Outboard Gear: Investment or Indulgence?
Movies First: Film Reviews & InsightsSeptember 15, 2025x
33
00:23:5443.88 MB

Outboard Gear: Investment or Indulgence?


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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?

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Get started.

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Welcome.

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Hi.

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Hi.

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Hi.

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Hello, everyone.

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To the Pro Audio Suite.

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These guys are professional, they're motivated.

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With Tech the VO stars, George Witton, founder

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of Source Elements, Robert Marshall, international audio engineer,

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Darren Robbo-Robertson, and global voice, Andrew Peters.

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Thanks to Triboo, Austrian Audio, Making Passion Heard,

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Source Elements, George the Tech Witton, and Robbo

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and AP's international demos.

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To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite

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.com.

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Line up, man.

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Here we go.

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And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.

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Thanks to Tribooth.

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Don't forget the code, TRIPAP200, to get $200

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off your Tribooth, and Austrian Audio, Making Passion

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Heard.

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Today's topic, I'm going to steal this one,

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and I will give credit to Bobby Yosinski,

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his podcast, The Inner Circle.

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He's doing an interview, and one of the

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subjects sort of jumped out at me, and

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I thought, that's interesting.

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Being a person who holds a lot of

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expensive outboard gear, and I know Robert has

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the same habit, is it worth hanging on

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to, and will it go up in value?

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And is it better than plugins?

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That is my question I pose to you.

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I think you've got to frame it by

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whose point of view.

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From a studio owner's point of view, or

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commercial studio owner's point of view, from a

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voice actor's point of view, and from just

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like a sheer collector's point of view.

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From a hoarder's point of view.

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I think, well, there's a few different points

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of view.

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I mean, if I was to sell my

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stuff, then I'd probably end up selling it

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to a commercial studio, I'm guessing, because a

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voice over talent's not going to buy the

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stuff I've got in here.

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But a music studio, I may.

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Right.

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So, what we're banking on, is there going

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to be more commercial grade music studios vying

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for this less and less common gear.

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It's harder to get.

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That would drive up the price.

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Because, I mean, the thing is, a lot

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of the stuff you buy now, there's so

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many clones of all this classic gear.

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Purple, and warm, and there's all these companies,

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right?

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But don't you reckon there's something tactile about

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turning a knob, you know, or adjusting it?

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Yeah, but you can get that with a

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clone of the new stuff, as the old

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stuff.

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Not even a digital clone, but an actual

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analog clone.

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Yeah, yeah.

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You can get that.

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And some of that kind of holds its

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value, probably.

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But the original LA-2As, and the original

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1176s, those go way up in value.

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I had an original Tube Screamer pedal that

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was stolen from me.

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And those things are like $1, and

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I have a reissue now of a Tube

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Screamer, and I don't know if it sounds

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different or not.

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So somebody out there, those pedals are worth

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a lot more when they're the original one,

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that they don't make anymore, that has the

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what-have-you chip in it, that you

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can't get anymore.

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So I don't know that a lot of

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that stuff really makes such a huge difference

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in sound, to be honest.

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Like a purple 1176 is still a really

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great compressor, as an original 1176.

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But there's definitely a lot of cachet.

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Yeah, it's like microphones, really.

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I mean, you know, a classic E47, you're

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going to be paying like $25 for

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it, or a U67 for sure.

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So, you know, I mean, I'm guessing it's

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going to be the same with Outboard.

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If you had a 2254, an original square

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2254, that would be worth a fortune.

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Probably like $10 or something, or more,

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I don't know.

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So a lot of people are getting used

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to, this was the interesting part, it's like

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you get a reference.

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So if you started as an intern in

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a studio, and you worked your way up

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in a proper commercial studio, you have a

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reference in your head, you know, the sound

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of the real stuff.

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So when you hear a clone, you know,

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unless it's a very good clone, you'll pick

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it, you'll pick the difference.

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But a lot of people are kicking off

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their careers in bedrooms, so they have no

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reference of what this stuff sounds like.

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I mean, let's just take something we're looking

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at.

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How close is that 737 plug-in to

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those units behind you?

