Looking for recommendations on first outboard gear purchases

[Snarl 12/8]

What do your recordings sound like now?
In what way do you wish they sounded different?

In my opinion, you should record with what you have now until you get to a point where you can pose a more specific question. Like, "how do I get a more detailed guitar sound", or a "punchier drum track", etc. Then you list the gear you have and what you've tried techniques-wise and maybe at that point someone will tell you that you need a compressor, or a different mic, etc.

Also, in my opinion, trying out different gear and/or techniques and/or settings is pointless without a good monitoring situation. This means, room geometry, position in room, room treatment and quality speakers (and amp, if you go passive). If you're sitting there in an untreated bedroom [recording] and listening back on headphones or computer speakers or even really nice monitors, you have no idea what it really sounds like. The light bulb went off for me when I put up my first 10 panels. All of a sudden I could hear a difference when I cut or boosted a few db in my equalizers, or swapped mics, etc.

Finally, having said all that, you might consider the signal chain and proceed in order from concept to finished recording. Do you have proficiency on an instrument or two, do you know how to write a killer lyric and music to go with it or know someone who does, do you have at least on decent mic for each of the sources you tend to record, do you have a nice clean preamp with enough gain for the mics you use on the sources you record, if your sources would benefit from compression do you have a compressor, etc., etc.

But again, you can't really answer most of those questions honestly without a decent monitoring situation. Bite the bullet and do the [unsexy for most people - not me] room treatment and decent monitor purchase before you pass go and collect $200.

To belabor the "not sexy" comment, I gotta say, most amateur level musicians are actually really impressed when they come into a treated room to jam or record. I got really nice comments from people I jammed with. "Wow, my ears aren't ringing after a practice, wtf?!" "I could really hear everything great. I usually can't hear anything when I jam in a basement." etc., etc.

[Jeff White]

The very first thing that I would do after having a few days to think about "starting out again now" would be to pick up this book: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Sm ... 0240815807

Here is Mike's webpage: http://www.cambridge-mt.com/MixingSecrets.htm

EXCELLENT resource that walks you though so much in depth information WITH audio examples to download and play around with. I bought this book 2 years ago after feeling stagnant. Helped a bunch. I wrote about it here: http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... ike+senior

You'll learn about creating a decent working environment. About compression. About monitoring. About EQ, about making the most out of what you already have without diving down a hole, throwing money at the wind. Sometime we all need a guidebook. I found this to be an excellent resource for $25. I treated my room, changed my monitoring, applied some techniques (that really worked well), etc. Try it.

Jeff