One of the reasons I pay good money to go to places like sunset sound to track my records isn't because of the 100 u47's or bucket of C37's they have on hand. Sure the mic closet isn't a bad thing but for me, it's the custom made consoles. A sound that cannot be found elsewhere on the planet. This is something that is becoming extinct in the industry. With the popularity of Ebay where it is more financially enticing to rip consoles to shreds to sell as parts, you see less "whole pieces" all the time. Why did chess studios have a sound? How about Abbey Road? How about Sun or anywhere from when you went to a studio for THAT sound? They existed in a time where you had to have gear built. You couldn't just order a limiter on the interweb. The only option was to get a tech at the radio station to build one for you.
I guess what I'm trying to say is home recording is a great thing especially in these times where the record industry can't figure out how to invest in their products or take chances with artist that fans would actually feel compelled to pay for. If you want to make a unique quality product you have to be precious about it's creation. From the songwriting to the documentation. Studio's like Sunset Sound offer decades of beautiful one of a kind signal path. Of course you could do it at home but dont be stunned when megaupload is the only distributer moving your records. Invest in the art. Especially if you are an artist. Over here at GBP we are working our way towards some of these one of a kind pieces that will give us our own sound. When someone comes here to make music they, for better or worse, will leave with something they could have not gotten elsewhere. That's the idea right?