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Oh, right here?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's pretty close, because I've, you know, the

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reason I have some to get rid of

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is we've been replacing them with the virtual

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plug-in.

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And in this particular case, in my opinion,

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the 737 preamps being class A, they're very,

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very clean.

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I mean, they really have no character to

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them.

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They don't have transformers, and they just have

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a really clean sound.

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So in my opinion, they're really easy to

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replace, because they don't really have much sound,

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character to them, not like a Neve or

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something.

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So in my opinion, it's very easy to

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replace them.

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Now we've used the plug-ins, and we

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did some extensive testing with one of my

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clients, obsessively so.

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We did hear a difference between his particular

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Avalon 737 and the plug-in we were

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using, that it was an EQ thing.

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I found a little frequency that I...

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Is it better or worse, or just different,

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you know?

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It wasn't a better or worse thing, it

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was just not exactly identical.

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There was something in the mids, like in

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the 2k-ish, where somewhere that wasn't exactly

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the same, and we bumped one up a

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dB or two.

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I mean, it was similar.

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It was really, really similar.

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I think a better comparison could be maybe,

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and I don't have one, of course, but

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a Manley VoxBox to the VoxBox plug-in.

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If someone wants to buy me the Manley

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VariMu, I've got a VariMu.

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You have a VariMu?

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I have a VariMu, yeah.

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Oh, wow.

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Do they still make those?

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I think so.

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Okay.

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So what's the concept behind a VariMu?

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The compression style, it's like, I forget exactly,

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but it's like, you know, instead of an

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optical, it's a variable Mu, which I would

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have to AI it to re-remember.

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You have to Google that one.

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Yeah.

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Well, I mean, speaking of AI, I used

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an AI, and I put into the system,

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here, has the value of used vintage audio

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recording equipment increased at a rate that outpaces

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inflation?

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Well, the first piece of data it gave

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me was about new audio gear, and that

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clearly is a different story.

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It says it has deflated sharply since 1977.

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So, you know, the equivalent of a $20

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to, is about, $20 with a gear in

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77 would now be $5.80 worth.

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Like if you're going to go buy a

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receiver, right?

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There's just, they've devalued because they've gotten so

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much cheaper to produce.

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But let's talk about vintage gear, and again,

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it's doing a comparison here of consumer stuff,

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not pro.

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Yeah.

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I want to mention a Sansui G9000.

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It has doubled in value in two years,

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while some Marantz units are escalating rapidly also.

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But others have noted that things like the

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1178, it says, 1178.

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1178?

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Yeah, that's- It might be, I mean,

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that's a home stereo amp, or the-

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No, now it's going into pro audio, and

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I think it's starting to hallucinate, because the

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model numbers are 1178LA2A and CL1B.

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Anybody know what a CL1B is?

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The CL1B is a modern re-create of

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a Tubetech, I mean, is a Tubetech re

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-create of a Pultec- Yeah, so these

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model numbers are a little bit word-synced.

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I think, or CL1B is known as a

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compressor.

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So- It's a Tubetech compressor though.

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So a community member notes that reissues and

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vintage models from a rate, they climbed from

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2 to 2 and over 3

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during the pandemic era.

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Certain brands from the 1670s continue to go

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up in price because of reputation and looks.

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They're going up roughly the same rate as

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the stock market, says somebody on Gearspace.

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Oh, wow, okay.

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Well, here's one I can tell you, I've

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got a Neve 1073 DPA.

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I bought it probably 10 years ago, I

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guess.

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I think I paid $2 for it.

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I've just seen the used one on eBay

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for 4.

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Wow, so 10 years ago, you doubled your

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money.

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If you could sell it for that.

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I always search for closed or completed sales

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because there's a lot of like, I'll put

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it, there's a lot of stuff on eBay

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that is the wife has been nagging me

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to sell this shit for years.

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So I'll put it up on eBay for

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aspirational price and just let it sit there

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for five years so that she doesn't nag

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me about it.

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Honey, it's on eBay.

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I'll tell you one that I did actually

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do really well on.

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I bought a Neve eight channel mixer from

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the 80s right after like Rupert left.

