"Start with great monitors and well thought-out acoustic treatments for your control room. After that, take whatever money you have left over and get a small quantity of high-quality mics and mic preamps.

"As far as mics go, you'll want at least one large diaphragm condenser mic, two small diaphragm condensers, and a variety of dynamic mics. If possible, look for mics made, or at least partially assembled, in the first world by companies with a reputation for quality. This is especially true for LDC's (large diaphragm condensers.)

"In terms of mic preamps, there's millions to choose from, and they all sound a little different (transformer-less can be more transparent, transformers can be weightier, tubes can do distortion more smoothly,) but as long as you have something professional to work with, you'll be fine. Moving a mic 1/4" makes more difference in the sound than switching from an API to a Neve preamp."

Found in this interview (please check out the full conversation): 

https://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/interview-kurt-ballou

-Benedikt

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