[jim1960]

My first attempt at recording was back in the mid-70s when a friend and I managed to rig his home stereo so that we could a microphone and record onto the cassette deck. I was recording a song I'd written for someone and wasn't really taken by the recording bug ...probably because of how badly the recording came out.

Sometime around 1999 or 2000 I was having lunch at the high school where I was teaching and one of the music teachers came in with a person he'd brought in as a guest lecturer on digital recording. I wasn't a music teacher but my colleague knew I was a songwriter and he introduced me to Jack. We started talking about recording and I told him I dreamed of making an album some day. He offered to let me record at his place for a ridiculously good price. We worked on the album on and off for about a year and as we went I became more and more fascinated with the process, especially when he showed me things he could do in Pro Tools to correct any minor mistakes I'd made. By the time we'd finished, I'd gotten quite a recording education from him and I was even doing some of my own editing on his computer.

Within a year of finishing that album, I decided I wanted a home studio of my own. Although I had gotten a fair bit of experience using Pro Tools, I had little idea what I'd need to buy to be able to record, so I gave Jack a call and he helped me put a package together that included a 2001 Power Mac, a Digi 001 and a pair of Mackie 624s.

That served me well although the Digi 001 preamps left something to be desired. When the Digi 003 came out, I decided to upgrade the entire system. I bought an early 2008 Mac Pro to go along with it and I sent the 003 to Black Lion for an upgrade. It was an improvement but there was still something sterile about those preamps that I didn't love and that's when my preamp journey began.

My first outboard preamp was a Focusrite Twin Track channel strip. Didn't love it and bought a used Avalon M5. Didn't love that either.

Next up was a John Hardy M1. That pre is excellent for acoustic guitar but I wasn't thrilled with the vocals I was getting. At the time I my main vocal mic was an AKG Solidtube that I'd bought used. I had the Avalon M5 up for sale on various sites and someone contacted me with a trade offer: the M5 for a Blue Kiwi microphone. Since the M5 was selling for $1500 at the time, and the Kiwi was selling for $2k, I figured it was a good trade to make since even if I didn't like the Kiwi, I'd still have a more valuable piece of gear to sell.

It turned out I loved the Kiwi. It was a big upgrade from the Solidtube but I was curious about whether a tube preamp would make it even better. I think I spent a couple of months researching what tube pre to buy. I eventually settled on the Demeter VTMP-2c. The Kiwi through the Demeter sounded wonderful. I probably could have stayed with the combination but I was still curious about what was out there and began collecting information from others into recording as to what mic they'd reach for when they heard my voice. Most of them answered with some kind of 47-type mic. And that began a new quest.

I think I spent a year or more reading up on just about every 47ish mic available at the time. I listened to videos of them and as many shootouts as I could find. The Flea 47 emerged a clear winner but the idea of spending $3700 on microphone seemed a bit nuts to me. It took another couple of years to summon the courage to pull the trigger. Glad I did though because I found my vocal mic. I don't even think about vocal mics anymore. I'm still keeping the Kiwi though because on many women, the Kiwi-Demeter combo is just killer.

On the rack side of things, after Pro Tools decoupled the software from the hardware, I bought a UA Apollo Firewire which I've more recently upgraded to the Apollo 8Xp. I've also added a couple of other preamps in recent years: a Sebatron Axis and a Hendy Da Vinci ...and there's the new jump into the 500 series that I talked about in another thread.

I've been into this stuff for about 18 years. I made a lot of bad purchasing decisions when I started. With the exception of a few microphones, all of the gear I bought in the first eight years or so has been sold off. But this is also true... I haven't made a bad purchase in a long time so maybe I've learned a few things.