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So it's like, and I bought that thing

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for five grand and I think it's 15

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now.

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Some people try to get 15 for

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it now.

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I don't know if they're getting it though

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again.

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I think it has to be really venerable.

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The stuff, the more it's knocked off, the

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more it's probably worth.

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Wouldn't you say?

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Yeah.

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So this one's not knocked off a lot.

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And if anything, it's knocked on like, you

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know, all the Neve snobs were like, that's

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not a Neve because Neve wasn't there when

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Neve made that.

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Oh, I see.

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That's a John Pope.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You know.

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What model is the one you're talking about,

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AP?

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The 1073 DPA, which is IMS Neve.

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But if your 1073 was an original 1073,

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it'd be like fricking $10 more.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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In the States.

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Because yours is an actual Neve recreate, but

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it is a Neve.

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Yeah.

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It's legit.

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It's not like a heritage.

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Oh, it's basically like Neumann.

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It's a circuit match, right?

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It's an exact circuit match.

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Well, as much as Neve can match it.

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A brand new one in the U.S.

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right now is 2743.

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Yeah.

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So that's 540s.

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With the exchange rate up there, close to

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4.

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Yeah.

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Which is about the same.

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What are Verimuse going for?

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I don't know.

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I'm on Reverb.

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You guys use Reverb down under?

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I've bought a lot of stuff off Reverb.

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Have I?

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I know of Reverb, but no.

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I don't know whether people sell much.

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No.

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What's Reverb?

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It's very trustworthy.

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It's good for pricing, that's for sure.

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Yeah.

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So...

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Five grand?

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5?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I got mine for four.

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But you can buy them for 3

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bucks.

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Used.

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So, $3.

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It's like, I've lost money on that one.

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The 2254 Neve compressor, the AMS version, which

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is what I've got here.

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A new one of those is 4

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Australian dollars.

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But if you have a 2254 limited compressor

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vintage rack stereo pair, U.S. dollars?

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12.

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Hmm.

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So, yeah.

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I mean, there's certain gear that is still

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very commonly available and or still being made

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new, which definitely is going to happen.

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You know, like the Avalon's are a great

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example.

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They still produce these.

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I think the Varium U is still being

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made.

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Right.

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So, that drives down the use price a

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fair deal.

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And I thought these things were worth well

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over two grand.

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They're worth 1 to 1 bucks,

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the Avalon's.

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For those Avalon's?

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And you know what?

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Every one of them that I'm selling has

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been refurbed.

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So, there's about $500 to $700 in labor

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into each one of these units.

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So, I have to recoup 1.

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I can recoup 1 bucks maybe on

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these.

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But yeah, they're definitely not going up in

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value in terms of used market, the Avalon's.

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They're pretty kind of stable.

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The other question is, as people dealing with

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audio, can you hear the difference between a

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clone or a plug-in as opposed to

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a real piece of…

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Well, I mean, you can have five LA

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-2As that are all going to sound different,

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right?

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Yeah.

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And that's the problem with anything that's got

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tubes or old wiring and capacitors and stuff.

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All that stuff degrades and ages over time.

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So, like I said, when I bring these

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Avalon's into my friends over at Audio Rehab,

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which is the official repair center of Avalon

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for the entire United States, it's going to

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come out of there benching as a new

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unit.

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No questions asked.

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No, you would not hear the difference in

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that case.

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But yeah, when they're truly vintage and they

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haven't been benched in 5, 10, 20 years,

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yeah, they're all going to sound different for

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sure.

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In fact, even UA has in their library

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of teletronics LA-2As, their models, there's three

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or four different models.

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They all have a different image on the

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screen and one looks like it's got little

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Dymo labels stuck on it, like somebody's original

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piece of gear out of his…

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It probably came out of, you know, what's

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-his-face's studio.

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And people played with this.

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Who's the plug-in manufacturer that we interviewed

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where it's like, that's not just anything for

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a child, that's so-and-so's for a

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child that we cloned?

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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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And then the other one is Plugin Alliance

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that they have.

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Imagine you have a Neve desk and there's

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80 channels in the Neve desk.

