Topic: What would your $3000...

[Nick's Picks]

some of us are modest, some of us are not.
I know a fella who carries around enough schoepps gear to pay for *both* of my vehicles.

I've gone has high as a lot (over 7k), to extremely minimal ($1000) and have been very happy with all of those rigs i've put together.

shit..I can build a $1k rig that will pull the HEAT and smoke lots of those $3k rigs.
but thats only because i'm a stud. 

save money..., start small work up.  put $1k into the rig, $2k into your STEREO !
you do have a great stereo, ... I hope.  If you you are planning to dump that kind of d'ough into a reference quality recording rig, I'd think you'd want a "reference quality stereo" at home to know that your running things correctly.

brand new SP LSD2 stereo mic (awesome piece, imo) > Oade ACMod Marantz PMD 660.
now that shit there has synergy, is easy to operate, and sounds really, really good.

[Brian Skalinder]

If you you are planning to dump that kind of d'ough into a reference quality recording rig, I'd think you'd want a "reference quality stereo" at home to know that your running things correctly.

Great point that a lot of people forget.  Without a decent playback system (I wouldn't call my "reference", but it serves me quite well), it's difficult to evaluate one's recording gear.  Plenty of good, low-ish budget recording gear options out there.  I say spend $1k - $1.5k, spend some cash on playback, record, and listen for a while.  Then decide what you do or don't like about your current recording (or playback gear for that matter) and make adjustments accordingly.

[Nick's Picks]

well...reference quality to me doesn't have to mean "uber stereo", but it has to be a step above.
you know it when you get there.  every little upgrade makes that difference..then you say "wow...so that is what this album really sounds like"...
thats when you know.

[BC]

save money..., start small work up.  put $1k into the rig, $2k into your STEREO !
you do have a great stereo, ... I hope.  If you you are planning to dump that kind of d'ough into a reference quality recording rig, I'd think you'd want a "reference quality stereo" at home to know that your running things correctly.

just to play devil's advocate, you can always upgrade your stereo but you can't go back and upgrade the gear used to make your recordings. That being said, good playback gear can make a world of difference in re-creating those recordings in the comfort of your own home. As far as tools for monitoring your recordings a pair of good headphones can go a long way for little $.

[stevetoney]

If you you are planning to dump that kind of d'ough into a reference quality recording rig, I'd think you'd want a "reference quality stereo" at home to know that your running things correctly.

Great point that a lot of people forget.  Without a decent playback system (I wouldn't call my "reference", but it serves me quite well), it's difficult to evaluate one's recording gear.  Plenty of good, low-ish budget recording gear options out there.  I say spend $1k - $1.5k, spend some cash on playback, record, and listen for a while.  Then decide what you do or don't like about your current recording (or playback gear for that matter) and make adjustments accordingly.

I personally do my most intense listening through a great pair of headphones and that for me is as good a stereo sound as I care to acheive for playback, but that's my listening tendency because my wife can't stand my music, so I end up listening to it all through my headphones.  $200 for my playback rig.  I learned way back in the old days listening to Hendrix Are You Experienced and Yes Close To The Edge that my best listening experiences were inside the solitude of my headphones anyway.  But that's me.

Regarding the question about what I have wrapped up in my rig, here you go.

$1000 --  Neumann KM184 mics, fantastic crystal clear and balanced signal response.  I don't even hardly need to EQ my recordings in post or during playback because they come out dead nuts almost every time.

$950 --  AKG 480 bodies with CK61 cardioid capsules.  Decided I wanted a pair of mics to run hypers with and didn't like the Neumann hyper sound.  Preferred the AKG hyper sound so figured I couldn't go wrong having a second set of high quality cardioid capsules as the 'base' set even though the AKGs will almost always be run with the 63s in a hyper setup.

$350 --  AKG CK63 hyper cardioid capsules

$400 --  Used unmodded Marantz PMD-660

$170 --  Cost to have Chris Busman Johnson perform his AWESOME mod to the Marantz PMD-660

$600 --  Package price for the following...

      UA-5 (Oade Warm Mod)
      Microtrack 2496
      Extra Batteries
      4 GB card
      A couple of cables

I bought the above to have spare accessories for the 660 recorder and the pre-amp, just in case anything breaks or otherwise stops working.  Besides, this extra gear is great sounding stuff too.

