Brief Summary

Spaces like recording studios, which used to be almost exclusively audio-only are more than ever shared with video crews, who have a different set of priorities. Manufacturers want their gear to be noticed but more and more users don’t want it to stand out. That’s why looks are more important than ever.

Going Deeper

The appearance of audio equipment. Is it important? Isn’t what it sounds like the only thing which matters? Usually when thinking about this I’ll consider the purist’s position, being that sound is the only criterion, and think about wheter aesthetic choices have helped establish some equipment establish its prominence in the minds of people who take interest in exactly what gear is in any particular studio. Function and ease of use are often the deciding influences on exactly why things look then way they do but if they happen to look cool too then that’s no bad thing.

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that design choices which are purely about how something looks are a red flag to me and I start wondering whether a piece of gear is overcompensating for something by trying to look impressive or just attention-grabbing. However there was a recent conversation I had which made me think again.

Audio Equipment Cameos

The conspicuous presence of audio equipment looking complicated and technical is a device we see over and over again in film and TV. Although all of us have a recording device in our pockets, we’ve all seen the film trope of the inexplicable reel to reel tape machine spinning in the background to let us know that the cops have the call taped. One of the best examples is Jodie Foster’s use of an Eventide Harmoniser, a couple of ADATs and a Focusrite Red compressor for contacting aliens in the film Contact and however widely mocked it does illustrate the fact that the Focusrite Red range have benefitted by having a flashy paint job.

The Focusrite Red gear is great equipment which chooses to stand out, you could say the same about gear from the likes of DAD, whose quality is beyond reproach and happens to be bright gold with a massive backlit logo, but when I see gear with a conspicuous design it does make me a little suspicious of it, like a modified car I wonder whether it’s ‘all show and no go’.

Form Follows Function

So cards on the table, I’m a bit of purist and the gear that I think looks cool is gear which is a result of form following function. The Marconi bar knobs used on classic Neve gear were chosen because the bar makes it easy to grip, making it ideal for use on rotary stepped switches. The Neve console grey/blue however was chosen as an alternative to the black which was prevalent at the time which was apparently seen as too reminiscent of kitchen stoves, not something we’d necessarily associate black with today but in the late 60s coal ranges were still common.

Distressors look cool because they have distinctive knobs and those four big circles announce themselves from any distance from a rack. However they are very functional, they are there because they work. I could say the same about the Genelec The Ones monitors. These cyclops-styled monitors are visually divisive. I don’t know many people who like the way they look but I love them because they look the way they do because of how they work. Form very literally following function in this three way coaxial monitor.

So despite my slightly puritanical attitude to appearance, if manufacturers want to make their products more marketable by making them visually striking and stand out in a rack full of sober colours I’ve really go no issue with that as long as it is good gear. But returning to the conversation I had recently which made me look at things slightly differently, there is another aspect of the appearance of equipment which is increasingly important. Gear either should be noticed, or not noticed. But if it isn’t supposed to be noticed, it shouldn’t be noticed at all.

The conversation was with Steve Genewick, a recording engineer with a quite remarkable back catalogue of work at the highest level. It was an offhand comment about how bright colours, illuminated logos and the like are actually a disincentive to many recording engineers these days because so much of what happens in the studio is filmed, and if you are working, as Steve did for decades, in a major studio like Capitol then this won’t be the band’s mate with a DSLR, it will be a professional shoot with a director who will likely as not want that illuminated logo covered with tape and won’t see that brightly coloured mic grille as a smart marketing move as much as a thing they want out of shot. It was an interesting point because until he said that I’d seen ‘invisible’ gear  as being a preoccupation of broadcast.

In broadcast it’s long been the case that audio equipment should be heard and not seen. The introduction of previously audio-only spaces continues there, with webcams and video content being made in radio studios now a regular feature of BBC radio for example.

The lavalier mic is an ideal example of a discreet way to bring a mic into shot. Chrome mic stands and visible cabling are not welcomed! The thing I found so interesting about Steve’s comment was that until then it hadn’t occurred to me that design choices for gear were pulling in different directions. Marketeers want their gear to shout its presence. From instantly identifiable bright red Nords, to retro styled microphones which dare to use colours other than nickel or black, even the ubiquitous SM7B which, while not brightly coloured, does announce itself courtesy of its size and distinctive shape. The former favourite mic of Podcasters everywhere, the Blue Yeti, while dismissed by audio professionals, was hugely successful because of its unmistakeable appearance. Maybe the Sony C800G is a preferred vocal mic of many not just because it’s an excellent (and expensive) mic, but also because it looks so unusual?

However while manufacturers seek to have their gear noticed, the people using the gear, increasingly are seeking the opposite - an interesting state of affairs.

Photo by Seth Doyle on Unsplash, Sebastian Pandelache on Unsplash