Official anti-gearsluttery thread

I'll reiterate my feelings on the matter.

I'm attempting to be a professional audio engineer. My job is not one of a producer, nor a songwriter. I'm not trying to "fix" what is wrong with the artist that is paying for my time, that's the job of a producer. My job is to take what I am given and record it well. I make suggestions that get better performances but in the big picture, it's still not my job.

Part of my job requires that my gear be of high quality so that any situation that arises is dealt with without effort. I can't spend HOURS playing around with low quality gear to find that perfect combination that works. It's certainly doable to use low end gear and "make it work" but time is money and "making it work" would put me out of business. I need to set the gear up and record. Recording is what makes the money, not playing around with settings and placement for hours while the customer sits around getting bored and losing their inspired performances.

I think a lot of people want to defend using cheap gear, but mainly because they personally get good sounds from their gear after large amounts of time spent to find the right combination.  Again, it's certainly doable, but it's NOT practical for someone who bills folks for TIME.  Time spent playing around is time that the customer doesn't want to pay for, and that means an unhappy client.  For someone like me who has precious few new clients, earning and keeping a client is PRIORITY over getting a little ego boost from finding a cheap piece of gear that works in certain situations.  

I mean, I can see how that would make someone happy by "sticking it to the high priced studios" by producing a good sound from cheap gear, but the amount of work to do that has always been much higher.

As they say, TIME, MONEY, QUALITY.  Now pick two of those.  you can only pick two.

So I've amassed some pretty good gear and done a lot of work on my studio to make the quality high.  I've spent lots of MONEY and TIME to give the customer a good experience.  In the fact that I've spent lots of money and time, I have gained QUALITY. 


But during this endeavor, I've learned that the "next best thing", which is the basic tenet of "Gearsluttery", is a false idol.  Things that are new and exciting are always going to get attention and admiration, but a lot of them don't stand the test of time.  Some do.  That's how it goes.  One thing that doesn't change is the basic devices that have stood the test of time and are still the standard studio products.  Most of these aren't cheap so a lot of newbies and folks that don't have money to spend see them as "slutty" items, but I reject that they are "slutty".  They are "expensive workhorse" items, which are INVESTMENTS in your business, not playthings to be admired.

I've learned to ignore the "next best thing" after being bitten many times by rushing out to buy these products, only to learn of the marketing hype (lies?).  In this aspect I've rejected "Gearsluttery" in it's rawest form by getting rid of the items that didn't work as advertised and now I spend money on only the time-tested and respected equipment that gets the job done time, and time again.

I've stopped playing with toys and now work with tools.