Most important piece of equipment

[AdlerAugen]

What's the most important part of your recording setup? please leave an explanation of your specific piece of equipment, so I can get a bit more general knowledge about equipment needs.

[shifter]

This really is a $hi% quetsion mate.
I don't mean to be harsh but if you are asking this you really haven't had a whole lot to do with the recording process.

Which is fine but your/we're going to need to no a couple of things

For example are we talking digital????
If so then your going to need a reasonble computer with software your comfortable with a good solid A/d and D/A.
Then you going to need a form of inputs and then Di's, mic's etc,etc,etc.....


I am happy to help beleive me.
I would suggest you be a little more specific about which part of the chain you are enquireing.

Shift

[Stupid Jerk]

Better question would be: what do you need at minimum and how non-crappy does it have to be?

[lemur821]

They're right. Obviously the answer to the original question is "my bass." My audio interface, if you don't like the first answer. Cables after that.

[WalterBush]

The most important part of any (and I mean any, whether DAW, tape, or wax record) recording setup is your front end.

I.e. your microphones, DIs, and preamps.

How you process after the fact doesn't mean a thing. If you don't get the right signal straight from the source, no amount of DAW plugins, high-end hardware compressors, or anything else will restore quality, because quality wasn't there in the first place.

What's the point of spend $xx,xxxx on the latest Pro Tools setup or vintage Studer machine attatched to a Neve console if you're miking everything with a $99 Behringer?

Just my opinion, of course, but I defy anyone to provide a coherent argument against it.

I'll take a Neumann going through a ViPre into a Pentium II running Windows Sound Recorder (or a dictaphone, for that matter!) over a cheapie mike into the latest Laptop running Logic or what-have-you any day for quality of sound.

[anderbass]

Originally Posted by AdlerAugen

What's the most important part of your recording setup?

I think the actual performance is probably the most important part of any recording.

Great musicians/vocalist recorded on so-so gear = a fairly good sounding end result.
A crappy performance captured on the best gear available = total crap.

Here's a good website for more specific info about home recording gear and techniques...
http://homerecording.com/bbs/

[bassturtle]

While I think some of the previous posters here are taking themselves way too seriously, I do think it's a difficult question to answer. It's easy to get lost along the way and get wrapped up into the gear, but the thing you have to keep in mind is that they're simply tools to achieve a desired goal. The MUSIC is the most important part of any recording setup and process.

If we're talking more along the lines of "What couldn't you live without" then I'd have to say my laptop and mbox. I could borrow all the mics, pres, instruments, etc that I would ever need, but the laptop and protools are the canvas.

[shifter]

Originally Posted by bassturtle

While I think some of the previous posters here are taking themselves way too seriously, I do think it's a difficult question to answer. It's easy to get lost along the way and get wrapped up into the gear, but the thing you have to keep in mind is that they're simply tools to achieve a desired goal. The MUSIC is the most important part of any recording setup and process.

If we're talking more along the lines of "What couldn't you live without" then I'd have to say my laptop and mbox. I could borrow all the mics, pres, instruments, etc that I would ever need, but the laptop and protools are the canvas.

Perhaps,
But at no point was it unhelpfull...

You gotta love objective opinions....

[chrisp2u]

I'd say, more than anything, your ears. I know people that can make stuff sound good using most any equipment... unfortunately, I have to work a bit harder than that... good everything else doesn't hurt either though.
---
c

[AdlerAugen]

In reference to the first two posts, I meant anything even related, whether analog or digital. What do I use? Digital, with an Alesis multimix 8 USB w/ a Presonus tube preamp and a studioprojects VTB1 preamp which is solid state and tube, and my mic's are an AKG C3000 and an AKG C1000. My computer (which is really crappy and old) is 1.8 GHz, 512 Megs of RAM, and I have about 250 Gigs of harddrive space. My software for recording is Cubase LE, though I've heard good things about cakewalk's sonar, and I hope to get a copy of that when I have the money since I'll be getting a new, custom-built computer as a graduation present. Which I can specialize as much as I please since it'll come from this one company which specializes in audio equipment, and does computers from the ground up (within reason of course).

[fretlessrock]

For a digital rig I would place the Analog-Digital converter/preamp/interface at the top. Your recordings are only going to sound as good as that part of the signal chain. But, IMO, the question *is* overly broad and I can't see it leading to any decent kind of answer. If you need 8 channels of mic pre, but drop all of your cash on 2 channels of awesome mic pre, you haven't really solved a problem, though you have a good piece of gear.

[bradjonesbass]

Originally Posted by AdlerAugen

In reference to the first two posts, I meant anything even related, whether analog or digital. What do I use? Digital, with an Alesis multimix 8 USB w/ a Presonus tube preamp and a studioprojects VTB1 preamp which is solid state and tube, and my mic's are an AKG C3000 and an AKG C1000. My computer (which is really crappy and old) is 1.8 GHz, 512 Megs of RAM, and I have about 250 Gigs of harddrive space. My software for recording is Cubase LE, though I've heard good things about cakewalk's sonar, and I hope to get a copy of that when I have the money since I'll be getting a new, custom-built computer as a graduation present. Which I can specialize as much as I please since it'll come from this one company which specializes in audio equipment, and does computers from the ground up (within reason of course).

