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When/What to upgrade? Part 1 January 28, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital home recording studios, Project Studio, Studio Setup , trackback

As a home/project studio owner, upgrades and equipment purchases need to be as effective as possible (as we often don’t have the biggest of budgets…).  Knowing when to upgrade and what piece of gear (or software) to upgrade first can be a huge benefit.

The WHAT

When I am asked for gear upgrade recommendations, I usually ask a series of questions.  (Example, someone asks “What preamp should I buy?  I have a budget of $500)

I would ask things like -

These questions serve a few purposes.  For one, you can figure out a fairly good recommendation based on budget, project needs, other complementary equipment, etc… Second, you can take a good look at the setup as a whole and see if any other piece of gear would give a greater benefit.

For example (in the extreme), imagine someone was running a juiced Mac Pro, Lavry converters into PT HD, Vintage Neumanns, with [unnamed] cheap $100 preamps.  If that person was unhappy with their sound, and was thinking of purchasing a new Sony C-800g (approx. $7500) to make it better, I’d feel comfortable recommending that they instead upgrade their preamps.

Whenever you are upgrading, look at the big picture and make sure you upgrading the piece that will give you the biggest return.

The When

Well… the first time constraint would obviously be “when you have the money…”

I would advise not to upgrade just for the sake up upgrading.  Again, a series of questions:

The first question is the hardest hurdle (in my experience buying gear).  I typically want to buy a new piece because…. I want to buy a new piece.  Impulse buying is a great way to burn a hole in your pocket and end up with mismatched gear, destined to be racked at the bottom, collecting dust for eternity.

Assuming you don’t need the upgrade for a session the next day, take some time with your audio purchases.  I’ll give you a personal example.  Around October of last year, I decided that I definitely needed some good mic preamps.  I looked at the rest of my setup, and was happy with my monitors, my computer, my software, room treatment (etc…).  I knew I wanted at least 4 channels.  From October until the end of December, I scoured the Internet reading reviews and talking to people.  I went to a few studios that had some of my prospects on hand, and made sure to get a good listen to as many units as I could.  Long story short, I ended up with the Vintech 473, and couldn’t relaly be much happier.  It fits my needs perfectly.  Obviously this is a testament to the quality of the unit (review coming soon!), but also to the process of weighing the options.

If you have equipment purchases on the horizon and need some direction, let us hear about it in the comments.

C

The Studio Files

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