The single most important piece in the chain is????

[taropatch]

exactly........you can have the most expensive gear on the face of the planet (literaly 100k mics) and still suck

or you can make a worldwide hit with a sm58 and a dmp3


are you good............thats all that matters

its 98% performance..2% gear

Agreed. Kind of like how Tiger Woods could kick most people's butts playing with just a 20-year old putter.

 

[SonicAlbert]

The single most important piece in the chain is the lowest quality element in the chain. Because no matter what else is in the chain, you won't sound better than the worst link in the chain.

Whether that's the room, mic, converters, or whatever, the lowest common denominator determines what you sound like.

So in other words, every link in the chain is of equal importance and should be of the highest quality possible.

 

[Fishmed]

The musician.

+1... This should have been on the list

 

[M10K]

None of the above...The Song!

 

[JuliánFernández]

The musician.

Best post of the year! 100% Agreed!

 

[Glitchless]

You missed the most import elements !

If you start at the top of the chain you need good material,
that means a good song or tune followed by a good performance preferably with a good voice and or instruments. If you haven't got this you are polishing turds.
A great performance of a great song even if recorded on crappy recording equipment and listen to over crappier stereo gear will still have a special quality.
Given all this I say the next thing in line is the room it's performed in. It's hard to
improve a bad bouncy echo laden room after the fact.
Obviously any weak link will subtract from the net result, but I think the order of importance is directly connected to the order of events so the room would be followed by mike placement then by mike choice then preamp etc....