Why This And Why Now?

TEAC 3340S: Remember this magic moment from the seventies?

The release of the first blackface Alesis ADAT and Mackie 1604 a rapid acceleration of the phenomenon that began in the 70’s with TEAC’s 3340S. I call it The Democratization of Audio. For better and/or for worse, these two tools afforded the opportunity for thousands of people around the world to assemble a studio and begin recording digital audio at previously unimagined levels of quality.

Regardless of the fact that the blackface ADATs and the original recipe Mackie mixers were deemed inferior by many, these two devices unbalanced the existing recording studio hierarchy. Mid-tier facilities saw business drop off as their clientele headed for the basement, loft or garage. At the bottom of the food chain, cassette porta-studio home rig owners could actually afford to upgrade to eight tracks of digital audio.

A lot has happened since then. Alesis originally projected that they'd sell about 40,000 ADATs. At last count the number was about four times that. While the future of the ADAT remains in question for the moment, what is unquestionable is that the whole project/basement studio market exploded with a much bigger bang than anyone could have possibly imagined.

The most popular multitrack recorder in history, V1.0.

Market Overdrive

First, bear with me through the short business background. I promise not to dwell on the business side in the upcoming articles, but knowing how things got the way they are is important to understanding what you are likely to get for your money.

Basically, the semi-pro and Musical Instrument (MI) market overtook the professional studio market. The staggering increase in demand (until very recently) for mics, preamps, monitors, effects boxes, software and hardware, has pushed the manufacturers into overdrive. Instead of selling 2000 units of a certain mic to professional recording studios worldwide, the blossoming of project studios doubled or tripled that figure. But, project studio owners are much more cost sensitive.

TLM103: A Neumann for the rest of us.

Manufacturers analyzed the market for what features newly-democratized buyers wanted and what price they would pay, and proceeded to fill the market with products priced to sell. Among the many milestones along the way was the Neumann TLM 103. The venerable U 87ai had a list price (then) of over $3,000. Regardless of its quality, it was out of the range of many of the new studio owners. The TLM 103, with its low self-noise, high sensitivity and street price in the mid $700 range, reset the price/performance bar for a single-pattern, large diaphragm condenser mic.