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It's expected that not all 80 channels are

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the same.

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And so in their plug-in, when you

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throw the plug-in down many times, they

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have a setting that they have patented that

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gives every single plug-in reiteration of that

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within your DAW a different sound.

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Oh my God.

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You didn't know about that?

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No, I mean, that's not the world I

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live in, but that's insane.

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I mean, I know what it's all about,

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authenticity, but holy smokes.

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Well, it's like sampled instruments.

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Sampled pianos and Rhodes and stuff only got

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good when they started sampling them at every

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velocity, you know, softer, harder, harder, harder, harder,

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you know?

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And it's still not good enough.

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It's still not the same.

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When you go with the really soft, you're

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like, man, I can hit a piano hammer

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so soft that it doesn't make any sound.

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Right, yeah.

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Yes.

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Plugin Alliance calls it variable harmonics.

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Wow.

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And you can make it...

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Is it sort of a randomizer?

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It's a randomizer that changes the TVT.

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No, no, no, sorry, sorry.

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Tolerance Modeling Technology, TMT, patented by Brainworks.

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This technology is used by many plug-in

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products, including the Lyndall Audio 50 Series.

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Functionality, TMT emulates the minor component variations found

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in various analog hardware.

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This process adds a slight realistic difference in

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tolerance between every single plug-in channel.

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I don't like the way this mix sounds.

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Hang on, hit the button.

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Click.

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Let me fuck it up.

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Randomize all the models.

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Right.

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Do it again.

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Now that's better.

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I think I like that better.

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Now go back to the first one.

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I can't.

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It was random.

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So by introducing these subtle imperfections, TMT creates

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harmonic variations across multiple tracks, which provides depth

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and realism associated with analog consoles.

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Wow.

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Maybe they couldn't make it consistent, and then

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they called it a feature.

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There you go.

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Well, if it's machine learning based, then it

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would have problems.

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Patent that flaw.

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Well, anything that's machine learning has problems with

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consistency.

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If that's part of what's going on, I

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don't think so.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That's fascinating.

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And I haven't really seen machine learning entering

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the world of modeled preamps and modeled gear

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yet, so I guess that's the next thing

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probably.

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You could go to the plug-in and

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go type into the thing.

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I just hit you with a hammer three

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times.

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What do you sound like now?

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You know, it's like microphonic and it's distorting.

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It's like the spring reverb that they modeled

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the sound of someone kicking the amp.

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Right.

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They did that.

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Did they really?

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Yes.

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And one of the soft tube spring reverb,

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you can flick it and it, you know,

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like there's a knob for it.

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It really does depend on how unique the

00:16:28
pre is, I think, or the pieces.

00:16:30
How hard it is to find and how

00:16:32
popular it is right now.

00:16:34
Some of it's not really like gaining.

00:16:36
Some of it's matching, you know, like inflation

00:16:40
and some is outpacing it.

00:16:42
Some is doing as well as stock.

00:16:43
I mean, if you have a used piece

00:16:44
of gear that's doing as well as the

00:16:45
stock market, that's pretty good.

00:16:47
Because the stock market is better than real

00:16:49
estate.

00:16:50
And at least here it is.

00:16:56
But we've also seen the real estate market

00:16:59
go haywire too.

00:17:02
So it's fascinating to look at.

00:17:04
But it doesn't really go down or down

00:17:07
fast.

00:17:08
So there's that.

00:17:10
I mean, I have a bag of junk

00:17:12
silver that hasn't really gone up in value

00:17:14
in the last 10 years.

00:17:15
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:17:16
I might actually have lost money on that.

00:17:19
If you talk to Andrew Sheps, he mixes

00:17:21
in the box now.

00:17:22
Yeah.

00:17:23
You mean the creator of the Sheps Omnichannel?

00:17:26
Yeah.

00:17:26
Yeah, of course.

00:17:27
He made his own plug-in.

00:17:29
Why would you spend all the time to

00:17:30
make a plug-in if you didn't believe

00:17:32
it was amazing?

00:17:33
But, I mean, you recall the desk.

00:17:35
And you know how clients are.

