Vintage gear today can sure command some high prices. But as a purveyor and excessive window shopper even here at SampleNerd I was taken aback at this one. Light can be shed on the hefty price tag however when I tell you it’s an accessory for a Synclavier.
Did New England Digital ever suffer the drop in selling power that the Fairlight or Emulator II did? Well, the mid-eighties brought with it the proliferation of much cheaper and easy to use sample players. As the Synclavier was so incredibly expensive it was only big studios that could afford one in the first place. And almost certainly out the reach of the bedroom-based musician.
Mass market out-of-the-box sounds with their CD quality DACS took their relatively inexpensive foothold for the next twenty-plus years. It has only been fairly recently that vintage gear is getting some serious mark-up. When this bubble will burst is hard to say! It will take a generation or two removed from personal nostalgia for these systems to see a downturn in price.
Whatever the case, it’s fair to say New England Digital has always been the Louis Vuitton of the sampling world. So, it’s natural that this legendary very expensive workhorse not only would have but should have such an expensive accessory!
The sale comes courtesy of ToneTweakers and is available at Reverb.com. If you enjoyed this entry, you’ll find a growing list of long and short form articles here and here.
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