Hi Kids: I'm pretty much in agreement with bankley, Ron and Peace on this one. Get the best that you can afford. It seems to me that if your focus is on music, then the helping hand of a great engineer/big studio can work wonders...I know a guy they call "Ears" because he can pick out the slightest detail in a recording. There was a guy in film whose name I can't recall at the moment, but he could watch a film and stop the camera guy, and tell him "there was a hand in one of the frames" STOP rolling... Sure enough, there it was. I think I got that story from Jack Nissenson.

Personally, I like to experiment, and spent a LOT of time, and money on my set-up. I didn't want to chew up cash in a large studio and spend major bucks per hour, since what I had was basically IDEAS that had to be produced. And I have been through the deal where you are trying to relate your concept of the final product to musicians WHO JUST DON'T GET IT! One size does NOT fit all...I don't want to hear your version of Clapton, I want you to LISTEN. If you are CAREFUL, you can put together an amazing rig...Do you want to work IN the computer or OUTSIDE of it? Got drummers, vocalists, etc. you might want to go with Pro Tools...Since I am basically a one-man operation I went with multiple DAW's for learning and experimentation...GarageBand(Respect. If you have tamed this puppy, you know what I'm talking about), Logic Express, aka Logic 8(read the manuals and get back to me, serious WOW with this one guys; check out SFLogic Ninja on YouTube/Pyramind Recording School, San Francisco), Cubase, and REASON.

Main Mic? Audio-Technica AT-2020 and a bunch of others...

Got to mention Spectrasonics Stylus RMX MWAH HA HA HA, just because I FEEL like it...

My soundcard is 24bit/96K Firewire...Yes, there will be a difference between the big guys and me, but not to the point where the listener will say, "Hey, what's that, it wasn't recorded in a million dollar studio..."

If you strike a balance between all the factors involved, you can come up with some fine MUSIC..

Then you have to get it to the people...A whole other Art in itself...
bob/West Island Recording