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Author Topic: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?  (Read 18252 times)

Consul

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #15 on: February 27, 2005, 03:48:31 PM »

Bill, that is one hell of a story! My life is so boring in comparison.
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Darren Landrum

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compasspnt

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #16 on: February 27, 2005, 03:53:02 PM »

Wow, Bill!

What a story!  Congratulations to you for handling it all, and getting something back out of it!!!

EBAY is a wonderful, but highly treacherous place.  "Caveat Emptor" is definitly highly in play!

Maybe we should have a different thread here with EBAY stories.  It might help someone in future who gets a "gear itch" to keep from being scammed!

So I'm starting that thread now, with Bill's story!
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RMoore

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #17 on: February 27, 2005, 03:59:55 PM »

OUT OF CONTROL!
Amazing story !
Lucky he was dumb enough to supply his real address..
The things people do
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compasspnt

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2005, 04:09:22 PM »

I've had, similar to most people here, some of both!

One of the dumb ones, I bought not once, but TWICE!  It seems I didn't learn.

That item was an "inexpensive" outboard automation system.  The first one was by J.L. Cooper, and was one of the first "new" midi devices.  I bought the thing to automate a mix on the old SpectraSonics board at Ardent Studio A in about '85-'86.  Nothing reasonable, of course, was made to retrofit to that console.  Once it came, there was a massive amount of cabling to be made, at great expense.  Then a massive amount of patching, and a steep learning curve for the way it worked.  Then it wouldn't.  (Work, that is.)  I tried and tried.  Ended up just sending it back to the dealer in hopes they could sell it used.  Which they never did.

But then, about 9 years later, I tried again!  Instead of spending $80-100k on one of the nice automation packages for my Neve V3, I decided to try out the Mackie one, for a single project.  Same thing...stupid machine!  A lot of cables and patching, and no real result.  This one sort of worked, but it didn't sound good (all audio had to pass through it), and it was a lot more trouble than it was worth.  That one's still sitting in my old useless gear storage room.

I finally learned there is no free lunch!

As far as good purchases, I will agree that you can never go wrong with high quality, classic gear.  Any old Neumann mic, any excellent mic pre or other gear with a solid pedigree, has stood the tests of time and session.
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compasspnt

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #19 on: February 27, 2005, 04:58:49 PM »

Barry Hufker wrote on Sat, 26 February 2005 20:26

My dumbest purchase (that I am oddly still proud of) was buying a NeXT computer.  You don't know NeXT?  It was the company founded by Steve Jobs after he was pushed out of Apple in a power struggle.

The computer was beautiful.  It was a black cube made out of solid magnesium.....

.... but they couldn't get any real marketshare.  Things changed at Apple and Steve Jobs was able to go back to Apple.  That's when he announced NeXT was folding.  I now had a Ferrari with no support or gas.  I was devastated.

...... so I donated it and all the software/hardware to a local school.  It was the right thing to do...


This is a great story Barry.  I think you can be proud of all of this.  Maybe it didn't end well, but the machine was an excellent idea, ahead of it's time, and you ended up doing a good thing with it (perhaps expensive, though!)

Quote:


The smartest purchase I ever made: Definitely my Brauner microphones. ....



And as usual, the smart purchase is a good, solid, eternally useful piece of everyday gear!
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JGreenslade

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #20 on: February 28, 2005, 02:48:05 PM »

I'm surprised to see this thread get to 2 pages without the word "Synclavier" mentioned  Razz  Come on guys, 'fess up, who lost a king's ransom on one of those?

Speaking of Compass Point, I see Mr Wally Badarou sports a handful of Synclavier pictures on his site:  http://www.wallybadarou.com/ZUS.H/Sub-Pages/Gal/07-Studio/St udio.F.html

Wally's attitude towards the machine seems quite positive, but then again I guess it wasn't his bank account that paid for it Smile

Justin
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compasspnt

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #21 on: February 28, 2005, 03:07:27 PM »

Yes, Wally has always been a big fan of the Synclav.  I think he still uses it!

Also, Simon Franglen, UK programmer/producer who now lives in LA, and has done a lot of work for David Foster, also did the big Celine song in "Titanic," was definitely still using his Synclav the last time he was here, just a very few years ago!  I think he's still on it, too.

But I personally agree...what an overpriced beast!  I didn't fall into the trap myself, though, as I opted to spend far less on early Emulator II's.

Terry
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J.J. Blair

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #22 on: February 28, 2005, 03:35:35 PM »

I had thought about the Synclavier, but I also thought about how the people I know who owned one (Gary Klaff, James Newton Howard, etc.) made twenty times what they paid for it.  Plus, they got to amortize the thing in their tax filings, I bet you.  Everytime I buy a piece of gear that isn't going to increase in value, I remind myself, "This is the cost of doing business."  Those of us who own good vintage gear are spoiled.  Do you think a carpenter buys a table saw and expects it to go up in value?

Speaking of which, I just sold my AD8000 and 888/24 on eBay yesterday for maybe a third of what they cost me new, which covers a fraction of my new HD system w/ AD/DA16Xs.  But then I remind myself of the money I would not have made if I insisted on having a purely analog facility.
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studio info

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Consul

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #23 on: February 28, 2005, 03:39:44 PM »

Plus, to my ears, the Synclav was a dern good piece of gear. The entire theme for the "Delta Force" movie was done on one. (Of course, the theme song was the only good point of that movie, but I digress.)

I never did get to play on one, so I can only judge it by others' output. Take what I say here with a grain of salt.
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Darren Landrum

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JGreenslade

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2005, 05:56:38 PM »

I should add that I was having a bit of a grin bringing up the 'Clav, I'm sure they're useful in the right hands, it's just that you hear nightmare stories about the depreciation.

J  
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compasspnt

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #25 on: February 28, 2005, 06:43:55 PM »

Consul wrote on Mon, 28 February 2005 15:39

Plus, to my ears, the Synclav was a dern good piece of gear.


I almost said this in my Wally Badarou answer post.  There were some great sounds in the Synclav.  Simon Franglen had an awesome sound library, and the analogue outs just plain "sounded good."

But I'm still glad I  never bought one!
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drumsound

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #26 on: February 28, 2005, 11:49:21 PM »

My worst purchase ever was "professional" movers.  They ruined a console and cost me tons of agita and down time.

The replacement might be one of my best purchases.  

My all-time best music purchase will always be my Gretsch drums.  They always make me smile and I will never get rid of them!
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iluvatar

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Re: Dumbest/smartest purchase you've ever made?
« Reply #27 on: March 03, 2005, 02:39:37 AM »

Worst purchase: '01 Dodge Durango w/ 23000 miles, in August of '01. One month before 9/11 spurred the economy to really tank. New Durangos were selling cheaper than what I paid for my used one. I traded it in for a Hyundai 2 years later and lost 10 grand.

Best purchase: an egagement ring.

Best music purchase: a Delta 44 and a pair of Sony headphones; thats what got me started in this.

-Dan.
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Dan Costello
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"Well, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones.."
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