Twenty Years of Gear!

We have a major milestone for Gearspace!

June 2022 marks the official 20 year anniversary of Gearspace opening registrations to the general public.

Fun Fact: Gearspace pre-dates YouTube, Facebook and even Myspace (What's myspace?)

Another Fun Fact: October 2022 shall mark the 20th year I have been with Gearspace. I first came on as a guest moderator for a month. I liked it so much I stayed on and created the forum, 'Remote Possibilities in Location Recording & Production' with Super Moderator status.

From Acoustic to Electric Music Environments & Beyond plus Live Performance, Mobile/Location Production & Broadcasting, this forum brings together members and guest from all experience levels into one solid audio discussion group.

Thanks for sticking with us - we couldn't have reached this milestone without you!

….and what a Long, Strange trip it’s been ! Happy Anniversary…it’s a great place to hang out !

Very very cool! Happy anniversary!

-Mike

congraz...

...and thx for your continuous effort!

(the focus on gear imo is a mistake though...)

Heresy! Slap this man in the brig!

Seriously tho...congrats Jules, Steve et al.

i think i have plenty of reasons to assume that many if not most of us who have been working in this business for quite some time (you, me, steve and many others) have achieved pleasing results decades ago - often with gear which (if it still exists) in every respect is difficult to compare with the devices and possibilities available to us today!
my conclusion (which is neither new nor unique - and i'm sure steve will at least partially agree) is that it's about the ear, not the gear! (sorry for repeating an hackneyed phrase).
by contrast, i find the attribution of mythical qualities to gear rather disconcerting; imo this fuels a false narrative...

here, i fully agree: thx guys!

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p.s. gs remains to be the only platform on which i'm active ;-)

Today's gear often just has more menus to wade through, more potential to get into trouble or mis-patch with, if the user's experience and knowledge doesn't equate with the equipment's potential. Older gear, used with intelligence and within its limits and operating parameters wasn't the limiting factor in recording or PA gear delivering good satisfying sound, given the standards of the day. Every generation thinks its best gear is 'state of the art'....maybe it is (for the era it's created within) ?

So, don't denigrate older gear as an automatic truism...when it's operator skill or error which defines how it delivers.

It's the magician, not the wand, for sure. But magicians still need their wands, and some wands are better than others, so gear does matter.

For me, the value of gearspace has been the magicians who've generously shared their wisdom and informed opinions, not just about gear but how to use it. Of course, this forum like any other has a tendency to become a pontificatorium, but there are enough nuggets of value to make it worth enduring tiresome opinionating even when advice from different reputable and experienced engineers is completely contradictory. I can't think of many other places that are so effective at making you second-guess your decisions and your tried-and-true workflows.

i fully disagree in the case of live sound gear (and i doubt you're in the position to correctly assess live sound gear and techniques)...

old live sound gear was terrible! it was far from full-range, was lo-fi, had low spl, terrible coverage, was heavy, inefficient, distorted very easily, was prone to issues, techniques were not fully understood or inexistent, etc. so the gear was very much a limiting factor:

think of the beatles' disastrous live sound experience but also then also of the amazing development of very capable new tools and techniques (neodym magnets, line arrays, steering capability of subwoofer arrays, switching amps, dsp, fft measurements etc.).

check out bob mccarthy's series of articles on the development (and alignment) of pa systems over the last 40 years on prosoundweb...


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ironically, i have to correct my previous quote about the importance of gear - in the case of live sound: it's very much about the gear! ;-)

or maybe not: live sound gear has become so good that there is no more excuse for bad live sound/you cannot blame the gear anymore...

It's been an honor, a privilege, and a whirligig to be involved.

There really truly is nowhere else that you'll find the depth of knowledge and the willingness to help that's on display here on a daily basis.

Keep it up! And thanks!

I ran the console at every festival event that the legendary 1975 "New South" appeared. This was the "Rounder 044" Bluegrass band that featured Tony Rice, Rick Skaggs, Jerry Douglas & J D Crowe: that is considered by many to be the band that fostered the primary musical elements found in today's contemporary Bluegrass Music.

DeeDee is absolutely correct: the analog gear that was provided by the festival promoters in 1975 was pretty much state of the art, for it's time in audio history, however not in the the same zip code with todays digital gear. Today I can transport world class digital processing gear and the requisite tube mics in my Ford Expedition SUV for a stellar Bluegrass performance. Yesterdays analog console and rack gear required a big box van to transport, that in most every way was a comparative vastly inferior SR.

It is important to consider and comprehend the detailed transparent audio opportunities Bluegrass music can offer. Vintage acoustic instrumentation along with vocal trio and/or quartet performance offers a much wider HZ and dynamic range than amps and drum kits. This is, IMO, where the rubber hits the road in live SR.
Hugh

keep it happening, thanks. always something to learn here. looking forward to next 20 years please

All HAIL Steve Remote.

Best forum on GS.

Congratulations on the 20th Anniversary of the Remote Forum.

Wow! I have no idea how i stumbled across this forum 15 yrs ago, but it has been a great source of inspiration and knowledge. Great forum!

You can spend the next 20 years untangling your conundrum of whether its the gear leading the ears...or vice versa !

October 2022 willl mark the 20th year on gs also. time flys...

I completely agree with deedee. I don't do much live sound nowadays, but back 30 years ago (yikes) I was doing a lot of that.
The gear available for live sound today is light years ahead of what we had then and the audience experience has benefited greatly because of that.

Regarding the differences between analog and digital gear, they each have their pluses and minuses.

If something went wrong with a channel on an analog desk, there was a good chance all you had to do was bang it. If that didn't work you changed out a chip or cleaned a connector or circuitboard. You usually don't have those options with a digital desk.

I've done some great work using both analog and digital gear. That said, deedeeyeah makes some great points regarding the advancement in live sound technology.

This forum is only as good as the members it has. Thank you for making this one of the best audio boards on the Interwebs.

I’ve been here for almost 18 years now, and I don’t really think of our forum being as much about gear, but more like an ongoing masterclass in the techniques of recording and production. Most appreciative of the many knowledgeable and experienced members who share their methodology and expertise. And of course, kudos to Steve and the team of folks who keep GS and the remote forum up and running every day because they love it like we, the users, do…
So many of you, with whom I have had so many fun discussions here, seem almost like family. Thank you all!

As a musician and composer who stumbled on this place a decade ago while beginning to teach myself the basics of recording and production, I've benefitted tremendously from the experienced professionals in this particular forum. Many of them have commented in this very thread. Thank you to everyone for generously sharing your experience over the years! I have become a better creative musician in part because of you.

I agree, particularly in the context of a forum like this, that the information about technique, principles, and mindsets matters much more than the gear. The name of the website is incidental, at this point. Methodology and practice that are well-informed by genuinely good information matter more than anything.