Why You Don't NEED Expensive Gear

0:00 Music Appreciation. Howdy hey, it's Scoobert Doobert, back at ya on the microphone.So I wanted to talk to you about something that one of my mentors told me early on whenI was doing recording stuff.

0:25 He said, it's never been about the gear and it's taking me a while to like really digestthat and understand what that means.It's never been about the gear.It's never been what kind of microphone you have, you know, what kind of studio spaceyou have, et cetera, et cetera.It's never been about the gear.What did he mean by that?See like naturally, you can take that as I kind of did and be like, well, then you don't

0:46 need anything.But really what I think he's trying to say is that there is immense diminishing returns.There is a certain level that you need to get to to understand what you're working withand understand and like perceive what you're actually doing.And then beyond that, you're going to start spending $100 for every like half a percentbetter the experience will be.

1:10 Whereas in the very beginning, you're going to spend $100 and you're going to like quadrupleyour ability to create good music.And so I want to break this down not not exactly in any specific, but I want to talk aboutthe different tiers of gear and kind of like what holds people back and how you mightbe able to break through it and how it's helping me to break through it.

1:32 So the number one thing that you need to know is what it's never been about the gearmeans means that it's about you.It's about your skills.If you are good at what you do, you can make up for bad gear.If you are bad at what you do, no good gear is going to save your ass.It doesn't matter if you have a $3,000 or a $3,000 or a $3,000 or a $3,000 or a $3,000doesn't matter.You can't play guitar.Like, come on.

1:59 That's what I'm trying to say.Not saying that you can't play guitar, it's just an example.So let's break this down in a way that I've had some recent experiences with headphones.So a lot of people think that you need like a $10,000 headphone rig to be able to accuratelyperceive music.That's ridiculous.I've used them.They sound great.They're nice.I'd like one someday.But you don't need it to make good music.

2:21 The biggest thing that you need are good ears, experienced ears, practice ears, and onesthat are able to identify the weaknesses and strengths of different headphones and multipleheadphones.So you can bounce between them.So you're not just mixing for one pair of headphones.The same thing with playing bass or playing guitar.If you understand what tone you're trying to get to, it matters less about where you're

2:47 starting.And it matters more about you understanding the steps along the journey to make up forthe things that are keeping you from that tone.Granted, there are some tones that are damn near impossible to get without just havinga Marshall stack in an incredible room.But luckily for everybody, people don't really care anymore.That's not exactly the tone that everybody wants anymore.

3:12 It's pretty cool, but it also sounds old and take that for what you will.The million dollar sound is a sound of the past.Like, okay.I mean, if you want to recreate the past, that's cool.I don't have any real interest in doing that.Maybe you do.No hate.But that's not my cup of tea.I digress.Let me talk about these different phases.So you have budget.Budget is going to be like painting in the dark.

3:42 You're not even going to know what colors you're using.It's going to be hard to even perceive what's going on.So if you had the airplane headphones, the ones that they hand out for free, or for $5or something to watch in flight movies, they sound terrible.One year is kind of glitching in and out.Painter in the dark.You can't even see your own colors.

4:02 Then you have the consumer grade, pretty good, and then you have the low tier professional.So those are going to be in the $300 to $400 range.That's the spot for most things, actually.Right in that $300 to $400 range.That returns kind of cap out.And the jump between $0 and $300 is like, I would say, 10, 20 times bigger than thejump between $300 and $1,000.And then even more so, $1,000 to $10,000.

4:36 Every time you start going up higher and higher, you're getting more and more marginal gains.I'm not talking about being an audiophile.That's all cool.You can do that too.I'm talking about actually the work of making music.The best thing you can do is work on you, not just buy stuff.Work on you.Work on how you perceive.Work on how you think about music.

4:55 Work about the process on how you get from A to Z rather than thinking, oh, if I justbuy this, it'll get me to Z.Sure, it might make the path easier, but you're also cheating yourself of learning aboutthe process.I think that there's something magical about being like, I'm going to use one microphoneto make the entire record.Like I'm doing right now.SM7B, again, it's like a $300 to $400 microphone.I bought it used.

5:17 I think I got it for $250.And that's basically the only microphone that I've used for the last three or four Scoobert Doobert records, the entire thing.I have access to some nicer microphones, not ones that I necessarily own, but I've gotaccess to them.It doesn't, it doesn't help that much.Like, I've recorded stuff on, you know, thousands of dollars worth of mics and gear and stuff.

5:45 It's more about how you're singing than what the mic is, granted, if I was recordingon a $20 microphone, you'd hear it.But the difference between this guy that I'm speaking into right now and, you know, a Neumann, granted big difference, but in the end product is what I'm talking about, like, after mixing, after mastering, after

6:11 all of the effects and, you know, different ways of singing and different vocal placementsand stuff like that, I like, I'm fine with it, it's good, it works.So like, it worked for Michael Jackson, too.You know, that's what I'm trying to say is don't let the marketing dilute you into thinkingyou need these toys to achieve, get the tools, get the tools, not the toys, get justwhat you need and leap yourself like room.

6:40 I think that's like a valuable thing to work within some confines, creatively of, youknow, more budget stuff, entry level, you know, entry level.I clearly have a bias here, but I know that there are so many recording engineers, theytry and spin it where it's like, oh, don't even try.I have, you know, all of these nice things, I have a million dollar studio, you shouldn'teven try in your home.

7:06 It's like, man, I've heard some of your stuff.It don't sound good.So like, it doesn't matter how much you're buying, because like, your ears are bad, youknow, that's what I'm trying to say.I'm not trying to call anybody out, but like, that's, that's like the sentiment that I'mtrying to communicate like, it's not about the gear, it's about you, it's about yourmusicality, it's about your vision.

7:26 And having creative boundaries are going to push you into different genres.And how cool is it to, you know, build a career that really is from the ground up?It's like you're using just enough in terms of tools to create what you create.And I have all this runway where, say, say you get mega successful, now you get likenicer microphones.Right now I record most of my vocals in my bedroom on top of my dresser.

7:56 So like, someday I might be recording vocals in a professional studio, but guess what?It's going to sound 10% better, and most people won't even notice.And it's going to cost a lot of money.So I'm probably better off just staying on this stand up dresser for the rest of my life,because it's cheaper, and it's right, and it gives me like an opportunity to make up

8:18 for some of the jankiness, and to embrace it, stay humble, and think about the end productrather than, you know, feeling defeated from the jump, it's like, oh, woe is me.I'm like recording on two a $300 microphone where there are other people recording into$30,000 microphones.How can I possibly compete?It's like, no, that right there, that's how you compete, is by that asymmetric warfare.

8:45 It's like you have a strength by recording into a $300 microphone that they don't have,because you got time, and you didn't spend all that money, and you're not beholdento some studio or something like that, just in your bedroom on a dresser doing yourthing, being creative.There's not a whole bunch of people in the room judging you.You're being free, and that's why it's never been about the gear.

9:08 It's about that freedom and that personal growth.That's what I'm trying to live that, and I'm trying to communicate that so that maybeyou can live that too, because it's some good stuff.If you want to hit me up, scoobertdoobert.pizza is my website, that's scoobertdoobert.pizza.Hit me up, see you, bye.