John Gatski is the Publisher & Executive Editor of Pro Audio Review.
It is once again time for Pro Audio Review’s Best Gear of the Year/Reviewer Picks. And just like the trend over the last few years, there is a lot of analog gear mixed in with the digital.
Microphone preamps seem to be a popular category this year, with selections from TRUE Systems, Benchmark and AEA (the latter a ribbon-specific preamp). I personally have tried the TRUE and the Benchmark, which are excellent uncolored preamps. The Benchmark has an amazing stereo summing circuit.
Another category that is likely to remain forever is the analog mixer. Whether recording or live, they are as popular as ever. Two standouts are the Trident 8T Series for studio, shining warmly with its British heritage, and the APB-Dynasonics Spectra T for live.
The Mackie 24-4 represents the better class of Chinese-made live mixers, with plenty of features and very good preamps.
Since PAR reviews so many microphones each year (because there are so many microphones new every year) that category also is well represented in the Best Gear awards.
The ADK Vienna II-AU Custom is a really nice high-end microphone that is a cut above the lower-cost Chinese products on which the company built its reputation. I also have to mention the Royer Labs ribbon tube stereo microphone and the Audix VX-5 handheld condenser for punching through on the live stage … so many choices.
Since digital is a fact of life in pro audio, and getting better with each successive generation, I shall not forget to mention several of audio’s 1s and 0s-based brethren.
I reviewed a number of digital converters this year (three are in this issue), and am amazed how the smaller, lower-cost chip-based converters sound. The $1,500 converters now rival multi-thousand dollar converters of just a few years ago. For the first time, I got a chance to review the Lavry Black series AD10 and DA10, which are incredibly accurate, excellent sounding converters.
Other digital products bestowed the Reviewer's Pick include the Yamaha LS9 digital live/installation board, TASCAM’s smartly upgraded DV-RA1000HD master recorder and the on-the-cover Korg MR-1000 DSD recorder.
To get the complete list of 2007 Reviewer’s Pick winners, go to page 68.
IN MEMORIAL
In this holiday season of joy, I would like to dedicate this part of the column to my brother Joe, who died in November. Of the nine kids in the family, Joey was the talented one. He was a poet; songwriter; played guitar, banjo and harmonica; and was an expert outdoorsman. When I was 10 he showed me how to play E minor G, C and D on the guitar. (“That’s all you need,” he said.)
He had the gift for songwriting and playing the guitar. He had a way of strumming cheap guitars that made them sound like a vintage Martin. I once recorded him at my mom’s old farmhouse with him playing a Fender Korean-made flat top with about a half-inch of action, and it came out great.
With all Joey’s gifts, his dark side — combined with persistent, deep-rooted alcoholism — finally got him in the end, at the much-too-young age of 51. There was always the hope that he finally would succeed in beating the demons, but he could not do it by himself. Yet he could not totally trust people to help him either. The substance abuse led to a very hard life, and I hope that now his soul can have a little peace.
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