your top 5 purchase (and why)

[gabriel g.]

1. Metric Halo 2882 2d (last year I steped uo the game to high-end converter and it was realy worth it. With my new treated control room I hear stuff in mixes I never heard before)

2. Sm57 (my best purchase when I was 19 and bought a lot of shit, this mic sounds good on EVERYTHING)

3.Mac (finaly a system that worked. After getting used to osx I asked myself alot why I didnt switched earlier)

4.Mesa 412 OS (every guitar amp sounds fantastic through this cab. Couldnt believe my ears. Even a fireball sounds great with this cab)

5.room treatment (it realy makes the difference)

 

[Fragle]

-rme fireface....best interface short of apogee and the likes, imho. sounds great and has been very reliable.
-marshall jvm....great guitar amp, period.
-waves ssl pack....for obvious reasons.
-sansamp psa-1....sounds great on bass, and is nice for adding some tägtgren style bite on guitars.
-beyerdynamic dt770 cans....i love those things.

 

[kvoid]

-marshall jvm....great guitar amp, period.

glad you like it man, yeah it is pretty ace, does everything

-jvm
-sm57
-tubescreamer
- behringer v-verb
- yammy hs80s

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

1. iMac. All my computer-related headaches have been history ever since I went Mac. No kidding.
2. Focal Twins. You can get decent monitors for pretty cheap, but actually good monitors make all the difference in the way you work.
3. Room treatment. This one is a given
4. Pro Tools. It's just the right DAW for me.
5. Bob Katz - Mastering Audio.

 

[ratsapprentice]

-5150 - Shitty stock speakers in a combo, but still better than my 15 watt fender practice amp....
-Tubescreamer - Makes that /\ a shitload better
-Mac/Logic - I could actually use plugins
-SM57
- Bc rich Warlcock - Comfortable as fuck! and it's a warlock, need I say more......?

 

[crillemannen]

* Peluso 2247Le , everyone should have one great highend mic. I have never been worried about vocals.
* Mesa boogie 2x12 . Its crucial to have a great cab
* 6505 . It is also crucial to have a great head
* Crane Song spider, i never have to worrie about preamps again. + It comes with A/D
* Yamaha hs80. Not the best monitors out there, but i see no contenders in the low-mid-end class. Next up is highend monitors for me

 

[vespiz]

I hate lists usually, but here's something off the top of my head..

1. Yamaha CS80 (Always wanted but couldn't afford one, now I have it!)
2. Digi002 + Pro Tools (Things got rolling.)
3. Korg Triton Extreme (Made my life easier for gigs, damn good keyboard action as well.)
4. Genelec 8040 (A really big step forward in listening.)
5. Room treatment (To hear what the hell I'm doing wrong..)

 

[amarshism]

1 Mesa boogie amplifiers, theyve shaped the way i play
2 Ibanez guitars, again for the same reason, in particular my 94 pgm and my jem brmr
3 Mesa Boogie traditional 4x12
4 Mixemans books zen and the art of mixing and the daily adventures
5 The event opals im about to buy this month

 

[YoRich]

1 - Mac Pro
2 - SM57s, they never let you down
3 - 5150
4 - SSL Duende, it always steps in and saves the day when needed
5 - Yamaha MSP10, they love, and welcome abuse.

 

[MindMunch]

-Reaper: Dream DAW.
-Native Instruments Komplete: Insane bang for the buck, useful for everything.
-SM57 & SM58: Stuff of legend.
-Steven Slate Drums: Drums solved.
-Sansamp BDDI: Bass solved.

Other contenders: Yamaha HS50M, Audio Technica ATHM50s, EMG85, ReAmpV2.

 

[CubanDude]

1. A new PC: Improves your workflow so much
2. Audix i5/Shure SM57 for obvious reasons
3. ESP Horizon: Awesome guitar
4. Triple Rect
5. Tissues: You just know how much you miss them if you have none in certain situations.

