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

[solo2racr]

Just curious what everyone thinks, Taking the human element out and if you had X budget to work with, where would you concentrate your funds? (relatively speaking. Some thing just simply cost more than others)

 

[Massive Master]

The monitoring chain as a whole -- The monitors, their placement, the room, the treatment.

No matter what gear you have - You will only ever hear as well as your monitors allow you to hear. Your monitors will only ever sound as good as your room allows them to sound.

The greatest gear in the world is pretty worthless if you can't hear it accurately.

 

[Ethan Winer]

The greatest gear in the world is pretty worthless if you can't hear it accurately.

No kidding. Transducers - microphones and loudspeakers - vary the most from one model and brand to another, and rooms vary at least as much. Gear hardly varies at all unless it's broken.

--Ethan

 

[Supercreep]

..............Ears.

 

[Sloan]

druxkzgs

 

[Guitarer]

The musician.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Ears and musicians and talent--are all true and clever answers. But assuming the OP is referring to something material to be acquired in the pursuit of decent recording--my answer is:

The room.

And I learned the hard way. After 50 mics, a dozen preamps, 15 guitars, and a zillion gizmos and gadgets--it occurred to me that my room sucked. For both tracking and monitoring.

I've begun to deal with that; I'm not done but I've made huge improvement. And now, my worst mics with my cheapest pres are better than my best gear in the old crappy room. No kidding.

And when I use my better mics & pres (just medium quality, mind you) the results finally put a smile on my face.

Do your homework and consider your room to be the first and most important link in the recording chain.

 

[mikeh]

I think room treatment is very important and sinificantly under appreciated. I did not get it for a long time and my recordings/mixing suffered.

The ability to record sounds without excess room reflections, etc. - and - the ability to accurately hear the recorded sounds when making critical decisions related to processing, mixing, etc. - these things can positively or negatively impact the actual recorded/mixed sounds in many ways.

As far as gear goes - a good mic & mic preamp (which I consider equal parts of the chain) - to accurately capture whatever sound you are trying to record, are likely the most important elements.

 

[Dogbreath]

yup...room treatment.

Made the biggest difference in my mixes than any of my other stuff I've got.

 

[undergroundtoon]

The musician.

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

 

[Light]

None of the above. It's the ears of the guy behind the console.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[undergroundtoon]

That was from a band/musician/rapper point of view(the artist)...from a studio point of view they are all important. The old "weakest link in the chain" speech. I think the gear gets you almost to the top, but the room gets my vote. its the fine tuning you do after you record that makes your jaw drop and you gotta have a good room and ears for that.

 

[solo2racr]

Gear can be subjective but, not near as much as the human element. IF the poll had a human element included, I would have had to list every member of this BBS so they could vote for themselves I only had 12 options in the poll

 

[undergroundtoon]

Gear can be subjective but, not near as much as the human element. IF the poll had a human element included, I would have had to list every member of this BBS so they could vote for themselves I only had 12 options in the poll

like i said "weekest link" speech.

mics= good mic on a dirt cheap pre will suck
cables= dont mean jake if its going thru a radio shak mic
preamps= again going thru a $5 mic it aint going to rock
interface= ad/da is not going to matter unless your other gear is up to par
daw=is worthless with a usb walmrt mic
software= plug ins are not going to help(regardless of platform) if your other gear aint up to par
monitors= are only going to tell you its imposible to fix your mix
room treatment= is going to give you a clear view of the crap you recorded

i would start from the mic and work my way back if you need gear.
..but this is kidda a trick question.
if you take even one of these out of the equation your mix will lack

kinda like a poll that says what is the most important part of a car: transmition,motor,tires........you need them all to drive..

 

[scrubs]

The musician.

yep. .

 

[LemonTree]

the performance

 

[solo2racr]

Just curious what everyone thinks, Taking the human element out and if you had X budget to work with, where would you concentrate your funds? (relatively speaking. Some thing just simply cost more than others)

Thought maybe some of you forgot to read this

Since the majority of the posters on here have to work inside a particular budget (we all can't own Abbey Road) that it would be helpful to see where everyones priority lays. If your setup is only as good as the weakest link, then the only logical outcome to that is to buy the best of everything. Just trying to get an idea what to prioritize so noobs like me and I'm sure many others will be able to put together a HOME STUDIO with the proper emphasis given to the right area. Beats answering a bunch of pointless questions from someone that doesn't have a clue where to start.

 

[Supercreep]

I think the ability for preamps to make or break a recording is overrated, here and elsewhere. I like having nice pres (and in pairs!), but I get more variety and interest from instruments, mics and most recently a decent compressor.

Mics are a big factor in my very limited experience.

They yield a huge difference in sound depending on their selection and placement.

Not knowing best practices and techniques for mic selection and placement is a huge handicap for me, as I need to reinvent the fucking wheel every time the red light comes on.

I have to trust in my ears to tell me when something works.


If I don't pick the right mic, and put it in the right spot on the right instrument - and fail to blend that sound appropriately with other well-selected and reproduced sounds, what good is a bunch of top notch kit going to do me?

 

[Soundmind??]

None of the above....my choice would be THE SIGNAL!!!

 

[Freudian Slip]

Well You did put the only answer. The Engineer


In a chain all the links are equally important.


F.S.