Evolution of the Model Home Recording Studio.

[Silent Bob]

This is more for fun but....

1950s: "Home recording, what's that?"

1960s:  Any 1/4" tape recorder with a mic input.

Early 70s:  1/4" stereo simul-sync tape recorder with both mic and line inputs as well as a headphone jack.  Record 1 track through the mic input.  Play back the track while recording it into the line input of the empty track and the mic input picks up a new instrument at the same time.  Repeat until done.

Mid 70s: TASCAM A3340S quad deck with TASCAM mixer and any 1/4" tape recorder.  For high budgets, replace A3340S with 80-8.

Early 80s: TASCAM 38 with TASCAM mixer, Roland Space Echo & TASCAM 32.  Monitors, MS-10s.  For low budgets, replace all equipment with "TASCAM 122 cassette 4-track with any stereo cassette deck and headphones".

Mid 80s:  Repeat early 80s but add MIDI sequencer.

Early 90s:  ADAT, MIDI sequencer, Mackie 1604, Lexicon Alex & TASCAM DA-30 DAT deck.  Monitors, Alesis M1s.  For high budgets, add a second ADAT.  For low budgets, replace all equipment with TASCAM 122 and TASCAM 102 with headphones.

Mid 90s:  Repeat "Early 90s" but replace DA-30 with "Sound Blaster" and replace Alex with MIDIverb.  For low budgets, replace TASCAM 122 with 238S.  Alternate for keyboard players, replace all equipment with Cakewalk & Sound Blaster with headphones.

Late 90s: Echo Layla w/ Cool Edit Pro & Mackie 1604 with Event monitors.  For low budgets, replace with Cakewalk & Sound Blaster with headphones.  Acoustic guitar players, use Yamaha MD-4 and Sound Blaster with headphones.

Early 2000s:  Same as late 90s but replace Mackie with Behringer 4-buss.  For low budgets, replace Behringer with Mackie 1202, and Layla with Mia along with the quote "why does it have 8 outputs but only 2 inputs?"  For exceptionally high budgets, add 2" Auralex.

Mid 2000s:  Low budgets, Pro Tools.  High Budgets, Pro Tools.  Medium budgets, Pro Tools.   Exceptionally high budgets, Pro Tools & Auralex.

Late 2000s:  Pro Tools with quote "why can't I get it to work on anything else?"

[brian_gtr]

Haha, I think that's why late 2000s is finally seeing a shift away from PT, aside from the people who can afford all top-end hardware.  I think people are finally starting to realize that price doesn't equal quality, so there's a big shift to Cubase and Logic, and Reaper for the open source fans.  The single biggest failing of ProTools is its incompatibility with EVERYTHING, that's why they lost me.

[abtech]

Haha, I think that's why late 2000s is finally seeing a shift away from PT, aside from the people who can afford all top-end hardware.  I think people are finally starting to realize that price doesn't equal quality, so there's a big shift to Cubase and Logic, and Reaper for the open source fans.  The single biggest failing of ProTools is its incompatibility with EVERYTHING, that's why they lost me.

Most ProTools advocates count that as a plus.  Depends on whether you're a fan or not I suppose.  Everyone used to throw rocks at Apple computers because they were proprietary, but nowadays, that's just cool  .

[vinyl69]

The single biggest failing of ProTools is its incompatibility with EVERYTHING, that's why they lost me.

Incompatibility with what? I drop audio from any DAW into Pro Tools and can take audio from Pro Tools into any DAW.

Or are you talking about hardware, because I like the fact that my hardware is ALWAYS compatible with my software of choice. I have literally used Pro Tools for 5 years and it's only crashed once, and it was completely my fault for using a QWERTY keyboard that had pre-mapped hot keys that conflicted with Pro Tools. I hit F1, which should've toggled my edit mode, but instead my email program opened in the middle of playback. I have a completely trouble-free studio, and have for 5 years or so. It's worth paying a bit more for the hardware to me for that kind of stability.

[brian_gtr]

Haha, I think that's why late 2000s is finally seeing a shift away from PT, aside from the people who can afford all top-end hardware.  I think people are finally starting to realize that price doesn't equal quality, so there's a big shift to Cubase and Logic, and Reaper for the open source fans.  The single biggest failing of ProTools is its incompatibility with EVERYTHING, that's why they lost me.

