7, I have some projects coming up this summer and Miktek makes some of best mics I've heard. Lastly the Bax eq on sale I would consider it. 

Lindell Audio new 500 series products to retail at $299!

I was browsing on Alto music’s site and came across the new 500 series from Lindell Audio and saw the price was $299. My first impression was Alto screwed up the price listing. There is no way a mic pre with a pultec style eq, FET compressor, and a pultec eq can be $299 each in a 500 series. So to confirm this wasn’t an early April Fool’s joke I emailed Lindell Audio asking if this was the correct pricing and received this reply.

“Yes it’s very true, we are being very aggressive with our pricing. $299 is the price. We expect to ship in late July.”

So there you have it, For well under a grand you can get three 500 series modules for the price of what you normally pay for one. So this makes me wonder. If Lindell Audio can make aggressively priced 500 series, why can’t anyone else? I often notice the price of the smaller 500 series products are not far from the rack versions of the same unit. My audio friends close to me know I have been contemplating getting a API lunchbox and some 500 series pieces for a while. With these products from Lindell Audio I am very tempted to buy all three. Products like empirical labs docderr, Chandler Little Devil Pre, and Inward Connections Brute makes me step closer to the 500 series, but the Lindell Audio 500 series makes me take a huge step.  


For more info visit http://www.lindellaudio.se/