Bap, I know EXACTLY how you feel. No need to apologize. (Just got a pair of Lipinski speakers to review today, and I'm still learning my way around all the cool stuff in Sequoia V8...and I've gotta WORK sometime, too.)

So many toys! So little time! ;-)

HeHe... The difference between men and boys is the size and price of their toys!

I just got a cool $10,000 to spend, so I blew it on Sequoia V7/V8, a pair of Gefell M296's, a new Benchmark Mic pre (4 channel), some Lynx cards and more cables (you can never have enough cables.) My new cable is a 100' 8 channel XLR-M to XLR-F Monster Cable (500 series) recording snake. I now mount all of my preamps within 20 feet of the mics and then send the amplified signal down the MC snake to my console and do level tweaks at it before it goes to the AD Converter.

I LLLOOOOOVVVEEEE money!!!! (and all the toys it can buy!!!!!)

Whoever says "money can't buy happiness" has never seen me run to the bathroom with my new Sweetwater catalog the first day I get it in the mail!

So you keep the sweetwater catalogue in the bathroom too... and mix, and tape op and em and...

Yep. My wife refers to them as "Electronics Porn."

"My wife refers to them as "Electronics Porn." "

HA! That's great, I'm going to use that one. (And I'll footnote you, Jeremy.) Congrats on Sequoia/Samplitude. I guarantee you will NOT be sorry. You'll be gushing about it on here, soon enough.

I keep getting copies of this new catalog from B&H: Winter 2005....anyone else getting it? FULL of goodies to spend my $$$ on, indeed. Big glossy pics of all the top of the line mics, etc. PORN, indeed.....we just get aroused in the BIGGER sex organ: The brain.

Me, I'm trying to scrape together enough $ to keep these Lipinski's. They're so good it's scary.....

My toys need to be adolescent in nature - not the real men things. Next thing I might want is a Beyerdynamic 160, another 'reasonably priced' toy!

So far I have 4 channels of pretty good pre amp [Hamptone JFET & DAV BG1] going to Lynx and Samplitude. I might be able to get a decent recorded sound if I use them properly.

Still on Mackie 626 monitors. I'm afraid to look too much at really nice ones! :shock:

Jeremy,
I have a collection of what we call "watch-porn" in my house; I have a nasty little obsession with watches. Ooh, those Vacheron & Constantin pictures...should be banned!

Anyways, I'd really love to hear all the lurid detail about your new Microtech-Gefells, if you get the time. They seem like enticing little vixens indeed! One cool thing I love about MG is that they do the same level of REAL research that the big names did fifty years ago.

Thanks,
John

<>

I had the honor & pleasure to speak with them at AES/SF this past October, and it was goose-bump wonderul stuff, indeed. Lots of pictures of their facility in Gefell, Germany. (map and all). They do a LOT of stuff by hand, as well as use all the latest test gear. They don't rush, they don't crank out tons of copies, and they are totally passionate/comitted to their product. (They also said to stop by any time I'm ever in Germany! hehehe...maybe I will someday).

Wish I had an unlimited budget to buy a few of their mics, including the 5.1 rig.

Joe,
If you're ever visiting Germany, let me know! I want to visit the mic factories in Germany. My other great pilgrimage is to the watch factories in Switzerland, but a trip to Gefell would be amazing!
John

Tell you what, John.... I want to get to Ireland FIRST someday, (maybe you can offer some travel tips?)

AFTER that, I'll try to get to Geffell. (from the pics they had, it's certainly worth the trip!)

Joe
Sounds great -you've got your own personal tour guide 8-)
John

Dude! You got a Gefell! (I couldn't help the bad Dell reference, I used to contract to them :cry: )

The Gefells came in and just looking at them and then doing some test horn recordings of myself, I had to change my pants.

It's a damn shame that the only groups that I have to record for the next 4 weeks are high-school honor groups.

Looking at the pictures of these things on-line, I was prepared to be disappointed (They look like SM81s on sterroids). But, holding these puppies in hand and looking at that beautiful, shiney nickel capsule, it was hard to keep the drool off the diaphragm!

