Use the gear you already have. Via Recording Revolution, this was some of the best recording advice I’ve come across in recent years.
The way to make better recordings is about learning to use the gear you already have, rather than buying new gear to try to improve your sound. Yes, I get that Graham Cochrane was trying to sell me courses instead of gear, but I bought access to the courses and they are so worth it – and he’s right about this.
I took this advice to heart, and it’s been freeing.
In 2006, I purchased a lot of gear to try to build a home recording studio — a desktop computer, an audio interface, studio monitors, and so many microphones. I used some of it, but then a lot of it sat dormant for a long time. I acquired another round of gear in 2014/2015, got a new audio interface, a MIDI keyboard, and a digital piano.
Yet, I was pretty frustrated with the recordings I was making during this time, especially compared to the high school recordings I was making with Cakewalk 8 from 1998 and RadioShack microphones plugged into the 1/8″ line input on my 2001 Win98 desktop’s built-in sound card.
The problem wasn’t the gear. It was that I didn’t know what to do with it.
Now that I’m focused on improving my audio production skills, I’m making use of old gear.
See, the Recording Revolution advice only half applies to me — I use free/libre software, so I don’t have to buy new software or plugins. In fact, I can use very new software on very old hardware.
This came together for me last spring when I wanted to try recording drums for the first time in a long time. My ~2015 audio interface only has two inputs, but my 2006 Presonus Firepod has eight — and I have six drum mics. But of the 30 computers I have in my house from the past 30 years, only one of them has the right type of firewire port — my 2006 home recording studio desktop. So I took that Intel Pentium D 2 GB of RAM device (stealing a third GB of RAM from a defunct computer) and reinstalled Xubuntu Studio with 64-bit 24.04 LTS. Then, I used that 2006 desktop and 2006 audio interface with 2024 software, like Ardour 8, and recorded drums for two songs. And it worked! (I’ll have some videos out soon.)
This philosophy fits will with my nostalgic approach to hardware. In my studio, I have a reading light from childhood repurposed as a backlight with an LED blub, a 1999 ThinkPad 240 repurposed as a digital picture frame, my 2006 desktop for drums and my primary laptop from 2017, a second and third monitor both from 2006 (though the third I just added in 2025), furniture spanning the last 35 years, amps from the 80s and musical instruments spanning the past 30 years (with the exception of my hundred-year-old violin). Also, I’ve learn that I can often use less of my gear, but use it well to get better results – like focusing on using my large diaphragm condenser well instead of fiddling with ribbon mics and pencil condensers or using multiple microphones when one will suffice.
I’ve realized I don’t need to buy new tech or music equipment. I don’t need new gear to sound better. I just need to get better at using the gear I already have. I’m focused on learning so I use my gear well, and I’m focused on habits so I’m doing it often. I’m using my existing gear, and using less of it, and getting better results.