00:17:37
And it's a business.

00:17:40
And it is so much more practical to

00:17:43
mix in the box and recall that thing

00:17:45
and make a tweak.

00:17:46
Yep.

00:17:46
And the most you want to have is

00:17:48
maybe something on your master chain.

00:17:50
But if you get too far out on

00:17:52
gear, you can only mix it in one

00:17:55
place.

00:17:56
You can't have it on your laptop.

00:17:57
You can't recall it and do a quick

00:17:58
change for somebody.

00:17:59
Let's talk about summing amplifiers sometime too.

00:18:02
That's a whole other mystical piece of the

00:18:05
mix down puzzle.

00:18:06
Summing amps.

00:18:07
Or even people just talking about different DAWs

00:18:09
having different summing characteristics.

00:18:12
I always use the Harrison DAW because of

00:18:16
its summing.

00:18:18
Oh, it's real analog.

00:18:20
Or UA is trying to say that their

00:18:24
Luna sounds real.

00:18:29
And then Pro Tools has heat on the

00:18:31
mix bus.

00:18:31
Right.

00:18:32
Which is literally just all of these things

00:18:34
are distortions.

00:18:34
Just distortions.

00:18:35
Yeah.

00:18:36
Tape saturators, virtual tape decks, et cetera, et

00:18:39
cetera, et cetera.

00:18:40
Yeah.

00:18:41
I can say having used tape saturators and

00:18:43
real tape, it's really hard to get one

00:18:45
that feels really exactly the same.

00:18:48
Oh, yeah.

00:18:49
There's just something about tracking drums through tape

00:18:51
that works really well.

00:18:53
It takes away a lot of compressor work

00:18:55
later.

00:18:55
And I think it's really the drums themselves.

00:18:57
Yeah, it does the compression for you.

00:18:59
You don't have to spend nearly as much

00:19:00
time monkeying with compressors trying to get that.

00:19:03
Yeah, it just kind of gets them in

00:19:05
a nice fat, kind of consistent.

00:19:07
I don't know about consistent, but just has

00:19:12
a certain roundness without being overly compressed.

00:19:16
And it just happens for you so much

00:19:18
easier.

00:19:19
And then you try the tape emulators, and

00:19:21
they're just flipping them on and off.

00:19:23
You're like, can I hear it?

00:19:24
And probably the difference is the tape deck

00:19:26
is really messed up.

00:19:28
The tape emulators are emulating a tape deck

00:19:31
that's properly set up.

00:19:32
Meanwhile, your love of the tape deck is

00:19:35
it's not really well calibrated or hasn't been

00:19:38
calibrated in a while.

00:19:39
Well, I mean, I've been listening to cassette

00:19:40
tapes a little bit because I bought my

00:19:42
daughter a cassette boom box, little mini tiny

00:19:44
one that has CD player in the top

00:19:46
and Bluetooth and stuff.

00:19:48
And I was at her house, and I

00:19:49
played a tape that I'd bought for her,

00:19:52
a Billie Eilish tape, her newest albums on

00:19:54
cassette.

00:19:55
And I played it back on her deck,

00:19:58
and it sounded like shit.

00:19:59
I was like, is that the deck or

00:20:03
is that the tape, right?

00:20:05
So fortunately, I had made her a dub

00:20:07
of my own.

00:20:08
I took her top 30 songs on Spotify,

00:20:11
recorded them through a Sony cassette deck that

00:20:14
I bummed off a friend of mine who

00:20:15
never uses it, right?

00:20:17
And it won't rewind, but it still records

00:20:19
perfectly.

00:20:21
And I made a tape for her.

00:20:23
I had that tape too.

00:20:24
I put that into her deck, and it

00:20:26
sounded so much better.

00:20:28
All it did remind me is that bin

00:20:30
-looped mass-produced cassettes still sound like garbage.

00:20:33
Sound like garbage.

00:20:34
Maybe Billie Eilish cleaned the heads of her

00:20:37
tape deck.

00:20:38
Right?

00:20:39
But the point of those cassettes is not

00:20:41
at all about quality because I was shocked

00:20:43
at how good the tape sounded when I

00:20:45
made that one for my daughter.

