Mark Cawthra

We all know how hard to repair these are now. I have had to strip mine down and clean all the ribbon connections twice now. I don't care. It will give up on me one day, but until then I adore it. It's an aging beast, but I love it to bits.

Bought to replace passive 20/20s, which I still use. 2030s are great monitors, loud but not tiring to work with, and with wonderful extended bass. Almost silent amp operation and useful EQ trim controls. I would only replace these if I could afford ATCs or PMCs, seriously!

Using this beautiful card over ADAT lightpipes to bring 52 duplex channels in and out of my Mackie D8B running at 48kHz may be very much yesterday's tech, but it works for me. The sound of the converters gets me the results I and my clients are after, so I can't fault this card/console combination. As for support, RME keep the drivers and console software bang up to date, so as long as your motherboard offers legacy PCI slots and you use ADAT interfacing and want MIDI into the bargain, you're in luck because second-hand, they are dirt cheap given their lovely quality.

If like me you are using Universal Audio's plugins, this unit or its FireWire sister, gives you much more scope when you are mixing a large project. I use the API Vision channel strip all over channels and subs, and with the PCI UAD-2 QUAD card I already have on board in the PC, even with a project of 70+ channels I find I can accommodate all sorts of plugin scenarios. Love the sound of UA kit too, even if it is relatively expensive. Worth the price I think.

Many balk at the ticket price for the UAD-2 accelerator platform and product line, and while it is true that there are many great natively hosted plugin tool sets to bring in to your DAW that are less expensive, once you have one of these things, you immediately understand why the pros endorse UAD-2. The plugins are seriously good, and given that you can access them in a number of ways depending on your hardware, they are versatile too. Yes, SHARC is an tired processor topology, and what it can do with DSP compared to what even a lowly GPU device can do with graphics doesn't really add up as technology moves forward. That's hardly surprising given that GPU product research and investment is driven by gaming and all its billions, and the SHARC architecture is not moving forward at all; it is what it is. However, I find the 8 processors working between this card and a satellite unit I also have in the rig can do some very heavy lifting indeed. I absolutely adore my UAD-2 chain.

Bought as a shell pack for a bargain price, it sounds as good as when I bought it 20 years ago. 20 inch kick, and 10, 12, 14 and 16 inch toms with high end holders and stands. All Evans heads except a coated ambassador on the fibreglass snare I bought a year or so after. Records great, and robust construction. Gold plating on the lugs even! If you find one at a reasonable price, give it a listen. The cymbals are Sabian AX and HH with one Zildjian Ping Ride. Love it.