Taking equipment advice with a pinch of salt

When I was starting out, attaining the gear to make me sound like the pros was an all consuming activity and a lot of emphasis was placed on the advice of others. You very much get caught up in the idea that without the latest and best gear, you will surely fail at your quest of making great music!

My experience has shown that a lot of the advice, especially if taken online in forums like ‘Gearslutz’ should be taken with a pinch of salt and in some cases a large dollop of the stuff.

A few times I would search for comments on a few pieces of gear that I’d narrowed down to a shortlist based on functionality, budget and availability only to be told that all of my options were not even good enough as a doorstop or a boat anchor! Initially I was quite dismayed and cursed my paltry budget, but then I had an idea! I pretended I was in the market for a much higher end piece of gear, one which I would automatically assume was incredible due to its pedigree and high price. I was amazed to find that that too was deemed to be only fit to be used as a means of standing on to peer over high walls (or some other ridiculously stupid put down).

The moral of the story is basically anything you can think of will have its detractor’s so it really is worth having your opinion sometimes and not getting carried away with that of others. It’s almost as if people have an agenda so it can really come across quite vitriolic at times.

Magazines also suffer from this problem in the opposite sense as they are essentially employed by the manufacturers of these products so it’s no wonder that most the reviews you read seem to be incredibly favourable.

Whenever you can, It’s always worth trying out equipment for yourself to form your own opinion. Or just get on and make music with what you have. Damon Albarn recorded most of the Gorillaz album ‘The Fall’ on an Ipad…..nuff said!

Here is a pre amp comparison i made between the Neve 1073 and the Golden Age projects Pre 73.