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2019 Gear in Review: A Few of Our Top Picks

Date:2020/1/9 14:12:59 Hits:

Sweetwater’s Sales Engineers are exposed to a wider range of incredible gear every single day than most people see in a year — from guitars to drums, mics to mixers, software to keyboards. This always makes us wonder: What would be on the holiday wish list of someone who sees nearly every new piece of gear that’s released? Here’s what we heard when we asked a handful of Sales Engineers for their gear picks.

Aaron Rom

While I’d love to grab a DW Collector’s Series Purpleheart Kit, a more attainable item on my wish list is a Ludwig Black Beauty snare drum, specifically the LB417KT with the hammered shell and tube lugs. I have a few brass snares in my ever-growing snare drum collection, but I’m still missing a Black Beauty, which is the definitive brass snare drum. I need to complete the set!

Geoff Allen

The Sweetwater-exclusive Fender GT11 Stratocasters — I love the fast fretboard on these. They are just masterfully crafted! Now I just need to decide which color and level of relicing (if any) that I want!

Maryann Shirley

I’m always on the hunt for new sounds to add to my ever-growing collection of sound libraries. One that I have been dreaming of getting my hands on is the Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.6. Omnisphere is consistently being featured in film soundtracks, EDM, and pop music, and it would fit perfectly into the music that I work on day in, day out. It would bring the creativity to a whole new level for my studio. I can’t wait for the chance to dive in!

Wayne Davis

The new TAMA Dyna-Sync bass drum pedal is at the top of my list. I play a lot of styles, and the adjustment options on the Dyna-Sync make it quick and easy to transition from a jazz gig to a dance party. Knowing that my hardware case is always loaded with the right pedal for the gig is priceless!

Anthony Giraldi

The Magnatone Twilighter Stereo has been on my wish list ever since I had the chance to play one last year. This is an amp that gives you a truly otherworldly playing experience. I’ve really never heard anything like it. It’d be the perfect addition to my studio; imagine hearing that thing in stereo through a couple of ribbon mics!

Greg Savino

When I first heard about the new Novation Summit synth, I knew I’d have to get one. After I put my hands on it, there was no turning back, and so my obsession began. I had to read and watch every review dissecting it inside and out. This instrument is a window into the glory days of ’80s synths (Depeche Mode, Thompson Twins, The Cars, etc.) with modern appointments that simply make it a “gotta-have.” Let’s start with world-class effects and then add to that splitting/layering, plenty of LFOs, a robust arpeggiator, and, best of all, a rock-solid oscillator bank that will never go out of tune. And yes, she did blind me with science…

Dontae Harris

I’ve been using in-ear monitors with my band for nearly 10 years, and it’s time to make the jump to custom-fit earphones. My Westone UM Pro 30s have proven a great asset, but upgrading to the ES50s will take things further with more defined low end and greater overall clarity — plus a perfect, custom fit. And then, there is the added benefit of imparting my own personality in the design. Westone in-ears do not disappoint.

Alex Campos

For years, I’ve been looking for that Holy Grail DI box: a harmonically rich, ultra-smooth DI box that I can plug my guitar or bass into and have the notes seemingly melt in the mix. Ever since I first heard the Useful Arts BF-S Pro DI, it’s been on my radar. It’s just a very musical box that can saturate my tone with tube warmth and color. Hopefully my wife reads this, and this little guy will be under the tree this year!

Matt South

One item that is on my wish list is the Nord Stage 3! I love the lightweight design, and the piano sounds are unbelievable. As a piano player, I really enjoy the fully weighted hammer action, as well. Being able to change sounds quickly is very important to me as a performer, and the Nord Stage 3 makes this extremely easy. You can’t go wrong with the Stage 3 for serious performance capabilities.

Jason Filloramo

On my wish list this year is the Taylor 612ce 12-fret V-Class acoustic guitar. Taylor Grand Concerts have been on my radar for a while, but the addition of the V-Class bracing makes this the perfect time for me to pick one up. As a fingerstyle jazz player, I’ve found the dynamic response and projection on these to be unmatched. It’s versatile enough for flatpicking, as well. I look forward to using it on many future projects!

Evan Mehre

The MOTU M2 and M4 are the standouts of the year for me. The ESS Sabre converter chip has been a fantastic-sounding chip for some time, but to put a chip of that quality in a unit firmly in the entry-level price range is truly unprecedented. The software package, similarly, is incredibly good for the money. You get not one but two light DAWs and also a package of pro-grade virtual instruments! This product is a game changer because there’s no excuse to not have a high-end interface anymore — it can be had for less than $200.

