Bring me to the next level...

[wave rider]

If you had $3000 and the equipment below, what piece of gear would take your recordings up a notch?

Mics
2x shure SM81
3x SM57
SM7
BeezNeez Arabella
Audix D6 and D4

Digital
Apogee AD16x
Lavry DA10
Apogee MiniDac
Profire lightbridge (would this be hindering my sound quality at all?)

EQ
Chandler Tone Control

Preamps
API 3124+
Great River MP 2NV

Compressors
dbx 160x
Cranesong Trakker

DAW
Mac Pro 8 core
Logic Studio
Loads of plugins

Synths
Prophet 08
Roland JP-8000
Korg MS2000R

Monitors
Dynaudio BM6A
Yamaha HSM50

I do anything from pop to rock to dance music. I tend to lean towards a modern sound.

Thoughts?

[wave rider]

Oh yeah... I also have a royer 121

[jonathan jetter]

this be fine gear, yo.

more clients + more experience + working/listening in other rooms + learning from colleagues + etc. etc. etc. = recordings up a notch.

if you were really, really set on more gear-

either $3000 of acoustic treatment, a stereo bus compressor, or 2 channels of some sort of EQ with more versatility than the tone control.

[spitfire52mm]

I'll bite. While you could go lots of different routes, here's what I would do...

Scenario 1:

Pick up a great compressor like the Tube Tech CL-1B for vox. CL-1B is in your budget. This will help the vox stand out in the genres that you record.



Scenario 2:

Round out your setup with some 500 series gear.

API Lunchbox $450
Harrison 32EQ (x2) - ~$1,600
Elysia Xpressor - $975


There are plenty of other pieces that you could sub in for the eqs and xpressor but it'd be nice to have 2 more eqs and a variety in your dynamics section.

[Bubbakron]

REVERB,, EMT 140 or Bricasti!!

[wave rider]

Thanks guys! Awesome suggestions. I want it all!

I was thinking about the CL1B... will it offer that much more then what the trakker can do?

A buss compressor would be awesome cause currently I will run the left side of a buss through the trakker and then the right side... i know... i know... kind of ridiculous..... but it still sounds better then using plugins... maybe i need another trakker.....

[Jeff Hayat]

[IMG]******//www.uaudio.com/webzine/2006/august/graphics/02_askthedoctors/33609.jpg[/IMG]

Or a really good stereo bus compressor of similiar quality.

Cheers.

[Avening]

+1 For the Bricasti.

Proper use of good reverb separates the men from the boys.

... Seriously, it does.

[spitfire52mm]

Love the Neve!...

but it's out of his price range :(

[jcc449]

after reading your gear list here is my ideas:
there are certain things that can be covered by plugins/software like Eq, compressor or reverb. ( being 100% or not is questionable; but still able to get some job done). but there is one thing that no plugin or software can ever help you for even 1%. that's reference monitor.
start from the ground, without a high end monitor you can hardly judge which plugin is good and which hardware is good. you can't even do a good a/b comparison on anything. so ears will come first, and reference monitor is the ear of an audio engineer. btw I ain't saying u can't do job with BM6A or HS50M. but u can surely try upgrade them first and see how you able to improve your hearing.

[sage691]

Owens 703 -- you'll need about $3000 worth of it to design a proper monitoring environment which (if you haven't already done it) will be a much bigger factor than any additional piece of gear has to offer.

[wave rider]

I would love something like the barefoot monitors..... just wish I had more funds.

I do have ottawa fibre's equivelant of the owen's corning but I could probably do with some more...... choices choices

[DaveE]

Hard to say since you have some really nice stuff. There doesn't appear to be any gaping holes in your arsenal. Maybe invenst in some nice instruments?

[markosmo]

I know it is cliche, but an u87 is like a calling card for many musicians and producer/engineers. especially pop and dance type stuff. There will probably be more clients that will see that in a list and say ok, lets check this guy out.

probably will pay off qucikly.
Not that the beez neez is inferior, just name recognition goes a long way.