New feature! Introducing community gear recommendations

don't actually take ns10s apart though, okay?

don't actually take ns10s apart though, okay?

I wouldn’t be getting my money’s worth if I did. ;)

they're super expensive now, like 600+ bucks for a beater pair of these rotten bookshelf speakers so if you mess anything up on them its a giant wallet blow... you can buy a pile of really useful stuff for $600.... now I'm thinking about selling mine. If I miss them there's a pair at party HQ and Mike hates them and enver uses them unless I'm there and ask to hear soemthing on them

EDIT: at 600 bucks its impossible to get your money's worth from an ns10, plus you need a really good amp, they're picky and that's serious coin. Minimum investment in mdoern world? 1k.... for 1k you can buy soemthing really useful.... you can get a dynamite or a 610, you can get 2 or 3 BSS 402s, you can get some fake pultecs AND NOS replacementtubes to make them behave.... you can buy a very well serviced like 24+ channel soundcraft 400b or half a toft ATB? Youc an buy a drawmer 74 EQ, stereo FET bus comp or a pretty nice 1176 clone/redesign with money to spare for a couple 522s or a 501.... You can buy a stuffed allison/valley rack or start a 500 rack if you like eurorack style cash sinkholes... oh man, you can buy a warm bus comp with money to spare too... a grand will buy an off brand vintage tape echo in good working order, a stereo spring reverb with way more control than my shitty tapco... if you hit up estate sales you can buy all sorts of weird old braodcast gear that will prbably sound really interesting... you could also buy a shitty car to run into the dirt driving to lcoation recording gigs!

oh and you could buy enough RNCs to peak limit every channel you're likely to need to compress.... you should be able to score 5 or 6 used ones for that G note. I just bought 2 more for a pittance, too low to say lest they devalue, they're great though I would never sell any. I tell every newbie to analog to go buy one

1. Not yet, but they will be soon. We're going to be rolling out an updated Gear IQ system soon. It's long overdue!

Looks like gear recommendations are worth 10 points now?

... So I could now get like a thousand points in a few hours by linking together all the knock-off products to the originals, and the originals to the knock offs... and the knock offs to other knock offs?

Asking non-rhetorically: are these gear recommendations/x-links a more valuable activity for me to be spending time on vs. adding new artists and adding gear to those artists? If so, I will keep that in mind going forward.

The answer is kind of ambiguous. I think the reason is it really depends on the quality of the content you are adding.

This recent Gear IQ update has tried to align the actions that add value to the site with more points. We've removed or reduced points for things that people either weren't doing or were taking advantage of (100 points to add a profile pic, or link your soundcloud, etc). We've also tried to incentivize some new actions like recommending gear, even though we're still actively working on the feature.

Right now, those crosslinks may not look that important, but as we improve categorization, add tagging features, and open the site up more and more to input, we see a lot of potential in using that data to actually really help people in their gear selection.

To your point, ten points may be overly generous at this point given the time involved, but we hope it becomes a more central piece of the site going forward. Cross linking (and soon tagging) will likely be central to us building out a good personalized recommendation engine.

Quality is also a hard thing to incentivize, and a truly well documented spot is worth many "they use it" type submissions.

Anyway, what do you think? We're definitely open to feedback and suggestions.

The answer is kind of ambiguous. I think the reason is it really depends on the quality of the content you are adding.

I know it's hard to account for quality in this type of gamification. Whether an ugly layup barely bounces into the hoop or someone pulls off a perfect 360 windmill slam dunk: both are worth the same 2 points. :)

At the risk of sounding like the teacher's pet, I DO strive to only add things that are true to my own tastes and experience, that also add value (and hopefully) uniqueness to this site and community that I love. I know a lot of contributors here have the same aims, which is one of the reasons we keep coming back. The points game will always be someone else's to win/dominate, but the design of the game itself is really interesting to me... and I do want to make sure any of the little moments I spend adding content here are is as aligned as possible with where EB's creators want things to go. Swimming with the current tends to be the more enjoyable experience. :)

Right now, those crosslinks may not look that important, but as we improve categorization, add tagging features, and open the site up more and more to input, we see a lot of potential in using that data to actually really help people in their gear selection.

I 100% understand the need to x-link the entries, and to crowdsource as much of that as possible. X-linking helps those new to the MI world understand all that is out there, and keeps users clicking and engaged, and it could eventually have profound business upsides for the commercial aspects of this site, something I'm already on record as being 100% in favor of... but it takes very little effort to have the opinion that XYZ modern budget priced DSP box is an alternative (and a loosely implied good alternative) to some $10k piece of hardware you've never actually had hands-on with, and incentivizing that opinion with the same # of points as adding one of the first 5 pieces of gear to an artist, something that is entirely fact-based and requires time-consuming links to evidence, felt imbalanced to me. I'm here because this is a uniquely evidenced-based community where I get to make contributions towards an internet resource with longterm value. I've spent the last 20+ years awash in sites full of the internet's opinions on what piece of gear or software sounds similar to/as good as some other thing, EB was/is a refreshing alternative to that endless opinion and speculation... inviting a flood of that well-established aspect of online gear culture, by offering a strong points incentive, felt like a regression away from what drew me here in the first place. X-linking gear is a necessary next step for the experience, it's just painful to see it so prominent in the gear-page experience without a means to up/down vote or comment upon people's various personal opinions and suggested pairings. I know this will change. And in the meantime, I'll get over it. :)

That said, I can appreciate that the biggest land-grabs in 1st-phase(s) of EB's database are well behind us. There isn't going to be a ton of new gear for the next 5,000 new users to add to the most popular artists as far as field spotting goes... you're a pigeon fighting over crumbs if you want to contribute to a wildly popular artist... so I get that there needs to be a steady stream of new activities for we users to dive into, because the picked-over/table-scraps feeling can demotivate new and existing users alike. The pace you guys roll out these new activities has been commendable.

