In the day job, as things enter service, we try to plan the replacement of the computery bits (technical language, sorry) on about a five yearly basis. The kit might get old, but the "brains" remain in the body of the bath tub curve of life being the plan.
I've noticed that I have two computery things, that I use every day, that are now approaching their twentieth birthday; a Pod Pro (the rack mount version of the original kidney bean) and a Zoom 1201 digital reverb.
I wonder how normal this is?
Should I be charging off to the (on line?) shops to replace them before their inevitable, imminent, demise at the plug hole end of the bath tub curve?
Are these now "classic" items that will be worth a ton in another decade and are actually bullet proof?
Who can top two decades of computery life?
Comments
There are quite a few people still using Boss ME-5 floor multi-FX too, and they’re from about 1987.
Like modern gear these aren’t going to be repairable if any of the specialist chips fails, but that’s just a matter of probability. Some will probably still be working fine in 50 years.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
In fact, out of all my early digital studio gear I think the only thing which failed was an incredibly expensive Oberheim rack unit, the rest is in the attic and I presume it still works.
2000 Digitech RP100, still going but not used much at the moment.
1990 Macintosh SE/30; 1990 Atari 1040STE, both still work but currently packed away.
I recently gave away a fully working 1984-5 Tascam PortaTwo HS mini studio cassette recorder/mixer to a mate into sound art using lo fi kit.
1989-ish Sony Walkman Professional WM-D6C cassette recorder, still get's occasional use
1980s Yamaha 16. Channel mixing desk, no FX a single pre-fader output and a single postfader per input.
I did have an original issue BBC Micro, but it disappeared.
We almost can’t give cd’s away at the moment, I bet they’re the next big retro thing once the majority have gone to landfill.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
This week I’ve snagged some Pink Floyd (Endless River, it’s awful, glad I didn’t pay more than 50p for it!), Bert Jansch and various jazz ones. You’re right though, you do have to sift through an awful lot of dross to find the good stuff, I’ve lost count of the amount of Blobby Williams, Westlife, Vera Lynn etc etc we have on the shelves.
As for buying cheap CD's (& vinyl), its always been a great way to hear new things for not a lot (pre internet/streaming etc.) but no less valid. Plus, every time something is redistributed it prolongs it's useful physical life, as well as increasing the chances that someone else will stumble across something new to them, then pass it on.
Atari STf 1988
BOSS ME-5 1988
Roland Juno 1985
Roland MT32 1987
Kay Wah 1 1974
Woolies Audition Amp 1973
oh and a 1995 IBM Thinkpad 760ED (running W98se) to run DOS based apps on
I've got an old Archimedes as well (not one of the original runs, it's an A3020), which works perfectly with a VGA connection. The mouse is a bit knackered, but still just about works (the ball rollers are a bit hinky).
There's an ART SGE Mach II kicking around somewhere; the display backlight's temperamental, but it all still works and the delay sounds on it are probably my favourites of all time. It's just a shame that the unit's noisy by design.