Falken,
you're probably right about the budget pres "ruining" a mix in the end, especially busy mixes, but if that was half of the problem you seem to be stating, then why the hell buy budget gear at all?
then everyone would have to sit in the corner and wait for the big break record deal, or pay huge fees at some crappy neighberhood studio (with worse gear than whats at our disposal nowadays, cause if no one bought budget gear, why the hell bother to develop it right?), cause a few years ago, it would be the only thing avaliable.
in my view, get the budget gear if u dont like to deal with studios/or cant afford them, or simply cant go into one (as in my case..i simply dont have any decent studios around and its a very musical chalenged country when it comes to recording - portugal), and learn it inside out...whats the worse that can happen? you're still gonna end up with better recordings than most of the mid last century highly "wam" valued ones, you're not gonna be overwhelmed if u ever step into a studio and you're gonna be able to tell a compressor from a preamp, or an outboard reverb from a vcr...you're gonna have to be creative to go around the imperfections of the gear, just like in the old days...
i dont see any negative points in budget gear...unless you're trying to cut albums with it and trying to fool ppl...but in my opinion, thats just not possible. not saying albums cant be recorder with budget gear though..i dont know shit, but i know that, a decent engineer could cut an album with a nice room and some decent budget gear...but thats not the point.
ppl that want to make real records will need to go to real studios, still and that aint changing anytime soon. great music will always be great music, be it on a neve console with neuman mics, in the best room in the world, or a dmp3 and some mxl mics, in a bedroom near a busy road (yep, thats me)
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