GAS

Yes that's right, I have GAS. Sorry, it's terrible, I know.

Woeful fiscal inadequacies forming a prerequisite to be frugal has increased the desire to attain greater and greater amounts of gear. In other words, ladles and gentlespoons, I've got GAS and I've got it bad.

My band has started to record, I'm not alluding to what exactly, we've just started recording. This is great, I love creating, getting ideas down, working them through and seeing the end product, it's a beautiful, if not painstakingly arduous process, but I still love it regardless.

When we're in preproduction mode, I always go through and check the signal chain (in fact I'm constantly doing this to my guitar rig, alas that's a whole post unto itself). Through this, I tend to evaluate each piece of gear/software, and the conclusion is to usually upgrade “something”. I must state that the idea is to increase workflow, always, to the point where creativity flows freely and is not stymied by, for example, a crackly cable. Due to already having the gear necessary to facilitate recording, this upgrade is usually done by me alone.

My knowledge in this area far exceeds my gear. I'm quite sure of this, in fact I'm so sure, my peers seldom, if ever question what I say in this area (I think my ego slipped in there?!).

So Gear Acquisition Syndrome, what have you got for me this time?

Well AD/DA converters to be specific, Ross Martin Audio, quite inexpensive, but very good nonetheless. I know this because I already own his stereo DA and am suitably impressed*. I just want the AD, but lots of channels, but then I have to upgrade from my MOTU 828mkii to save myself a small fortune converting AES to ADAT. That has got me onto looking into word clock architectures, double balanced, nobody does that stand alone...gah...the can of worms has opened...

*PCM1794A Dual “Bare Beast”, but I'd probably recommend his “SUPER BEAST II” as that's the latest model with customer related upgrades.