Spend $50, get $25 OFF — applied automatically.
Skip to Content Skip to Navigation Skip to Footer
Start freeJoin
Join Membership
Season 3 ·

S3E05 – Is Expensive Audio Gear Better

0:00 / 0:00
This media could not be played.

Resources

Never Miss an Episode

Get new podcast episodes delivered to your inbox.

Home/Podcast/S3E05 – Is Expensive Audio Gear...

Because the music industry is all about selling, it’s super easy to fall into thinking expensive is better.

ESPECIALLY IN THE AUDIO INDUSTRY..

Why? That’s because we can’t see audio.. that’s the biggest reason!

Did you know there was someone selling ROCKS.. saying it gave your room a better sound? I couldn’t believe that when I heard it (and saw pictures of their website!)

Is More Expensive Audio Gear Better?

Now, there’s a difference between QUALITY and FEATURES.

Very often you need to pay more to get more FEATURES… such as more microphone inputs for your audio interface.

But let’s say we talk about speakers.. If you buy a $20 pair of earbuds, compared to a $500 pair of earbuds, how do you know if it really sounds better?

And I can speak from first hand experience, I actually enjoy my $20 pair of earbuds over my $500 in-ear-monitors..

They are COMFIER.. and they sound way more REAL to what I’m hearing for translation..

This “audio trap” of “expensive is better” happens all the time..

And it gets me, too!

But this episode was just a reminder to myself, and hopefully you, too, that WORKFLOW is more important.

And workflow can only be found after HOURS of trial and error and experience.

Talk to you in the next episode of Music Production Made Simple!

