Boy, this is some of the best stuff I've seen yet @ HR.
Here's a little timeline from my experience on cost vs performance.
In '79 I started recording in an 8-track studio. The guy probably had $10K in the place. It wasn't very good.
In '82 I started working and recording in good 16-track 2" studio. They had over $200K in the basic gear. Nice studio. I'd book 30-hour blocks w/ the engineer for $1500. I probably spent $20K there and came out w/ a couple 45 records and a bunch of demo tapes.
In '87, I designed a MIDI suite for Evergreen Recording in NYC. It cost over $20K. Bunch of racked modules all over the wall running through a Soudcraft board for monitoring. It was cool, but we could only dick around w/ MIDI in there. And when we were through with the MIDI production, it all got piped in through tie-lines to Studio A's Harrison console a Studer deck. Studio A had a good $200K in it.
Until the mid '90's, there really wasn't a choice if you wanted good sound from a mic. I used nothing but Neumann, AKG, EV, Shure, Crown. Then a company called Audio Technica came out with the AT4033. I designed a project studio for a production company that was signed to Maverick Records. The heart of the system was a Mackie 32 8bus,
Akai DR-16, TL Audio C1 comp w/ pre,
Ensoniq DP4+, Alesis Quadraverb 2, Tannoy PBM 6.5II monitors powered by a Hafler amp and an AT4033. This was in '96 and it was a beautiful system. The whole thing cost less than $20K – which was absurdly inexpensive at the time.
While I was on that project in '97, I'd regularly work in two other studios. One had
an Amek Mozart w/ 3 Akai 12-track digital decks, Tube Tech, Urei, Lexicon. The other had a Langley Big w/ a Studer deck and nice outboard. Both of those studios were still considered "project studios". They were all excellent and there was not one that of the three that was sonically superior to the other. Very successful major-label records were recorded in all of them.
The $20K '97 Mackie/ DR-16 studio was sonically superior to a 24-track studio I'd worked in in NYC in the late '80's called Databank. It was known as a good quality low-priced studio that booked @ $45/hr. Labels would send their artists there to track and then mixdown somewhere like Quad. The main system at Databank was a D&R 40-input console, MCI 2" analog multi-track deck, NS10's, Urei monitors, and it was nicely stocked w/ AMS, Publison, Lexicon, Neumann, AKG... That studio was modest by late-'80's standards and the main bulk of the gear cost over $100K.
I worked on sessions in '98 in Denise Rich's "home studio" in her upper Eastside penthouse overlooking Central Park. 2 O2R's, ADAT. Price of the gear was about $20K. Damn good studio.
In 2002, I'm in the middle of a studio/system design project for a client that's based around a Roland 2480, Michael Green monitors, Vintech 1272 pre, Grace 101, VTB-1,
Crane Song Trakker, RNC, Masterlink, Pods, C1, 414, U195, MC012. The main part of the system cost less than $15K and it's an amazing room. What could an experienced engineer not do with a system like that!? We've checked mixes on a boom box, car stereos and $25K audiophile room in the same house with Conrad Johnson tube amps and MartinLogan speakers. What we're getting back, even in the early stages, is blowing me away.
Major label records have been tracked at home by artists Remy Shand (Motown) - he recored his record in his basement on Roland 880's, Aerosmith, Ace of Base – recorded first record in an apartment in Stockholm on a Soundcraft and ADAT's, The Sundays - recorded at home, mixed at Abbey Road. Every year gear is getting more amazing and more inexpensive.
The best and lowest-cost studio system I can think of now that would still achieve professional fidelity would be a used loaded Roland 1680 w/ 2 EFX cards and CD-R ($1000 on Ebay), VTB-1 pre ($179), RNC comp ($179), C1 mic ($199), MCO12 pair w/ multi caps ($200), SM57 ($79), Tannoy 6.5II monitors ($225 used),
Crown D-75 amp ($150 used )That is $2211!! For the whole system. Heck, you could even throw in a new Masterlink and still get out for under three grand! A great record could easily be made with that gear. You could throw that whole system in the backseat of your car and take off and record anywhere.
The gear is here and available to just about anyone. Every year I get less and less impressed with "the gear list" and more impressed with how rooms and spaces are designed and used.
