Buying gear is meaningless.

operator_tape · Post by **operator_tape** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:07 pm

I was not sure in which section on the message board but after what I had experienced today, I would like to share with the Tapeop community because its something that we somethimes forget when we are either starting of newbies or even seasoned pros who do this for a living. I was at my old recording schools teachers place today, helping him with some drywall and putting up a few walls. He is a musiciain that has been in the circuit for a long time. At least 30 years. He took up recording about maybe 15 years ago and since then he has been very passionate about it.

Now what is my point exactly? Well after we had finished working tonight, we invited to listen to this band that he had been recording, he is pretty old and his time for music has passed since all he listens to is Toto and some old Jazz stuff. Anyways, I heard some of his stuff before and was immpressed but that was when I had know idea of what it took to record, I was just beggining myself. Now my ears were a little trained to know what to listen to and I was really gonna listen to all the mistakes he might of made and what not in mixing, mastering and recording.

The band was a band likemaybe a cross between depeche mode/n.in./ and new order, some pretty wacky stuff from what I heard from him.

Anyways my point, he played the song from wavelab, and all of a sudden my ears opened up,

I listened to the song slowly and tried to find any problems in the mix and anything like that, there were none, bass managment was flawless and the overall song was great,
He started giving me details about what he was doing when he was mixing and what not and I listened.

NOw here is why I am writing this. The guy has no money but has a passion for audio, his equipment list goes as follow

Apex mics (drums)
Studio project condensors (2)
Neumann U87 ( He said he had to sell his living room to afford it, but really wanted it)
Converters = Gadget labs ( company went bankrupt few years ago)
Pre-amps = Mackie mixer, some really cheap tube pre-amp
monitors= home made
When I realized that we made a amazing recording and mastered it with that stuff I was shocked. He told me something I will never forget

"I love recording and understand the fundamentals of writing a good song I don't need a neve, or a Euphonix or ssl to make a great recording, thats the problem with people (engineers) these days, relying on there equipment way to much, All I need, I have to record anyone, I know how my equipment works and thats all I need, not 20 different pre-amps that you use once a year. Us sound engineers that are not working with major labels and have money up to there ass working without neve,ssl equipment have to work around that and produce great records for the people aswell"

Just wanted to let you guys know that, I hope it might of inspired some people to foget about all the hype around gear and go and record/make great music regardless of the setup. People make great records not gear.

Thanks for reading my rant, and sorry if its in the wrong section.

operator_tape

operator_tape · Post by **operator_tape** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:11 pm

Oh ya he also saind this, "A great riff is still a great riff with a radioshack mic or a german mic, A great singer is still a great singer wheter he has a alot of processing or not, its knowing when to use it is what counts"

Sorry again

Sean Shannon · Post by **Sean Shannon** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:36 pm

That is so true. He has figured it out. That certainly doesn't mean you don't need good tools, as his are good. There is a lot of voodoo in the marketing of equipment. But obviously he does need equipment - he has a console, speakers, mics, etc., so buying equipment is certainly not meaningless.

"Overbuying" equipment without developing your musical skills, arrangement skills, or ears, is meaningless. A shitty tune will still sound shitty, you can only polish a turd so much......

I remember when I was a kid, I listened to the "songs" on the radio. I didn't listen to the "recording". Today, some of that stuff sounds rather lo-fi, but the song stands on it's own. Thanks for sharing that.

dokushoka · Post by **dokushoka** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:08 am

I hate to piss on the lo-fi parade but...

The point of having good gear is not just that it sounds great. I love a Neve because I don't have to WORK to get a sound. For the most part, you jam a u47 into a 1073 (or a PEQ1

) and chase it with a 2254e and you're pretty much guaranteed an acceptable sound. That allows you to focus on the song, and not the recording.

