KVR Audio

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:23 am

SampleScience wrote:
Hink wrote:silly me, my gear requirements grew as my talent grew...I guess I had that wrong too
Same thing for me, the more I learn the more I need specific piece of equipment or specific softwares.

Agreed with all the above. The more we learn the craft, the more control we seek to exercise and the more specific we can get in refining what we want. Usually this needs more and specialized gear.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:33 am

The first sentence in the "Tools" chapter of Andy Farnell's textbook "Designing Sound" says,

"In his book How to Be Creative Hugh Macleod gives away one of the best secrets about being a successful producer, that there is no correlation between creativity and ownership of equipment: as an artist gets more proficient the number of tools goes down."

zlatan · Post by **zlatan** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:54 am

Gear really doesn't matter. Especially in 2015.You might have a preference for certain sounds, but if you have an open creative mind and just want to focus on making music than a DAW with stock plug ins is all you need (besides good monitoring and a well treated room of course).

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:56 am

I believed those on these very forums over a decade ago that said the same thing... and it was the worst production advice I've ever received.

While I agree one should use what gear they have, I also found having better gear greatly enhanced my potentials... many many many times over.

That said, I would also add once you find a happy place in your workcenter (in regards to audio tools), it is time to start making music and stop searching for more junk in the hopes it will make you better. There is a line somewhere in there where one has to know how-to and then actually use the tools they have.. versus just hoarding more plugins on discount. That takes a bit of experience I've found in knowing where that line is located for you personally.

So if I find something that makes my job easier producing a song, by all means.. but I already have an rough idea in mind of what I want to accomplish and what it will take and a set of tools to make it happen.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:35 am

Perhaps a more useful Topic would be, What Gear Does Matter? -- the few tools that made the most difference to you. That seems to be a theme here, that 'more' is not better but 'right' is better.

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:35 am

It's not like many can choose with whom they can work with or can even afford that, polishing turds is what many engineers actually do for a living.

Like many of you here I'm in the same boat as far as gear-knowledge goes, wouldn't waste time repeating same thing, nice thread btw

zlatan · Post by **zlatan** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:40 am

Michael L wrote:Perhaps a more useful Topic would be, What Gear Does Matter? -- the few tools that made the most difference to you. That seems to be a theme here, that 'more' is not better but 'right' is better.

Agreed. Start it

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:08 pm

trimph1 wrote:The above does not eradicate the need for good gear, it just shows us how talent can grow out of whatever one has..

well you know me Barry and how I feel on this subject, I am as far from a gear snob as you will find so you know I'm with yah there. Just last month I was at a service for a friend who passed and the two surviving members of Morphine were there with their new bass player (they go by"Vapors of Morphine" now). I was told all about the original two sting bass Mark Sandman played with a slide (the new bass player has a different two string bass), it turns out it was a hundred dollar cheapy bass but over the years there were a few, none of which were any better (for lack of a better term). The same still holds true with the new bass player and the music was absolutely fantastic. No one said jack about the gear

FWIW my friend went on tour with Morphine as their FOH soundman (Los Lobos and a few Boston based bands too).

While I will never change, I wont be giving big name companies more money just for their name I do feel that I have earned the right to more and better gear over the years. As you and most people here know I have still maintained my value over name approach in doing so. In real life I just walk away from people who are gear snobs and probably why I avoid other musicians (note how long it has been since I posted in the Hardware forum over the same issue). Now I have the "WOW" factor going on here but few people in the real world know that, it aint about the gear. However, it is about MY gear and I am one selfish SOB when it comes to sharing my studio

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:12 pm

Michael L wrote:The first sentence in the "Tools" chapter of Andy Farnell's textbook "Designing Sound" says,

"In his book How to Be Creative Hugh Macleod gives away one of the best secrets about being a successful producer, that there is no correlation between creativity and ownership of equipment: as an artist gets more proficient the number of tools goes down."

I dont know too many tools who get a chance to go down

rp314 · Post by **rp314** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:20 pm

zlatan wrote:Gear really doesn't matter. Especially in 2015.You might have a preference for certain sounds, but if you have an open creative mind and just want to focus on making music than a DAW with stock plug ins is all you need (besides good monitoring and a well treated room of course).

For those of us who are still a bit antiquated about these things there are good and bad considerations resulting from that.

The good: there is lots of neat used gear available at very good prices.

The bad: one has a good deal of gear that at this point pretty much only has 'intrinsic' value...

Why Gear doesn't Matter