What Audio Recording Equipment Would You Buy For $1,000?

A while back I walked through the studio, what would you buy next?

So I ask you:

If you had $1,000, what would buy with it?

What gear have you been eyeing lately? Is it a real nice ribbon microphone? A warm tube pre-amp? Or is it a all-in-one acoustic treatment pack?

Take a hypothetical shopping trip, head on over to the gear section on Amazon and leave a comment telling us what you would buy.

You have a budget of $1,000 to buy whatever you want. You can choose to get the one big-ticket item you’ve always wanted or divide the thousand among a few great steals. Anything goes, just leave a link to the item and tell us why you want to buy it.

My $1,000

On my hypothetical shopping trip I’m trying to decide between a few things.

Pre-Amp – I want to get a new pre-amp to get a different sound to my vocals. Something hot like the DBX 386 Dual Vacuum tube pre-amp sounds good. Or alternatively, the Focusrite ISA sounds good, since it also doubles as a high-end DI box.

Mixing – For mixing I’d love to get my hands on something like the Liquid Mix. All these different compression and EQ models just make my mouth water.

Headphones – I broke my closed-back headphones a while back and I haven’t gotten around to replacing them. I haven’t had to record much so I’ve been fine with using my other ones.

Something like the KRK KNS8400 would be a nice addition, and they would be color coded to my KRK Rokit monitors.

Microphones – Microphone-wise, a nice ribbon mic would be a great addition to my mic collection. I know many people swear by the Royer R-121, but that’s out of our price range.

Luckily, the Rupert Neve Voodoo ribbons are amazing! I’ve done a few sample recording using the Voodoo mics and they are a great choice if you’re looking for a nice ribbon mic.

Plug-ins – A home recording studio usually doesn’t have the space to record drums.

However, there are many great drum plug-ins out there that offer really convincing drum tracks. EZ Drummer is one of those plug-ins. It’s simple to use, has great drum sounds and costs less than one hour at a commercial studio!

How Would You Spend Your Money?

Well, that’s what I would get. I know I would probably need to decide between a few of those things, but I think I could probably squeeze in at least three of my items into the $1,000 provided.

What would you get? Leave us a link in the comments!

Image by: Patrick Hoesly

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About Audio Issues and Björgvin Benediktsson

We help musicians transform their recordings into radio-ready and release-worthy records they’re proud to release.

We do this by offering simple and practical music production and success skills they can use immediately to level themselves up – while rejecting negativity and gear-shaming from the industry. A rising tide floats all boats and the ocean is big enough for all of us to surf the sound waves.

Björgvin’s step-by-step mixing process has helped thousands of musicians confidently mix their music from their home studios. If you’d like to join them, check out the best-selling book Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins right here.