Let’s get our priorities straight: talent always comes first. You must know the principles of the job; you must have a trained ear, along with a thorough understanding of how the equipment works- signal flow and gain structure are the foundation that you must understand. After that you hopefully will have a choice in gear; of course you want the nicer, more expensive equipment, but with your knowledge and abilities you could make most anything work. The equipment is never first priority- talent and knowledge are.
This is one of the reasons why “technical school” isn’t always a good idea- these schools attract students and teach with the best gear- by nature this isn’t a bad thing; however, the gear usually takes first priority. In the last year alone I’ve worked with at least three people who have come out of different “recording schools” and yet in real world scenarios none of them could keep up (yes, it was recording school, and I’m working them in the live industry, but still…). I’m not saying they aren’t great guys with lots of potential, I’m just saying that the trade schooling itself didn’t make them ready for the job. Students may learn the gear, but they often don’t learn the principles and/or the needed talent.
There was an article in Pro Audio Review by Lynn Fuston (July/August 2014), which, while written to studio engineers, is still just as applicable to live engineers. Let me leave you with some quotes from that article:
“The dirty little secret that nobody will tell recording novices is you don’t need great gear to make a great record. I’ll say it again: You don’t need great gear to make a great record. The single most important ingredient in making a great record is talent.”
“I’ve asked numerous big-name engineers, each with credits on multiple millions of records, the same question: ‘If someone asked you to make a record with one big stipulation, that you can only use SM57s to record everything, could you make a great-sounding record?’ The answer from every one of them was, ‘Sure.’”
“So why is the industry as a whole so obsessed with gear? Here’s my theory. You can buy gear. You can’t buy talent.”
“My good friend Glenn Rosenstein (Madonna, Ziggy Marley) told me once, ‘You want to know how to get that James Taylor guitar sound? Hand a guitar to James Taylor. Put up an 87. Easiest guitar sound I ever got in my life.”
“Don’t use gear, or a lack thereof, as a crutch.”
“I’d honestly rather have Mick Guzauski, Bill Schnee or Al Schmitt mix a record on a Mackie than someone with lesser talents on an SSL. Why? I know they can deliver excellent results regardless of the gear. It’s the ear, not the gear.”
“As you master the craft, you’ll be able to use those skills with any gear, good or not so good. And great gear only makes your life easier.”