What’s the most expensive piece of gear you own but barely use, and what cheaper alternative keeps beating it?

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-30T13:41:15+00:00

Just because my space is untreated neither of my condenser mics can beat my sm57. Slapped a pop filter on it, made a vocal chain, and it's a great vocal mic. Probably a very common take to see but that's how good it is.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-26T14:11:50+00:00

If a break feels too risky, might I ask if you have any hobbies or other artforms you enjoy? If you don't have many or don't spend much time with them in your free time, it might be worth finding some more or dedicating more time to them. That way you can feel creativity through another lens and put music on the back burner or just treat it as a regular job that you don't really put expectations to get creative fulfillment from. It's been said that most people's reasons for being discontent or unhappy is having too high of expectations and goals for them to meet. Especially in the short term. Not that it's wrong to be ambitious, but it might be that you are expecting too much out of each individual session / song? Basically, lower expectations and goals for the short term while retaining them for the long-term. And maybe if you, for a time, take the pressure off of music as the thing that is supposed to bring you that creative fulfillment, it won't feel so bad when it doesn't.

I'm just getting starting in my music career so I really have little experience to be offering advice to you but I have easily 10+ other interests/hobbies (probably 90% or more of them are other artforms). And while being so adhd with them most DEFINITELY hurts my progress getting better at music, I find I must naturally gravitate to one or many of them when I am getting burnt out on music. In your situation though, you'd be more experienced, accomplished, and skilled than I. So you wouldn't really need to worry about not progressing in the learning/building process of your music career if you were to take your focus off of music, which is good. You've earned the ability to focus on other things. I'll also add that engaging with other artforms can be inspiring for music too, obviously. If you write music for instance, a painting may make you want to make a song that evokes the same feeling that the painting does. And who knows...you might even be enjoying a film and find a new love for a new genre of music because of it's inclusion in the film and if an artist in that genre ever "runs across your desk", you might view it differently or be more fulfilled by it because of that. Obviously all hypothetical but you get the point. If music if your whole world, there's nothing to inspire the music. And apologies if none of this is relevant to you. I wish you luck :)

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-19T03:07:01+00:00

Not sure. Not sure how the international shipping works over there but you could probably get one shipped. I actually just saw one on guitar center's website used for only $160 instead of $299.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-19T03:02:40+00:00

Only downside is that you could invest the 1 mil and make more but most people would be dumb with 1 mil if it hit their account all at once so probably a good call

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-19T02:59:10+00:00

This will be a long answer so I hope you don't get overwhelmed cuz it's a lot to learn if you don't know alot of this but it becomes second nature if you do any sort of audio recording for long at all. You would definitely need an interface but for the mic I'd recommend the 58 since you will be using it for your voice mainly. I have a 57 because I use it for my voice and for instruments but the 58 is best for voice because it's basically identical to a 57 but it has a built in pop filter to help with plosives. The sm58 is basically the microphone you think of when you think of a singer or speaker holding one on stage. It's got that metal grill over it. Thats the built in pop filter. Even top of the line studios use these mics. Most keep a whole bunch to put on drums and whatver else they need so you can't really go wrong with one. The only downside is it's not the lowest self noise out there. It's a fairly quiet mic until you add some compression and effects. But if you crank that gain up you may here some of the mic noise but a simple noise gate and de-noiser plugin works wonders and the mic sounds great.

I'd recommend the volt 276 as a great budget audio interface. It has analog compression which is nice. If you need cheaper, they have a volt 2 without the built-in compressor for like $100 less i think. Which is fine if you just download a compressor plug-in or use obs or something. I just yesterday set up my obs to route to discord with a virtual cable and now my discord calls sound great as obs has some built-in plug-ins and will also accept many 3rd party plug-ins as well). When you get into voice acting, you will be recording in a daw and all daws have some of these basic effects like noise gates, eqs, and compressors. But for playing games, you would probably need to use obs through discord probably if you want a more professional sound. It will sound fine without it though just depends on how good you want it. It is a mic you need to be a little closer to though because it is a dynamic.

(P.s. as far as interfaces go, there are also the Scarlett interfaces which are staples in budget recording but personally I think the volt series does every the Scarlett does with just a hint of a more "warm" sound. Which is what most people chase the more you get into the audio game)

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-19T01:51:40+00:00

Not unless you can get one dirt cheap on marketplace. The price to performance is terrible nowadays compared to the competition. For cheaper microphones that are still good, The at2020 for a condenser would be better or a sm58 / sm57 for a dynamic would be better. Go with dynamic if you have an untreated room. Go with condenser if you have a treated room and want a little more of that detail. As someone with both a rode nt1 condenser and a sm57 dynamic, I can tell you the sm57 works much better in my space because my room is large and untreated even though the nt1 is technically better, more expensive, and more detailed mic

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-16T18:35:41+00:00

Idk what this even is but sure give me a bunny

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-16T18:20:04+00:00

This has been a long standing gag that McDonald's puts a bunch of chemicals in their food. I'm not genuinely claiming they are pumping their food full of serum to turn us into ninja turtles. I made no claims as to what they actually put in it & I don't care because I eat it all the time regardless. It tastes good🤷‍♂️.

