If you could...

[Aaron]

Thought I'd start a bit of discussion "essentials" in relation to equipment. Answer these questions and tell us why you think so. Let's see what people value the most.


If you could only spend $200 again on one piece of recording equipment, what piece of equipment would you buy?
If you could only spend $2000 again on one piece of recording equipment, what piece of equipment would you buy?
What is the most important component of your gear and why?
Why effect-type of equipment do you keep comping back to? Why do you use it so much?
Which microphone do you keep coming back to and why is it used so much?
What piece of equipment have you bought and has gathered dust? Why was it a failed exercise?
:)

[Seafroggys]

Hmmm, for $200, can't really think of anything I would have rather got.

For $2000, everything opens up, but I don't own anything that is $2000 by itself, the closest thing to that would be my cymbal collection in general, but that's not recording.

My single most important component has to be my Firestudio. Its my preamp, recording interface, and PA mixer all in one!

I'm not understanding what this means, though all my effects are plug-ins, and freeware plugs at that.

My most used microphone has probably been my Rode NT2-a's. I use them on vocals, drum overheads, pianos, and I have occasionally used them on guitar cabs, though now that is reserved for my Fat Head II. When I get around to recording acoustic guitar, probably use it on that as well.

I've pretty much used everything in my setup to some extent. I haven't used my Naiant mic, but I bought it for acoustic guitar purposes which I haven't recorded yet, but it was cheap anyway. I own two SM57's, but haven't used both of them at the same time. My headphone amp I have used to A/B headphone mixes, but generally I just listen to the main headphone output on the Firestudio. However, when recording musicians for my album, I have used it, though I've only just started.

[Moseph]

Thought I'd start a bit of discussion "essentials" in relation to equipment. Answer these questions and tell us why you think so. Let's see what people value the most.

I'm going to assume the "only spend X again" means you have X to spend on a piece of gear that you need to replace, not that you can purchase a piece of gear for X dollars rather than the listed price. Correct me if I'm wrong :).

If you could only spend $200 again on one piece of recording equipment, what piece of equipment would you buy?

Assuming I was starting from scratch with nothing in the gear locker (except a computer, which I would have anyway)? My E-mu 0404|USB. It has a great OEM software package, and the hardware features are robust enough to last a beginner long enough to get their feet wet up to their ankles (2 mic/line/instrument inputs with phantom power, MIDI I/O, balanced outputs, S/PDIF I/O). It's also pretty solid as a recording unit, comes with both ASIO and WDM drivers, and provides a huge step up in latency/noise/distortion issues from your typical native soundcard.

If I already had a collection of some stuff, like say I could choose which $200 of gear was to be damaged/stolen, I'd replace the MXL990's. All 4 of them if they're on sale for $49.99 during the right times of year. Those were my meat&potatoes mics for a very long time.


If you could only spend $2000 again on one piece of recording equipment, what piece of equipment would you buy?

I don't have any single piece of gear that costs me $2000, not even if I were to purchase it new, so there's going to be a lot of slop cash in this one.

If I could combine gear, it would just be almost everything in my rack: Presonus Firestudio ($700), Presonus Digimax FS ($600), Aphex 207D ($500), Fuhrman power conditioner & Patch Bay ($250). $2k wouldn't additionally cover the SMPro PR8II+ADAT card, so I'd be back to 18 channels, but they'd be my best 18.

If I had to spend it on a single item, it'd either be the Firestudio (if I was starting from scratch and didn't even have the FW-1804 anymore), or Sonar PE (if I had the 1804 still).

What is the most important component of your gear and why?

The external hard drive. All the other hardware can be replaced provided you spend the cash for it. The hard drive has the data, and the data is what's most valuable...I should probably spend some time this weekend backin up files...

Why effect-type of equipment do you keep comping back to? Why do you use it so much?

Effects-wise, absolutely every session I've done for the past few years has got Electri-Q (posihfopit edition) on it somewhere. It's the most versatile EQ in my arsenal and the easiest to use. This is in addition to it being free of charge and providing the option of the very transparent "Digital Economy" mode.

Equipment-wise, my power conditioner has saved my *** at least twice that I'm aware of. I'm sure it's been more times than that, too. Absolutely vital when you're going to be recording in remote locations with who-knows-what activity in the power supply.

Which microphone do you keep coming back to and why is it used so much?

The mic that turns up in a surprising amount of sessions is the Shure PG56 (I've got 3 with the PG drum mic kit). It's a pretty good all-purpose mic, and it has a small form factor useful for difficult placements. It's true that I use the SM57's, SM81's, MD421's, and C430's in most of my sessions now too, but the PG56's have shown fairly surprising longevity and utility. I've also had them longer than any of those other mics, in the case of the SM81's/MD421's by several years.


What piece of equipment have you bought and has gathered dust? Why was it a failed exercise?

My patchbay has been less useful than I originally had intended. Mostly because all I can really use it for is the occassional tap off the outputs of my gear. Until I had my Digimax FS, all it really did was provide a mult section I never used and easy access to 4 inputs and the main outputs of my FW-1804. Since I've gotten my Firestudio it'll provide more easy access to lots of outputs, but these won't be super useful so long as my mixer is my primrary headphone amp/cue system. After I get a couple of headphone amps with discrete controls (I'm looking at the Behringer HA4700's and kicking myself for not buying the Mackie HDPX systems when they were still available) and some snakes I think there will be more use out of the patch bay.


Those were good questions to ask/answer.