So it's important when choosing gear to listen to the sound of everything, not just your favourite synths. Soundcraft Spirit desks, for example, have a warm, fat sound which sounds great, but they also lose some detail. Mackie desks are much tighter, crisper and more up-front, but don't quite have that warmth. A digital desk like the Yamaha Programmable Mixer 01 has a slightly thin quality. And when it comes to DAT machines, the differences between a budget 500 deck, a semi-pro 800 deck and a fully pro 10,000 deck are obvious.
Microphones are another thing to listen out for.
The vocal sound of a track is totally crucial and it's one of the areas which lets down some demos. And try out mics before you buy them, too. The difference in sound quality between brands can be phenomenal. The moral is listen before you buy. If you like the sound of a certain mixer brand but need the features of a big desk, it may even be worth spending a couple of hundred quid on a tiny submixer just to process a complete mix before you master it to tape.