Racks And Black

Do we own stuff, or does stuff own us?

My mother-in-law owned six roasters. Six large oval covered pans, coated in black enamel with white specks.

None of us knew she had so many roasters until her children pulled them out of bottom cabinets and basement shelves, during the melancholy chore of holding an estate sale, selling off her possessions and then her house to fund her long journey as she drifts away from us and into the land of Alzheimer’s.

We arrive two hours before the sale last Saturday morning. The street is lined with cars. The scavengers are not only here, waiting, ready, but have formed a pecking order. Steve Gemple, of Lake Bluff, is making everybody write their names on a list. He’s No. 1.

“I’m a collector,” he explains. Schwinn bicycles — he has dozens. We had advertised a number of Schwinns, back to one from 1937 — my father-in-law’s bar mitzvah present. Gemple has his hopes set on that bike — where, he asks as I hurry past, is it in the house, exactly? Planning his bolt to claim it.

Inside, I wander the rooms, looking at a lifetime’s worth of stuff: arrays of coffee mugs, piles of pot lids, small cut glass bowls, rows of bric-a-brac, keepsakes and tchotchkes. Thirty-six salt and pepper shakers. A bisected mug with “You Asked For Half A Cup of Coffee” on it, a souvenir of Florida.

By 9:30 a.m., 24 people are on Steve’s list, and we begin letting them in, five at a time. The record collectors fall upon the records. Gemple, the Schwinn collector, hurries to the bikes, but the 1937 Schwinn is rejected. Rusty.

“The condition is more important than the age,” he says. “Condition, condition, condition.”

That goes for people too, I suppose.

“I always say, you can’t have too many enamel roasters,” declares a man, tapping a roaster. “But this proves me wrong.”

He’s wearing a T-shirt that reads, “I’m not a pack rat. I’m a collector.” I slide over to talk with him. A collector of what?

“Mainly vintage appliances,” he says. “Mid-century manufacturing — from back when America made something besides excuses. Things were made to last, they had technological interest, social interest, the design tends to mirror the times.”

I ask him his name, and he tells me only the town he lives in, then retracts even that.

Review: IK Multimedia T-RackS Black 76 & White 2A | Everything ...

It’s been a while since I’ve done a review so what better way to get back on the horse than with a review of IK Multimedia’s new T-RackS Singles, the Black 76 and the White 2A. The good folks at IK Multimedia generously gave me a first look at these two vintage style compressor plug-ins and at first I have to admit, I was skeptical.

You see, I can probably give you more than a few companies who have had a run at emulating these two compressors, so my question was, “Why take a run at something that’s been done so many times?” The answer might surprise you.

I did a review a while back on the T-RackS Singles I purchased (can be found HERE and HERE ) and was very impressed with the level of character that each of the models presented. The thing I liked about all of these singles is that they tackled a few very tough compressor models as well as creating their own, all of which had their own flavor you can add to the mix. Since that review, I have moved up to the T-RackS Deluxe model and it only gets better from there. One of the benefits of buying the T-RackS bundles over the singles is that you get the mastering rack as well with VERY smart metering, plus you can buy THIS BOOK, and follow along to learn how to use these plug-ins to their max.

IK Multimedia has made it very easy to learn how to use their software to the utmost possible potential and beyond at a fraction of the cost of the Waves and MCDSP types of the world. I know all of this sounds like an infomercial for IK Multimedia but let me assure you it’s not. This is all based on my use of all of these plug-ins as well as me investing money out of my pocket (as you can read about in my previous reviews.) Seriously, I use at least 3 T-RackS plug-ins on various tracks for any given song I mix.

So how did these two fare against every other software company’s version of these two staples in the recording industry?

The Black 76 This compressor is based on one that probably shows up somewhere in almost every hit song you can think of, the Universal Audio 1176 LN. Not only does this particular model tame transients, but it also adds a very smooth character to the track its on. This thing is a workhorse in every sense of the word. You can put it on anything and it sounds like gold, Drums, Bass, Vocals, Guitar, Accordian, Cowbell, Wife’s Incessant Nagging, and it instantly sound better. And IK’s plug-in version is no different.

Permanence of organic coatings, a symposium sponsored by ASTM Committee D-1 on Paint and Related Coatings and Materials and ASTM Committee G-3 on Durability of Nonmetallic Materials, Orlando, Fla., 21 Jan. 1981

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