Martyr wrote
Do they actually sell any of these products?because i honestly can't see someone paying so much for a microphone,maybe the mixer for like a big recording company...but it's still REALLY crazy
I can tell you there is a Neumann U87, two U47s and half a dozen AKG C414s on
my gear wishlist. Essential gear
You forget how much of a big business the recording industry is. Top studios have anywhere from three to 10 suites, each costing
thousands of dollars an hour and being utilized 18-24 hours a day. They also tend to be booked solid all year round. Even the lockout rates (when someone books a studio for a few weeks or more commonly a few months) are high. At the top of the industry the recording studio costs for an album are usually in excess of $150K-$200K (for about 6 weeks in the studio) - that's close to two million dollars a year per studio suite - more if they squeeze in smaller projects between the cracks when the major artist is sleeping/sexing/drugging.
Also, you'll see by looking at the gear lists of the smaller studios, that they all have a brace of desirable high end mics and other equipment - they have to have or they don't get any business.
While the bigger studios have dozens of any particular mic, there are also companies that buy dozens and hire them to studios of all sizes. They also hire out high end gear like specific compressors, preamps, EQs etc., because that kind of gear is normally specified upfront by the producer, and if the studio don't have that specific model (or enough of them), they just hire them in and add it to the bill.
