permission to make music

[stompforfuzz]

Every once in awhile I hit a creative wall on account of self doubt and "gear envy". I'm a musician and hobbyist sound guy, and I don't have alot of "pro" gear to work with. Lately I've been agonizing over my cheap mics, DAW interface, my stompboxes, my room, my monitors etc etc etc....

I ran across this on the interwebs while looking for preamps to max out my credit card with:

http://www.studioreviews.com/57song.htm

I thought I would share it with you guys, and say that hearing this feels like I've been given permission to simply make music. It sounds nice to my ears (although I like heavier stuff, and perhaps more bleeps and bloops since I like electronic music too) but in terms of mic'ing I'm impressed.

Perhaps this is old news, but I couldn't find anything in the forums so I thought I'd post it to see what you all had to say on the subject. As for me, I'm gonna go record some drums with some cheap mics and make it sound awesome Helps that the drummer in question has skills and a great kit...

[chumford]

and with stock preamps on a Roland VS-2480 DAW!!, God that's gotta be as bad as my system of mackie 8buss to tascam cd-rw, there is hope for us all.

[stompforfuzz]

go forth and make magic! lol

The cheap mics I mentioned in the previous post I picked up used for 100 bucks for the set. I thought, "why the hell not I'll give em a try."

It's an Audio Technica set - 2 MB 4ks for OH, 3 MB 5ks for toms, MB 6k for kick. Gonna add an sm57 for snare (was thinking about trying one of the tom mics too) All for about the price of a new sm57 =)

I think I may try using the kick mic on the floor tom instead, and pick up a shure beta 52a.

[dsw]

Hell of a nice song that guy wrote. Love the harmony on the chorus.

[Beardaby Jones]

(was thinking about trying one of the tom mics too) .

Love 57's on the racks. The guy i share a space with has 2 421s, and for months i've been trying to get good tom sounds with them with no luck. (I think they may BOTH be broken? They look like were used in demolition work) IDK, i just throw up 57's and they work they way i want them to every time.

[Spindrift300]

Somone on GearSlutz has a tag line that I love:

"I'll make that great album as soon as I get that new EQ."

It's sad how many times I've told myself this lie to distract myself from the real work!

BACK TO SONGWRITING/ARRANGING!

Keith

[stompforfuzz]

(was thinking about trying one of the tom mics too) .

Love 57's on the racks. The guy i share a space with has 2 421s, and for months i've been trying to get good tom sounds with them with no luck. (I think they may BOTH be broken? They look like were used in demolition work) IDK, i just throw up 57's and they work they way i want them to every time.

definitely!

just grabbed one of those shure packages with the sm57s and the kick drum mic. can't go wrong...

[DupleMeter]

Wow - nice!

Just goes to show - it's not the gear, it's the skill of the operator.

I loved the gritty nature of the cymbals - very old school motown/stax.

[Byll]

In our two location small recording business, my partner is close to 40 years my junior, in age. I am a hardware guy. He is a software guy. while we both have knowledge in the other's arena, our two studios echo our interests... The studio location I run is based around cascaded and portable Yamaha AW2816 workstations, plus outboard pre-amps and effects. His studio location is based around Logic, PT, DP, plug-ins, etc. Our studios - and the gear in each studio - talk to each other through real time optical transfer - ADAT light pipe protocol.

We are involved in two projects at the moment, in which much transfer between studios is involved. My partner mentioned, the other day, that it would be so much easier, if I had native DAWs in my studio. I countered that one of the reasons we work well together, is division of effort, labor, interest, and expertise.

As we discussed the many issues involved, it became evident that what is important to us - and very important to our continued success - is the large experiential base each of us has in our sphere of knowledge - not certain gear, or lack of certain gear.

I will never propose that exceptionally high quality gear does not make a difference. It can. However, knowledge and experience concerning the full use of - and the physics concerning - one's gear, and maybe most importantly, knowledge and experience concerning the theory and physics of music, will simply trump the existence of an expensive pre-amp or microphone, soundly.

The very best to all.
Byll

[stompforfuzz]

In our two location small recording business, my partner is close to 40 years my junior, in age. I am a hardware guy. He is a software guy. while we both have knowledge in the other's arena, our two studios echo our interests... The studio location I run is based around cascaded and portable Yamaha AW2816 workstations, plus outboard pre-amps and effects. His studio location is based around Logic, PT, DP, plug-ins, etc. Our studios - and the gear in each studio - talk to each other through real time optical transfer - ADAT light pipe protocol.

We are involved in two projects at the moment, in which much transfer between studios is involved. My partner mentioned, the other day, that it would be so much easier, if I had native DAWs in my studio. I countered that one of the reasons we work well together, is division of effort, labor, interest, and expertise.

As we discussed the many issues involved, it became evident that what is important to us - and very important to our continued success - is the large experiential base each of us has in our sphere of knowledge - not certain gear, or lack of certain gear.

I will never propose that exceptionally high quality gear does not make a difference. It can. However, knowledge and experience concerning the full use of - and the physics concerning - one's gear, and maybe most importantly, knowledge and experience concerning the theory and physics of music, will simply trump the existence of an expensive pre-amp or microphone, soundly.

The very best to all.
Byll

sounds like a great working situation. It's funny, I'm often envious of the gear that people have available to them but once and awhile I remember to crave more experience and better creative relationships. Your post reminded me of that! Thanks =)