Like most musicians, I started out as a kid with an electric guitar. Back then, I had some pretty simplistic audio equipment. I was about 13 years old at the time, and had the same criteria for audio sound equipment that all 13 year olds have: the louder, the better. I had an old, blown out tube amp that could pump 100 W of pure, low fidelity, crackling noise. Having bad audio gear didn't matter back then because my guitar playing was so bad. I didn't need high quality audio recording equipment. When you are a terrible guitarist playing punk rock, having bad audio gear is actually an advantage. That way, people are less aware of your awful playing.
I actually went for a long time without updating my audio equipment much. I replaced the blown speaker coil in my amplifier, but I was still playing low fidelity sound. I thought that it made me sound more authentic, more soulful, and less produced. When one of my friends – a jazz music guy in a very different scene – let me use his audio gear once, it really opened my mind up. I could still play rock 'n roll, but I had more options available using better audio equipment. I could play noisy of course, but I could also get precise definition and good control. It was then that I decided to invest in some new sound equipment.
There are a lot of factors that go into audio recording equipment, but basically it always comes down to one thing: analog or digital. Back then, I was using exclusively analog audio equipment. My petals, my mixer, my amplifier, and even my recording gear were all analog. Once I tried out my friend's gear, I realized the advantage of digital audio equipment. It didn't make a big difference when I was playing loud and imprecise music, but it gave me a lot more control over remixing.
Best of all, with digital equipment, you can feed the signal straight into your computer. This means that you can use your personal computer as a home recording studio, processing, remixing, and editing your signal in some very sophisticated ways. Once I tried it, I was hooked. A lot of my friends don't like the fact that I have gone digital,but they can't argue with the results. I am recording some of the best work I have ever made, and playing better than ever.
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