The music business can drive you crazy if you let it. There are more things to think about than you can shake a stick at. One topic can be studied for months, if not years. At what point, in your quest to create the “perfect” song, do you reach that point of diminishing returns unless you literally turn everything over to a professional because there is just nothing more that you can do? In this article, I’m going to give you just a few examples of what I’m talking about.
Just today, I was looking into limiters. That’s right, limiters. Now you’re probably wondering what sparked this bit of research. Well, it actually started a while ago when a forum that I belong to sent me an email regarding a test that they did on various limiters. The test that did was rather exaggerated and probably something you wouldn’t do under normal use. But it was done to prove a point.
Essentially what the owner of the forum did was take all these limiters and run recordings into them that were boosted by, hang onto your hats, 8 db. Okay, that’s a little extreme. I don’t think I’ve ever boosted anything more than 3 or 4 db. So 8 is really pushing it. But like I said, it was done to prove a point.
What was that point?
It appears that almost all the limiters tested, with the exception of one, displayed very noticeable artifacts when limiting these recordings that were really boosted beyond normal tolerance levels. The one limiter that performed, not only the best, but incredibly well, was the Voxengo Elephant. Now I listened to the results myself with headphones on so I could really hear every little bit of badness and the Voxengo was clean as a whistle. I couldn’t hear a bit of distortion or artifacts.
Now, this limiter also happens to go for over a hundred bucks, which is over a hundred bucks more than my Limiter6 goes for. And so far, under normal use, my Limiter6 has been doing a more than adequate job simply because I don’t push my music all that much.
So the question I have to ask myself, if I’m going to invest over a hundred bucks into a piece of software that is really just one small piece of my musical puzzle, is will this limiter REALLY make that big a difference in my music or am I just throwing $100 out the window?
What I would like to hear is an A/B between Voxengo and Limiter6 on a “normal” track to see if there was a noticeable difference. My gut tells me that there won’t be. But there’s really no way to tell unless I test it. Unless they have a trial period, kind of hard to do. I will look into it, but the difference would have to be considerable for me to invest that much money into a limiter. Remember, this is still a PC based setup. This isn’t a professional studio. So how much can we really improve the quality of our production when there are so many more pieces to the puzzle?
Like what?
Well, just sticking with the theme of sound processing, what about compressors? Voxengo also has a compressor that is supposedly better than most of the other ones out there. Will that compressor make a big difference compared to the ones that came with my Cubase 7?
Then of course there is EQ. Supposedly, a “higher” quality EQ has a better sound in that it can bring out the highs and lows better or bring them down if that’s what you’re looking to do. Again, how much difference will a “premium” EQ make compared to my Curve EQ that came with Cubase 7?
What if you record vocals? Sure, a better microphone will have better dynamic response. But how great are you going to get your vocals if your home studio doesn’t have a sound proofed room with pads and you don’t have the best vocal processors like they do in a professional studio? How much difference will you hear, under less than optimal conditions, between a $100 mic and $500 mic?
And the comparisons can go on and on forever. But I’ll stop here.
Now, multiply all this by the pieces of equipment and/or software that you have in a home studio. Before you know it, you can easily spend thousands of dollars. I’ve already gone over 10K in hock and I absolutely don’t have the best equipment possible. I have very good equipment for a home studio, but in comparison to a pro studio, it’s a drop in the bucket.
And while it all comes down to money, actually it doesn’t and I’ll get to that next, how much money will it take, again, for a home studio, to make a “real” difference? I don’t think anybody really has the answer to that question as far as putting together a home studio that can produce a professional quality recording suitable for radio play, if it’s even possible.
What I said about it not only being about money, upon reflection, is very true. The best piece of equipment in the hands of somebody who doesn’t know how to properly use it isn’t going to do as good a job as in the hands of a pro.
In other words, a pro engineer, in MY studio, will get a better sound out of my songs than I will using the SAME equipment. There is no question about that simply because he knows more “tricks” that I do. He knows how to get every last drop of goodness out of a mix. I don’t. At least not like he does.
So eventually, you’re going to keep spending more and more money and reach a point where the value you’re getting out of the money you’re spending is diminishing with each purchase until you reach a point where nothing you do makes your music sound any better either because the equipment for a home studio can’t get better or your ability to use it as reached its peak.
My advice is to get “decent” equipment and then learn how to use it the best you can.
Otherwise, you’re just going to keep sinking more money into what is essentially a black hole.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim