Favorite "High End" quality but "Low End" price piece of gear?

[Sacalait]

Maybe this has been covered. I'm posting this because I'm a working musician and don't have an inheritance or a hit record (yet) that would allow me to buy whatever gear I desire.

I’d like to know what gear you consider: High end yet has a “low end- or close” price tag?

For the record, I’m a professional. I’ve been making a living producing for the last five years. I believe there’s no substitute for quality gear. However, I do subscribe to the concept of “results beat logic- always”… (It re-appears in my signature and I firmly believe it!…) For me, this means, “the ‘higher the price’ doesn’t, inherently, mean I’m getting the best stuff.”

[Lerxst]

I would have to say an SM57. A total workhorse for guitar, drums, etc., and at eighty bucks or so it's a steal.

~Lerxt

[Johnkenn]

AKG C451b

[idrinkalot]

i'm loving the new wave of cheap ribbon mics

[Akoppenheffer]

Anything modded by Black Lion.

[Gates]

Great River gear.. not very cheap, but pretty reasonable

[drumkideric]

57 and 4050

[Jon Harter]

Almost any Audio Technica 40 series mic. Great deal.

Guitar effect pedals.

SM7. I use it for vocals so often.

[Jon Harter]

Also, Shure KSM 32's and 44's continue to amaze me on just about everything.

[Silver Sonya]

One obvious mention is this little piece of software. Mindblowing value.

At this point, your imagination is the only limit. Get a MacBook, Logic, an SM57, an Apogee Duet and make a masterpiece for about $2k.

- c

[code green]

orban gear offers great bang for buck at (broadcast) professional specs. love their eq's.

[soupking]

Regardless of medium, I'd have to say that my best low-end / high-end gear that has had zero regrets are as follows:

:: Midas Venice - the routing's kind of a bitch, but sounds great
:: Transient Designer - If you don't have one, go slice some more bread
:: Cascade Fathead ribbon mic - best ribbon mic on a budget on the market
:: Quad Eight - One of the most under-rated vintage preamps in the majors and I hope it stays that way.

Peace,
-soup

p.s. Oh, and having a friend who's an audio tech. Priceless.

[fuddfar]

The Symetrix 202 mic pre. Comparable to 90% of the high end ones.

[thenoiseflower]

KSM 44

SM57

MD421

the new gibson melody makers

the purple BIZ should cost twice as much IMO

[pendejo]

Radial Pro DI. Awesome sound and build quality. $99

[mohthom]

Ain't the Quad Eight essentially an old-school Pacifica?

MohThoM

[peeder]

Originally Posted by mohthom

Ain't the Quad Eight essentially an old-school Pacifica?

I heard the "U47" was an old-school Wagner CM7...is that also true?

[ThomasWho]

UAD-1 card with Cambridge Eq

this combo might not have "mojo" or add exitement but it`s a very high end tool for mixing , when you need to fit someting into a mix - without making it sound totally different from what it is.

(sorry for the long and convoluted sentence , I`m tired... )

Thomas

[84K]

sm7b

All products by API in the 500 series (I have tried many of the newer 500 series products from other companies and I am still most blown away by the API stuff.) I know it is not as cool because it has been around for 30 years, but it is still amazing.

[rdfusari]

universal audio 1176 compressor...i track with it...mix with it ...use it as distortion...if i want more low mid in vocal i drive it a certain way.... its a bit over 1k but does the job of 10 compressors

[Sacalait]

Originally Posted by Lerxst

I would have to say an SM57. A total workhorse for guitar, drums, etc., and at eighty bucks or so it's a steal.

~Lerxt

Agreed. In fact, it may be at the top of this list in my opinion.

[soupking]

Originally Posted by mohthom

Ain't the Quad Eight essentially an old-school Pacifica?

MohThoM

Yeah, but people hype the Pacifca about 4-5 times as much.

Keep up the good work guys!

[Pasta4lnch]

epi valve jr, sm57 . . . and dare i say my fenders. not sure they count as "low end" but i paid 9 and change for my dbl fat strat new - which is not a whole lot for a guitar. i would take it over ANY gibson or prs for twice the price or more! and my amer hot rodded p-bass was like 7 and change new (sale) and it's the BEST rock bass i've ever heard imo . . . that's dirt cheap for a bass. . .

[kittonian]

Radial SGI - a must have for any studio and only a few hundred bucks

[The Byre]

D224, D202 D222 and the D200 all used the patented AKG two-way transducer system and are superb mics for voice, horns, parts of the drum kit and lots of other things. Also watch out for the D1200, which was AKG's answer to the SM57, only far better! All cheap on eBay.

Unfortunately, AKG has been blotting its copybook lately with some cheap imports, but hidden in junk basket of cheap tat at the end of the aisle is a series of real microphones, the 300 (so called 'Blue Line') series, which is a body plus capsule system. The 300 body come bundled with the cardioid 91 capsule as the AKG C391 and costs about £180 new. This is a good, sweet-sounding mic that works for things like piano, overheads and orchestras and sounds very similar to a DPA 4015, only that costs £1,500!!! Other capsules with other characteristics are available, but they cost quite a good bit more and are not really worth the extra.

Audix D6 of course!

Neumann KMS105. This is originally a live mic, but it works brilliantly in the studio, especially for rock and jazz voices and costs only £325 by the usual mail order companies.

Shure made very high quality dynamic mics, such as the SM54 and the SM59 that seem to have been forgotten today, but still make brilliant mics for all kinds of things, especially drums and hi-hats in particular.

Altogether, Shure made hundreds of types and models, incuding some condenser models that I have seen sell fairly cheaply, such as the SM80 and the SM102 that used to be extremely poular in their day.

[Andrew Kinsey]

Sebatron Preamps & Compressors. They smoke some high-end gear that costs twice as much.

[Guitarhak]

AT4050
Symetrix 501 on bass

[deve]

Originally Posted by kittonian

Radial SGI - a must have for any studio and only a few hundred bucks

you can do the same thing with two pro di's or jdi's

[Silvertone]

Electrodyne, Quad Eight, Sphere, Cinema Engineering, Melcor & Inovonics all come to mind.

And yes and no on that Pacifica question as it was modeled after only one of Q8's products. Check out the Q8 MM61 or 71 or the 310, 311 and 312's for something a little different.

[The Beatsmith]

sm7b, sm57, dbx 160x/xt/a, pspaudio plugins... is all i can think of. i don't consider UA 1176's as low end price!