[bgrotto]

Originally Posted by Icecoldr

I have been reading these posts for a long time now and I'm sick of folks telling guys that don't know any better that if they get this or that gear, it will make their music sound more like a store bought CD. The truth is that you got to know what you are doing. The bottom line is that there's nothing you can buy that will take you from newbe to pro. It takes time to get that pro sound . I can put someone in the (Hit Factory) with all that high end gear, but that doesn't mean they will mix a CD that sounds like a "50 cent," CD. Come on man, some of the guys that mix those CD's have been mixing for like 30 years. Just to touch on one more thing, recording studios back in the 50's and 60's didn't have half the cool gear we have in our bedrooms today. They still made hits that live on today. The truth is, you can get a great sound with a $100 pre amp and Protools LE; then do that. There are no rules, so don't think you can't make a great song even if you don't have all that high end gear these guys talk about . My lil bro, (KILLA TRAKZ), makes some of the best music on the internet with a small amount of gear and it has a great sound . It would blow your mind away at what he does with this gear that some of you on this site would call, "low end gear". (LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS)


PS. Let this vintage thing go, and I bet most of you have a HDTV in your house; why because it shows a better picture . So why can't todays gear be as good or better than the gear of the past?

I'm with you on this, but I gotta address your "PS". First and foremost: I friggin' WISH I had a HDTV in my house. OK. Now...Today's gear CAN be as good or better than the gear of the past, but much of it isn't, and the reasons why are simple. One big one is the manufacturing process. A lot of contemporary gear is manufactured by a robot, in numbers in the millions, using parts that are lower quality and cost pennies cheaper because pennies multiplied by millions is a lotta scratch. A lotta the gear we GSers pop boners for is hand-wired, hand-built shit (new and old). Very expensive, and difficult to make in large quantities.

Another reason is the "prosumer" market. Gear made above the lowest standard, but still within reach of the hobbyist or budget-minded.

A third reason relates to the two above, but in a broader sense. A lot of the parts that go into "classic" gear are no longer made (for example, the classic Marinair tranny found in classic Neve gear), due to manufacturing restrictions and other factors, such as changes in law. Some of those parts are quite desirable, sonically speaking, and only available in vintage units.

A final reason: manufacturers often make revisions to perfectly amazing pieces of gear, utterly ruining them in the process (read Al Davis of API's most excellent rants on the subject). Thus, the older units become more desirable.

Just thought I'd throw it out there. Anyway, it's all just tools. And if you suck, you suck. A better hammer won't make me be able to build a house...