Buying gear is meaningless.

[junkstar]

I've spent the last 1/2 year teaching a crapload of newbies how to record voice only 'interviews'. Regardless of the equipment used by the student, I've learned a ton about the upmost importance of how common sense, good ears, desire and patience are some of the most crucial qualities of a successful newbie engineer. Like anything, if you don't care to learn, you won't learn. If you have some fire in the belly, you will figure the stuff out.

The modern 'pro audio' market has helped me tremendously in being able to entice folks to invest a bit of cash, but those otherwise occupied with other things did not come out the other side. Those with passion made it.
You can buy all the gear you want, but need some other qualities first.

[jeddypoo]

I certainly would never say that have great gear is a PROBLEM, or that all engineers with expensive gear are uncreative, I mean that's ridiculous. I'm just saying....well, I said it already. And yeah, I haven't found the sounds of a lot of records post-1990 to be terribly intruiging, and there are a million reasons why.

I'm really not trying to be a curmudgeon. I certainly WISH I had better gear. I'd spend less time tweaking to get what I wanted, that's for sure.

[Brian]

I'm really not trying to be a curmudgeon. I certainly WISH I had better gear. I'd spend less time tweaking to get what I wanted, that's for sure.

Maybe, maybe not.

[;ivlunsdystf]

In my experience, more gear has always led to more tweaking.

[jeddypoo]

Well, thusfar for me, every upgrade in equipment for me has meant less time spent on tedium, for the most part, but I think once you get to a certain point, you're probably right.

I'll tell you what- I miss the freaking four-track sometimes. Using THAT involved a lot less tweaking.

[Brian]

All kinds of things equal less tweaking in my universe:
Thinking ahead,
Good pre-production,
Musicians with quality instruments tuned properly and a total command over their use,
Me with the right mic in the right place adjusted properly and the right pre,
Good signal path to the recorder and a good recorder,
Me not trying to get more out of a device than it can produce,
Good communication between me and the artists.
All this could equal an SM57, a four track cassette deck, and an acoustic gtr and vocal, or it could be more.
Thinking ahead is the biggest part with knowledge of gear, not just your own, all gear involved.

[floid]

remember those recordings of your first band, made on you ratty old pioneer tapedeck with two karioke mics? every time you finished recording, how you ran that tape backwards and forwards till it fell apart, trying to figure out how you could have made it better, and then doing so on your next "session"? you know, simple things like moving the drums a foot to the left, or just one more nudge to the bass amp eq...ah yes, those were the days. there was no question of worrying about better gear, you just worked with what you had.
or that's the case for me, anyway...seems like more gear can be used to justify laziness in those areas: "sounds pretty good, good enough to work with." but on the other hand, sometimes that's exactly the impetus for finding a great final sound, one that wouldn't have even been imagined if you tried to get just that wee bit better to begin with, knowing it was then or never...
maybe a good question would be: does more gear give more options, or does it only allow postponement and laziness?

[GrimmBrotherScott]

remember those recordings of your first band, made on you ratty old pioneer tapedeck with two karioke mics? every time you finished recording, how you ran that tape backwards and forwards till it fell apart, trying to figure out how you could have made it better, and then doing so on your next "session"? you know, simple things like moving the drums a foot to the left, or just one more nudge to the bass amp eq...ah yes, those were the days. there was no question of worrying about better gear, you just worked with what you had.
or that's the case for me, anyway...seems like more gear can be used to justify laziness in those areas: "sounds pretty good, good enough to work with." but on the other hand, sometimes that's exactly the impetus for finding a great final sound, one that wouldn't have even been imagined if you tried to get just that wee bit better to begin with, knowing it was then or never...
maybe a good question would be: does more gear give more options, or does it only allow postponement and laziness?

Good gear sometimes gives more options, sometimes less. Typically with the higher end gear you are paying for the "magic" sounds that are not easily duplicated (Neve, Fairchild, Neumann....).

I am sure that someone makeing albums everyday in a studio with a Neve board would do a great job with my Mackie, Digi002r, etc...knowing HOW to record is more important than the gear. The high end stuff just allows an engineer to work with the sounds he hears fitting the music (re: comps, eq, pres, etc...).

Shit, many times recording through a Mackie I say to myself "Damn, this would sound awesome with an API lunchbox...." Such is life and I just deal and do the best job possible with what I have. Each time I record I learn new things about HOW to record. The good gear will be waiting for me when I get there.

[bobbydj]

Keep it cool.

This thread will be deleted, no questions asked, if it turns into an "eat me" or "your momma" contest.

Dude, stfu. Deleting the thread would be a total dumbass move, considering that it contains a lot of sensible exchanges. If you're mod happy, lock it. But deleting it?? Uh, no. Makes no sense.

[joelpatterson]

Somewhere in the universe... up in heaven, maybe... there's a forum with all the threads that have been deleted.

[dsw]

little red lights!
MUST......HAVE......LOTS.......of Little red lights