The pros greatly outweigh the cons of building your own studio. Buy copies of Recording, EQ, and MIX magazines to find out about what s new these days. A hot new item will be reviewed by all of these mags in a matter of a few months. You may think, as we did, that the effects you buy produce the big sounds you want. Your best bet would be to buy a shit load of Shure staple mikes, i.e. their SM58 and SM57 series, and one kick ass condenser mike to be used on vocals.
Mikes are the essence of good tone.
The small mixing market is owned by Mackie. You can t go wrong. Their 1604 boards have been a part of great sounds for a long time. Their sound is warm and quiet. Like I said, you can t go wrong.