most important piece of gear

[YOUNG K9]

i'm looking to rebuild my studio setup back up and need to know what piece of gear should I spend the most money on..

mic?
pre-amp?
sound card?
cables?

which out of these would you emphasize your money on and why?

what comes first as far as quality is concerned in the chain of equipment?

 

[HERESY]

Spending the most money doesn't equate to having the best sound.

IMHO the most crucial pieces will be your pre amp, converters and interface (which may have pre amps and converters). I'll explain later. Gotta run.

 

[musiikki]

Acoustics! First you probably want to be able to hear things right. So take your time and treat the room with basstraps and such. Then look for quality monitors and a good soundcard/audio interface.

 

[MOESES SOULRIGHT THE 2nd]

heresy is right
i mean for mics...voices play a big part in it
not as much in rap music as other sorts though
most shit could be knocked out with a SM7 and sound dope with the proper front end
for me most mics do not work, i'm really heavy in the lower ranges, and i need mics that have a crisp tight low end...
but the other dudes i record sound real clean on a regular ol sm58

 

[HERESY]

^^^^Do you finally have time in your schedule to do that hook for my folks?

 

[Big E]

Don't go cheap on the cables either, make sure you get quality cables. I suggest Monster, they always work for me. Monitors play a big roll, Mic isn't too god awful impotant hell, I recorded some of my tightest vocals on an MXL 990 and those are like $50 brand new. Make sure you have a decent running computer also, you will thank me for it later. As for a Preamp I use a ART Tube PAC Preamp/Compressor and it was only $120 and it is decent, not the best but affordable.

 

[GHP]

depends on what you are doing in your lab

 

[scandal]

Acoustics! First you probably want to be able to hear things right. So take your time and treat the room with basstraps and such. Then look for quality monitors and a good soundcard/audio interface.

Agree'd people dont realize how hard it is to get a quality mix in a bad room. U gotta mix with the volume hella low.

 

[MOESES SOULRIGHT THE 2nd]

^^^^Do you finally have time in your schedule to do that hook for my folks?

yeah yeah
did you send me the beat already?
my bad i can't remember

 

[yes]

mic pre simple as that without having a descent mic pre it doesnt matter unless you got skills with software but still will sound like shit