Finally finished my recording studio

[G-Zeus]

I disagree highly that an Art Pro sounds just as good as an Avalon.
I can tell you that audio quality has a ton of variables involved though.
Putting a garbage microphone through an avalon is not going to make it sound like a $3,000 nueman u87i.
There are a lot of things to consider such as mic quality, mic placement, vacuum tubes, acoustic treatment, speaker placement, speaker quality, D/A converters, etc.
I've had behringer, art pro, UA, and avalon preamps in my studio and I can tell you the difference between the behringer and the art pro vs the avalon and the UA is night and day.
It isn't even a fair comparison, especially with an engineer that knows how to actually use the equipment.

If you are using different equipment and genuinely feel you are getting the same quality I would question your "ear" for sound and your speakers and listening environment. There's no way that you should be using an Art Pro and an Avalon and not be able to hear the difference. Not trying to talk down to you at all. Just saying something is up if you aren't hearing the difference. I know when I started to get my feet wet with mixing I first had to be taught how to "hear". For the longest time I literally couldn't hear anything the engineers were talking about. With enough practice I started to pick up on different frequencies and nuances in sound.

i used to be like you...my friend owns a u87 and an avalon.. with that he also has apogee word clock and sound card..mogami cables... the whole sh-bang..

sound proofed to the top... and i had the at4040 through art voice channel on a focusrite sapphire pro 40.

we had allmost identical sounds when heard raw...only way he could really beat me is if we had to record 40 channels of sounds then my accoustic distortion would be heard but...lets be real.. vocals will rarely go over 4 channels.. 8 if you doing RNB with crazy back vocals.

then i upgraded to an AKG C414Xlii

honnestly the most minor upgrade i ever made.. the mic doesnt care much... certain voice was good.. others where too clean... but the at4040 was the all around beast and even today i miss that mic

my point is... dont overspend on gears.. today's technology has picked up like mad over the old ones.. and the old stuff is mostly riding on reputation made in the 60's 70's 80's 90's....but the gears today are quiter..cleaner...cheaper to the cost.

imma post you a picture of my current setup later

 

[G-Zeus]

I disagree highly that an Art Pro sounds just as good as an Avalon.
I can tell you that audio quality has a ton of variables involved though.
Putting a garbage microphone through an avalon is not going to make it sound like a $3,000 nueman u87i.
There are a lot of things to consider such as mic quality, mic placement, vacuum tubes, acoustic treatment, speaker placement, speaker quality, D/A converters, etc.
I've had behringer, art pro, UA, and avalon preamps in my studio and I can tell you the difference between the behringer and the art pro vs the avalon and the UA is night and day.
It isn't even a fair comparison, especially with an engineer that knows how to actually use the equipment.

If you are using different equipment and genuinely feel you are getting the same quality I would question your "ear" for sound and your speakers and listening environment. There's no way that you should be using an Art Pro and an Avalon and not be able to hear the difference. Not trying to talk down to you at all. Just saying something is up if you aren't hearing the difference. I know when I started to get my feet wet with mixing I first had to be taught how to "hear". For the longest time I literally couldn't hear anything the engineers were talking about. With enough practice I started to pick up on different frequencies and nuances in sound.

btw i used his 2000$ monitors to listen to them... and used various headphones including seinheiser 280 and 580 i believe

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

btw i used his 2000$ monitors to listen to them... and used various headphones including seinheiser 280 and 580 i believe

If you're set up works for you to accomplish what you want thats what matters most.
I just could never agree that an Avalon and an Art Pro sounds the same and have never met any engineer that would agree with that statement.
Each mic has its own tonal qualities as well as each pre amp. To not hear them even on expensive set ups would mean to me that you simply haven't developed (trained) your ear to hear sound in a studio setting.
Can they get the job done? Sure. But the sound they each produce is different. There's just no comparison.
And I agree with not going over board with equipment. That's why all I use is an Avalon, an Avantone CV-12, and an Mbox 3. (Which can be considered expensive for the hobby engineer, but in reality when compared to top of the line gear, these are very much on the low end of the price spectrum)
The most important thing is getting your recording and listening conditions correct.
There's a reason why major artists are still going to big studios with top of the line gear.
Digital audio has made entry level recording accessible to the general public, but budget gear isn't the holy grail of recording. You still have to respect audio and apply yourself. Get around people that can push your skill sets and teach you different techniques for listening to audio, and how to record and manipulate it.

 

[daze23]

from console wars to mic wars

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

from console wars to mic wars

Nah just open discussion.
Audio is very competitive though. Console stans don't know what it is to talk down an audio engineer's favorite microphone.
I've heard the Mac vs PC argument a million times in different studios too. Cats are ready to die over their choice of software.
Pro Tools vs Cubase vs Logic vs Studio One
Stannery knows no bounds

 

[daze23]

Nah just open discussion.
Audio is very competitive though. Console stans don't know what it is to talk down an audio engineer's favorite microphone.
I've heard the Mac vs PC argument a million times in different studios too. Cats are ready to die over their choice of software.
Pro Tools vs Cubase vs Logic vs Studio One
Stannery knows no bounds

I know. it's like that with any hobby. especially something with a lot of nuance, like audio

 

[G-Zeus]

If you're set up works for you to accomplish what you want thats what matters most.
I just could never agree that an Avalon and an Art Pro sounds the same and have never met any engineer that would agree with that statement.
Each mic has its own tonal qualities as well as each pre amp. To not hear them even on expensive set ups would mean to me that you simply haven't developed (trained) your ear to hear sound in a studio setting.
Can they get the job done? Sure. But the sound they each produce is different. There's just no comparison.
And I agree with not going over board with equipment. That's why all I use is an Avalon, an Avantone CV-12, and an Mbox 3. (Which can be considered expensive for the hobby engineer, but in reality when compared to top of the line gear, these are very much on the low end of the price spectrum)
The most important thing is getting your recording and listening conditions correct.
There's a reason why major artists are still going to big studios with top of the line gear.
Digital audio has made entry level recording accessible to the general public, but budget gear isn't the holy grail of recording. You still have to respect audio and apply yourself. Get around people that can push your skill sets and teach you different techniques for listening to audio, and how to record and manipulate it.

yeah engineers all say that... but then i did some research on parts used for equipments.. and it comes down to quud quality material vs cheap quality..

everyone has good quality nowadays.. if you check.. even 300$ interfaces has preamps with 0.001% harmonic distortion... that means you ears will just hear clean signal..

and the best soundcards used to have the top of the line dsp chips.... well DSP cheaps have been mastered a while back...they all top of the line now..

the rule of the game is bottleneck... whatever is the bottleneck is the sound quality you get...

but equipments are far superior in quality than before.. you no longer have to pay for R&D.. everything is barely modified but all are the same

years ago.. the avalon was King because of its vast superior sound.. now.. its about 5-10 % superior to cheap gear....

HOWEVER. if your going pro.. that 5-10% will make the difference.

 

[CemoBaby]

Nice! What kind of mic is that?

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Nice! What kind of mic is that?

Avantone CV12. Very good mic. I reccomend it.

 

[shutterguy]

I'm late to this thread, that is a slick setup! I thought I was doing something when I MIDI'd my keyboard and guitar into my computer running Acid Pro 7. That's has got to feel good creating and hearing your own music.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

I'm late to this thread, that is a slick setup! I thought I was doing something when I MIDI'd my keyboard and guitar into my computer running Acid Pro 7. That's has got to feel good creating and hearing your own music.

:SNAKESALUTE: