Welcome to 2023. By now, your cell phone and laptop have made the switchover, so your main new year’s SNAFU is probably still writing “2022” on checks you’re signing. And as John McJunkin points out in his “Sound Sanctuary” column this month, January tends to be a slow month from a business standpoint, making this a perfect time to plan and budget for new purchases.
Speaking of spending, aside from items like line arrays or large consoles, many of your 2023 purchases will be for “expendables.” Typically, we think of expendables as short-lived items such as batteries and gaff tape, but when you really think about it, that list could be expanded to handheld and headset mics, wireless mic beltpacks, IEM receivers — and any other item that’s not nestled within a rack case on a day to day basis. Road life can be pretty tough, especially on lightweight miniature electronics with a flip-up battery door. In terms of RF gear, you never know when the money-hungry FCC will decide to sell off more bandwidth to some telcom provider, leaving the audio industry out to dry. But hopefully those days are behind us.
I’ve always felt that one key difference between the recording industry and the sound reinforcement industry is that the concept of “vintage gear” — often worshipped by studio engineers — simply does not exist in the live milieu. True, but thanks to plug-in emulations, having a dozen LA-2A’s, Pultecs or Fairchilds are available to nearly anybody. And in terms of consoles, a studio with a vintage Neve or Trident board might attract clients, but these days, a Soundcraft 8000 or a Yamaha PM1D (both impressive in their day) are unlikely to show up on today’s concert riders.
Anyway, welcome to 2023 — now break out those spreadsheets and start planning for a great year!
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