Many Studio Owners and Engineers have BAD GAS...
Do you too ???
I bet you do have bad GAS...
"Gear Acquisition Syndrome"... 'GAS' for short
Plagues the whole Recording Studio business....
From Studio Owners to Engineers - bad GAS abounds everywhere
and stinks up lots of studios.
If you think you need the 'right' mic pre-amp
or a special compressor in order to make your recordings
sound better.... you've got GAS.
I've talked with hundreds of Studio Owners, most
are searching for some sort of special equipment
or console or tape recorder that will magically make the
sound of the studio better, fatter and more like the
sound of the Records and CD's they like and love.
They sell off great sounding gear to buy something else....
which usually sounds pretty much the same as the gear they sold.
They obsess about tube gear, the perfect mic, the perfect preamp.
What you don't realize is that you most likely already have better
sounding equipment than we had in the 70's, 80's and 90's.
Most mic pres these days are terrific - quiet, accurate, very functional.
Almost any tape recorder will sound wonderfully fat and good.
Most basic consoles have more than enough EQ, have very low noise
and almost non-existant distortion.
What usually is lacking is NOT equipment...
When I worked for CBS Records back in the late 70's
the most used mic was a simple (and inexpensive) Shure SM57.
Add in a pair of Neumann's KM84's for drum overheads,
and maybe a Neumann 87 for vocals.
Compressors were LA4's and 1176's.
Mic Pres were nothing special...
But what WAS special was the size of the Studio -
it was huge with very high ceilings... 20+ feet high.
Plus - most importantly - we had some great musicians...
and very very talented Engineers, some who came from
the days of Mono recording, but all of whom had
great skill and great ears. And the engineers
all started as Second Engineers working under skilled older
engineers who taught them their trade and skills.
If you weren't very good you got fired.
It was never the equipment that made the sounds...
it WAS the musicians, the size of the studio,
the placement of the mics, the talent of the engineer,
and the Producer, the equipment was all basic simple stuff.
So once you have good basic Pro gear, STOP BUYING STUFF,
if you can't make a great sounding recording with
a bunch of SM57's, you won't be able to do much better with
expensive tube mics and rare Neumanns...
If you think your recordings don't sound great
because you don't have the 'right' equipment
- once you have good basic gear -
you're using a poor excuse....
usually for lack of real talent and skill.
Bad musicians will always sound like bad musicians.
A small room will always sound 'small'.
Mediocre engineers will turn out weak recordings.
You likely don't need a better console, or tube mic-pre's
or better EQ's.. you DO need a large size studio -
recording a drum kit in a small tiny room with low ceilings won't cut it
if you are looking for a big fat nice sound.
You DO need good musicians, and you need to record them
together in the same room at the same time for basics.
And you need real talent and skill as a recording engineer,
NOT more or better gear... - once you have good basic gear.
So you don't need to worry about gear anymore, stop buying stuff!
The various 'Forums' encourage GAS... you're told by folks in
forums you need this or that piece of equipment, or console
in order to sound good, but this advice usually comes from
unknown engineers, people who usually have never recorded a
Platinum or Gold Record or CD, never worked with major bands at
their prime, and have no real history in the business.
In the Forums there's a bunch of folks who want to feed their Egos
by saying how much better their work is from yours,
and that you are a fool because you don't have XXX piece of gear
or the XX mic... or whatever.
The FIRST STEP IN PREVENTING GAS is to stop reading the forums !!!
Never think the reason you can't make wonderful sounding recordings
is the equipment you have... once you have good basic Professional gear.
Stop GAS by buying good basic Pro gear, and learning to use it.