how much have you spent/made with your recording gear

how much have you spent so far?

  • under 300

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 300 - 499

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 500 - 999

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • 1000 - 2999

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • 3000 - 4999

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • 5000 - 9999

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • 10,000 and up

    Votes: 10 47.6%
  • just a fun hobby

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • serious hobby would like to make $$

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • trying to be a pro and make it big

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • already made my expenses and more

    Votes: 2 9.5%

  • Total voters
    21
how much have you spent on your gear? including room fixes.


is this just a hobby
or
do you hope to make money
whether a lot or just enough to cover your hobby expenses
 
How far back should I go in the cost calculation? That Tascam four track seemed expensive when I bought it in 1983. :D
 
The only two answers I can come up with are (1) too much and (2) $1,500 on those Adam A7x monitors from the other thread. :D
 
from the beginning

Oh, man! That would probably take forever and the total might scare people, including me.

Now, let me see...I guess I'd have to start by defining recording equipment. Does a guitar count because I know I spent $475 on that Martin D-18 in 1976. Then I bought a gold top Les Paul...

And last week it was those Adam monitors :D
 
Oh, man! That would probably take forever and the total might scare people, including me.

Now, let me see...I guess I'd have to start by defining recording equipment. Does a guitar count because I know I spent $475 on that Martin D-18 in 1976. Then I bought a gold top Les Paul...

And last week it was those Adam monitors :D

go back long enough and most of us spent a lot more than we really should have
 
After studying this since the early 1970's, I've determined that the act of buying is a form of entertainment and that we are all women. :D

interesting viewpoint

many people think that buying just one more item will fix all their problems and make their music great
 
interesting viewpoint

many people think that buying just one more item will fix all their problems and make their music great

Now see, I have never thought that. I come from an engineering and hi fi background and saw the steady decline of that into subjectivist madness.

I know for instance that you can make perfectly good microphne preamp circuit for well under $20. People just don't believe this but the electronics evidence is irrefutable. Ok, it will not have "warmf". It will not have "attitude" or any of the other daft adjectives people lump onto pres. What it can have is a noise floor very close to physical limits (a 200 resistor delivers abt -130dBu at 22C. Better than that is adman's bollocks) It can have a fairly good level of headroom* and a reasonable gain range, say 10-55dB.

Much the same logic applies to converters. The ones in $150 AIs are almost transparent and deliver noise floors better than -100dBfs. Distortion up to 0dBfs is held to three decimal places. Sure, pay ten times more and you will get another 20dB less noise and maybe another decimal place but you will never hear the difference.

This is not to say proper professionals do not need state of art expensive gear, they do because it HAS to be beyond reproach.

*This is where costs escalate. Making a pre amp with high headroom and high gain and having close control over same is tricky and expensive but the home jockey does not need such "pro" specifications. The humble F'rite 2i4 can deliver better than CD quality, IF the nut holding the guitar does it right!

Dave. (and I never do surveys. We have enough of the parasites bleeding our NHS)
 
Now see, I have never thought that. I come from an engineering and hi fi background and saw the steady decline of that into subjectivist madness.

I know for instance that you can make perfectly good microphne preamp circuit for well under $20. People just don't believe this but the electronics evidence is irrefutable. Ok, it will not have "warmf". It will not have "attitude" or any of the other daft adjectives people lump onto pres. What it can have is a noise floor very close to physical limits (a 200 resistor delivers abt -130dBu at 22C. Better than that is adman's bollocks) It can have a fairly good level of headroom* and a reasonable gain range, say 10-55dB.

Much the same logic applies to converters. The ones in $150 AIs are almost transparent and deliver noise floors better than -100dBfs. Distortion up to 0dBfs is held to three decimal places. Sure, pay ten times more and you will get another 20dB less noise and maybe another decimal place but you will never hear the difference.

This is not to say proper professionals do not need state of art expensive gear, they do because it HAS to be beyond reproach.

*This is where costs escalate. Making a pre amp with high headroom and high gain and having close control over same is tricky and expensive but the home jockey does not need such "pro" specifications. The humble F'rite 2i4 can deliver better than CD quality, IF the nut holding the guitar does it right!