Analog Beatmaking Digital FL Studio Music Production Equipment Workflow

Community

Questions about this episode

Transcript

S3E05 – Is Expensive Audio Gear Better

  1. Season three, episode five is expensive audio gear better.
  2. This is something that I tell you guys all the time that the audio industry is full
  3. of marketing at all angles. It makes people feel as if you need to purchase the best
  4. audio equipment. And in this episode, I'm gonna talk a little bit about a story that
  5. recently happened to me. Before we get into this, check out the free three exclusive
  6. videos I have for you. You can go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash FL Studio,
  7. and those beginner videos for FL Studio users, you can get some free training.
  8. Okay, that's it's gratuitous.com forward slash fl studio.
  9. Alright, so here is the story.
  10. So I recently started riding a mountain bike more just for exercise.
  11. Right now it's winter, but in the summertime it's awesome where I live.
  12. There's tons of mountains, and you just I can literally just leave my house and I
  13. just go into the mountains. It's really really nice.
  14. Now let me just break down the story.
  15. I purchased this mountain bike off of a local website for like $60 10 years
  16. ago, and it's been a great little bike.
  17. I've maybe just had to change like the brakes on it.
  18. But I got to the point where I was like, hey, I'm starting to ride a bike a lot
  19. more. I want to upgrade just a little bit.
  20. I don't want to be purchasing a super expensive mountain bike because if you are
  21. into the mountain biking industry, you know that these bikes can get to like 10,000,
  22. 12,000, and that's not what I'm wanting to purchase.
  23. I am just wanting a little bit better improvement.
  24. Now, if you are going to purchase a mountain bike, you can do that from something
  25. like Walmart, which everyone knows that you're gonna purchase a bike from Walmart,
  26. it's gonna work, but especially when you are an adult, it's probably not gonna be
  27. like the best mountain bike. Then there is another option around here, it's called
  28. Canadian Tire. It's kind of like a local kind of hardware store where you can
  29. purchase like so many different things, everything from like camping equipment to
  30. like things for your vehicles to like Tupperware containers to shavers.
  31. It's kind of like a Walmart, but a little higher quality.
  32. They also sell mountain bikes, and their mountain bikes can get to like $800, $900,
  33. but it's still kind of at that point where you're like, if I'm gonna be purchasing
  34. $800 for a mountain bike, I think I'd rather pay a little bit more money and get
  35. at least quality name brand, right?
  36. Because that's usually what you want to get when you are in an industry.
  37. Now, don't worry, this is gonna relate to audio in just a moment.
  38. So, anyways, I purchased a mountain bike from a mountain bike store where they sold
  39. pretty half decent bikes. I did not buy the high-end one, and I have not had a good
  40. experience with this bike. The brakes have been inconsistent.
  41. I've had to bring it into the shop, and they keep fixing it for free, which is good,
  42. but it's just the fact that you would think that you would be purchasing a more
  43. expensive item and you would get a better experience.
  44. Now, here is the moral of the story of what I want to talk about with audio.
  45. In this audio world, it's not about how expensive something is, it's about does
  46. it work for you? That is the biggest thing I can pass on to you.
  47. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, does it work for you?
  48. Because it could be a 9$0 item, it could be a $9,000 item, it could be a $9
  49. item. The fact is, does it work?
  50. Does it do what you want it to do?
  51. do? Andes it suit your workflow
  52. That is the hardest thing to find.
  53. Even if you purchase the most expensive item in the world, it may not be for your
  54. workflow and for your style. I've always known that, but it's just something that
  55. maybe you need to hear as well.
  56. Because in the audio industry, when we talk about analog gear and we talk about
  57. plugins and mixing in the box, everyone always thinks, oh, the analog world is way
  58. better. But I'll tell you that yes, the analog world is expensive and people
  59. perceive it as better. The fact is that it's working backwards.
  60. There's some things where analog has to exist, such as this microphone, or if I'm
  61. plugged into a preamp, that type of equipment I don't really see ever really going
  62. away. That's what you need to use to power this microphone and to get it into my
  63. computer. But once it's in the computer, the best workflow is using your audio
  64. plugins. And if you were to choose a very high quality plugin versus a low quality
  65. plugin, see high quality and low quality does not mean expensive.
  66. The fact is you are getting the awesome workflow of what we call recallability.
  67. In other words, you can reopen the project and it lows your settings.
  68. You cannot really get that in the analog world.
  69. Yes, in recent years, they started to come out with these new tools where you can
  70. use the analog equipment and it recalls it in a digital way, but you are still
  71. reliant on that piece of analog equipment if it ever fails, if they ever stop
  72. creating that unit. So all I'm trying to say is understand that a
  73. tool works best for your workflow.
  74. A tool that works good for me may not work good for you.
  75. For example, at the moment, I'm using the Mackey big knob. Studio, which allows me
  76. to switch between two sets of monitors and it's also an audio interface built in
  77. It's pretty compact. No, it is not the best audio interface out there.
  78. And I was playing with the ASIO driver the other day because newer audio interfaces
  79. have something called loop back.
  80. And I was thinking, oh, I can lower my audio latency in my courses or like when I'm
  81. training when I'm playing the keys, which is important because low latency on the
  82. keys allows you to play more naturally, more real.
  83. And so I was playing with the Mackeys ASIO driver compared to the FL Studio ASIO
  84. driver. And while the Macy Big Knob Studio Audio Interface itself is very
  85. good, I really really like the workflow, but the ASIO driver for my experience is
  86. not very good. I was not able to get as low latency compared to the FL Studio ASIO
  87. driver. And so that's what I'm trying to say that it's all about understanding what
  88. works for the workflow. So don't get tricked out there.
  89. Don't be thinking that you need to be purchasing that super expensive microphone or
  90. that super expensive audio interface.
  91. Understand that it's all about what works for you.
  92. It could be really expensive. Sometimes purchasing that expensive item is like that
  93. is the difference because it's name brand, you know it's good.
  94. Sometimes name brand is deceiving and it actually isn't better.
  95. And the knockoff is even better sometimes for the price, as well as it works even
  96. better. So that's something that you have to do as your own person, try out the
  97. item, does it work good? Then you know that that's the piece of equipment for you.
  98. Sometimes you got to purchase equipment, sometimes you have to return equipment.
  99. It's an ongoing process. But what you will discover when you look at all these
  100. different producer studios, everyone has different equipment.
  101. And the main reason is because they have found that piece of equipment works for
  102. them. In the mixing world, you will see a lot of people use a lot of analog
  103. gear. And I think that's two parts.
  104. One, that's what they know, that's their workflow.
  105. Two, it also gets people feeling as if like, oh, they're in the big studio, they
  106. have the nice equipment. But I'll tell you, fab filter plugins for the workflow and
  107. being able to reopen projects, that supersedes, in other words, that beats analog
  108. gear any day by being able to quickly reopen a project and you're good to go.
  109. Alright, so I hope you enjoyed this episode where I was just talking about that
  110. expensive equipment doesn't always mean better.
  111. Sometimes it does, but what's more important is understanding your workflow, and
  112. that is very hard to do. It's gonna take years, it's gonna take purchasing items,
  113. returning items, and I use the mountain bike analogy to give you guys a perspective
  114. that I actually tried to purchase a higher quality bike, and I actually have not
  115. gotten a better experience. I actually had a better experience on that cheap $60 to
  116. $80 bike that I purchased from a local website, and you know, brand new that bike's
  117. maybe like three four hundred dollars.
  118. Like it's not a very expensive bike, but it's super comfy, the brakes work good, and
  119. it's like never broken down. I purchased this new bike, which is significantly more
  120. money. The brakes don't work good, the seat wasn't as comfy.
  121. Even just sitting in the bike.
  122. It honestly isn't even as comfy as the other bike I had.
  123. So, in a situation like like that that, it's not something an audio interface you
  124. can purchase, try, and kind of return.,
  125. it's When you buy a bike,
  126. it's kind of like you're stuck with it and kind of the way it is.
  127. So there you guys go. I hope you guys like the episode.
  128. If you guys want to learn FL Studio, visit me over at it'sgratuitous.com.
  129. Alright, there's tons of courses, books, sounds, tons of different free resources to
  130. get you guys up and running, okay?
  131. I'll talk to you in the next episode.
GratuiTous Radio Start free Join Membership 0:00/0:00