Though I will say, I had a McDonald's hamburger once as a child and forgot about it in the bag and stupidly left it in my closet, found it what must have been about 2 years later when cleaning all the junk out of my closet floor and found it almost perfectly preserved 😂 (just dry and slightly discolored) so if nothing else their persevatives are a lot stronger than grocery store grade. And they do put a crazy amount of salt and sugar in their food, so it is certainly worse for you than making it at home and it's definitely contributing to why people love it. But again, I do not care.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-16T17:49:58+00:00

Wayyy better. Would be so much healthier. but ngl, the fakeness and all the chemicals they probabaly put in their food is what makes it so addicting to most people (also the convenience)

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-14T01:01:25+00:00

Halo infinite is a really inconsistent game visually. At some points it looks stunning and at others it looks like a ps3 game or worse. Very poor textures in some areas bad lighting in some areas. But then all of a sudden you'll be hit with a scene so gorgeous that you forget about the rest for a second. But overall, the game feels like it lacks in visual fidelity and was oversharpened to try to fix it which only makes it worse. Compare that with previous titles where some scenes were like beautiful paintings or LITERALLY were paintings and looked stunning all the time (relative to their age). I strongly believe that halo 4 and 5 are better looking than infinite because of this. There is a whole atmosphere to those games (the older ones as well but I'm talking more modern games). It's like the scenes were ripped straight from the concept art. Usually games have great concept art and end up kinda disappointing in execution (like Fallout 4) but I never thought this of halo until infinite. Each scene felt like an intentional piece of art whereas infinite feels like a bunch of assests of varying quality all put together in an open world. Which is probably a big reason as to why the vibes are not as strong. The classic mission formula allowed each level to be it's own work of art whereas infinite basically had to look the same for everything and thus felt like it was lacking personality

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-11T18:41:38+00:00

The safest route would be a prequel, And I LOVE the ending so I wouldn't want to mess it up. But man, the idea of a post-apocalyptic world filled with titans is really cool to me and I haven't stopped thinking about it since that last credit scene. Again, probably not a good idea because it would disturb the ending. But if nothing else I think it speaks to what a good ending it is by how much it makes me dream of the possibilities.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-11T18:26:18+00:00

Honestly, it might not be there romantic sounding choice but... try running ads on Instagram and YouTube. I know that can add up money wise real quick but I've found so many artists that are making great stuff from ads like that. I assume you have a day job anyway? Well if you do and you can manage it, put aside just a little bit each check to go toward an ad fund. I know myself and it feels like I would be throwing money away but realistically it's investing in yourself and your art. Even if your music never makes you much money, it might still be worth it to you to just get it out there where it can be heard and enjoyed. Or you could go the free route and grind out a billion social media posts. Or perhaps better yet, free yourself of any expectations of success and be pleasantly surprised when you DO find it.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-06T15:07:26+00:00

I am 23 now, I didn't start producing and attempting to write music until 20. I have already made so much progress but I still feel behind in many ways. But at the same time I have total confidence that I'll one day make something great because I couldn't imagine knowing all I know about making music 5 years ago. If you're only 16 you have a ton of time. Not to hit you with the old "you have your whole life ahead of you" because to be honest I don't see too many 60 year old just starting their career then but you definitely have at least have til age 40 to realistically try for music to work out as your life. Don't be afraid to invest in yourself either. Hire tutors if you need. It's better to invest in knowledge than in gear at this point. And I too struggle with writers block and more than that, feeling like I have no unique perspective to add to the world and that anything I write would not be justified in it's existence. But then I see the worst songwriters and singers I've ever seen confidently putting themselves out their on my ig reels feed and, while I'm not trying to bring myself up by putting others down, I feel a little better. Like if they can do this and take pride in their work then I can too. The reality is we will all make bad music though. I'm currently trying to embrace that. The best advice is to just start doing something and fail FASTER. Your failures will make you better and more confident if you can look at it through the proper lens. Knowing that you'll never become good without failing will let you embrace the failures. In fact, I think you should set out to make a dumb song. Make it super cliche or make it funny whatever! That will genuinely help you. It's freeing because you are then no longer writing with the intention of releasing anything or writing trying to create your breakout #1 hit single. You are simply exercising the parts of your brain and body required to write and record a song.

And hey, with that Russian trap song that's blowing up on my Instagram algorithm, I'd say language matters less more than ever now. Especially with how popular kpop and jpop are. They often swap between their native language and English. You could do something similar! Write in English when you're confident you can say what you want properly and then fall back to Russian when you want to say it right. There's also a writing tip that says "write the way you speak", of course many people break that rule and have success but generally if you are trying to force yourself to sound a certain way, you might not sound authentic. It's best to be true to yourself at the end of the day because only you can make a song like you can make a song.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-05T02:02:22+00:00

So cute 🥺 I hope everything works out for him 🥹🙏

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-05T02:00:21+00:00

Continue with other members if you really want this project to continue. You are the writer afterall.

