NOOBS!!!BEFORE POSTING!!~READ THIS!! The Ultimate Newbie FAQ thread

Whoa... Do I have a lot to learn. Hayli probably understands 100% but I on the other hand am building her studio. She is using Audacity on an old, old computer with a built in sound card. Buy books first.
 
Let me explain, Everything you have read is nonsense. Why, because it's opinion. Your biggest task is take half of what you read and half of what you see. Put those together and you have reality. Reality like vocal slapping your dick against your eardrums. Sad, but true. That's the major loud ass vocal with guitar. People could do that, but peeps wanna be paid, it's the other half If you wanna worry about.
How's that for constructive you useless twaats..
 
One of the most frustrating things for both newbies and those who attempt to help them is the subject of money. I always grimace when someone posts a question about some piece of kit they need but insists that they only have $100 dollars to spend. This is especially problematic when they insist that they simply have to have something better than say an SM57, but then ask about a $69 Chinese condenser. Now I’ll never tell someone that they can’t accomplish something worthwhile unless they spend a small fortune, or that they should delay their recording aspirations until they can afford the best gear. Heck, I have great gear and still suck. At the same time, it’s important to realize that money, or lack of it, is going to have some impact their ability to produce something satisfying. Just because you only have a hundred bucks now, doesn’t mean you won’t have more at a later date. It’s really about commitment to what you’re trying to accomplish. When I was a young man, about a hundred years ago, I was always willing to do any odd job for any amount of money. By avoiding trips to MacDonald’s (13 cent burgers back then), the convenience store (Loved my comic books) , and other indulgences, I actually saved enough to purchase a new guitar, a few microphones and a small used PA system. (1950 something Shure VocalMaster). If you must purchase something immediately, then for goodness sake go get that SM57 instead if the 69 dollar Chinese condenser. In the long run you’ll get a lot more use and satisfaction out of the Shure than you will with virtually any sub $100 condenser mic. It all really comes down to having a plan, being prudent, and not feeling the need to run out and spend what little money you have as soon as you get it.
Lovingly and respectfully submitted,
Ye Olde Hawke.
 
One of the most frustrating things for both newbies and those who attempt to help them is the subject of money. I always grimace when someone posts a question about some piece of kit they need but insists that they only have $100 dollars to spend. This is especially problematic when they insist that they simply have to have something better than say an SM57, but then ask about a $69 Chinese condenser. Now I’ll never tell someone that they can’t accomplish something worthwhile unless they spend a small fortune, or that they should delay their recording aspirations until they can afford the best gear. Heck, I have great gear and still suck. At the same time, it’s important to realize that money, or lack of it, is going to have some impact their ability to produce something satisfying. Just because you only have a hundred bucks now, doesn’t mean you won’t have more at a later date. It’s really about commitment to what you’re trying to accomplish. When I was a young man, about a hundred years ago, I was always willing to do any odd job for any amount of money. By avoiding trips to MacDonald’s (13 cent burgers back then), the convenience store (Loved my comic books) , and other indulgences, I actually saved enough to purchase a new guitar, a few microphones and a small used PA system. (1950 something Shure VocalMaster). If you must purchase something immediately, then for goodness sake go get that SM57 instead if the 69 dollar Chinese condenser. In the long run you’ll get a lot more use and satisfaction out of the Shure than you will with virtually any sub $100 condenser mic. It all really comes down to having a plan, being prudent, and not feeling the need to run out and spend what little money you have as soon as you get it.
Lovingly and respectfully submitted,
Ye Olde Hawke.

I understand where you're coming from and can appreciate that it's frustrating dealing with newbs who are looking for advice all the time, but I'd like to post a response from the perspective of a newbie who has (very recently) made a post similar to the ones you're talking about above.

Here are a few thoughts. I'd love to hear your responses on these as well:
- Those of us who are new don't know what to expect as far as how much we'll have to spend to make a "quality" recording. We don't want it to sound like we recorded it on an old fashioned tape recorder (been there, done that), but I think most of us understand it's not going to sound like it was made in a $1,000,000 studio either. With the amount of gear out there and the swings in prices it's hard to know what's good and what's not. I've been burned already a few times buying something and then finding out I could have gotten something better for less or the same amount of money. We're looking to people like yourself to guide us and tell us. If you think we'd be better off spending an extra $50 on a better mic that's great info!
- I can't speak for everyone, but I would guess that I'm not alone in that playing with GarageBand introduced me to the world of home recording and I decided to get a little more serious and see what else was out there. I stumbled across Reaper and started playing around and watching videos. I'm not sure I want to invest a ton of money in gear, software or hardware at this point because I don't know if I'll like it enough to stick with it long term. So I'm looking to spend the minimum amount. So if you said "if you just spend $100 more you'll get something that will last you a long time" I would and could do it.
- It's very frustrating as a newbie to post something in an active forum like this, have it viewed 100 times in a day or so and get no responses. I think sometimes the seasoned community looks at a newbie's post and thinks "oh gawd, not again". This forum has a great newbie thread (this one) with lots of detailed info, but some of it is spread around in different replies. It would be helpful to have that info collected at the top of the thread or on another page somewhere. There aren't a ton of reviews (or not many helpful ones anyway) that I've found for entry level gear. I can read a review on a $500 mic, but why bother? I'm not ready for that yet. I want to see what $100 mic works best for what I'm trying to do.
- Searching in these types of forums suck. It's not a dig against the site or something specific to this site or it's forum software. They just do. I've belonged to a ton of them and searching returns so much crap that you don't care about it's ridiculous. Telling a newbie, who isn't familiar with terminology, they should have found the thread with the info they want before posting is, in my opinion, not helping. Pointing them to the forum or thread with the info would be the way to go. I searched for a few things before my posts and didn't find any answers to my question. I'm not saying the info isn't out there, it probably is, but finding it is another story.

That's just my $.02 and welcome others thoughts and opinions on this. This seems like a great community with lots of knowledgeable people and I'm glad to be a part of it. I hope I can give back as much as I expect to get from it someday.
 
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