Winter NAMM 20112 wish list

 So the new year has came and its now January. January is one of my favorite months for two reasons. 1, Winter NAMM, and 2, CES. New studio gear and gadgets, one day I will have to attend both of these events. Here is 10 things I wish to see at NAMM this year.

1. The Avalon 737 is one of my favorite channels strips. Its been years since Avalon has released anything new. Would love see some new gear from them.
2. Same goes for Summit Audio. They were bought out a few years ago and said they would continue to build new gear. Well its been a few years so here’s to hoping we see something new soon.
3. I’m pretty stocked on plugins from last year but if Softube, McDsp, or Sound Toys announces anything new I will be excited to check it out. Hey Sound Toys, if your reading this would be a good time drop juice!
4. Dangerous has been one my favorite companies with products like the d-box, 2bus, and bax eq. Here’s hoping to see a compressor next.
5. JDK audio has been putting out products every few years. In a short time they produced the R20, R22, R24, and V14. I hope the R26 is a channel strip.
6. What ever happened to the Apogee Mic? Maybe we will see it at NAMM
7. Speaking of Apogee I hope see an upgrade to the ensemble. Something to go between the Symphony and ensemble would be much appreciated.
8. Geoffe Daking told me at Sweetwater’s Gearfest he was working on a new 500 series piece. Lets see it at NAMM!
9. Dear SSL, I absolutely love the alpha link. Excellent converter. But everyone doesn’t need 24 channels. I hope they will announce an 8 or 16 channel converter based off the alphalink.
10. I’ve never used a Vintech pre before but have heard great things about it. I want to see a the eq from the x73i shrunk to the 500 series format.

What do yal hope to see at NAMM?

Newer Doesn't Always Mean Better

In the audio world, newer doesn't always mean better, though in most cases it does. In electronic products such as smartphones, TV's, video game consoles, and computers, are contanstly being replaced by newer models with more impressive specs and performance. In audio however, this isn't the case. Lets take the Empirical Labs Distressor for example. The Distressor had its 15th year old birthday last year. The Avalon 737 channel strip is also more than a decade old. The RME Fireface series is coming up on a decade. The Lynx Aurora converters are now over 5 years old. Yet these products are still popular and selling well today. If you notice, most of the new gear today is made to sound like the old gear of the past. The Vintech series is made to recreate the classic Neve sound, and the Daking mic pre and eq is modeled after the Trident console. I'm not saying go buy the oldest gear you can afford, but I am saying if your looking at gear and one was built in 07, and one 05, don't expect the one built in 07 to sound better because its "newer". 


Because audio gear made over a decade ago can still be relevant today is actually a good thing. I don't think anyone will reinvent the microphone anytime soon. What I mean by this is you have condenser, ribbon, and dynamic mics. Will there be an awesome new technology to come out that will replace these types of mics making them obsolete? Not likely. So its a good thing because the same mic, mic pre, eq, and compressor you use today will still be able to function 20 years from now. This means you can buy gear and use it for the rest of your career. How many other industries can say that? Another good thing is that after a decade of production there are plenty of used ones available for cheaper. The bad thing about old gear still being relevant is that prices aren't likely to drop because of a products age, which makes sense. It something has been selling well for over a decade then why drop the price? If anything prices go up. An engineer I know was telling me the other day how his friend bought a tubetech CL1B for around $1800 brand new years ago. Now the price is almost doubled at $3500. So don't let the age of a product discourage you from purchasing it. (Unless its truly vintage and may be in need of constant repair.) Who knows, that gear you may end up buying that's a few years old may end up being a classic. Then you can be the one saying you bought it at lower price 10 years later when the price is doubled.

Searching for my Neve 1073 clone

Pretty much every vocal chain I hear these days has a Neve 1073 pre behind the mic. I’ve heard a lot about Neve series and now I’m ready to purchase my Neve clone pre to see what all the hype is about. This choice won’t be easy. My budget will be around $1,500. I really want a channel strip so I can use it for tracking and mixing. Here are the pre’s I’m considering right now. I’ll let y'all know what I decide to purchase and why.....

1. Vintech x73i - The Vintech has been said to be identical in sound to the original 1073. I’ve seen a youtube clip from soundpure.com doing a shootout between the two. If you contact them they say they will send you the original files from the shootout. The x73i right now is my front runner for its price, reputation, and customer support. Dallas from Vintech has been very helpful with any questions I’ve had about the unit. I could not see the EQ frequencies from any pics, even on their site. I emailed Dallas, he replied with his cell number, and I gave him a call to get my eq frequency question answered as well as a few others. Doug at Soundpure had nothing but good things to say about the Vintech as well.
2. Miktek mpa-201 - While not a channel strip the MIktek looks very promising. 2 channels based on the Neve circuit with three impedance settings, a HPF, and a smooth switch for added flexibility. I’m strongly considering this pre because I’ve met the guys at Miktek a few times and believe they really know what they are doing. They got a great rep for their mics and I expect the same from the pre. Mike at Miktek told me they would probably do a channel strip in the future so I kind of want to hold out for that since it will better fit my needs, but jumping on the Miktek bandwagon early would be nice.
3. Slate Pro Audio Fox- Again, not a channel strip, but a very interesting pre I saw come out NAMM. The Fox is a pre that offers four different flavors. One of them being a vintage Neve flavor. I haven’t heard much about this pre since it was announced but I’m still very interested in how different the four flavors on the pre sounds.
4. BAE audio is said to make the closest thing to an original Neve 1073. The only problem is for me to get a BAE audio pre and eq in a channel strip the price would be $3500! For me to get a BAE pre within my budget I’d have to sacrifice the eq and can get even lower by sacrificing the filters. I know someone that has some BAE pre’s and swears Vintech are no competition compared to the BAE’s. So is it worth dropping the EQ to get a BAE pre for $1500? I may have to borrow his and find out.
5. Chameleon Labs 7602mkII w/ zen pro mod - this one is low on my list but I love Chameleon labs and have heard good things about this channel strip. I have a 7720 stereo compressor from them and I absolutely love it. I’ve heard the mod that zenproaudio.com does for them really helps the sound of the sound of pre.