Yay! It took me a bit longer to get part II of this post put together, but I’m glad to deliever it late, rather than not at all. In part I of this post, I proclamied that it “usually takes real world experience to understand just how powerful the “talent is more important than gear” concept is.” I promised to write part II and provide examples of music that I recorded on very expensive gear side by side with music I recorded with the gear I listed in Part I (albeit with more a few more years of experience and a better ear).

To recap, my “expensive” setup consited of a Motu 2408 MKII (MKIII is shown on resulting page) as the heart of my setup. The setup I recorded the new examples on consists of a Soundblaster Live 24 bit as the main recording engine. To see my other gear, refer to part I.

Example 1: Expensive gear

Example 2: Cheap gear

 
Notes about the music
The first song, Cast Out, was written by me about 4 years ago and recorded on the nice setup. It’s kind of a personal song to me because it’s about my youth. Something that I describe in much more detail here.

The second song, The Ones Who Protect You, was written by me and a close friend of mine, Michael Gargiulo. It was recorded on the “cheap” gear and while it’s no where close to sounding as good as something produced by say, Sevendust, it’s certainly a higher quality example than the first song. As a side note, it’s the first political song I’ve ever written and I have to admit to a greater feeling of satisfaction in expressing my anger towards the government with music rather than writing.

Part III
While I had originally planned to make this a two-part post, and for those who don’t already know, I have recently become chummy with Canadian recording artist, Matthew Good. Matt is the kind of guy that would literally give you the shirt off his back, and a couple of months ago, he sent me his own pro-tools rig that he had just sitting in his closet. I nearly shat myself! He also sent along some plugins, which I have yet to figure out how to use. The whole package is worth a good amount of cash, so needless to say I was quite thankful! After fiddling with the Mbox I’ve learned a few things and I think it would be worth putting together a part III of this post featuring the new gear with another round of music samples.