I've been recording a long time. My oldest work is USUALLY going to be worst. Although, there are notable exceptions. For example, the very first project I recorded had a son that was recently played at a funeral. Every person in that room had tears in their eyes. I quickly learned that even though I was quite clueless about the process of recording at the time, if a song is powerful enough, the engineering doesn't matter much.
About 6 months ago I gave up the notion of recording local bands with the cram-as-many-songs-into-a-weekend-as-possible-mentality. Now I only produce. That means that time is not taken into account. I'd rather spend a year on a project and be proud of it and at least have the possibility for commercial success.
The tracks also very in quality because the bands very in quality. Where you stick the mic has so little to do with the sound. Actually, it's VERY important, but I used to think that mic placement was 100% of the sound. It's more like 10%. 90% is having a great song, played by great musicians, with great instruments. The room does come into the picture somewhere.
Here's a mix I did the other day:
http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=1106
This is a first mix. This song, as noted in the thread, needs some producing work. Unfortunately, I have a deadline for this particular project. (I'm actually recording someone with a marketing plan). However, you can get an idea of quality I'm getting in boxy rooms that have been poorly treated at least. Again, I'm not quite pro, but I'm convinced that the songs do come through, at least.
Gear
Ahh. The gear has little to do with it. The terrible sounding recordings I had done use the same gear I've always had. I snagged the Myteks about 2 years ago. I added my Presonus M80 at about the same time. I got my Royer R121 about 1.5 years ago. I bought my Soundelux U99 about a year ago.
None of these items have directly boosted my recording quality to an amount where my friends/family/whoever says "Wow! Because of this piece of gear, the sound quality in your studio is WAY better!". I've had to learn that these pieces just sound a little different. I could get very similar tones with cheap gear. It would just take a little more effort.
The Myteks do help with that 1-2%. There is a slight boost in clarity that is noticeable. I'm glad I have them. However, I've recorded a lot of band sounding, terrible songs through the Myteks. The song that made an entire room cry was recorded with my Delta 1010s. I'll take the tear jerker every time! j
Fancy converters do help, but not as much as the average home recording guy would think. It's an issue of budget really. Home recording guys want to spend $2,000 and having everything. Pro faciliites spend $2million on their bulding (maybe 10 times that) and maybe a million on gear. In that setting, converters cost about as much as their sound quality impact makes.
Brandon
Brandon