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Sorry, but I have to guffaw at this statement. What do you think electric guitar sounds are? When I diagnose "oomph" deficits, the first thing I look to is the arrangement. Many times, it ain't the tracking so much as what is being tracked.

I did say "great recordings," but I'll go even further and posit that a great player can tonally sound pretty damn good even in a bad environment, just by the way (s)he hits the drums, frets the axe, nails the high notes... I don't know what it is exactly, but a great player can play a very...

Sure. The stuff I've recorded with really good players - their skills translate into tones that are more pleasing to the ears. Even a single snare hit by a good player sounds punchy compared to that of a mediocre player. A single power chord held out to sustain sounds sonically superior to...

Sure there is. If the amp sound is reflecting off a nearby surface and that slightly delayed sound is leaking back into the mic, it can easily be out of phase with the original signal.

If your DAW is having problems retaining track names, you've got bigger problems than trying to remember what is recorded on which tracks.

Agreed. Track notes? hells to the yeah. Traditional track sheets? not so much.

You'll have a hard time gating so that the snare doesn't trigger the gate. And if you gate upon tracking, you'll paint yourself into a corner. Gate it after the fact. There's far more flexibility. But the best idea is to let him sing while tracking, then just get vocals to resing anyway.

Bingo. Or lie and tell him you had a phase issue with that track and you want to recut a vocal just for effect. They won't know what that means.

After 30+ years, I finally rediscovered the secret to good recordings. It's not the gear (duh!) It's not the engineer (wha?) It's not even the room (heresy!) It's the players. This may seem obvious, but I swear, older recordings I made in shitty rooms with shitty equipment sounds better than...

If you could have just one of those racks, with everything in it, which would you choose? I'm torn between the 4th from the left (preamps, it appears) and the 5th (compression).

Why would folks use an old style track sheet in this era? I prefer to name my tracks and takes descriptively in my DAW and go from there. Now, lyric sheets for comping? and scribbling notes on individual recording techniques? THAT's where paper still rules, IMO.

That guy's a hack. Where's the Behringer tube warmey thing?

First of all, it should be noted that symmetry does not equate to parallel walls. Folks who can afford it, often design control rooms to have walls that splay outward, say 10% or more, such that each front corner is a 100 degree angle, leaving the back wall larger than the front. These splayed...

Good of you to offer plans, advice, etc... I like your OC703 mounting system in particular. It puts them off the walls, which extends the low end of their frequency absorption. I'm not sure I agree with some of your advice, however. Your statement that you "don't want opposing walls in your...

In my experience, soundproofing is less about materials and more about structure.

I disagree. One fantastic condensor mic can do wonders. I got a Neumann U-89 about 20 years ago. It has been my staple mic for so many things. Sure, an SM-57 sounds very good on guitar amps and snares, but for anything else, having one great mic makes a huge difference compared to a handful of...

Sell a kidney and get a vintage Neumann U-47 with a vintage Neve preamp to go with it.

And egg cartons are arguably even worse at sound proofing than at acoustical treatment. Certainly egg foam has no appreciable effect on sound-proofing. I'm an expert, 'cause I did the egg carton thing back in the 70s and it didn't do shit.

If he uses OC703/5, or Johns Manville equivalent or Rock Wool, it would probably work really well. If you REALLY want to save money, buy some raw OC703 yourself, shroud them with fabric and mount them yourself. It's not that hard and saves TONS of money.

I am a songwriter who records purely for pleasure. No profit. I bring in musicians to help make my music. There's no real difference other than degree of engineering competence, equipment and room. Beginning to? No, not beginning to. I think experience is more important than just knowledge...