If you could choose between the latest software synth or a better trained ears what would you choose?

If you chose the synth keep reading.

Do you think achieving professional results is only possible with equipment only available in commercial studios (ie. a big mixing console)?

If you answered yes then keep reading.

I partly thought like you until recently. I believed that since audio equipment has become affordable it was a big chance for most people to be able to get decent results but that there was still “something” missing which makes the difference from an amateur band demo to a TOP 10 album. And I thought that “something” was a bigger/better console or piece of equipment.

But recenty I discovered that those are just excuses. Now I believe that you can achieve those results in most midrange home/project studios. Affordability has shown the underlying problem for achieving excellent and professional results, it’s education, experience and hard work.

So what made me change my mind?

I recently attended a mixing masterclass by Matt Foster at the London School of Sound. During the masterclass we took a blind test, he had previously mixed a sample song twice. First with an SSL console and then with a desktop computer, using Logic and the Waves SSL plugins.So he played both mixes to see if we could find out which one was done with each equipment configuration. I could hear differences as the mixes weren’t intended to be identical, but these were not affecting the overall quality of the mix, both sounded clear and professional to me but I picked the second one as my favourite, it turned out to be the one mixed with Logic.

The most important thing I learnt from that experience is that if my songs don’t sound as good as I’d like them to I should stop blaming my equipment and start blaming myself. Skill and experience is what makes the difference.