Pouring GAS on the fire.

No. on the second point.

Honestly, I'm at this turning point in my musical life, and of course it's linked to and coinciding with decisions (some urgent) that I need to make about my studio.

I need to replace my 2017 iMac, which is just dragging its heels. I mean like as in it takes two minutes just to boot up, forget loading a program. The good news is that I'm coming to the conclusion that the entry level Mac Studio with the basic M1 Max chip and 64GB of Unified Memory looks like it should be more than adequate for the task.

Even after I purchase a nice big monitor I may have a few extra dollars for gear, which brings me to the point in my musical life part..

Long story short: I need to decide if I'm ever going to release my music on platforms other than SoundCloud or similar, and if so ..how and why.  I'm a recently retired teacher turned DIY loan wolf singer/songwriter who writes songs that I would describe as anything but accessible. I wouldn't be insulted if folks were to describe me as as a full-time hobbyist. To date, I have set the bar VERY low when it comes to any expectations for expanding my listening audience (which is mostly made up of other songwriters). There's an argument to be made that the quality of my recordings have no real importance beyond that they're good enough for me.  So I have a significant decision to make.

With minimal desire to release/promote my work, I might want to purchase a few more pieces of analog gear to get the most out of my set-up and produce from top to bottom, including mastering, maybe throw it all up on bandcamp at $1.99/per and be done.  It's a hobby, remember? So the most important thing is that I'm having fun, and I do enjoy doing it all.

On the other hand, if I want to entertain the prospect of putting together an EP or similar and releasing it for sale, I might want to save up those extra dollars for mastering and promotion. I.e. whatever costs are associated with putting it out there ..artwork, maybe even a video?? Honestly, I'd really love to do this but I know it's by far the greater challenge, and I have little stomach for taking on the business side of things.  As a teacher I was able to avoid it for most of my life, and as far as I'm concerned that is what has enabled me to take my music in a direction that has been personally satisfying.

Also, if I want to go the latter route, I know I'll find myself spending a lot of time and energy going back through my catalog and re-mixing,  re-recording a number of tracks, and hiring out for other musicians here and there. Bottom line is that I have to make this decision in order to best determine how to allocate whatever extra monetary resources I have.

PS: I hope it's obvious that I started this thread much less to complain, and much more for levity's sake.  I too am very appreciative of the quality of information and help to be found on this site.

No, no.. not 100K! I'm not looking to make money. I'd simply be looking to share the music with a wider audience.

Do what matters most to you: period.

I have 8 albums on Bandcamp, does anybody know ?

If you buy some better gear, you have the benefit snd fun of learning how to use it and becoming a better engineer/producer in the process. You also have an asset you could sell, if you really need the money.

Hiring a pro is great for efficiency etc., but you miss the above ?

If you have the money, time and interest, I’d say buy the gear.

I've only found one that works for me consistently, and unfortunately for me, right now, it's got to go into the shop for a retube and recalibration.  If you've got other options, let me know please.  Its the only thing I've got that elegantly catches those leading edge transients that eat up headroom and cause instantaneously, and random glitch bits of distortion.

Manley VariMu.

That Empress looks like if a Pultec and a Curve Bender had a baby. And at two channels for $2k it's about 1/5 the cost per channel of either.

Hey, I happened to listen to your SoundCloud a few weeks ago actually. I don't think there's any "issue" with the quality of your recordings and the ones I was listening to were a few years old I think. As a fellow songwriter I can tell you that sometimes it's just inspiring to get that next level of quality, but your stuff is very releasable as is.

So my advice would be to do what inspires you to write more songs. Your particular style of folk songwriting is not my style, but I do know that it's a lot of people's style. You would do very well at a place like Kerrville Folk Festival here in Texas for example. I have a couple very close friends that make bank touring the country as solo folk-singers doing stuff a lot like what you do. House parties, coffee shops, festivals, etc... it's its own world.

Release your stuff man. Your particular audience is not on Soundcloud. They're out in real world and they actually buy CD's and records. Go find them!

Honestly, yes. The D-Comp. I replaced my Manley vari-mu SLAM with one. It's a totally different thing, but the results are pretty rad! You can bring the piano right up in your face without cranking it in your mix.

that's kind of the opposite of what I want.  I want to control transients, make the piano richer sounding, not make the piano aggressive or in your face, minimally to moderately pull up the low level stuff, and not hear any pumping or artifacts.  Kind of the opposite of what the D comp generally does for me.  But I'll give it a whirl when the VMu goes in for a tuneup tomorrow.  I suspect it will only be on the piano about 45 seconds, but if you've got some settings that will accomplish the above - please by all means share.  I want to learn.  Cheers,

drbill

Just curious from your real VM perspective, what you think of this:?

gainlabaudio.com/dicatator-dual-mono-vari-u-compressor/

A pair of RS124 is the pinnacle on piano for me. I wonder how a Retro Revolver would do just to cut down on cost & rack space a bit?

Never used one.  Could be great?  Dunno.  For me, visually, it's too busy.  I like the classic elegant look of the Manley.  Easy for me to visualize without a dozen LED's looking back.