Anyway, what do you think? We're definitely open to feedback and suggestions.

I appreciate your reply and your openness to feedback, Michael. Thank you.

I gave myself a few days to live with the points-system changes before opening my mouth. The changes make a lot more sense than the old system, relative to what EB is today.

The one thing that stands out to me re: the new changes, is that there is a big points upside for having your gear rated "correct", which is great, but there is no incentive for anyone to take the time to review your entries. I've spent a lot of time here reviewing other people's entries to try and help them avoid that demotivating feeling that your submissions just fell down a hole... but the fact remains that only 189 of my 538 submissions have been reviewed. What do you think about adding a small incentive for being the first to review* someone's submission? If it was a point or a few points for the act of reviewing, regardless of whether you rated it correct or not, would that be sufficient to avoid abuse?

*first to review post-edits. e.g. potentially points to one user for rating "needs improvement" and points (to potentially a different user) for being first to rate "correct" after poster makes necessary changes.

but it takes very little effort to have the opinion that XYZ modern budget priced DSP box is an alternative (and a loosely implied good alternative) to some $10k piece of hardware you've never actually had hands-on with, and incentivizing that opinion with the same # of points as adding one of the first 5 pieces of gear to an artist, something that is entirely fact-based and requires time-consuming links to evidence, felt imbalanced to me.

I need to explain some of my linkings now that you bring this up.... we have the explanation section and my comment should have been "uses same VCA" or " exact same bassman w/EL34 circuit as plexi" etc etc.... I've been doing compression linkings by detection/reduction type, VCA chip, peak vs RMS or both.... assuming people know this stuff. Like a dbx VCA versus a valley and THAT corp dbx VCAs versus in house 70s and 80s ones which actually sound better, I'm still gob smacked. At least in 160s.

But in theory someone could run around and link the plugin emulations to every piece of gear out there whether they all get close to the mark or not, you know? Just for the points. And that's a shame to me... I'm just going to leave this here, talk amongst yourselves

but it takes very little effort to have the opinion that XYZ modern budget priced DSP box is an alternative (and a loosely implied good alternative) to some $10k piece of hardware you've never actually had hands-on with, and incentivizing that opinion with the same # of points as adding one of the first 5 pieces of gear to an artist, something that is entirely fact-based and requires time-consuming links to evidence, felt imbalanced to me.

I need to explain some of my linkings now that you bring this up.... we have the explanation section and my comment should have been "uses same VCA" or " exact same bassman w/EL34 circuit as plexi" etc etc.... I've been doing compression linkings by detection/reduction type, VCA chip, peak vs RMS or both.... assuming people know this stuff. Like a dbx VCA versus a valley and THAT corp dbx VCAs versus in house 70s and 80s ones which actually sound better, I'm still gob smacked. At least in 160s.

I'm not worried about any of your recommendations, Jim. If there were a way to calculate a user's credibility within the community, you'd top the charts.

But in theory someone could run around and link the plugin emulations to every piece of gear out there whether they all get close to the mark or not, you know? Just for the points. And that's a shame to me... I'm just going to leave this here, talk amongst yourselves

Yeah, this is exactly what worried me, it's that "Similar Sounding Item" option + the lack of any direct way to just label something as the clone or emulation that it is. I guess "budget alternative" could fit, but that feels more like something you'd use to recommend a Squier Classic Vibe as an alternative to a Custom Shop '62 Reissue or a real vintage Fender.

I'm not worried about any of your recommendations, Jim. If there were a way to calculate a user's credibility within the community, you'd top the charts.

But in theory someone could run around and link the plugin emulations to every piece of gear out there whether they all get close to the mark or not, you know? Just for the points. And that's a shame to me... I'm just going to leave this here, talk amongst yourselves

that's really nice of you, I've not been particularly successful so I generally suffer froma form of imposter syndrome, or that's what my wife would tell me when I would drone on at length to prove I had knowledge on a topic beyond a level the friend who brought it up was interested in

Yeah, this is exactly what worried me, it's that "Similar Sounding Item" option + the lack of any direct way to just label something as the clone or emulation that it is.

its especially emulation chaps my ass... like, Eyesee, god bless his little neurologist heart, put the boutique JU06 as a newer version of the juno6, 60, 106.... and its not, its an emulation of something awesome that hasn't been made in years.... I think I deleted that, sorry to Tom, lvoe ya guy, but that's not a juno, its a little DSP engine, its its own thing and its valid as a tiny portable subtractive synth. I'll bet it makes a lot of people happy but I played one and NAWWWWWWW

when they nail it, hats off but its rare. There are some pretty tasty plugin emulations of instruments and gear, but most do not hit the mark. Close enough for live can be 'similar sound and cheaper alternative' but 'newer version' ???? REALLY???

EDIT: I actually wanna add that I think a lot of emulations become their own thing. Like the JP8000, virus etc? I never thought they modelled analog that well but they sort of became their own joint, right? Line 6 is its own sound now. Plugin compressors and EQs are becoming like that.... I think.

like, Eyesee, god bless his little neurologist heart, put the boutique JU06 as a newer version of the juno6, 60, 106.... and its not, its an emulation of something awesome that hasn't been made in years.... I think I deleted that, sorry to Tom, lvoe ya guy, but that's not a juno, its a little DSP engine, its its own thing and its valid as a tiny portable subtractive synth. I'll bet it makes a lot of people happy but I played one and NAWWWWWWW

XD

I'm just a neuroscience major, not a neurologist.

I was trying to be generous.... you will be one day, right? It beats trying to make a living in music.

Love the new feature.