$160 --  Silver Audiomagic Hyperconductor Cables

$70  --  Segue Dogstar Cables

$125  --  Spare batteries for the UA-5

$35 --  DPA windscreens

$80 -- Two gear bags; one lowe pro Nova 4 and one Rak gear

$160 -- Nomad JB3

$40 -- Amvona Mic Stand

$50 --  Shure Vert Bar

$45 -- Joe Meek Shock Mounts

$100 -- Various adapters, clamps, and hardware for clamping, converting, etc.

$10 -- Swiss army knife type tool that has pliers and screwdrivers for gear bag

$10 -- Flashlight for gear bag

$5 --  (2) Mountain climber style clips for holding cables rolled up on the outside of my gear bag.

$55 --  Initial set of 4 - 2500 mah Energizer batteries and 15 minute charger unit; plus 12 additional for a total of 16.

$120 --  Two 2 GB CF media cards and one 4 GB.

$70 -- miscellaneous other cables I've made for myself out of Belden 1804A including the XLR connectors.

Total is about $4600.  You can get away with alot less, but the miscellenous stuff does tend to add up.  You kinda collect that as you go though.

[junkbondking]

$800 for a sweet set of km 184's

$800 for unmodded r4

$200 for the r4 mod on 2 channels

thats not bad for a plug & play 4 channel system.

[Nick's Picks]

headphones just dont do it for me.
I need to "feel it"

[F.O.Bean]

used 480's for 750 and a used 722 for 2300 would be hard to beat fellas

agreed! money WELL spent IMO

[F.O.Bean]

I have about $6,700.00 USD in gear. 2 pairs of HQ mics, a 722 and cables and clamps and all the other misc stuff.........oh, and its taken me 10 years to get to this point........

[kindms]

FS: AKG 480's w/ CK61's, ck63's, Shure Vert Bar, Avatone Shocks $1385

or     
PFS/FT: AKG C414 XLS - PRICE DROP! $1200.00
or
FS: AKG Mid-Side Rig; Pair AKG 463, Red R2 (fig , adapter ring, CK1x w/MK46 $1450.00


Tascam HD-P2 Transparent Concert - Ground Shipping $1175.00

I would run anyone of these rigs in a heartbeat and for below $3000.00 and leaves $ for CF cards, cables, and most importantly concert tickets!

I am soo loving my HDP2 (stock) easiest to use piece of gear I have ever owned

[F.O.Bean]

or an ACM 671 as well with any of those mics, especially 48x>acm 671

[gambra]

Wow I wish I could justify to myself spending $3000 on a rig.To be honest I'd never see the point. The kind of music I tape (noisy avant-garde wierd stuff) is a world away from pretty much all other tapers here, the crowds are a lot more rougher and the possibilty of being able to set up a full rig that would cost upwards of several grand would be an awful idea. Besides, most of these bands would allow sbd access if I asked.

Despite that I see myself shelling out for an "open" rig in the very very near future.

[stevetoney]

Wow I wish I could justify to myself spending $3000 on a rig.To be honest I'd never see the point. The kind of music I tape (noisy avant-garde wierd stuff) is a world away from pretty much all other tapers here, the crowds are a lot more rougher and the possibilty of being able to set up a full rig that would cost upwards of several grand would be an awful idea. Besides, most of these bands would allow sbd access if I asked.

Despite that I see myself shelling out for an "open" rig in the very very near future.

I don't follow your logic unless the reason you wouldn't spend the money is because you're worried your gear would get trashed.  Obviously, I understand that concern. 

But from a music perspective, I can't see how even noisy stuff can't be helped by a good sounding rig.  I mean, you can take the noisiest music you've ever hear and clean it up through a nice rig and it's gonna sound better.  Musical noise is different than the noise that fatigues your ears when you're listening through crappy gear.  And SBDs just don't cut it for me.  They're stale sounding, very two dimensional and usually not mixed right.  Gimme a good sounding AUD tape any day of the week.

All just my own humble opinions though.

[F.O.Bean]

agreed Steve! Id MUCH RATHER have a smokin DAUD over even a DSBD any day of the week. id ideally like a matrix, but if I had to choose between SBD or DAUD, id pick DAUD everytime

I also think for the money, 48x>722 or MBHO>722 are the best combos for the price IMO. both sound fantastic ad really come to life and open up thru the 722's warmer preamp stages I would put either of those combos against any other setup......for good mbho>722 recordings, check the all good sets i posted on LMA and the same for the 483>722 sound on LMA. just search for all good and theyll pop up.....

[F.O.Bean]

and if staying in 16-bit land, id get a busmn mod 660 or anything else he mods. the fostex fr2-le is an all-in-one that chris busman mods and is 24-bit. most likely thats what i'll get for my mbho setup......