Dave. (and I never do surveys. We have enough of the parasites bleeding our NHS)



it's the veblen effect

and some deep pocket folks need to put down others whose gear is as good (maybe better) but costs a lot less
 


it's the veblen effect

and some deep pocket folks need to put down others whose gear is as good (maybe better) but costs a lot less


Why do you change the font of your posts every so often?
Is it for some kind of special effect on select responses...? :D
 
We need to adopt the accepted standard of the fine art industry. The more something costs, the better it is and the more the collector will want that particular painting in their collection.
 
We need to adopt the accepted standard of the fine art industry. The more something costs, the better it is and the more the collector will want that particular painting in their collection.

Exactly.

God forbid that anyone would think higher priced gear has anything to do with significant build quality, design, performance and sonic improvements.
I mean...that kind of thinking completely mind boggles most home recording enthusiasts because everything is viewed through the prism of low/no budget consideration, and a sort of self-imposed denial sets it, which allows them to feel really good about that $59 USB mic they picked up during the Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day. ;)
 
Exactly.

God forbid that anyone would think higher priced gear has anything to do with significant build quality, design, performance and sonic improvements.
I mean...that kind of thinking completely mind boggles most home recording enthusiasts because everything is viewed through the prism of low/no budget consideration, and a sort of self-imposed denial sets it, which allows them to feel really good about that $59 USB mic they picked up during the Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day. ;)

I like my own rule of thumb which is to spend a lot on those products which command a high price on the resale market. Because if you are around long enough, you will probably sell your gear. And junk doesn't fly well second hand. This applies mostly to high end gear, though, and expensive guitars.
 


I tend to pick one of the fonts i can see easier

but if its a long post then also to make sure the reply does not get lost

It's also very Darwinian. Most old people and those with poor vision can't see your posts. And that eliminates us from the discussion. :D
 
Exactly.

God forbid that anyone would think higher priced gear has anything to do with significant build quality, design, performance and sonic improvements.
I mean...that kind of thinking completely mind boggles most home recording enthusiasts because everything is viewed through the prism of low/no budget consideration, and a sort of self-imposed denial sets it, which allows them to feel really good about that $59 USB mic they picked up during the Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day. ;)

highe price tends to partially correlate with quality and ease of use aka features

but after a very small amount of money the performance and sonic improvements have long since gone past diminishing returns
and all you have left is the veblen effect

our church uses, having been picked by a former audio pro performer, mxl mikes which sound great and nobody has complained and afaik nobody has ever said they can hear some bump or dip or other artifact in the response

so yes our $59 mikes may not last as long but we can afford them and they do their job quite well
 
our church uses, having been picked by a former audio pro performer, mxl mikes which sound great and nobody has complained and afaik nobody has ever said they can hear some bump or dip or other artifact in the response

Well...I don't think that's really the point of what we do with music and audio.
If we all just focused on what the average listener hears or likes to hear...we should just stop all this recording stuff right now. :)

That's like saying why are people wasting their money on a BMW when a $15k compact gets them from point A to B the same as the BMW...etc.
We can go on and on with many other examples of higher quality/price VS lower, and where a lot of people would opt for the higher quality/price if they could, because it's worthwhile to them...so I don't know why that doesn't apply to audio, and I fail to see the relevance of "no one notices that I used a $59 mic".

IMO, we can't compare what we do and why... with that which the general public hears, sees and understands.
I don't know where other people work from...but I don't look at this as simply trying to reduce everything down to the lowest/cheapest common denominator.

It's like once a month this similar discussion gets churned up in the home rec world...some sort of indirect (or even direct) denial of anything that costs more than a few hundred bucks, as being hyped and unnecessary, or something like that...and it's always coming from the point of low/no budget perspectives, which is a self-serving argument.
Everyone would buy a Neve console...IF...they won the lottery...but because they can only afford a $59 USB mic...then the need for expensive, high-end gear is all just a myth for the most part. :p
 
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