sorry, it’s been a few days…
right now i’m thinking about how much of a good recording is equipment and how much is know-how of the engineer/recordist/whoever-did-it. is it even possible for someone with the best room, best recording equipment, best instruments, best… you get the idea – BUT with no real knowledge of how to use all that to make a decent record at all? understanding how an equalizer works is not that difficult but to be able to really use one, meaning to decide first, which one to use for what and then to use it in a way as to really get the sound needed for the song is somewhat more complicated. and i’m not even talking about the necessity to have more than one high-end equalizer to be able to choose which one you want to use in the first place.
i don’t think one can really use pro-gear if he has no idea what he’s doing or just some basics…
so if you want to make a professional sounding record, there’s two things to consider:
first, there seems to be no use in spending all your money (and maybe even more) on the best equalizer/compressor/expander/limiter/microphone/etc. there is because to compete with a pro studio gearwise you would need much more than one of each kind and that is just out of the question – moneywise – for almost all of us. for example you save money until you can afford that great preamp you always wanted because it’s just the best for vocals. as soon as you have it you think ‘awesome, now i can make the best records out there’ and then you find out that your new preamp is just not good for drums… see where i am going? cool.
the second point would be your education. let’s say you’re rich and you spend all your money on the best equipment so you could compete with any pro studio. but what now? you still wouldn’t know how to use all this stuff (…and there’s no money left to hire someone who could do it for you or teach you for that matter). you’d still be nowhere. so you would need both, agreed?
on the other hand i’m quite sure someone with the know-how would be able to make a decent recording without the best equipment out there. maybe imagine a painter. i’d bet that a professional painter would paint a better picture than me, even if i had the greatest quality colors, brushes and so forth and he had only the cheapest stuff of all. it wouldn’t even be close, trust me on that.
well, any sound engineer will tell you how important the equipment is and that’s right to a certain degree. but given someone with huge knowledge about recording/mixing/mastering… the difference between good and bad equipment is not as large as one might think. there would be a much, much greater difference between huge-knowledge-man and some rookie.

so know-how is the single most important aspect of making records and compared to that, gear seems to be almost irrelevant.

not convinced? ok, here’s the mother of all examples…

think of all the great sounding records of the 60s and 70s, some of them still being considered among the best sounding recordings of all time. and now think of the equipment they had back then…..

so good news everyone, you can go and spend all your money on hookers and booze because you’re too stupid for that fancy multithousanddollarcompressor anyway.
hm, maybe i phrased that unwisely.

don’t get lost in the struggle for high end gear – go learn instead! chances are, you won’t need anything but know-how…

good luck