Sometimes Less is More

[Cullenszoo]

When it comes to music gear it's really easy to wake up one day and your gear takes up half a room when it started off just taking up part of a corner. As a guitar player I've gone down that rabbit hole. The same can be said with recording equipment. We've all seen the professional studios with racks and racks of gear and that giant mixing board. It's easy to believe you need all that gear in order to get that professional sound. But you don't.

Rather than commit thousands of dollars to create a home studio I have gone with a minimalist approach:

Laptop: nothing special but you have to have plenty of RAM. 4gb will work but 8 is better.

Recording Interface: I picked up a Lexicon Alpha for $50

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) I'm running Sonar X3 but Protools is the most common.

That's the heart of the studio. I have some condenser mics, cables, stands, that sort of thing but all the FX etc. are "in the box." Most DAWs come with a load of FX plugins to mix together a professional sound.

Mixing is an ongoing evolution and I'm still learning. A lot of it's subjective but if you have a "vibe" or "sound" you want that makes the song unique, the mixing is where that all happens.

here is a link to my bands reverbnation page where you can hear the songs we've put together.
http://reverbnation.com/atomicempire

On my solo page you can hear the difference as my mixing skills alone changed over time. The list goes from newest to oldest.
http://reverbnation.com/cullen12

 

[Mincer]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

I am pretty minimalist, too. I don't own many guitars, and not a ton of gear. I've gone through lots of gear, but I keep the stuff I use all the time, not stuff I think is just cool to have. I'd rather work on my playing and mixing ability than acquire stuff I guess.

 

[Cullenszoo]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

I am pretty minimalist, too. I don't own many guitars, and not a ton of gear. I've gone through lots of gear, but I keep the stuff I use all the time, not stuff I think is just cool to have. I'd rather work on my playing and mixing ability than acquire stuff I guess.

Playing and mixing are skills that improve with time. Gear just gets outdated with time. lol

I stopped playing through amps a while back. When I record or play live I use a digitech RP50 and plug in direct from there. I have the same number of effects as a rack or big pedal board in a single box plus there is amp modeling so why lug around a ton of gear. I'm like you, the RP50 is far from new or top of the line any more but it works for me so I have a couple of them.
When it comes to mixing, again, less is more. unless you have a crappy recording your trying to fix.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

How, exactly, do you mix ‘less’?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

Gear just gets outdated with time. lol.

There are people that downright refuse to play anything made past the 70s. And quite a bit of us are automatically wary of a piece of gear, like amplifier tech in my case, because it's new and we don't know if we wanna spend money on something we can't guarantee we will like further on down the road.

 

[Cullenszoo]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

How, exactly, do you mix ‘less’?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean.

The point of my post is you don't need thousands of dollars of gear to get good recordings. Plus, with the portability of my setup, I can take everything to our practice space and record what I need from the guys. I can add my guitar tracks and mix at home.

 

[Cullenszoo]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

There are people that downright refuse to play anything made past the 70s. And quite a bit of us are automatically wary of a piece of gear, like amplifier tech in my case, because it's new and we don't know if we wanna spend money on something we can't guarantee we will like further on down the road.

I can understand that. In my case I'm more worried about my pedal getting worn out than outdated. I keep my eye out for them to pop up used and I snatch them up so I have extras.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

I can understand that. In my case I'm more worried about my pedal getting worn out than outdated. I keep my eye out for them to pop up used and I snatch them up so I have extras.

Yeah, I recently bought the entire set of twenty Danelectro food related pedals and I have to use them with my hands because of how fragile they are. You can hardly step on them without the enclosure bending.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

I'm not exactly sure what you mean.

The point of my post is you don't need thousands of dollars of gear to get good recordings. Plus, with the portability of my setup, I can take everything to our practice space and record what I need from the guys. I can add my guitar tracks and mix at home.

Ah, I got ya now. Yes, I agree. In general, the mean average of recording equipment quality is very high. A great performance in a good room with right mic type can yield great results!

