Quote:
Originally Posted by
raal
β‘οΈ
ok for the sake of argument let's assume you're not trolling. if anyone is at the very top level of anything, he'll look for the best tools to stay there. of course anything is as weak as its weakest link.
if the weakest link is the artist or engineer, no one can expect great results. but if the weakest link is the mic or any other piece of gear...
what's the name of this forum, and what section of that forum is this thread in? congratulations though. i actually bit.
Raal I absolutely promise you that I'm not trolling. Of course pro's use the best kit they can lay their hands on, but you would be suprised at how not so esoteric it can be at times. Some examples:
Peoples obsession with SSL these days. We all know that the 9000 is a good desk but the sound of 4000's (though we all liked the compressor) was never considered good, however you had total recall and before itb for some it was really useful, nowadays it is viewed as being somewhat esoteric.
Vintage mics: In the 70's, 80's vocals were more often than not recorded with a U87, U47 (fet), AKG 414. Vintage mics were cheap to buy as they were often considered noisey, unreliable and just plain old. The M50's that classical people rave about, at Decca they used to use them, but they were modified, the mod? They took the valve circuit out and made them fet amped because it reduced noise.
There was a recent thread "show me yours" type thing asking about peoples home studio racks, it even stated no pro's, the gear some of you slutz have, made my jaw drop. Pro's rarely have that much level of esoteric outboard, mainly because we can't justify it, Everything I own has to work for me, for example I've sold things like KM86's, Urei 1176's etc purely because I could turn a good profit on them and they weren't crucial to the work I was doing. Bruce Sweiden published a list of mic's he owns and whilst it was comprehensive, it wasn't as esoteric as some of the weekend warriors I have seen on here, now I'm sure no-one here is going to argue his credentials? What about his Harrison desk? What the great Bruce Sweiden doesn't need a Neve of SSL to achieve the sound? SM7 for vocals, according to many in here he can't get a good sound without U47, M49, C12. A friend of mine recorded a very, very famous vocalist stuck up a 48 and a SM57, the artist queried it, but he was persistent. When he came into the control room my friend asked him which one he prefered, he chose the 57. My friend knew up-front which would work better, however he also knew that he wouldn't have been able to persuade him to just sing into the 57 on its own before hearing it for himself.
Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to convince you, however, I am suprised one or two other long term engineers haven't stepped up to say the same thing, Bob O is on record of saying how Motown at one time, used to record everything with KM86's, now I would think that would take some doing!
Regards to all
Roland