For the last three years TAPE OP was created on a Packard Bell PC computer, a 486 with a small hard drive. It's rather slow with a small memory. With the switch to having Substance Media Works publishing the magazine the text files needed to be in Microsoft Word 4 in a Macintosh format. The Substance crew were kind enough to send up an "extra" Macintosh Classic which was sitting around the offices. I went and got an old dot-matrix printer, new keyboard and new mouse for $90. I asked about used laptops and the woman told me I could get a faster laptop than the Mac I had for $169. This means that for $259 I can have enough computer power to edit this magazine and even bring some of the work home on the portable computer when I need to. Not a bad investment. In 1991 this computer was brand new, and probably cost a bit and was "state of the art" to some. Now you can pick them up for $100. People were laughing when I set it up at the office. But shit, it does the job I need to do and it was cheap.
My friend Craig and I were driving around the other day, checking out the monster Quad-Eight console that my studio has in storage (because it's too big to install!) and picking up some drum parts. Craig "manages" a studio in town here, although he also engineers there and owns a lot of the gear too. We were talking about how he and the studio's owner are looking to upgrade the console, maybe even to purchase an API (legendary mixing boards, if you didn't know). Anyway, one of the reasons that they want to have an API is that no one else in the area does, it would lend a "world-class" image to the studio, and that it would attract business. I can see their point, it makes sense to me, but on the other hand I disagree. I don't see that at the level their studio is at (less than $500 per day) that people expect or can demand that kind of gear and with the cost involved, it seems like they'll spend years paying that kind of gear off. That scares the shit out of me.