I ‘think’ I’ve made a boo-boo.
I had a lovely set up of logic, Presonus Studiolive 1602 mixer, UAD LA-610 Pre-amp and Satellite Duo. Various hardware goodies were plugged in and all was pretty much well.
I then had a severe G.A.S attack. I wish it had been wind as that would have cost me less cash AND grief but unfortunately gear greed took me on a journey I may regret.
Well, not regret in any serious sense – it’s hardly a world event, but I’ve spent the last week dismantling the old set up and chasing down hum and noise in the new one.
You see, all I wanted was to be able to have all my synths and hardware plugged in at the same time to avoid patching and fuss. My solution was (is) selling the Presonus mixer and UAD Duo and buying a UAD Apollo, DAV summing mixer and monitor controller instead. That way, although I lost a few direct to DAW channels from the mixer via FireWire, I had 8 ins on the Apollo and 32 on the summing mixer, plenty for my worsening gear addiction. I also installed a patchbay should I want some simply flexibility.
Sounds great so far? Well yes and no.
Whereas before hum was almost nonexistent, introducing a patchbay and the passive summing mixer has been a noise nightmare. It’s almost under control now but with woes of balanced vs unbalanced, ground loops and noisy synths etc, the new route is far less forgiving of dodgy cables, parallel cable runs and low line levels.
What wrankles slightly is I’m annoyed at myself for going gear mad, buying some excellent stuff and not feeling over the moon with it. I’ve spoilt myself silly and personified the title of this site but with ‘no idea’ placed firmly after the header!
The lure of the perfect set up that achieves writing bliss is bollocks but impossible not to aim for anyway.
Gear greed is a drug and I’m hooked!
I’ve also got various bits of kit to sell which is a ball ache and a necessity to recover some cash.
Woe is me. Well, not really, I’m incredibly lucky and moaning needlessly. I just need to crank out some banging tunes and ban myself from eBay et al.
If nothing else I’ve promised myself to get some quick videos up so you can see some of the toys in action.
My name is Little Thief and I’m a gear addict.