Don't get me wrong, I work on all levels of gear, and can make things work on cheap shit if I have to, for the most part, but I like to be thinking about the art, not forcing a mackie to sound better than it really does...

dokushoka · Post by **dokushoka** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:14 am

Oh yeah. Forgot to add that great gear can HELP inspire a great performance...

Sean Shannon · Post by **Sean Shannon** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:39 am

Amen. Great gear is great. In the right hands.

operator_tape · Post by **operator_tape** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:04 am

Well I guess you guys are right to a certain extent but I think that since art is a creative process there should be ways of making music that are cheaper than what most people think that is needed, sure its easier to probably record with a neve and use a u47 but were is creativity in the process of recording, I guess I am to passionate about creative recording but I think it should be a process aswell as creative art. Use the studio as a insstrument!

operator_tape · Post by **operator_tape** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:05 am

oh yeah the marketing of all this gear must stop or be ingnored, alot of people will by into the hype and think that they could do our jobs? Don't you think? Pro tool/mac/mackie will not write your shitty song, or record and mix it, you need qualitfied people with experience to do this, Us engineers should make a stand against this.

dokushoka · Post by **dokushoka** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:53 am

operator_tape wrote:oh yeah the marketing of all this gear must stop or be ingnored, alot of people will by into the hype and think that they could do our jobs? Don't you think? Pro tool/mac/mackie will not write your shitty song, or record and mix it, you need qualitfied people with experience to do this, Us engineers should make a stand against this.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. A Mackie isn't going to sound like an API. Period. That is B.S. Marketing an API as making your music sound better, well, I would say that an API IS going to make your music sound better. Good gear makes your SONG sound good. I think people use the whole "lo-fi" argument as something to hide behind quite often. If you really care about your music, you want it to be well represented. Sometimes a lo-fi vibe might work for the song, but doing it all the time, that is selling yourself and your listeners short. They want to hear the music, not the sound of cheap gear.

Good gear allows everyone in the studio to hear what is in the room and focus on the song and it allows the listener to better hear that...

What is bad about that?

Sean Shannon · Post by **Sean Shannon** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:12 am

I wouldn't call Mackie "lo fi". I mentioned it in reference to 30 year old songs. Of course API, Neve, and SSL quality is superior to the mass-produced, budget-level stuff. That's why you pay extra for it. The point is that a good song is the place to start. No one is going to argue that Mackie preamps sound like API preamps.

JamesHE · Post by **JamesHE** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:50 am

I don't consider my Mackie, my ART tube MP's, my Aphex 107's, or any of my gear "lo-fi"..... at least not in my hands.

The Gadget Labs cards sound really good. My GL 496 sounds different, maybe a little more "open" than my MOTU 828. But I use the MOTU for functionality.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:05 am

Lets all accept that there are a million ways to go about recording, with a million choices of tools, that have a very wide range of price tags....

There was a thread like this about every two weeks on the old TOMB.

I think it is painfully self apparent that everyone will have an opinion on this topic, as here we are at the TAPEOP message board....

Nobody's first recording was done with a six billion dollar studio..... We all share a development curve, and we are all at different places along that curve. Enjoy the discussion that develops from this unique situation....!

covert · Post by **covert** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:29 am

joel hamilton wrote:Lets all accept that there are a million ways to go about recording, with a million choices of tools, that have a very wide range of price tags....

There was a thread like this about every two weeks on the old TOMB.

I think it is painfully self apparent that everyone will have an opinion on this topic, as here we are at the TAPEOP message board....

Nobody's first recording was done with a six billion dollar studio..... We all share a development curve, and we are all at different places along that curve. Enjoy the discussion that develops from this unique situation....!

Among the coolest things about TO, at least at the start was the attitude that it was far more important THAT you record, than ON WHAT you record. Better to stick whatever mic you have on whatever you are playing, than to wait till you had the best, whatever the best might be.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:57 am

I like gear. It's nifty.

Meriphew · Post by **Meriphew** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:27 am

Gear is not meaningless. Far from it IMO.

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