Quote:
Originally Posted by BanjoChris
I think both sides are right and are actually talking about different things. A good song is a good song and people will respond to it. Better gear sounds better.
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It does. I'm sure that Yep, who's probably the best single contributor to this thread, has some good gear.
The thing is that you have to view "home studio" recording in context. For the most part we're recording really good demos because we start out with multiple practical disadvantages, not the least of which is not being able to afford the talents of other skilled professionals.
Not having better gear is only one of the many small disadvantages when comparing what we do to what happens at the higher levels. We also produce, arrange, mix, and master our own music, which is almost never as good as a succession of skilled people doing those individual things... and all along the way we often use affordable consumer level tools... in inferior rooms... with less overall experience.
Only really abnormally musically skilled people, like Prince, could probably pull that off working mostly by himself. For the rest of us, we're really happy if we sell 200 copies in a year on Bandcamp or iTunes.
It's largely why almost nobody produces an album at home and sells 500,000 copies. A rapper can go to a good project studio, finance his own album, and sell 50-70k copies though... if he's really good... and has a good music producer with some hot beats.
It's analogous to me playing against the NY Knicks, by myself, when they have a team of skilled players at every position, while I'm playing guard, center, forward, and also coaching myself. The gaps accumulate at every stage.
We do this mostly for pleasure. We make our music to enjoy the ride and to enjoy the accomplishment, not to compete in the market with songs being produced by R. Kelly or similar, that stuff (some of it) is really excellent.
I guess the point is, with work and study and practice and decent tools (which we all have) it's not very hard not to sound like ass... to not just suck... but that's not
(or maybe shouldn't be) the goal, to not suck... the goal of most is to sound really, really great... which is a wee bit harder... and often a good bit more costly.