The trickledown rate of technology seems to get quicker and quicker. A few years ago, you'd see a new synth or sampler unveiled and wonder how many years it would be till the technology had come down to a street level price. Then, by the time the technology had been repackaged for the masses, something new and exciting would be on the scene, and your dream machine was now yesterday's news. Luckily the market now has a totally different orientation. If a company is going to do well, it needs to please the thousands of low-level users, rather than the few at the top of their trees that can pay through the nose for the latest and greatest. The result is that the time between new technologies emerging and their being available in a cost-effective form is extremely short. It's not just new technologies, either...

The increasing popularity of valve gear is reflected in the number of valve units coming onto the market. Though it began at the high end of the market, it's now very firmly within the reach of the majority. After last month's review of the TLA Valve Compressor, we follow it up this month with the Aphex Tubessence, a valve mic pre-amp that doesn't cost the earth. With digital multitracks and hard-disk systems taking over where portastudios and open reel analogue left off, how long will it be before every recording setup has at least one valve unit in the rack, to give recordings that warm feeling? Indeed, with the integrated approach seeming to be ever more popular (in-built effects and signal processing on the ProMix, for example) will valve circuitry be built into digital systems as standard? Who knows, but it's certainly ironic that a lot of people reared on digital recording are looking to valve processors to put something back into their music that they wouldn't have noticed was missing in the first place.

With continued interest in ancient technologies, it's worth bearing in mind that it's not just in music/recording circles that this practise of reaching back into the past to give a new twist on the present is rife. Fashion, music, art - they all steal from yesterday to come up with a different mixture for tomorrow. And there's nothing in the slightest way wrong with that. In fact, it's often those with an appreciation of what's gone before that are most successful in their present and future endeavours. So what am I trying to say? Use whatever you want to produce your music - who cares, as long as it sounds good. Just don't wait five years for every dream machine that comes along....