 

[LLL]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

Still, I wouldn't turn down a pair of UA 1176s and a pair of UA LA-2As (one for each channel)... among many other studio goodies.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

Still, I wouldn't turn down a pair of UA 1176s and a pair of UA LA-2As (one for each channel)... among many other studio goodies.

Neither would I.

 

[Cullenszoo]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

Ah, I got ya now. Yes, I agree. In general, the mean average of recording equipment quality is very high. A great performance in a good room with right mic type can yield great results!

That's pretty much rule number 1. If you get a good recording to start with FX are just there to add a little ear candy.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

It's easy to believe you need all that gear in order to get that professional sound. But you don't.

Rather than commit thousands of dollars to create a home studio I have gone with a minimalist approach:

Laptop: nothing special but you have to have plenty of RAM. 4gb will work but 8 is better.

Recording Interface: I picked up a Lexicon Alpha for $50

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) I'm running Sonar X3 but Protools is the most common.

That's the heart of the studio. I have some condenser mics, cables, stands, that sort of thing but all the FX etc. are "in the box." Most DAWs come with a load of FX plugins to mix together a professional sound.

Mixing is an ongoing evolution and I'm still learning. A lot of it's subjective but if you have a "vibe" or "sound" you want that makes the song unique, the mixing is where that all happens.

Although I agree you don't need much to achieve a good sound these days (which is great) I wouldn't discount great gear either. You are correct that VST's are getting so good that there is no need for a bedroom guy to go out and buy a $2,000+ compressor. Of course, how much you develop and learn is key here as well, and skill is certainly the biggest factor.

With that said, there are three pieces of equipment that completely opened my eyes in the recording world:

-Good monitors (in my case Yamaha HS80's): I didn't see anything in your post about monitors. Being able to hear things properly is absolutely essential to getting better at recording / mixing. These fixed alot of my problems for me right away since I could actually hear the trouble spots and fix them quickly

-Good interface: I always recommend people start out similar to you (get a decent 2 channel interface for under $200) as you don't need much more and won't be able to hear the difference right away. But when I played back some reference mixes when I got my RME F800, I was shocked on how much more detailed the sound was. This is of course due to the converters in it, but it didn't hurt that the mic pre's in it are decent (and clean) as well. Not to mention I need all the i/o and routing when I'm recording drums etc.

-Good preamps: Once again, was shocked on how much of a difference it made. You don't need an entire rack of them either, but if you're mainly recording 1-2 mics at a time I recommend getting some good preamps. When I first recorded with my VP26's I was blown away.

And then of course there's room treatment, which goes along with monitors, and not 'gear' per se, but extremely important and often overlooked.

Playing and mixing are skills that improve with time. Gear just gets outdated with time. lol

I stopped playing through amps a while back. When I record or play live I use a digitech RP50 and plug in direct from there. I have the same number of effects as a rack or big pedal board in a single box plus there is amp modeling so why lug around a ton of gear. I'm like you, the RP50 is far from new or top of the line any more but it works for me so I have a couple of them.
When it comes to mixing, again, less is more. unless you have a crappy recording your trying to fix.

Well the good thing about recording and guitar gear is not much get's outdated. How you use them might (i.e. gated reverb) but the gear itself will not only last a lifetime, but be relevant. As far as the RP50, I do see the point in having a lighter / easier setup, but it does come with a trade off in sound.

That's pretty much rule number 1. If you get a good recording to start with FX are just there to add a little ear candy.

I do agree if you start off with a good source your life is going to be easier. However, I think you may be surprised how much of the music you listen to started off as a great recording but still got mangled (in a good way) during the mixing process.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

I don't really have any experience and little knowledge of professional recording, but it seriously irks me that with all the modern equipment they can't produce albums as good as they did in the 70's or 80's.

I can count with my fingers 21st century records I've heard that even comes close to the quality of Killing Machine, Never Say Die or Countdown to Extinction.

 

[Swampy]

Re: Sometimes Less is More

Learn what you have. And you're right, it absolutely helps to start with a good performance.