Graham Hinton wrote:
Bill Thompson wrote:

OK... time to rant a bit... not even sure whyG...

Because you can and why not? Call that a rant? This is a rant:

Hello GrahamG...

Has anyone else noticed that it is now possible to walk into a
"recording studio" and not find a single piece of test equipment?

Noticed? It really ****es me off having to lug all my gear over just
because they are too cheapskate to get some half decent test gear. Even off
eBay.

but then you get to charge more for your services... right???

True, unless you have analog tape decks you really no longer need an
oscilloscope,

You always need a 'scope and are blind without one.

Hmmm... guess you are right... but for basic alignment, excepting tape
decks, I think one can get away with a signal generator and a meter.

but how in the world does one manage all that gear, and
all those gozintaa and gozoutas without at least a stable sine wave
generator and an AC voltmeter?

Manage if the operative word now. Everybody is a manager, monkeys swinging
from tree to tree with no knowledge of the ground below.

Now that's a rantG...

I just don't get it!!! Especially since the Loftech TS-1 is what, $500?
And the little Neutrik instruments probably aren't a lot more. And then
there is the Terrasonde Audio Toolbox.

Nobody has really come out with the right box yet. Too expensive or too
cheap, solutions looking for a problem and definitely not designed by
people with studio experience. Looks like I'll have to do one...

I do have to disagree here... I think the little Loftech is a great
product... easy to use, flexible enough to be usable in different
environmets, good documentation, the right features except I wish it had
a monitor speaker (mine doesG), and at $500 USD I think it is a
remarkable good value. The Portable One Dual Domain does everything, and
is a lot more accurate/quiet, and is programmable, but it also costs
upwards of $8K.

Now if you really want to build one combine the Amber 4400 with the
Portable One and sell it for $1k and you have a winner!!!!

Just out of curiousity... how would you describe the ideal studio test
set???

Never mind test gear, a lot of studios don't even have a soldering iron
now, wouldn't know which end to hold if they did and couldn't use it to
make up a mic cable if their careers depended on it (which in fact they do
).

Soldering irons... heck, I know of at least two studios in the area
where there are NO tools whatsoever... not even a screwdriver. Needless
to say I don't let them know that I know which end of the soldering iron
hurtsG!

It is, sadly, a very different world.