Is it me or my gear? Countless recordings and live performances have used SM57 / SM58 $100 If you can't get a respectable capture into one of those mics. It's not the mic. Headphones -- unless someone is paying you 'I can retire now' money. You probably just need some basic cans. $200 Monitors -- Don't fall for the YT vids. Learn the monitors you can afford. I have heard killer mixes that were done on 6x9 speakers a guy ripped out of a car. He was a real musician / engineer. He had passion. 'All input devices (preamps - Audio interface) are the same'. Kinda. These days the cheap stuff is so good that if you don't push it most can't tell the difference. The thing is if you want character you want to push the pre so the expensive stuff wins. BUT .. you can go clean and then distort in the box. So... is it you? or your gear? Guitar finger squeaks ... I'm sure there is a plugin for that but TomoFugitaMusic can fix that for you. You won't like the discipline and neither did John Mayer. So what is my point? The best advice I have ever gotten, and it always seems to come from many respectable professionals. Stop spending money until you have something that you know for a fact will make a difference OR you are building a collection OR money is simply not an issue in your scenario. The thing you buy, even though considered better, might make you sound worse. Why? because you put a better mic in your less than adequate room because the new guitar amp is super responsive and your technique is inadequate because -- and this could be an expensive good thing -- oh, I thought I was ok but I have work to do. The ENTIRE WORLD is awaiting your new music that is raw, real, and creates an emotional experience for them.

How often, and with what? I'm just curious, and interested. 🤔😁

We meet many people throughout our lives. I know that I have. Sometimes they disappear and reappear at a later time. Sometimes you never lose contact. Sometimes it’s an old boss. Sometimes a current or old coworker or friend. Keep those contacts and make sure that you don’t fallout or have a friendship ending argument. Where am I going with this? Well…yesterday my partner and I took a drive to Northwest Indiana to see my old boss who is one of my best friends as well as another great old friend who was there at the same time. The reason was to get a rack from one of our studio rooms from the past and a heavy base boom mic stand with wheels to hold a U-87 or other shock mounted mic. Since Boss had gotten out of recording, I have been making runs to the building where his recently closed studio was. In addition to picking up the rack and stand, I inquired about compressors and limiters. I also asked if there were any bass heads there. Yep, I took three JBL Urei 7110 limiter/compressors, a DBX 160X compressor/limiter, an Aphex Dominator II, and an Aphex Compellor. Also in the mix were two rack mount power strips with dimmable lights. Some Audix mics were tossed in the car too. A D4, D6, and two ADX-51’s. Basically a great set of mics for a drum kit. But I also needed a bass head. Now for the big deal. Boss is executor of the estate of an old friend who passed in June. The decedent just happened to be a multi-millionaire. He was a musician and collector too. There are maybe 30 classic amps from different periods including some Boogies, old Fenders, Supro, Gibson, Marshall, and Matchless. If anyone is looking for something, DM me. In the mix was a Sunn Coliseum Bass. 320 watts of sheer power. It’s now sitting on my Peavey 18” cab. Lots of strong air movement with this setup. Plugged in a Jazz bass, set the volume to 3 and added some EQ. I had no idea this thing could be so loud! It sounds fantastic. I’ve been doodling around with it all day today. Big time fun. If I ever want to take it to higher volumes, I’ll probably add a 4-10 cab at some point.

Or in this case, where do I put all of this stuff. As planned, my space more than doubled this morning. Now comes the heavy mental lift of figuring out where everything goes in order to make my studio much more ergonomic without sacrificing sound, acoustics, ease of use, or visual environment. Everything in it's place, everything all over the place. Mine is a challenging space as it is a 90 degree angle. I would love to put a drum booth on one end of a ray and a vocal/amp booth on the end of the other ray. I'm looking to place my 89" long x 39"x console, FX and Synth racks and keyboards within the vertex of the angle, requiring little effort to reach all of it. I'm looking at either having my Logic station with 88 key MIDI controller angle inward just a bit so that I can access other keyboardsI like being in the same room as the talent, plus I'll be talent from time to time. Thus I do not intend to build a control room. We'll see how it develops.

Hi great people! Lately, I've been focusing on weekly goals and trying to define my own daily dedication, kind of non-negotiable task for each day outside of production sessions. What does your daily dedication look like? Do you have specific things you practice or study on particular days? Here's my DRAFT: Monday - music analysis. Listening to note arrangement, sounds, balance, production choices. Tuesday - sound selection. Hunting for sounds, finding kicks working great with basses, synths, etc. Wednesday - sound design. Creating and/or shaping sounds. Thursday - effects selection. Exploring reverbs, delays, modulation, distortion, etc. Friday - plugin review. Study or review plugins. Saturday - undecided Sunday - undecided I’m still figuring out Saturday and Sunday.