What Piece of Gear Turned Out to be a Doorstop?

[Anderton]

So you saw what you thought was a great piece of gear, and you bought it. And then...well...it just didn't seem to be all you thought it would be, and now you hardly ever use it.

And what would that piece of gear be?

[MrKnobs]

I have several things, as we all do I suppose.

I have a Meek VC1q in my rack (basically a channel strip with pre, EQ, and opto compression) and it never seems to be the right color for anything I record. It looks pretty in the rack though.

Another piece of gear I sometimes force myself to use is a Royer 121 ribbon mic. I never liked the way it sounded at all until a guy who uses one a lot over on Open Jam told me the back sounds a lot better then the front. Now I'll sometimes use it as the close mic on a guitar amp with a Neumann TLM103 farther back in the room.

And no, I've not popped the ribbon yet.

Terry D.

[MrKnobs]

I have several things, as we all do I suppose.

I have a Meek VC1q in my rack (basically a channel strip with pre, EQ, and opto compression) and it never seems to be the right color for anything I record. It looks pretty in the rack though.

Another piece of gear I sometimes force myself to use is a Royer 121 ribbon mic. I never liked the way it sounded at all until a guy who uses one a lot over on Open Jam told me the back sounds a lot better then the front. Now I'll sometimes use it as the close mic on a guitar amp with a Neumann TLM103 farther back in the room.

And no, I've not popped the ribbon yet.

Terry D.

[Philter]

M-Audio Keystation 88 key controller... worst action ever. Clients won't even play on it. It's like playing on tupperware.

[Philter]

M-Audio Keystation 88 key controller... worst action ever. Clients won't even play on it. It's like playing on tupperware.

[Bucksstudent]

A Boss Tremolo. After I got the Gig-FX Chopper, it gathered even more dust.

[Bucksstudent]

A Boss Tremolo. After I got the Gig-FX Chopper, it gathered even more dust.

[UstadKhanAli]

I have a lot of gear that I don't use frequently but definitely don't want to get rid of because I do use 'em

But I have been trying to get rid of the door stops, selling them on eBay fairly recently. That would include an extra acoustic guitar, a Stratocaster, a pink Ibanez electric with tremolo bar, and something else I can't remember.

[UstadKhanAli]

I have a lot of gear that I don't use frequently but definitely don't want to get rid of because I do use 'em

But I have been trying to get rid of the door stops, selling them on eBay fairly recently. That would include an extra acoustic guitar, a Stratocaster, a pink Ibanez electric with tremolo bar, and something else I can't remember.

[boosh]

Does my ex-girlfriend count?

[boosh]

Does my ex-girlfriend count?

[UstadKhanAli]

Only if you consider her musical equipment.

And if you do, that could explain why she's your ex!

[UstadKhanAli]

Only if you consider her musical equipment.

And if you do, that could explain why she's your ex!

[Mark L]

A book entitled 'Electronic Projects For Musicians'


I'M JOKING!!

[Mark L]

A book entitled 'Electronic Projects For Musicians'


I'M JOKING!!

[Raymar]

Atari Ste(bad floppy drive, and, oh yeah, its an Atari), Roland MT32, R5, Midiman Syncman Plus(boy did that go obsolete quick!!), Turtle Beach soundcard w/Kurzweil synth(ISA ), Tascam Porta One, not to mention the keys on my Roland U20 and Ensoniq SQ1 Plus are now pretty much useless although I can still use my trusty SEQ303 sequencer on them.

[Raymar]

Atari Ste(bad floppy drive, and, oh yeah, its an Atari), Roland MT32, R5, Midiman Syncman Plus(boy did that go obsolete quick!!), Turtle Beach soundcard w/Kurzweil synth(ISA ), Tascam Porta One, not to mention the keys on my Roland U20 and Ensoniq SQ1 Plus are now pretty much useless although I can still use my trusty SEQ303 sequencer on them.

[MikeRivers]

I have a nice old Stancor 6000 ohm interstage transformer that I used for something I built at one time, probably 50 years ago. I've been using it for a door stop for at least the past 25 years.

It would probably make a pretty good mic or line input transformer only the distortion through it is so low it probably wouldn't be very interesting to anyone who would want to use a transformer these days.

How times change!

