In the age of geardom where countless threads about "what chain do I need to make 'x' sound more like 'y'?" permeate the interwebs, I recently had one of those experiences that once again reinforced my understanding of where quality comes from.
I have been admiring the vocal sound on a female artist's album from 5 years or so back. She is without a doubt, a fantastic singer with unbelievable delivery. I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with her as a musician over the years, but doing her own solo work, I had yet to experience it. Her albums are always immaculately produced and recorded, and her vocal always has that beautiful, balanced, airy quality that you wish you could get with every singer. The top end, IMO, is to die for. As usual, it is easy to picture her singing into a C12, or 251, or equally beautiful and expensive mic to get that kind of sweet HF content, and of course all kinds of other expensive boutique gear... The stuff Gearslutz is made of!
So I recently finally mixed FOH for a show with her as one of the performers. I set up a Beta87A for her vocal... Basically, the best thing I had on hand for what I expected, and bam... There it was. That balance, and sweet, smooth airy quality I had been hearing on her albums. Absolutely nothing I had done to create that sound, other than staying out of the way. It just exists, right there in front of her face...
I know newbies hate hearing this time and time again, but it really is all about the source.