Corey Elliott

One of the biggest launches of 2019, and arguably one of the most impressive advancements in the history of the acoustic guitar, has to be Taylor’s Grand Pacific collection. Featuring two primary tonewood pairings — rosewood/spruce or mahogany/spruce — they once again knocked it out of the park with this line. The Grand Pacific represents the pinnacle of Taylor’s V-Class bracing first introduced in 2018, complementing that technology with a custom-designed body contour that presents a unique and comfortable revamping of the classic dreadnought body shape. I personally own one of the 717e Builder’s Edition models (rosewood back and sides) and was immediately blown away by the clarity of the high end and the depth of the low end. Crisp highs and booming lows are typical of rosewood guitars, but the V-Class bracing and body design of the Grand Pacific allow this guitar to bloom beautifully and project louder while staying articulate and clear. I used mine for the first time on a cover track I worked on with a bassist friend and was amazed by the quality of sound the guitar produced, even with a mid-tier microphone. Taylor has a lot to be proud of!

Nick LaMendola

My favorite gear release from 2019 has been SSL’s SiX desktop mixer. The audio world certainly did not expect a full-featured mixing console from SSL, including a G Series bus compressor, for a price like this! The more I’ve worked with this product, including it in system designs for customers and thinking about all of its routing options, the more impressed I’ve become — this thing has layers like an onion. Two SuperAnalogue mic preamps with channel compressors — check! Twelve total inputs for a small summing rig — check! A- and B-path mix buses for routing flexibility — check! Monitor source switching, zero-latency analog headphone mixing, and a talkback mic input that can be routed to the bus compressor to crush room mics — check! It’s a powerhouse, for sure, with a refreshingly tactile analog workflow in today’s world of DAW production.

James Masterson

The AEA KU5A front-address ribbon microphone is my top pick for 2019. I’ve been able to use this mic in both studio and live applications this year, and it has blown me away. I love it because it’s versatile and easy to dial in; it’s really been a plug-and-go microphone for me. It sounds great on everything I’ve put it on: vocals, guitar cabinets, acoustic guitars, and drums. Also, because it’s front address and supercardioid, you don’t have to worry about the typical noise bleed as you would with a figure-8 mic. Additionally, it’s an active ribbon, so you are able to run it through a wider variety of preamps and not worry about impedance nearly as much as with a conventional ribbon.

Wayne Wildman

The Focal Trio11 Be are one of the best releases for studios in 2019. The depth, detail, and dimension of sound are greater than I have ever encountered on midfield speakers, and I hear subtleties in mixes that I would have otherwise missed. They speak the truth. The Trio11 Be feature a 10″ subwoofer, a 1″ tweeter, and a rotatable 5″ woofer that allows for horizontal and vertical positioning. The subwoofer can be disengaged easily, turning the monitors into a 2-way “B-monitor” setup. Some of the magic in these monitors comes from the inverted beryllium tweeter that Focal is known for, as well as their technique of suspension and isolation of the woofers, W-shaped composite cones, and precise stability of the magnets in the drivers. There are countless intentional engineering design choices that contribute to the beauty of these monitors, but the synergy of all things combined produces ultra-low harmonic distortion, extremely fast transient response, neutrality in the midrange, a perfected stereo field, and some of the best monitors you can find. The Trio11 Be are a culmination of years of research and development, and they are my most revered gear release of 2019.

Chris Arnold

For me, it’s the Boss SY-1 guitar synth pedal. As a child of the ’80s myself, I’ve always loved the sounds of synthesizers, but, as a guitar player, I never had the best experience with some of the products that were designed to get you those sounds. That was until the Boss SY-300 was released. The ability to get awesome synthesizer sounds without having to install a clunky physical pickup on your guitar was game-changing. Products that came close to this in the past were only monophonic, meaning you could only play one note at a time. With this new pedal from Boss, you could finally play full chords that didn’t give you strange artifacts like other products did. The only problems were that hefty price and a little bit of a learning curve on the unit. This year, Boss hit it out of the park with the same kind of technology from the SY-300 in a simple-to-use product at a much lower price point — the Boss SY-1! I fell in love right away with the sounds I was getting from it. Not only does it sound fantastic, but it also tracks really well, and that is essential for me when it comes to the progressive metal style of music I play. If you want to make some of the coolest synthesizer sounds from your guitar, you need this pedal!

Logan Miller

The Fender Smolder Acoustic Overdrive pedal pushes the boundaries of what a pedal can do for a player’s rig. I shy away from the sound of an acoustic guitar running through a distortion pedal, and for good reason: the guitar and the pedal are voiced completely differently. When the Smolder was released, I was skeptical. But, thanks to the specialized “pickup compensation” knob, this pedal nails the tone without overdoing it. Plus, dialing the blend knob can make my acoustic guitar sound like there’s another guitarist playing some distorted chords underneath me, so it sounds like there are two guitarists playing at the same time! But my absolute favorite part of this pedal is that it works on both electric and acoustic guitars. It also works as a solid overdrive through both electric and acoustic amplifiers, making this one of the most versatile pedals on the market!

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