New Gear wish list, what would you like to see made?

Funny, I was thinking about those just last week lolo. I went and auditioned them side by side with my Adam A7X's. I liked them for several reasons, but had some reservations too. First, my ears instantly relaxed when compared to the Adam's, which led me to believe they would be much more comfortable to work on for hours at a time, which I do frequently. They're smaller too, which would work nicely for me, since I leave my monitors on my desktop. Now, the bass was much fuller on the Adam's, so it seemed the obvious choice, but being a nearfield monitor, that's not necessarily better, as we always extrapolate with nearfields, as we don't have a true low end. The vocals seemed a little "flat" to me also. It could be the Neumann's translate better, but you never know until you have speakers for a while.

My impression was they were monitors, in the sense that the ubiquitous Yamaha NS-10's were monitors, and not a substitute for bigger speakers. That's not necessarily good or bad, it is what it is. The interesting part of the story is that the $2,600 Focal Solo6 BE monitors were right next to both the Adam's and the Neumann's, so I switched the tracks over to those a few times. Now, compared to some custom made Westlake monitors or perhaps other even more expensive monitors you could say they were a little bloated, but compared to the Neumann's and Adam's it was no contest. The Focal's had all the detail, ease of the Neumann's, a much deeper and wider soundstage, a much bigger low end too.

I'd say the Focal's are what I'd really like to have. Since I can probably get a fair price for my Adam's, and if I'm patient, there are often 15% discounts at Sam Ash or the Guitar Center, I could conceivably almost "trade" over for the Neumann's. I'd probably have to add $250-$300 to the pot to make it happen.

The thing is, it's hard to think about bothering, when I've heard what I really prefer, but just can't afford it at the moment. I guess in my wish list, I should clarify, I want a pair of Focal Solo6 monitors for $1,600, or less. It is a wish list after all.

Maybe they'll show up a little cheaper, not that they've been available for a while longer. The tricky part is that if I sold my Adams', I could basically go to the store and buy the Neumann's,, but If I wanted to buy the Focals used, I'd have to front the money and then hope the Adam's sell quickly. At least I like the Adams', so it's OK if I just keep them. All in good time, hopefully.

It still sounds great from what I've heard of your tracks.

Not to put in a shameless plug ...but, you also might get something professionally mixed. One of the things I offer is feedback on the tracking. Where and how improvements can happen. Objective weak spots for next time. I find that sometimes people lack the perspective to know what tracks actually sound as they should in raw form....and which don't. I'll have clients who think the vocal is poor or drums are poor but the guitar is killer--when the opposite is true. They maybe don't know how to set the vocal compressor well--or hate the sound of their own voice. Don't know how to properly treat multimic'd drums in a mix--but, did a decent job at tracking them.

I say that having NOT heard anything from you...but, just something to keep in mind if you're looking to quickly KNOW where to focus any upgrade--be it gear or technique. I think clients learn more from having me mix....and talk to them about what I heard as issues, than they would ever get from getting OCD reading forums and trying to figure things out from general advice to people about situations that may be completely different than yours.

Well, we have a high opinion of ourselves, don't we?

Yes, this reminds me of an ad with golfer Payne Stewart (R.I.P) he did for one of the big club brands. Payne was always dressed very well and very old school, and he looked straight into the camera and said 'If you're gonna dress like this, you gotta be able to back it up', and then fired away. Loved that ad

Jeff's modular console!

I dream about it at night.

Sad. I know.

I have had one burning desire, one dream, one HUGE wish for some time now:

Microtech Gefell buys the Neumann division from Sennheiser and the combined teams sit down in Gefell and evaluate everything in both lines and offer the world's greatest array of microphones EVER. That line-up would include a U48/47,UM57, U67, M249b, M269, M582/KM54/KM56, a new U97 that is a cross between the U87 and Gefells 800 or 900, etc etc

I AM ALLOWED TO DREAM!!

Faithfull ITB Bricasti

That's why i buy Gefell and not Neumann..  Their stuff is a lot closer to the original products than Neumann is today, especially the capsules.

Sennheiser swears they haven't changed the way the U87 is made but too many folks find the "post-sennheiser" U87 to be drastically inferior to the "pre-sennheiser" era mics..  Who knows.  I haven't heard enough of either to matter.  I have my Gefells and I plan on more in the future.

Auditioned a Gefell today, and you're right, the Gefell resembles a Neumann U&7, but with a cleaner low end and no harshness on the first transient. The Gefell did have plenty of bite, but not a crackle on loud inputs, and a bigger bottom. Much better than the U87's I've heard lately, and it cost $1,000 less !

New UM70Ts MICS aren't really better than Neumann. Just different. Now, the OLD ones with transformers? Those I think BEAT an old OR new U87 pretty handily. But, they have the same issue as Neumann in terms of old vs new. At almost the same time frame (some point in the 80s)...it was when Senheiser bought Neumann, buy I don't know what happened with Gefell.