Can you justify spending more than $1000 on any one piece of gear?

[narcossintese]

I guess that some mic pres worth more than that. I would love to have a Manley VoxBox, for example, but 4.000 is way too expensive.
By the way, I also would like to know examples of cool vocals on cds tracked with cheap mic pres.

 

[lolzgreg]

I'm gonna say monitors as well. I can justify spending $1300 on my RME Fireface 800... it fucking owns and I've never had an issue with it.

 

[JBroll]

If I had the ability to spend a whole month's paycheck on something, it would have to be monitors. The most expensive gear I have, though, is a computer I built for $600 and an SM7 - everything else (preamps and such) I prefer to build myself. If the day comes when I need a 666-input interface I might splurge then, but in everything else I do I can compensate for anything but having no idea what I'm doing.

Jeff

 

[Ermz]

Yes, but Australian dollars don't count, since the exchange rate seems to be like 3:1 AUD to USD

Hah, that may be so, but our money is still as valuable to us as it is to you. Our salaries aren't exactly any higher to compensate for the fact that we get our rectums torn by the price of everything.

 

[GarethSE]

My buddy has a U87
The quality of the vocal tracks he records over my vocal tracks says it all for me.
I'd sell my soul for one of those puppies, troof.

and my 5150 and framus cab came to like £900 altogether, and goddamn it was worth it

 

[Metaltastic]

My buddy has a U87
The quality of the vocal tracks he records over my vocal tracks says it all for me.
I'd sell my soul for one of those puppies, troof.

Yes, but you're comparing it to an AKG Perception 200 or an SM57, come on now

 

[GarethSE]

If I had the ability to spend a whole month's paycheck on something, it would have to be monitors. The most expensive gear I have, though, is a computer I built for $600 and an SM7 - everything else (preamps and such) I prefer to build myself. If the day comes when I need a 666-input interface I might splurge then, but in everything else I do I can compensate for anything but having no idea what I'm doing.

Jeff

I dig that you make most of your gear.
I keep meaning to start trying to make some custom stuff. I saw some article about $5 preamps and they seemed really clean. String enough of them together and you have a bargain I guess.

 

[Ermz]

Oh man, YES. I did U87 > Distressor > API 512c over the last two days and it was magical. Have the Distressor doing enough GR and slight saturation and you've got a vocal that's almost already mixed for the record.

 

[GarethSE]

Yes, but you're comparing it to an AKG Perception 200 or an SM57, come on now

Yeah.
But that was like £1000 of audible difference
haha

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah.
But that was like £1000 of audible difference
haha

Still, if you compared said u87 to an AT4050/C214/KSM32/sm7 I wonder if the difference would necessarily be perceptible? (or even if it would be a difference for the better )

 

[GarethSE]

i would also sell my soul for an sm7

i hate you guise so very, very much
especially you jeff and ryan
damn sm7 owners!

 

[Ermz]

Sure it would, compared to the SM7 at least. It sounds completely different. The U87 brings clarity, and a full spectrum. The SM7 pushes the mids in a strange way. It sounds weird but damn does it work in a mix. The end vocal sound would certainly be different.

 

[JBroll]

I dig that you make most of your gear.
I keep meaning to start trying to make some custom stuff. I saw some article about $5 preamps and they seemed really clean. String enough of them together and you have a bargain I guess.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to start using very simple plugins and handling complicated things (like multiband compressors and vocal clippers) by chaining them together. We're usually used to letting plugins just be magical 'black boxes' whose internal workings we may never understand, but they're all internally pretty simple and learning what makes them work right is incredibly useful - even if you never use your Frankenchains in an actual mix.

Jeff

 

[Nebulous]

Yes, but Australian dollars don't count, since the exchange rate seems to be like 3:1 AUD to USD

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter?u#from=AUD;to=USD;amt=1

 

[Metaltastic]

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter?u#from=AUD;to=USD;amt=1

Holy shit - oh well, your money may be worth more, but that just makes your gear price situation that much shittier!

 

[Metaltastic]

Sure it would, compared to the SM7 at least. It sounds completely different. The U87 brings clarity, and a full spectrum. The SM7 pushes the mids in a strange way. It sounds weird but damn does it work in a mix. The end vocal sound would certainly be different.

Yeah, I threw the sm7 in there more for the "if the u87 sounded different would it actually be desirable" factor

 

[Ermz]

Yeah. Well I'm not sure if you've ever sat in a studio and shot these sorts of mics out, but I have, a lot of the times with Nebulous back in uni, and a few more times since. When you put something like a Neumann or Mercenary Audio up there in place of budget condensers you hear it. The others instantly sound cheap and two dimensional. That several grand goes towards the dimensionality and richness that takes a good or decent release to world class territory.

In metal it doesn't matter so much because the nuances of the voice are covered with walls of distorted guitar. An SM7 is fine for us, and in many instances works better because of the un-even frequency response that pushes the vocals forward. But if we're dealing with ballads, or something where purity and transparency is king, there is something to be said about the top-tier microphones.

 

[Metaltastic]

Oh yeah, to be clear, I never denied the possibility that the extra money is totally worth it, I just won't believe it one way or the other until I hear it for myself!

 

[Nebulous]

Ermz, do you still have that shootout from Indent with the mics and pres lying around? This might be the ideal thread to post them in if you have your server up.

 

[Ermz]

I'm not sure actually. I think I may have thrown it out a few months ago to give myself some empty CD cases. Damn good shoot-out that one.