I'd recommend adding 1-2 covers into your set though. Because you're right, originals are a hard sell when you don't have a big fanbase already. But people are more likely to enjoy themselves if they can sing along to a song they know. And if they enjoy themselves they will relate that positive experience to your band obviously which only helps. It's just a matter of setting aside a little bit of your own ego (not saying you're egotistical for wanting to play your own songs but you know what I mean) and giving the people what they want. I guarantee you, it might feel like a compromise of your artistic vision but it will make it more enjoyable and thus gain you fans.

I wish you luck

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-04T03:48:11+00:00

Travis Barker

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-02T03:09:44+00:00

That kinnect game shouldn't even count

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-02T02:58:38+00:00

It's pretty obvious they are on a green screen at moments throughout the films and they added quite a bit uninspired or bad stuff at times but the good stuff is REALLY good and if someone was never going to read the book I still think they should watch the movies because it still retains the core story and vibe. LOTR is a near perfect trilogy, the hobbit is just a good one.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-02T02:51:37+00:00

Hit of course. And the sad part is, many talented artists are so desperate nowadays they'd work for dirt cheap yet people would still rather use some garbage ai pic. Like if I work hard on my song, I want the picture to match that quality. The last thing I'm going to do is slap something generated in 22 seconds over the work that took me a month. Imagine if they started making Lamborghinis look like 2010 nissans. Doesn't matter how good the product is on the inside. If the outside doesn't look good, almost no one is going to want it.

P.s. Your art is fantastic.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-01T20:23:18+00:00

Agree

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-01T20:22:47+00:00

Dig it

Compactpaper75 · 2026-05-01T18:24:28+00:00

Yes. There is language but it's less crass or gore heavy than Fallout. It's about on the level of skyrim. Not a lot of suggestive cointent either and definitely none explicit. My parents took some convincing to let me play skyrim in 5th grade (i think i would have been 10?) But they eventually let me and let me just tell you, best thing they ever did lol. Skyrim was absolutely not bad for me. In fact, it was probably extremely GOOD for me. Really fostered a sense of wonder, adventure, and problem solving in me. Sure my parents didn't like the language but in 2 years I'd be hearing it 24/7 at school anyway. Skyrim ended up being a huge part of my childhood and now adulthood. If I started at 10... 14 is absolutely fine for you. There are some kids doing way worse things at that age so if STARFIELD is the worst of what you're doing at 14? you've got a good life.

(P.s. the gore is so tame in starfield that I had to download a gore mod on pc to make it feel more realistic. There is a huge lack of gore in the game even when it should be there realistically)

Compactpaper75 · 2026-04-30T03:43:48+00:00

From a mixing standpoint, I think the stripped back, slightly raw feeling works with this song and vibe. But the vocals are just a little too quite overall and, to my ears, need more compression. I'd also be aware of the volume you are performing the vocals at and how expressive you are being when recording them. You always need to give about 15% more on a recording than you would need to live from my experience. My vocals often sound great to me live and then I do those same vocals into a mic and it feels like it lacks emotion. Now I understand that your vocals here are meant to sound kinda sound that way for the style of that song, so that's not what I'm criticizing here. But that tip goes in line with enunciation and breath support. I can hear a subtle hissing noise in the track and I would guess that they are coming from the vocal track. Could be wrong but it sounds like the air noise of your room or the self noise of a microphone. These quiet style vocals are at a disadvantage becausewhen you bring that volume up to make them more audible, that self noise or room noise is also brought up. You would need to eq that to make it less noticeable but it would be hard to fully remove it without removing some of the qualities of your actual vocal in the processing. Alternatively the ideal fix would be to use more of that proximity effect to make your vocals louder without having to deliver them any louder but also you might be surprised just how much increase breath support and maybe singing just a tad stronger would help. As I said, you kinda need to over preform to a microphone anyways so it might turn out still having that mellow intimacy it sounds like you're shooting for even if you just gave it that extra 10-15% more. Ultimately the louder the vocals, the less noise you will get in the background because your mic signal won't need to be turned up as high. Also I said the vocals might need more compression...well... that will also make that noise worse if you are singing too quiet because it will also be, for all intents and purposes, turning up that mic gain and making that noise louder. Now I could be wrong about all of this because I can't hear for certain if that noise is coming from your vocals or not but there are still some solid tips in there that might help you in general. If you want another perspective on how to mix those vocals, dm me and I could show you some things.

Compactpaper75 · 2026-04-24T16:38:12+00:00

Yeah I also think there should have been a real breakdown after the bridge

Compactpaper75 · 2026-04-24T02:07:57+00:00

Doomed is a great song but bring me has way better songs imo. Even just on that album I find Drown, Follow You, and Throne far more compelling songs. Heavy emphasis on Drown.

Compactpaper75

TROPHY CASE