For the "I only have crappy gear" crowd...

[Riverdog]

Bravo! Bravo!!!

Excellent post "Massive Master" - I watch your comments here with delight and (Yoda like) anticipation... You're one of the ONLY professionals I've seen here that actually OFFER SOMETHING to the newer crowd without making them feel terrible about that Behringer mixer sitting in their bedroom (ie: MINE!)...

Unfortunately, (And probably FORTUNATELY) many of us won't have the opportunities you do to display just a "quick snippet I've recorded" of a SEVENTY piece Orchestra...

I do a lot of small project work - like commercials and projects with people who don't have a lot of money to invest in recording at our hometown's "professional" studio... But, I try to apply the rules you state here, "Garbage in - Garbage out"... Buy the best you can afford, upgrade where it does the most good, and listen, Listen, LISTEN! And I've had great compliments on the sound I get with the gear I've had - And I've also been told some of my stuff sounds like $#!T... But, I keep trying...

Many of my clients don't have the cash to go to larger / "more professional" studios - But, they are just as passionate about their sound and their projects... Just as passionate as I am about the sound I give them... I've made mistakes and grown and changed from them...

Thanks for the listen and the advice - Always looking for "Good Input"...

 

[Massive Master]

Hey John - Were you using omni caps on those Oktavas?
There's no way I would be able to get that kind of balance from my Oktavas with the Cardioid caps...

Those were cardiods - I don't even have the omni caps for the Oktavas...

Probably a good thing it that room - SO much mechanical noise...

And thanks for the comments everyone - I should've probably mentioned also that "for what it's worth" I thought it sounded pretty schveet - It is a whisker grainy. It does have some issues. The HVAC system was howling like a wolf in heat (probably part of the resonance also). Certainly not my first choice of mic'ing techniques either - The conductor specified that he wanted to hear something more from HIS point of view, as opposed to the audience. Hence, a lot of the "in your face" that most classical recordings wouldn't have.

But yeah, strictly posted as a "hey, this is very listenable and it was done very cheap" example.

I was always a fan of finding potential in cheap gear - One of my favorite things was to simply run something amazing (Pink Floyd's DKOTM or Steely Dan's AJA) through cheesy gear and seeing what it sounded like on the other side.

True - Some gear made it sound just plain bad. Some made it "colorful" or "sweet" in some way (good or bad). Some you could barely detect the difference.

The point was, that if you could run an amazing sounding mix through a piece of gear and have it still sound relatively amazing on the other end, the gear had the *POTENTIAL* to created relatively amazing sounding recordings.

Of course, the source, the mics, etc. might be completely different - But for preamps, compressors, EQ's, etc., it's a nice way to just test it out.