Interesting post, Lee
I get really embarrassed even walking into music shops, let alone trying out gear. My wife once told me I was the least rock 'n' roll person she'd ever met, and it's made me a bit paranoid and insecure
Therefore, I tend to buy gear based on reviews I read online. I usually rush into the music shop, hurredly buy what I want, and rush out again
But most of the gear I've bought over the years has been fine. So I suppose I've been lucky 
LearJeff summed it up for me: I'm not a gear snob, I'm a sound snob. I'm ecstatic if I can find gear whose sound I really like yet it doesn't break the bank, and there's starting to be more and more of that the past 2 or 3 years. But if something just doesn't sound good, I'm not going to pretend it does either. And I'm pickier about sound than the average bear, so if that makes me a snob, so be it. 
I'm not doing it to look cool or show off some status symbol brand name, I'm doing it to please my own ears.
And the whole "great gear won't make bad music good" argument is so tired. I don't think anyone's ever said it would, and if anyone really thinks that, nothing can really help them. My feeling is, good music deserves to sound good, and bad sound has certainly kept a lot of good music from being as exciting or accessible as it otherwise could be.
So, I choose my gear very wisely and I don't settle on anything without having auditioned it for quite awhile first. But I know when something's lacking. I'd hate to be a kid who couldn't get the sounds they desired and was told it was because they lacked the engineering skills to get good sounds out of what they had (as a lot of people on forums tend to say). I spent the better part of the last decade constantly wrestling with cheap gear and trying to get something decent out of it. I'm proud of that and a lot of people thought I did a good job of it, but I didn't enjoy it. It didn't feel creative, it felt like I had to spend hours to get something usable that still wasn't really what I wanted sonically. It pissed me off that I'd been able to get better sounds as an 18 year old intern. But like a lot of people, I wasn't in any financial condition to get anything better, so I kept on with it. Plus, digital recording was still in its infancy and even the high end stuff mostly didn't sound good to me, so I didn't even know what I could have bought that would make me happy.
Nowadays, there's better stuff out there for relatively cheap, and I'm doing better money-wise, so a couple of years ago I upgraded my studio. Not a ton. I really didn't spend much money at all considering what a lot of people spend! But the difference in sound to me is night and day. All of a sudden, stuff just works, and I get the sounds I want without any problem at all. It's not because I became a vastly better musician and engineer 2 years ago. It's because of the gear. So yes, in that sense, I am a gear snob. Better gear has made music and recording fun for me again.
Lee Flier wrote:LearJeff summed it up for me: I'm not a gear snob, I'm a sound snob. I'm ecstatic if I can find gear whose sound I really like yet it doesn't break the bank, and there's starting to be more and more of that the past 2 or 3 years. But if something just doesn't sound good, I'm not going to pretend it does either. And I'm pickier about sound than the average bear, so if that makes me a snob, so be it.
And the whole "great gear won't make bad music good" argument is so tired. I don't think anyone's ever said it would, and if anyone really thinks that, nothing can really help them. My feeling is, good music deserves to sound good, and bad sound has certainly kept a lot of good music from being as exciting or accessible as it otherwise could be.
So, I choose my gear very wisely and I don't settle on anything without having auditioned it for quite awhile first. But I know when something's lacking. I'd hate to be a kid who couldn't get the sounds they desired and was told it was because they lacked the engineering skills to get good sounds out of what they had (as a lot of people on forums tend to say). I spent the better part of the last decade constantly wrestling with cheap gear and trying to get something decent out of it. I'm proud of that and a lot of people thought I did a good job of it, but I didn't enjoy it. It didn't feel creative, it felt like I had to spend hours to get something usable that still wasn't really what I wanted sonically. It pissed me off that I'd been able to get better sounds as an 18 year old intern. But like a lot of people, I wasn't in any financial condition to get anything better, so I kept on with it. Plus, digital recording was still in its infancy and even the high end stuff mostly didn't sound good to me, so I didn't even know what I could have bought that would make me happy.
