Do you really need expensive stuff?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Harvey Gerst
  • Start date Start date
uhg-- i won't "moderate" (i.e. edit) that post too, but sorry for the soapbox rant.
 
chessrock said:
What kind of clouds the whole picture up ... is that most people start out with cheap gear. And it's kind of hard to make that cheap stuff sound decent, when the person at the helm of said cheap equipment ... doesn't know his ass from his elbow.

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Good point.

That is where the effort of EXPERIENCED people like Harvey comes into play. If all I have ever heard was the cheap stuff, I have no basis to say which of my cheap stuff is good or bad because I do not have a good foundation of what GREAT equipment is supposed to sound like. When somebody who has used and heard what GREAT gear is supposed to sound like, they can tell the others what is crap and what is not of the inexpensive gear. Not because they have an ego, but because they have been there and done that.

The problem we have here often is that much of the advice given about gear is given by people who have NOT been there and done that, so their opinions, given with good intentions, is VERY limited by their inexperience, and the people who know even less, may not know the difference in advice between the experience and inexperience.

The good thing is that the more time you spend here and learn about the people who visit, you can pretty much tell who REALLY knows their craft and who doesn't, but unfortunately it is the newbies who suffer out of ignorance.
 
chessrock said:
What kind of clouds the whole picture up ... is that most people start out with cheap gear. And it's kind of hard to make that cheap stuff sound decent, when the person at the helm of said cheap equipment ... doesn't know his ass from his elbow.

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Very True, but, even the best engineer will have an impossible time with an Alesis 3630 over, say, an RNC. Both are inexpensive enough.
 
MCI2424 said:
Very True, but, even the best engineer will have an impossible time with an Alesis 3630 over, say, an RNC. Both are inexpensive enough.
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Sure and a newbie can make a U87 sound like crap too;)


It's fantastic that this board has a great mix of newbies & experianced people. So that the newbies can find out what cheap gear has potential and the experianced people can get that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from helping people out;)

F.S.
 
Freudian Slip said:
Sure and a newbie can make a U87 sound like crap too;)


It's fantastic that this board has a great mix of newbies & experianced people. So that the newbies can find out what cheap gear has potential and the experianced people can get that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from helping people out;)

F.S.
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If the newbie used the U87 the same way he uses Brand-X's $99.98 mic, the U87 should sound better than Brand-X... although his recording may still suck.
 
Fishmed_Returns said:
If the newbie used the U87 the same way he uses Brand-X's $99.98 mic, the U87 should sound better than Brand-X... although his recording may still suck.
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and if he/she is a great singer/instrumentalist performing a great song, most people won't hold that against him/her.
the circle continues :)
 
kojdogg said:
and if he/she is a great singer/instrumentalist performing a great song, most people won't hold that against him/her.
the circle continues :)
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Performance and song writing are a given... as mentioned earlier in this thread, and not really a varible for the intentions of this thread.

We are focusing more on the quality of gear and recording talent and not on the musical talent.

...Since I record other people, the quality of the sound is more important than the quality of the talent I record.
I do agree that bad talent will distract from the quality... hence the term, "Turd Polishing"

Once you have good musical talent, the quality of the recording is the next level, and that is what we are focusing our thoughts here in this thread.
 
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Fishmed_Returns said:
Performance and song writing are a given... as mentioned earlier in this thread, and not really a varible for the intentions of this thread.

We are focusing more on the quality of gear and recording talent and not on the musical talent.
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please accept my apologies-- i was not aware that you had created this thread under the alias of harvey gerst and therefore it is well within your purview to define what its intentions are. :p :D
please take that remark as facetious as it is entirely meant to be. my best work is always with other people too and i completely agree with you otherwise. fwiw in terms of what's been said earlier in the thread, this has all been said already (including what i said in my last post, hence my comment of "the circle continues") . the point of this thread (at least as i understood it) seems to be getting bogged down with exaggerated pretensiousness, to which i have happily and knowingly contributed :D
 
kojdogg said:
please accept my apologies-- i was not aware that you had created this thread under the alias of harvey gerst and therefore it is well within your purview to define what its intentions are......................................................................the point of this thread (at least as i understood it) seems to be getting bogged down with exaggerated pretensiousness, to which i have happily and knowingly contributed :D
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Thank You.

Some people just can't help themselves............the title of this thread is "Do you really need expensive stuff?"...........no more and no less.

:cool:
 
Harvey Gerst said:
And I guess that's the reason for the bulk of my posts on these forums; to help people get the best out of what they already have, or to offer low cost solutions to common problems.

Having a great song, great instruments, great musicians and a great arrangement are topics that are really outside the scope of this forum, but how to record it all, what to use, and where to place everything, is exactly what this forum should be about.
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kojdogg said:
please accept my apologies-- i was not aware that you had created this thread under the alias of harvey gerst and therefore it is well within your purview to define what its intentions are. :p :D
please take that remark as facetious as it is entirely meant to be. my best work is always with other people too and i completely agree with you otherwise. fwiw in terms of what's been said earlier in the thread, this has all been said already (including what i said in my last post, hence my comment of "the circle continues") . the point of this thread (at least as i understood it) seems to be getting bogged down with exaggerated pretensiousness, to which i have happily and knowingly contributed :D
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Apology accepted. :D
 
Fishmed_Returns said:
Apology accepted. :D
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nice-- touche :D
hope everyone can lighten up a little :)

edit: i did find that post on page 9 and though (in my estimation-- i may very well be wrong) it seems to be less about the rules of engagement on this thread of discussion in particular and more about this forum (home recording dot com slash bbs etc.) as a whole i still take my zing with a bow of admiration :)
i will say though, i think it is just reinforcing my point about the circularity of this thread of discussion in particular-- addressed and answered and brought up again.
 
Fishmed_Returns said:
If the newbie used the U87 the same way he uses Brand-X's $99.98 mic, the U87 should sound better than Brand-X... although his recording may still suck.
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is there such a thing as better crap??;) I guess if you put some blue bonnet on it?

U87 could make it worse. You might end up with more suck getting captured.
Bad room etc.

No one could deny that one mike is better than another or at least different. Some of it is a matter of taste too, some people don't like U87's I personally
would never pay for one unless I was making the BIG bucks and it was costing me jobs. Even then I would just rent it. Anyway.........
I would reather hear a recording buy a skilled person with all sub 200 dollar mikes and behringer board than an unskilled person in a million dollar studio.

Talent and skill win out over big bucks undoubtably.

This thread has a circular fashion to it:) everyone agrees but, the valid points just lead you round and round:D

F.S.
 
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Fishmed_Returns said:
If the newbie used the U87 the same way he uses Brand-X's $99.98 mic, the U87 should sound better than Brand-X... although his recording may still suck.
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Freudian Slip said:
As there such a thing as better crap??;)
This thread has a circular fashion to it:) everyone agrees but, the valid points just lead you round and round:D

F.S.
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haha :D
in that spirit then let me be the fourth to point out then that if a newbie uses a u47 (or a u67) and a comparable preamp, the same way as they would a brand-x's $149.98 mic (which they got for $49.98 with a stupid deal of the day), that it would probably sound like better crap with a blue bonnet on it than with the $49.98 mic because of less negative feedback, greater headroom and phase coherency in the signal, and that skillz trump all other considerations which i shouldn't even mention :D.
 
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