[MikeRivers]

I have a nice old Stancor 6000 ohm interstage transformer that I used for something I built at one time, probably 50 years ago. I've been using it for a door stop for at least the past 25 years.

It would probably make a pretty good mic or line input transformer only the distortion through it is so low it probably wouldn't be very interesting to anyone who would want to use a transformer these days.

How times change!

[MikeRivers]

I have a nice old Stancor 6000 ohm interstage transformer that I used for something I built at one time, probably 50 years ago. I've been using it for a door stop for at least the past 25 years.

It would probably make a pretty good mic or line input transformer only the distortion through it is so low it probably wouldn't be very interesting to anyone who would want to use a transformer these days.

How times change!

[MikeRivers]

I have a nice old Stancor 6000 ohm interstage transformer that I used for something I built at one time, probably 50 years ago. I've been using it for a door stop for at least the past 25 years.

It would probably make a pretty good mic or line input transformer only the distortion through it is so low it probably wouldn't be very interesting to anyone who would want to use a transformer these days.

How times change!

[UstadKhanAli]

I just thought of one. The SE Electronics Project Studio Reflexion Filter is a doorstop. It does what it is supposed to, it's not that, but the mounting mechanism is the biggest piece of {censored}. The thing never stays on, and it cannot handle large microphones, which is about the only time I ever would want to use it. Just horrible. I can't stand the thing, and will probably sell it when I have a chance.

[UstadKhanAli]

I just thought of one. The SE Electronics Project Studio Reflexion Filter is a doorstop. It does what it is supposed to, it's not that, but the mounting mechanism is the biggest piece of {censored}. The thing never stays on, and it cannot handle large microphones, which is about the only time I ever would want to use it. Just horrible. I can't stand the thing, and will probably sell it when I have a chance.

[rasputin1963]

I had one of those Alesis drumkits, you know, with about 8 rubber pads to trigger digital patches. I thought I'd use it all the time to lay down drum grooves for in-the-box MIDI/Audio projects. With time I had to admit that I am no drummer... I couldn't synchronize two hands and one foot the way a drummer must do. It stood around and collected dust.


In the early days, around 1984, I bought one of the early standalone MIDI-triggered digital samplers. It was a single module unit (now I can't even recall the make). It was full-featured, to be sure, and, for 1984, could manipulate digital samples in an impressive number of ways: tunings, envelope, filtration, layering, FX. For 1984 it was a pretty slick and forward-thinking piece of kit, one of the earliest samplers whose price was affordable to the common man. The one problem was this: every one of its functions was controlled with the same knob and one or two buttons, and its readout was an amber-colored LED window measuring about 5" wide by 1" tall. ie., a tiny-assed little window. The software within was a Byzantine hierarchy of Japanese logic, all scrolled through with one or two unit knobs. In short, as fantastic as this unit was, it was really unpleasant and unintuitive to scroll through its elaborate hierarchies in such a tiny, ugly LED window. Within a year, I just sold it. I could not have foreseen in-the-box musicmaking, but I knew things had to get easier and more fun than THIS.

[rasputin1963]

I had one of those Alesis drumkits, you know, with about 8 rubber pads to trigger digital patches. I thought I'd use it all the time to lay down drum grooves for in-the-box MIDI/Audio projects. With time I had to admit that I am no drummer... I couldn't synchronize two hands and one foot the way a drummer must do. It stood around and collected dust.


In the early days, around 1984, I bought one of the early standalone MIDI-triggered digital samplers. It was a single module unit (now I can't even recall the make). It was full-featured, to be sure, and, for 1984, could manipulate digital samples in an impressive number of ways: tunings, envelope, filtration, layering, FX. For 1984 it was a pretty slick and forward-thinking piece of kit, one of the earliest samplers whose price was affordable to the common man. The one problem was this: every one of its functions was controlled with the same knob and one or two buttons, and its readout was an amber-colored LED window measuring about 5" wide by 1" tall. ie., a tiny-assed little window. The software within was a Byzantine hierarchy of Japanese logic, all scrolled through with one or two unit knobs. In short, as fantastic as this unit was, it was really unpleasant and unintuitive to scroll through its elaborate hierarchies in such a tiny, ugly LED window. Within a year, I just sold it. I could not have foreseen in-the-box musicmaking, but I knew things had to get easier and more fun than THIS.