Nowadays, there's better stuff out there for relatively cheap, and I'm doing better money-wise, so a couple of years ago I upgraded my studio. Not a ton. I really didn't spend much money at all considering what a lot of people spend! But the difference in sound to me is night and day. All of a sudden, stuff just works, and I get the sounds I want without any problem at all. It's not because I became a vastly better musician and engineer 2 years ago. It's because of the gear. So yes, in that sense, I am a gear snob. Better gear has made music and recording fun for me again.
If any of us could make great sounding music with nothing but cheap stuff, we would.
I'll take this opportunity to bold stuff from Lee's post.
"All of a sudden, stuff just works, and I get the sound I want without any problem at all."
EXACTLY.
UstadKhanAli wrote:
"All of a sudden, stuff just works, and I get the sound I want without any problem at all."EXACTLY.
Of course there's always the other usual answer: "Well, but you're experienced. You could give great gear to an inexperienced engineer and it won't make them great (again, nobody said it would). They have bigger issues than their gear and they would be better served to focus on those."
This may well be true, but if it is, how would you know? If all you have is really shitty gear, I don't know how you'd be able to zero in on which of your skills need improving. I learned on some of the best gear around at the time, and it sounded great, and every day I heard amazing musicians and amazing engineers making great sounds with that stuff. So if I wasn't happy with something I did, I knew it was my problem. There was no way at all I could have blamed the gear, and IMO this really worked to my benefit.
Now of course I'd never advocate that somebody waste their money on high dollar gear when they have a problem that may be easily solvable with what they have. Which is why forums like these are helpful. Someone can get on here and describe a problem they're having or a sound they're not happy with, and they might get a million great tips that don't involve buying more gear. Maybe their mic technique sucks or the room sucks, or they don't understand gain staging, and they don't realize what kind of problems that causes. I get that! I'm certainly not saying anyone should forget about improving their skills and just sit back and let the gear do all the work. I'm just saying, if you've really given something a go and you still find yourself fighting with it and not having fun, it may be time to save up for something better. And that's true whether you're a pro or a newbie.
philbo wrote:I have to agree with you Lee - - there is putting up a U47 and doing a take and getting it done, then there is putting up an SM58 or something, sliding it around for half an hour, then spending an hour EQing the take to make it right...
...and then, after spending all that time, it still won't be quite right, because there are so many things that mic just can't pick up (doesn't have the sensitivity), or distorts if it does, and you can't get rid of the distortion or pick up things the mic simply couldn't capture. Or you have a preamp that can't handle something like a hard hit snare drum... the list goes on. There are some things you can't correct no matter what you do - things that seem to be inherent in a lot of cheap gear. Add those things up across a lot of tracks and it can really be a problem. I suppose it's easier for people who work with samples and loops and virtual instruments, but if that's not your thing, it's tough to deal with bargain basement gear. I think this is just simple practicality and not snobbery, though some may disagree.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the points Lee, Philbo, and Learjeff are making above, I just want to point out that sometimes, just sometimes, using sucky gear can at least lead to some creative and funny decisions.
A verrry long time ago, when I was first starting out, I had a vocalist coming over. I really wanted the recording to sound good, but all I had were $100 microphones and not much else, most of which were horrible dynamic mics that I had purchased at garage sales for cheap. How would I ever get a decent sound? I tried calling up people to ask if anyone had decent mics I could borrow. But everyone was as poor as me and had nothing.
I did have an EV 257A dynamic, with not much top end but a smooth mid and bottom end, and a really thin sounding SDC, an Audio-Technica 33R, with not much body to speak of, but some top end. What to do? I taped the two mics together so they would stay perfectly even, and recorded them to two tracks, blending them together. Top end....low end. Together at last. Worked out surprisingly well, two crappy mics coming together as a much better whole.
I now return you to the sensible remarks of Lee, Philbo, and Learjeff.
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