Some advice for you newbies. Dont sweat the small stuff

C

CyanJaguar

New member
Always remember this, it takes :

10 times the price to go from 90% to 99%
100 times the price to go from 99% to 99.9%
10,000 times the price to go from 99.9% to 99.99%

and if you dare go there,

100,000,000 times the price to go from 99.99% to 100%

here is the good news :

90% is more than enough for what we do

here is why.

1. unless you are recording a multimillion dollar solo violin( why would you do this in a homerecording studio) for audiophiles, then people are paying more attention to the music than to the recording

2. 90% today is capable of achieving better than what was used to make smash hits just 20 years ago

3. Even the great recording engineers are not that great. Many smash hits have some glaring mistakes- bad choice and wrong use of reverb, overly loud vocals, piercing instruments, etc

4. This is a home recording studio, not a pro recording studio.

5. Consider the source. it makes no sense to put a $5000 small diaphragm condenser up to a $200 sax. Most sources dont ever justify the large expense of recording/mixing gear.

here is the good news. to get to 90%, while it takes a bit of learning, is dirt cheap. Im talking dirt cheap. your sub $100 mics are 90%. Your sub $100 mixer is 90%. Your sub $100 speakers=90%

trust me, I've had expensive mics, converters, etc, only to experience a 2% improvement that only I can hear and nobody cares about anyway.

What to do???

Good question. I'm glad you asked

1. Dont sweat the small stuff

2. Dont listen to wannabes like me. Everybody has a different theory and you get your brain in a mess

3. Dont spend money you dont have, and try to buy used if possible.

4. Dont try to be what you are not- a professional studio.

5. Dont get your brain in a mess listening to your mix on 2000 different systems. Find a pretty good system and learn to work as a team(you and your monitors)

6. Find your weaknesses and learn how to fix them one at a time. IF you dont know how to handle the low end, learn about low end, if you dont know about compression-read about it- same with reverb

7. Dont follow popular fads- its like those guys who put those FUGLY wings on their cars- TACKY

8. Dont try to learn how to mix by listening to 2000 cds. Your brain will get TANGLED THE F UP. because no 2 cds sound alike. Start by finding your favorite CD and trying to emulate it. Once you can do that pretty well, you will start to find mistakes in your favorite CD. FIX those.

9. Dont be conscious about your gear. Instead try to humiliate that pompous dick that spent $10k on his gear by getting your setup to sound BETTER than his. IT is possible.

10. DONT SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF.

Happy Home recording.
 
Thats awesome! I think a lot of people who don't know any better or just learning (like me) need to hear that every once in a while.
 
Talking a lot of sense as ever, CyanJaguar. Care to link us up to the ALSQ article if it's still around?

Nik
 
noisedude said:
Talking a lot of sense as ever, CyanJaguar. Care to link us up to the ALSQ article if it's still around?

Nik
Click to expand...

wow, someone still remembers the alsq article. I lost it when my {F$%^&#@} Toshiba blew up 2 months outside of the warranty.

I wish I had saved it somewhere else.
 
Wow! As somebody who is really just now starting the gear searching process, I really got a lot out of your post! Thanks!

- RT
 
CyanJaguar said:
10. DONT SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF.
Click to expand...

I would agree with most of this but when it comes to a "philosophy of home recording," there is always a different way of looking at things. So, while you are not sweating the small stuff, remember that the devil is in the details and if you take care of the little things, the big things will tend to fall into place.
 
CyanJaguar said:
wow, someone still remembers the alsq article. I lost it when my {F$%^&#@} Toshiba blew up 2 months outside of the warranty.

I wish I had saved it somewhere else.
Click to expand...
No way! Dude ... I had it saved on an old PC somewhere for when I was using it as part of a music technology/web design crossover assignment ... I will look through old hard disks when I find them, but don't get your hopes up!

Isn't it still on the university website?
 
I'm there now. I'm what you would call an experienced newbie. In other words I'm sort of new but I generally know what 'm looking for.

Thing is funds don't match the ambitions, so my goal is to get as much versatility I can without getting a sound that pisses me off.

I don't like it when a new person says something like "I'm on a limited budget, I don't know what I'm doing so I want to buy a Behringer pre-amp and some amp modelers." and then the response is: "Save up and buy a 3 million dollar setup".

I see this alot, and the fact is many of us want to get started and have very little money, so we HAVE to buy the cheap stuff. I can sympathize with anyone who wants to get their stuff down. Yes it may not sound like professional, but that's how you learn!

This is the only hobby (and yes this is a hobby for most of us) that I can think of where beginners can be ridiculed for buying starter gear. Not cool.

I've gotten some good info here, but sometimes the gear snobs out there can piss me off.

The main reason we do home recording is do get our songs down in a halfway pleasing way, or in my case I do everything myself and don't have a band. I don't know about anyone else here, but I started out small and cheap and I'm gradually building up.
 
mithra6 said:
I'm there now. I'm what you would call an experienced newbie. In other words I'm sort of new but I generally know what 'm looking for.

Thing is funds don't match the ambitions, so my goal is to get as much versatility I can without getting a sound that pisses me off.

I don't like it when a new person says something like "I'm on a limited budget, I don't know what I'm doing so I want to buy a Behringer pre-amp and some amp modelers." and then the response is: "Save up and buy a 3 million dollar setup".

I see this alot, and the fact is many of us want to get started and have very little money, so we HAVE to buy the cheap stuff. I can sympathize with anyone who wants to get their stuff down. Yes it may not sound like professional, but that's how you learn!

This is the only hobby (and yes this is a hobby for most of us) that I can think of where beginners can be ridiculed for buying starter gear. Not cool.

I've gotten some good info here, but sometimes the gear snobs out there can piss me off.

The main reason we do home recording is do get our songs down in a halfway pleasing way, or in my case I do everything myself and don't have a band. I don't know about anyone else here, but I started out small and cheap and I'm gradually building up.
Click to expand...

Thank you!!!!!!!! I feel the same way...Some1 asked advise on monitors and I suggested KRK Rokit5's.. I think they are great for the money. People frown when they hear the price. The thing we all have to remember is we all listen to and love different types of music. Most of that music was born in someones basement, garage or neighborhood studio. I appreciate a post like this, gives me redirection to my first goal.....Making Great Music....I'm not sweating the small stuff :) Thanx
 
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