Old gear still rocks

[bwethera]

I was just thinking about the old API consoles and how weird it was to hear about
them slowly getting phased out of major studios in la that was a couple years ago its weird but now its all coming back in a strange way like all the stuff like the LA3a or other less important gear is now sounding good but didnt haver much
of a care back then i dunno just want to hear some opinions

[Bellringer]

It's funny how marketing works. People are always looking for a better sounding, easier to use solution to things. The future is supposed to be bright, so a new piece of gear is created with new technology and is pushed as "The new thing". Of course anyone with the money wants to brag that they have it. It's the future. The problem usually is that it is still in the future and this product is 1 in a series of steps to true better. Plus the fact that better is an opinion.
After a bit, people start wishing for the old sound. So goes the cycle. Over and over. Example: I had a friend let me use his incredible '72 Les Paul for 5 years because Ibanez and Jackson became the fast neck, IT guitars. He swore he'd never need that OLD Gibson again. Time goes by, vintage craze comes around. Old friend calls begging for his Les Paul back. Of course I had to call him out on his trendchasing and then gave it back.

[smopo24]

this thing reminds me of stories i used to hear before ebay about people calling up universities and asking them if they had any old equipment they didn't use, and they wound up getting all kinds of keen gear like ancient synths, ribbon mics, old tape machines, old broadcasting boards with a burnt out channel that still sounded great, all for a song. it makes me sick because now that kind of thing is impossible to come by at those prices. damn you ebay!!!!!!

[Whoopysnorp]

When I visited London in November, the guy I stayed with said that Abbey Road Studios decided to modernize in the mid-'80s, bought the latest and fanciest digital equipment, and just put all the old analog and tube stuff in the alley outside. I don't know, maybe it's an urban legend, but pretty much everybody's recordings in the '80s had that thin tone associated with the early digital stuff, so I'd believe it.

[johnS]

OK here's a little counter-rant. I think software modeling of vintage stuff will just get better and better until it will take a highly-trained fetishist to tell the difference, sound-wise. That, and the classic old design principles will be continue to be incorporated into new production runs (not just clones of old stuff but in new types of units, too) using parts made to a much tighter tolerance.

Meanwhile, the actual vintage stuff will just get older, more broken, and more expensive.

On the other hand, not everything can be modeled, and I'm sure a new clone of a 40 year-old ribbon mic won't sound like a 40 year old ribbon mic until it's 40 years old.

But who cares! We are living in a renaissance of "new vintage" stuff. We should all rejoice! The 80s sucked. Long live the future.