00:20:46
I actually sat and listened to pretty much

00:20:48
the whole tape, headphones plugged right into the

00:20:50
deck.

00:20:51
And I was like, damn, this sounds pretty

00:20:52
good.

00:20:52
Because you can't hear above 14k anymore?

00:20:55
It just sounded pretty solid, you know?

00:20:57
It sounded clean and good.

00:20:58
And then I shipped her off the tape.

00:21:01
But I don't know, my point being, I

00:21:03
guess, is that, you know, I don't know

00:21:06
what my point is.

00:21:07
Go ahead, AP.

00:21:08
I was just going to say that I

00:21:09
remember years ago, I was back in the

00:21:12
80s, I was in the UK doing some

00:21:13
interviews, and they'd always give you like a

00:21:16
white label or promotional copy of whatever record

00:21:20
you're going to be talking to the person

00:21:22
about.

00:21:23
And the best one I got was actually,

00:21:25
which I've since lost, which is so annoying,

00:21:27
it was the drummer from Orange Juice, a

00:21:29
guy called Zigbang Yika.

00:21:30
And they gave me his album on cassette,

00:21:33
and it was a chrome cassette, chrome tape.

00:21:36
Man, did that sound good.

00:21:38
They can sound good, yeah.

00:21:39
Yeah, that was very good.

00:21:40
So here's one that went up in value.

00:21:42
I still have my Tanscam 688 8-track

00:21:45
cassette.

00:21:46
I bought it in 1994 or 1992.

00:21:52
New.

00:21:53
No, no, I bought it like 1990.

00:21:56
Okay, so it was used.

00:21:57
I graduated in 92.

00:21:59
So I bought it new in 1990.

00:22:01
Oh, new, yeah.

00:22:03
And it was $1.

00:22:05
I took a loan out to buy that

00:22:06
thing.

00:22:06
Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of money.

00:22:09
Now, one in good condition, it's $2.

00:22:14
Well, is that keeping up with inflation?

00:22:16
But that's probably not the same value as

00:22:17
the $1 I spent.

00:22:19
No, because I love this.

00:22:20
I don't think that kept up with inflation.

00:22:22
Okay, so ready?

00:22:23
If you took $1 and put it

00:22:25
in the stock market, this would be funny.

00:22:26
Don't depress yourself.

00:22:28
Yeah, you'd be about $2.

00:22:31
$1 times, we're going to say 5%.

00:22:33
And what is that, 1990?

00:22:35
So 10, 20, 35 years?

00:22:39
35 years ago, yeah.

00:22:40
That's frightening, isn't it, 35 years ago?

00:22:42
Good God.

00:22:44
Yeah, if you put it in the stock

00:22:45
market, you'd have $8.

00:22:50
And that's conservative.

00:22:52
You probably would have a lot more than

00:22:53
that.

00:22:53
Which we'd buy you a meat pie and

00:22:55
a beer these days anyway.

00:22:56
So, you know.

00:22:57
Yeah, that's right.

00:22:58
We're doing 20% lately.

00:23:02
Yeah, 20%, you'd have a crapload.

00:23:05
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:23:06
You could buy my stuff, and then I

00:23:07
could invest the money into something else.

00:23:09
There you have it.

00:23:11
Pro Audio gear, not a solid.

00:23:12
I had a hell of a lot of

00:23:14
fun with that thing.

00:23:15
Yeah.

00:23:16
It ain't all about the resale value.

00:23:18
No.

00:23:19
Well, that was fun.

00:23:20
Is it over?

00:23:21
It's over with me.

00:23:22
The Pro Audio Suite.

00:23:24
With thanks to Tribooth.

00:23:25
And Austrian Audio.

00:23:27
Recorded using Source Connect.

00:23:28
Edited by Andrew Peters.

00:23:30
And mixed by Robbo.

00:23:31
Got your own audio issues?

00:23:33
Just ask Robbo.com.

00:23:35
And tech support from George the Tech Witter.

00:23:37
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00:23:38
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00:23:41
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00:23:43
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00:23:44
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