Most ProTools advocates count that as a plus.  Depends on whether you're a fan or not I suppose.  Everyone used to throw rocks at Apple computers because they were proprietary, but nowadays, that's just cool  .

I'll give you that, and I love my macs.  I guess it just comes down to money.  Protools is great software, it's just a big financial commitment if you want to grow your studio in the long run.  It's probably about the same situation - I chose to spend more on my computer and less on my recording hardware.  But I'm actually more satisfied with my Cubase and Presonus setup than I was with the equivalently priced ProTools gear.  Whereas I'm WAY happier recording with Macs than my PC.

[brian_gtr]

The single biggest failing of ProTools is its incompatibility with EVERYTHING, that's why they lost me.

Incompatibility with what? I drop audio from any DAW into Pro Tools and can take audio from Pro Tools into any DAW.

Or are you talking about hardware, because I like the fact that my hardware is ALWAYS compatible with my software of choice. I have literally used Pro Tools for 5 years and it's only crashed once, and it was completely my fault for using a QWERTY keyboard that had pre-mapped hot keys that conflicted with Pro Tools. I hit F1, which should've toggled my edit mode, but instead my email program opened in the middle of playback. I have a completely trouble-free studio, and have for 5 years or so. It's worth paying a bit more for the hardware to me for that kind of stability.

I just meant interfaces, I switched to Cubase when I got a presonus interface.  It's possible I was being a bit hyperbolic 

[jouli]

Now you can turn your iPod into your own mini, hand-sized recording studio with Belkin's GoStudio.  It can record stereo audo directly to an iPod Classic, Nano or Video with its two built-in microphones, a mono speaker and four external microphone inputs.

[oldbobd]

The single biggest failing of ProTools is its incompatibility with EVERYTHING, that's why they lost me.

Incompatibility with what? I drop audio from any DAW into Pro Tools and can take audio from Pro Tools into any DAW.

Or are you talking about hardware, because I like the fact that my hardware is ALWAYS compatible with my software of choice. I have literally used Pro Tools for 5 years and it's only crashed once, and it was completely my fault for using a QWERTY keyboard that had pre-mapped hot keys that conflicted with Pro Tools. I hit F1, which should've toggled my edit mode, but instead my email program opened in the middle of playback. I have a completely trouble-free studio, and have for 5 years or so. It's worth paying a bit more for the hardware to me for that kind of stability.

You can drop audio but not anything else.

bob

[Harry]

Individual personal history might follow SilentBob's evolution for a while, but may also have an earlier stage, e.g.

early 80s (no budget, no skill) bouncing between two cassette recorders! Doesn't work.
mid-80s (no budget) borrowed cassette 4-tracks

and hopefully leave it a later stage as enlightenment is achieved:
2000s good absorption, decent monitors, decent preamps, decent interface etc.

[Silent Bob]

I have no problem discussing my own evolution.  I didn't start recording till the mid-90s though.
1995: TASCAM Porta-01, mix to Technics cassette deck with cheap headphones.  I'm all about the DIs!
1996: Mackie MS-1202 direct to HiFi VHS, mixed to Technics cassette deck with decent headphones.  Very little DI.
1997: Mackie MS-1202, Soundblaster running Quartz Studio.
1998: Mackie MS-1202, multitracked on Creative Ensoniq through CEP 1.2 with lousy speakers & decent headphones.  No DIs!
1999: Same thing except I had an Echo MIA which I clocked at 88.2KHz.
2000: TEAC 80-8 which I mixed to MIA.
2004: TASCAM 85-16 through A&H GL2200, mixed to AP-192.  Cheap monitors & good headphones.
Present, pretty much the same except I have a bigger room, better monitoring system and acoustic treatment.

So, while everybody was switching from Minidisk & tape to computer, I was switching from computer to tape.  Unfortunately, virtually nothing I did in my early computer recording days still exists, though I have some RM low quality files somewhere.  Still have a few cassettes & VHS tapes though.

[Edit] In fact, here's an example of the evolution between my cassette days and Ensoniq.  Same song recorded on both systems.  http://www.gcmstudio.com/audioonly/switch_mixes.mp3

[oldbobd]

Here's my latest evolution

Cubase 32bit floating - throw away the I lock for Pro Tools (well give it away)

bob