For a while now I have been satisfied with a pair of Beyer MC930's for my sdc's. A pair of AT 4050cm5's for lcd's, and a Lawson L47. Pres and conversion is Lavry black AD11. Lavry black DA as well.
I find this front end to be pretty versatile, portable, and able to provide good quality.

Aloha
 

Aloha Friends,

Flagstaffcharli - At this stage, I'm with you. I leave the mastering to the pro's. All I try to achieve is to bring the best tracks (in terms of performance & recorded quality) to an ME for mastering. I simply ran out of time - like many players in my generation now - to learn how to put the magic into home recordings using a DAW software program.

Though I've cut back dramatically (to 1/10th) on the huge volume of gear I used to audition, trade & own, I still like to play with great gear & put together interesting combo's when I have time. I'm pretty happy with the choices I still have. But you are right - you don't need great gear to achieve great recordings of great performances. High-end gear does, however, give you the potential for achieving more consistency in your recording quality. It's also more fun & easier to work with, IMO. It takes the guess-work out of many tasks as well. OF course, the only way to use high-end gear is in a signal chain w/ other high-end gear AND in a fully treated space (which many of us players lack).

NOTE: It took me many decades of trying out stuff, experimenting w/ miking techniques, saving up money, finally treating a space & gathering my courage before I began to accumulate high-end gear. Twelve years ago, with a lot of help from people such as sdelsolray & advice from other AGF-er's & gearslutz, I decided it's now or never for using the "best" I could afford. So I started with higher end mic's which I have always collected, & then worked my way up to high-end gear across the board. When I got to a certain level of expense & knowledge with each type of gear, it became VERY easy to trade it out with no money lost for other high-end gear of the same quality. Once I got there, it was a lot of fun auditioning & doing shoot-outs - especially with the great mic's of our time. Loved doing that - just for the fun of it - no commercial projects in mind. I auditioned hundreds & hundreds pieces of gear. Only kept what worked for me. Then traded on it for equal quality gear. Learned a lot in this long process.

Finally, I realized that I had too much stuff that I'd never use. So a coupla years ago I sold off just about all of those expensive toys. In the end, because of high-end gear's great re-sale value, I didn't even lose any money over the years & still I got to play with the "best" stuff I could afford. But the whole thing was allowing myself to write those first checks to buy that upgrade in gear. Glad I did - just for the fun of it- Ha! Now, I invest little energy into recording (I'm not a pro gigger any more - the money from which paid for all the toys), & do not buy anything new. I do enjoy sharing what I've learned with others. My focus once again is almost entirely on playing guitar & singing with friends. After 53 straight years, there will be no more regular bar type gigs ever again for me. Playing & singing has always gotten me off much more than any gear or acquired things in my life.

Wengr - How's your Lawson L47 treating you? In my auditions, I felt that that mic was wonderful, & a great value for the money - although it never really sounded like any of the U47's I've used, auditioned or owned. Gene's golden beaut has its own sparkling character that I found very appealing. Just wondering how it's working for you.

Mahalo guys!

alohachris

Seems to me that the gear hunt is a game of leapfrog with ever decreasing returns; you buy mics that work well then you add some other element which exposes flaws in the mics, so you buy great mics which exposes some other flaw in the preamps, so you buy great preamps and realize that your room treatment sucks... etc. etc..

Of course this stuff can lose its brakes and careen down that hill very quickly... my aim is to get to as good as makes me happy while enjoying the journey, eagerly learning as much as I can, as I go along, and not going crazy on gear that I'll never be able to fully appreciate.

Some of my favourite acoustic guitar recordings have been made perched on the side of my bed with my laptop, a guitar and a single mic.

Yes! Gear is fun. No doubt. But I think the primary variables are:

1. Skill (Engineering, performance)
2. Acoustic space
3. Gear

All contribute. If you have money to spend, #3 is easiest to acquire. However, no matter how much you spend, it isn't going to compensate much for the first two. (I learned this the hard way.)

That's the problem (for me) with home recording. I don't have access to a great space, and I don't have the time and energy to become a great engineer. I can put mics in a good spot. So a simple, portable signal chain for guitar/voice is all I want anymore.

But yes. Gear is still fun. It's just more fun if someone else paid for it and is running it while I play. ;) Studio rates are cheaper than boutique preamps these days - at least for me.

See, I started there, living in a small condo with bright shiny floors and lots of glass... so a small USB mic and a laptop sufficed. Now I've moved to a house that actually has a sound proof, treated room, so I'm making hay while the sun shines :)

Chris I would not know a real 47 if you hit me over the head with one, but the Lawson does work for me. Gene seems like a great and genuine guy based on my limited phone interactions with him. I hope to eventually add his l251fet, which as you probably know will allow putting either capsule on either body. That and some tube pres (I also really like Pendulum), and I figure I am set for life for front end.

guitar of choice > avantone ck33 stereo small diaphragm condenser -> great river MP2H -> Steinberg MR816x -> iMac 27" i7 running Logic Audio X

All processing done at the computer, no compression/eq/etc going in.

I have a small 10x16 space with full corner bass traps in four corners as well as additional 703 based treatment elsewhere (cloud, walls, etc).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...o/IMG_1430.jpg

As you should!!!

Enquiring minds wanna know what all else is in that impressively full rack :)

Not too much exciting stuff.. some old rack synths I keep around only because I used them on a lot of my old recordings. Ensoniq MR Rack, Korg 03r/w, Korg Wavestation SR. I have a drawmer MX60 channel strip/preamp/processor, a Drawmer compressor limiter, a rack mixer, Lexicon and Sony effects (which I don't use, should get rid of 'em). A power amp, headphone amp, MIDI interface.. that's about it... :)

Thanks! My main worry about burrowing down the rack route is that I'll end up with a pile of outdated rack gear one day...

[QUOTE=Trevor B.;4404211]Hello Redpick, Your comment about the closed headphones caught my eye. I recently acquired Shure SRH 840 (closed back) headphones for tracking and they're superb for the price. The clarity is really impressive.

Thanks Trevor B for the heads up on the Shure SRH 840, I was looking at that option on Saturday. I checked out a couple of music shops on Sat. and after listening to poor advice and options decided to go with Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 32 ohms. I contacted the manufacturer direct to keep me right for the best solution for my set-up.
Big thanks to alohachris for starting this thread and all posters for a great insight into this (mine)field.

I would love love love for someone to post a pair of same source level matched clips demonstrating an audible difference between two high quality preamps.

When I did a comparo like this between my M-Audio DMP3 and John Hardy M-1 I could not tell them apart. I sold the Hardy.

Fran

I think any difference is tiny and even possibly non existent barring any impedance mismatches etc. Some dynamic mics in particular can have issues with impedance.

Ouch. Guilty. :)