I have not posted on TB for months. I really haven't had much to say based on the increased number of trite discussions and posts I see lately. However, I have a soft spot in my heart for the recording forum.
I will chime in here with something I have said before. When choosing equipment and budgeting, people rarely take a holistic approach. What does that mean? It means looking at the whole picture and examining the whole system, not the individual parts.
What is the best XXX for the money? Wow, if I choose to spend XXX more I can get the upgraded unit and that is better, right? You always want the best. I call foul.
To sum this up, "When you put lipstick on a pig... It is still a pig". Think about your whole system, starting with your "Studio". If your studio is an office, bedroom, corner of basement then you will are only going to approach a certain level of quality regardless of how much you spend. "Hey, get that Neumann mic, it is great!". Wrong. If you are recording in an untreated room, all you are going to do is capture all the crap in your room and the poor sound treatment. Buy the best interface with the best A/D converters, it will sound great!" Wrong for the same reasons.
You need to match the lipstick with the pig. Look at your weakest link whether that is your space or your talent and adjust accordingly. If you are recording in an untreated space then I see little reason to spend more than $200 for an interface and $200 on a mic, etc. A very good whole working sound recording system should cost a person less than $1,000 in total for a typical home recording set up. And guess what? It can sound pretty damn good! You don't need the best mics or best interfaces or best A/D. They will be lost on you and a waste of your money. Who cares what your A/D converter noise floor is when your ambient noise is huge? Ditto the sensitivity and eq curve of your mic. There are plenty of <$300 mics that are fine (unless you are a star singer in an isolation booth). Latency issues? You will solve more of those with a good computer with memory and CPU than by the interface. I haven't had serious latency issues since the system I had running on a Pentium and XP. I simply don't have latency issues.
You want better than a $1,000 dollar studio? Then you need to upgrade the pig, not the makeup. You need to upgrade your space - work on sound treatments and space design. Then get better lipstick for your enhanced pig. At the same time you also need to work on improving your musical skills and recording, editing and mixing skills. I consider those to be part of the pig as well.
My pig has pretty nice lipstick and sounds ok. I have upgraded as time and my talent permits. Most of my gains in quality have not come from my gear or space, rather than from my improved recording and mixing skills as I have learned how to use what I've got. I use a Scarlett 18i20 (upgraded from a 2i4 last year) and Pro Tools (which I spent my Covid isolation time learning how to use).