 

[Ermz]

1. Room Treatment
2. Event Opals
3. Millennia Origin (because it let me track here)
4. GSSL (everything runs through it now)
5. UPS (necessary with all the power cuts/instability here)

 

[Erik Monsonis]

1 - Audio Technica ATH M50 cans: I've been mixing exclusively with them for a year now and I'm seriously in love with them.
2 - Waves SSL pack: I don't know how could I mix without it.
3 - Superior 2.0: same as above.
4 - Toneport UX1: working with it since it first appeared in the market, best audio solution ever for a beginner.
5 - Framus Cobra: beastly.

 

[egan.]

1. Digi 001 - I'm a little older than a lot of you guys and had already interned in a legit studio when this came out. Having in my house, what was in the $100/hr rooms I worked in was truly revolutionary.
2. My first Roscoe bass - there is no substitute for a quality handmade instrument.
3. Great River 500NV - Lots of guys I respect will talk about the .5dB of EQ that a preamp adds not being that big of a deal, but the difference between a pro pre and consumer interface stuff is immense.
4. Room treatment obvious reasons.
5. EZdrummer - Seriously. As a writing tool this was revolutionary for me. I never loved the sound but as a vehicle to convey finished thoughts to other band members it's fantastic.

It's funny b/c I've spent more money on tons of stuff than the items listed above but those cheap items (well the roscoe wasn't cheap) really had the biggest impact.

 

[Wohma]

5. EZdrummer - Seriously. As a writing tool this was revolutionary for me. I never loved the sound but as a vehicle to convey finished thoughts to other band members it's fantastic.

+1, only for me it's Slate and I must say I like the sound quite a lot. Of course well recorded drums played by a good drummer are always better, but SSD still rocks.

Mine are:
- Adam A7s - I think that for a small/home-studio guy recording or mixing metal, these are one of the best.
- PRS CE24 - It has always been my dream to play a PRS... I wanted a Custom 24, but there was a bargain on CE24 and it's not much of a difference
- ENGL Savage 60 - I finally have a good-sounding high-gain tube amp that I can "crank" up at least to 4-5/10 at rehearsals and concerts. I always hated how I had to fiddle with the pot between 1-2 on 100+ Watt amplifiers in order to keep the sound guy sane.
- Reaper - didn't really like Cubase (and did not even have money to actually buy it), but Reaper is a different animal.
- Steven Slate Drums - can't say much apart from what egan wrote.

 

[RemoWilliams]

1. Cubase 5 - Stability and ease of use.

2. Yamaha KX8 - Pretty flexible piece of midi keyboarding

3. Sibelius 6 - Ease of notation

4. Arturia CS-80V - I'm sure no where near the feel or sound of the real thing, but, I'll have to make due

5. Quantum Leap Spaces - Made me realize my reverb addiction

 

[Glenn Fricker]

1) RFZ control room (purchase AND construction)
2) Ductless split air conditioner for control room.
3) DW Collector's Maple kit. (has wound up on a LOT of records in the last 10 years)
4) EL8 Distressor
5) API 512c

 

[guitarguru777]

- 5150 - its a 5150 what more is there to say
- 71' Marshall Cab it sounds just incredible
- Mesa OS Cab as stated you cant get it to sound bad with any amp
- ZW Overdrive, I lone this thing make my fiddy scream in all the good ways
- Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - Sounds GREAT I think its the best interface in its price range

 

[xFkx]

1.) ltd ec-1000, the best guitar I've owned, and one of the best i've played
2.) od808, bought as a shot in the dark 6 years ago and still love it
3.) hs80's, once again, didn't know this place and bought them basing on what my ears were telling me in the store
4.) akg k701, if i'd ask myself 10 years ago if i'd shell this much dough on a pair of headphones... the first time I put them on was like hearing a new world
5.) polytune, handy little tuner

 

[AntonioPetrole]

1 - Audio Technica ATH M50 cans: I've been mixing exclusively with them for a year now and I'm seriously in love with them.
2 - Waves SSL pack: I don't know how could I mix without it.
3 - Superior 2.0: same as above.
4 - Toneport UX1: working with it since it first appeared in the market, best audio solution ever for a beginner.
5 - Framus Cobra: beastly.

Are you still using your toneport? That blows my mind