Anyone have a over the top music room that will never play professionally?

The irony is that most professional musicians can’t afford all that nice new gear while hobbyists with day jobs in more lucrative professions can. I am in the latter.

I have a garage workshop that I've put acoustic treatments to, rubber floor mats, corner bass traps, a mic snake..

And it's all for me to hang out in, teach the odd lesson in, and sometimes chill/jam with friends.

A buddy of mine turned his basement into a 4 zone, all touchscreen controlled, 8 headphone tree, mic snake, light show ..everything. we jam there once a month and just fuck around. It's pretty cool.

I'm not a pro as in its my main income, but I usually have a gig or two every weekend, sometimes more, and I've done it for 20 some years with several bands and solo.

My instruments are all 15-20yrs old and beat and worn, lower end of "pro-grade" instruments price wise. They sit in cases on my living room floor. The cases are beat, too, with a lot of duct tape and stickers holding them together. They're tools, scared up and worn but faithful and reliable tools.

Most gigging musicians I know are the same. They might have a little recording setup they can put up in the bedroom, maybe a spare room where the instruments live...but none of them have massive collections of pristine collector item instruments without blemishes, or multi thousand dollar studio rooms. Dentists and lawyers have that shit because they want to be cool. Most gigging musicians have some well loved instruments and maybe something really fancy at home that they don't gig with.

I think a lot of us are a little of both. I've run bands, played in a bunch of bands, etc, but music has never been my main source of income.

So I don't know about "never play professionally". Some of my bands made good money during summer fests and stuff.

But "never have music be my main profession"? Yeah, probably that. But never say never. If my current dayjob career fell apart, I'd probably go back to teaching music.

My stuff is definitely for go, not for show. I buy good quality/utilitarian stuff and take pretty good care of it, but everything definitely looks loved on.

Mine wasn't over the top nice. In fact it was totally ghetto gear but a really advanced hybrid analogue/digital studio.

Thing was, as life got more complicated and I had less time to use it, it became more of a hindrance than a benefit. So I downsized and simplified to a basic home setup that I've actually had time to use a lot more.

I do it as a hobby until I ever make enough to tour. And I only do it because I'm living comfortably. Many people say when your passion becomee a career you lose your love for it. So I make music for myself.

I built a studio that rivals the best of the best, but I haven't met a musician in over a decade🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I think it depends what you do musically and who your audience is.

There is a big reality check here and I guess it's more aimed at non-electronic instrument bands, more the typical guitar/bass/drums sort of band.

If you want people to listen to you on streaming, you have to sound good for streaming. And the reality is that copy of reaper, a focusrite 2i2 and a bunch of plugins is not going to cut it. People demand top drawer quality today even over their free streaming services. That is the fact of the matter. You have less than five seconds today to impress and that's being generous. If you don't impress in that five seconds, you will get swiped away and likely that guy will never come back. If you make it over five seconds, there's a higher chance of someone clicking a like button.

In that case therefore, you just need to have that quality there. And despite the best intentions in the world, you just won't do it with that level of equipment. This is where you need to start either paying someone to do your recording and mix work for you, or you need to learn the craft and invest in the equipment. There really isn't a middle ground.

The irony is, most of the music making and listening world have been sold on the idea that you can do it all on your home computer these days for practically nothing. So there is even less of an excuse for any quality niggles. In fact, most must recorded in the 1990s and early 2000s just would not cut it today. The punter demands top shelf. And they demand it for free.

Of course, there will be the odd few musophiles that will happily listen past bad production to a point. That is simply not the majority though. They very much are the outliers.

So really, someone having a bunch of professional equipment at home I don't see as a joke, I see it as a necessity. I have a bunch of pro gear simply as that quality must be there. And even then, I'll likely farm out my mixes once I have recordings down.

As a drummer the mid grade gear is not only cheaper but also considerably lighter to carry around. Those high-end drums and hardware weigh a freaking ton...I definitely leave those at home mostly because my back won't allow me to drag those anywhere.