Fun Stuff

Tis the season to slam down the holiday meal, hand off presents to your loved ones and then get back into bed because you've been hustling throughout 2018 and it's your day off dammit...

While we don't suggest skipping out on meals or visits with loved ones through the holidays, we understand your plight. If you've been working in the studio, running live sound or just busy creating music in your spare time, this is the time to reflect, rest and take it easy.

How do we suggest you do that? By taking in some of the incredible music documentaries that have come out in the past year! Check out our list below, trust that it will take your mind off work and find inspiration in these amazing stories from some of the most recognized (and under-recognized) in the world of stage and song. Continue reading →

Football has become as much of a tradition during the holidays as uncles who talk too much, dry turkey and floating cartoon characters in the sky. After all, what are you going to do instead of watching the big game? Actually talk to your family?

For the inaugural Vintage King Black Friday Bowl, we ask the question, "What happens when you pit analog v.s. digital on the biggest day to save of the year?!" The answer? Everyone wins! Watch the video below to see the gridiron glory unfold and then explore all of our deals during the Vintage King Black Friday Sale by clicking here. Continue reading →

After the doors closed at AES 2018 in New York City, Vintage King headed to Sear Sound to celebrate another successful pro audio convention. For this exclusive event, we were honored to be a part of the first-ever live quadraphonic direct-to-disk recording session in history.

For the session, musician Emily Wells provided the sounds. She is an incredible multi-instrumentalist who is capable of creating extremely lush, beautiful and deep music all by herself. At the Afterglow event, she created a layered performance that featured vocals/vocoder, synths, violin and percussion. Continue reading →

It's Halloween time and at Vintage King we've been getting in the spirit by binging on our favorite horror movies, both new and old. Whether it be the lush beauty of Mandy, the stark realism of the latest Halloween or the bonkers nature of every Friday The 13th sequel, we got inspired to create something of our very own.

In our new short, Silent Knife, we posit the question, "What happens when a serial slasher's knife goes quiet?" Not "quiet" as in the killer goes dormant, but "quiet" in the sense that things just aren't quite the way they used to be. There's just that little something missing. Continue reading →

Earlier today, Vintage King took over the WDIV Detroit newsroom for a segment on their Live In The D morning broadcast. We brought along a bevy of vintage gear and their modern counterparts, including the Neumann U67 (Neumann 67 Reissue), Fairchild 670 (UnderTone Audio UnFairchild 670 MII), Townsend Sphere L22 and the new Moog One.

Prior to the live shoot featuring Vintage King's President Ryan McGuire and Audio Consultant Brandon Murphy, WDIV ran a segment offering a look at the inner workings of our company. The news team came to the Vintage King Tech Shop and we had the opportunity to show off how we restore vintage and used gear to their classic condition. Continue reading →

In the world of pro audio, we all know that there are a lot of opinions out there. Ask any group of engineers, "What's the best microphone for vocals?" You'll get a different answer from each one. "Favorite mastering compressor?" Same situation. "Best plug-in?" Forget about it. There is so much gear out there and that's what makes what we do so special.

Since we're celebrating Vintage King's birthday this month with our 25th Anniversary Sale, we thought it was an appropriate time to ask our customers about some of their favorite pieces of gear. In the spirit of our 25th, we're asking anyone who wants to voice their opinion what are their top five pieces of gear from throughout recording history. Digital, analog, just about anything you can think of, we want to hear about it. Continue reading →

The dog days of summer have arrived and there isn't much to do, but stay inside the studio and beat the heat in the air conditioning. Since you've been working so hard, we felt it was it was an appropriate time to award one lucky fan with a $1000 Vintage King gift card.

This giveaway is super simple and all you have to do to be entered to win is read our official rules and fill out the form in this blog! We will draw one lucky winner's name at random after the giveaway ends on 8/6/2018 at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck everyone! Continue reading →

A few years ago, Vintage King became involved with an ongoing project called adidas Originals: Sound Lab. Working together with the sneaker company, Vintage King built out a studio inside Cass Tech Detroit high school featuring a Slate Raven MTI, Barefoot MM45s, Yamaha HS7, Antelope Audio Zen Studio, and AEA microphones.

In the time since, Vintage King has continued to partner with adidas, including working on their latest project, an adidas Originals: Sound Lab based in Los Angeles. Opened on-site at Alexander Hamilton High School in Culver City, this Sound Lab has been built into a recycled shipping container and is already being used by a group of talented students. Continue reading →

Like all good things in life, techno music can be traced back to Parliament-Funkadelic.

The story starts in the early 1980s with three high-school students from Belleville, Michigan; Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May. The trio, who would become known as the “Belleville Three,” would sit around for hours listening to electronic and funk music on a late-night radio show called "The Midnight Funk Association" on WGPR, hosted by underground DJ, The Electrifying Mojo.

After hearing "Flashlight" by Parliament-Funkadelic, Atkins bought a Korg MS-10 synthesizer and started cutting tracks on his cassette player.  Continue reading →

As one of the first hit songs to ever use a Moog synthesizer, "Popcorn" was both a sign of its times and a look far ahead into the future of music. Before soft synthesizers were ever a glimmer in an engineer's eye, electronic-music pioneers like "Popcorn" writer Gershon Kingsley were using big, bulky analog units with no presets to create musical magic.

Kingsley, now 95-years-old, began playing the synthesizer in the 1960s, but that’s not where his love of music began. Kingsley had already earned a name for himself in the world of musical theatre, even earning a Tony Nomination in 1958 for his Conducting and Directing. Throughout his lengthy career, he’s arranged music for film and television, Broadway musicals, and many songs for Jewish religious ceremonies, but his most famous work is an instrumental synth-pop song inspired by a salty snack. Continue reading →