How long have you been running Cubase LE? Might want to upgrade to regular Cubase instead - or even Nuendo if you've got the money. It'll be more familiar and less learning curve for the new software that way.

Good Mics, a really nice mic pre, and good AD/DA converters would be at the time of my list. Seconded by good monitors and at least one set of great headphones. If you're recording your bass (assuming you will be), then make sure it's going to sound good as well. And please set your intonation!

[Aaron]

Ears of course, but otherwise--

If I were to generalize, I'd probably say that the items towards the beginning of the signal chain are more important towards the end. There are many exceptions - plus what means 'better' is purely subjective. Someone might plug an SM57 on the snare through $5k of signal processors before hitting the converters.

I would say that the room, performance, and the musicians timbres/tones are the three most important things (the engineer's ears aside) for tracking. Monitors are incredibly important for mixing - I'd say monitors, along with room acoustics (they go hand in hand), are the most important part of the signal chain in the mix process.

Some might consider the most important peice of gear to be the weakest link in the signal chain - as it might function as the common denominator. I'd rather have a bunch of solid gear than some really nice gear, some mediocre gear, and some crappy gear.

[Charling]

Originally Posted by bradjonesbass

How long have you been running Cubase LE? Might want to upgrade to regular Cubase instead - or even Nuendo if you've got the money. It'll be more familiar and less learning curve for the new software that way.

agreed, dont go to DP if you haven't yet tried Cubase SX, its very good, I prefer it to all the others although I like logic allot too.

DP is good too, but as said above, you know the cubase layout, and full-version cubase will do all DP does and more.

as for most important bit, i agree with most of the above, but in an attempt to simplify for the original poster -

they are all important mate! if you want a great sound you need a great performer followed by a great instrument, mic'd up with great mics, great A/D convrters to a great computer, out of great D/A converters to a great desk and great monitors.

that chain could have been allot longer too!

you see, we could say, A preamp is the most important part of the studio (not true btw ) but a great preamp will still sound crap if you put it into a shoddy AD converter. and your mixes will still sound crap if you mix the track you recorded at abbey road on laptop speakers!

[vicenzajay]

Originally Posted by anderbass

I think the actual performance is probably the most important part of any recording.

Great musicians/vocalist recorded on so-so gear = a fairly good sounding end result.
A crappy performance captured on the best gear available = total crap.

Here's a good website for more specific info about home recording gear and techniques...
http://homerecording.com/bbs/

This is the best advice...period. After practice and a good performance, the next best thing to concentrate on is your front end (as others have said).

Jay

[soundmark]

1. The hands of the right dude
2. The right DI (radial active P48 is awesome)
3. My Neotek pre/eq.

Mark

[frankosaurus]

Originally Posted by AdlerAugen

In reference to the first two posts, I meant anything even related, whether analog or digital. What do I use? Digital, with an Alesis multimix 8 USB w/ a Presonus tube preamp and a studioprojects VTB1 preamp which is solid state and tube, and my mic's are an AKG C3000 and an AKG C1000. My computer (which is really crappy and old) is 1.8 GHz, 512 Megs of RAM, and I have about 250 Gigs of harddrive space. My software for recording is Cubase LE, though I've heard good things about cakewalk's sonar, and I hope to get a copy of that when I have the money since I'll be getting a new, custom-built computer as a graduation present. Which I can specialize as much as I please since it'll come from this one company which specializes in audio equipment, and does computers from the ground up (within reason of course).

Do VST plugins count?

EzDrummer has been VERY helpful for me to get from recording mere bass/guitar riffs to actually composing songs.

I don't know drums well and I don't have access to drummers, so ExDrummer has given me the greatest payoff relative to the investment.

[TheButler]

The transistor ...

btw, i also have EZdrummer, it is GREAT, i couldn't live with out it

[lamarjones]

I went from the Yamaha AW16G....

which I dug cause it was relatively easy to use, I could get my tracks, 8 tracks simultaneously, and if I wanted I could burn raw wav files to disc and import them on a computer based mixing program.

.....to a digi 002 into a macbook pro, and just added on a mackie onyx 800r. using pro tools 7.1

If you can swing that, I would. BUT, only reason I did it is cause some idiot sold me the 002 for 300 bucks, and it took 150 dollars work of repairing to get it tip top. Check the prices, you won't find one for anywhere near that. That said, if you like dealing with GUIs, you only need the 002r instead.

with the 003s coming out, the 002s should come down a little bit. But, that is if you are really gonna get into it.

[AdlerAugen]

Originally Posted by TheButler

The transistor ...

lol so true. (but I also have equipment with vacuum tubes)