Quote:
Originally Posted by
Arr0wHead
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For the statement about audio gear, just look at the gear many classic albums were created on and compare it to the gear available today. Look at home recorded efforts that went on to be classics (the first Boston release is a great example) despite using less than ideal gear and rooms.
As for the guitar, I've been lucky to know some stellar players. The one thing I've learned is that their tone is mostly coming from them, not the instrument or amp.
Here's a classic example: Joe Satriani sounds exactly like Joe Satriani playing a cheap <$100 guitar through a garbage amp.
YouTube
Then Joe Satriani is an awful dumb-ass to be wasting all that money on expensive guitar rigs if he sounds exactly the same on a sub-$100 guitar and crap amp, isn't he?
Keep reading online about the 1st Boston album and debunk the myth for yourself. Plenty of that record was done in real studios and with real pro level gear.
As for the other classic records from your statement that went unnamed, I don't know what you're talking about. The best sounding recording tools ever invented were the most plentiful (in good condition, at least) in the sixties and seventies.
Classic Neumann microphones, EMT Plate Reverbs, Neve consoles, Fairchild limiters, Altec compressors, blue stripe 1176s, Pultec EQs, Ampex 16 track 2" tape machines, original La2as still in great condition...hell, even Unidyne sm57s sounded much better than the sm57s they put out today.
I don't know what you think we've got that sounds better than what they had to work with. What we've got is cheap and convenient and allows for faster workflow, but there's a reason that the new AMS Neve 1073 channels go for less than half the cost of vintage ones. They don't sound as good. We've got many more flavors and colors, but the ones they had sounded better...which is why a vintage Fairchild sells for twice the price of my car. It's actually pretty rare that someone comes out with a piece of gear that sounds as good as the vintage classics. And I don't mean just that it's rare that an emulation nails the sound of the vintage classics (although it is). I mean even allowing for something to be equally good but totally different, it's rare.
I pretty much agree with the guy that everyone is bashing above. I think gear matters (so does Joe Satriani, or he wouldn't spend that money we talked about). It's not the only thing that matters...knowing how to use it matters and the sound of the room matters if things are recorded such that the room is heard to any significant degree.
But give engineer A and engineer B the same source to record and all other things being equal except that engineer A has much better equipment, engineer A is going to make a better sounding recording.
Every single time.