I'll let you know my impressions soon. I hope I like 'em, cuz I won't get to record anything "real" until the return timeframe has expired.

J...

John Stafford wrote: Joe,
If you're ever visiting Germany, let me know! I want to visit the mic factories in Germany. My other great pilgrimage is to the watch factories in Switzerland, but a trip to Gefell would be amazing!
John

Ooooh! Can I join you?

I'd love to tour the German microphone manufacturers, I could squeeze that into my other dream tour - to visit all the major concert halls in Europe. (Coming from Australia, where no building is more than 200 years old, we just don't have the same kinds of old concert halls...)

I'd like to be able to make just one recording in each of them, but anyway...

When you go to Switzerland to visit the watch manufacturers, I'll split and visit Studer and Nagra...

- Greg Simmons

Wouldn't that be the ultimate GEEK tour?

We'd travel around Europe to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but NOT to see scenery; just concert halls, watch makers, and microphone manufacturers.

Mmmmm.....Hamburg! (Homer Simpson.)

Simmosonic wrote: ... my other dream tour - to visit all the major concert halls in Europe. (Coming from Australia, where no building is more than 200 years old, we just don't have the same kinds of old concert halls...)

I'd like to be able to make just one recording in each of them, but anyway...

I am reminded of Bob Katz's sig line. Something about there being two kinds of fools, one who believes old is better etc.

Greg, come to Brisbane, too, and hear and record in the Conservatorium Theatre, it is magnificent. Some new halls are great too.

But, of course, I agree with you. I was in Amsterdam ("Om sto dom" as the Dutch say) last year and walked around the outside of the Concertgebouw for a long time. They would not show me around inside. But these sorts of venues are very exciting.

I would also like to visit those little churches in Sweden where many recordings are made, also the great cathedrals of Europe.

Sigh. Any good concert halls in Tibet Greg?

I might make a side trip to taste the wine and beer as well! :D

[I started this thread after all!]

NOT to see scenery; just concert halls, watch makers, and microphone manufacturers

...that's IS scenery :wink:

John

DavidSpearritt wrote: I am reminded of Bob Katz's sig line. Something about there being two kinds of fools, one who believes old is better etc.

Greg, come to Brisbane, too, and hear and record in the Conservatorium Theatre, it is magnificent. Some new halls are great too.

SNIP!

Sigh. Any good concert halls in Tibet Greg?

Ooops! Don't get me wrong, I didn't say the old ones sound better. There are many wonderful modern concert halls, all around the world. Acoustics have come a long way, and I think acousticians have really started to understand the factors that make a GREAT concert hall over the last 10 or 20 years. I'm not at all implying that those old ones are better acoustically, I am really more interested in the history they contain and the culture they represent. The performers come and go over time, but the best concert halls, the best compositions and the best instruments remain and only increase in our appreciation.

I reckon you can stand in a very old building and 'feel' the history. I'd also love to hear some of the classic pieces of chamber music being performed in the same venues they were written in or for, if you know what I mean. (This could open up the whole debate of tuning, etc., but I'll leave that up to the performers...)

I watched the movie 'Russian Ark' some time ago on the big screen, and was very moved by it. The orchestral scenes made me all teary-eyed!

The recordings I have heard that you made in the Conservatorium Theatre sound lovely, and I'd love to work on some recordings there with you when I return. Likewise, the Sydney Con's two recital halls are wonderful sounding small rooms, as I recently discovered.

As for Tibet, no, there are no good concert halls as we'd recognise them. But, it is incredible to stand in the assembly hall of a monastery that was built in 700 AD to fit hundreds or thousands of chanting monks, the air and furnishings redolent with the smell of yak butter candles and incense, light pouring in through the upper windows and hazing off the incense smoke, and realise that nothing had changed over the last 1300 years.

I would've loved to make some recordings inside these places - they have a very even and diffuse acoustic due to the number of columns and fixtures and the amount of absorption, but the government is very sensitive about such things. When I return to Tibet for the third time, however, I'm going to be a bit bolder in my attempts to capture the sounds I want.

You've got to hear an assembly hall full of Tibetan monks chanting. Fantastic!

- Greg Simmons