Hi all,
 
Do you know any great albums recorded and/or mixed with relatively humble equipment? It would be interesting to see some examples :-)
 
BR

and to affirm that my equipment is not so bad :-P

Look up the making of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album.  It was either one or two 4-track machines.
 
I saw a recreation of the studio at the museum in Liverpool, incredibly humbling.
 
In fact, I'd bet that the equipment in most of our home studios would beat anything pre-1980.  Other than talent and the studio rooms themselves...

There is no hope. Just hobby.  :-)

Of course he was an MIT engineer who could make his own custom gear, but Tom Scholtz made the entire first Boston album at his house.

Everything by Les Paul. 55 (!) charting singles, mostly recorded in his kitchen. He did not even have a tape recorder for some of them, recording directly into a disc cutter.
 
Everything by Joe Meek, including the biggest-selling single of all time, Telstar. Made his own spring reverb unit out of a space heater.
 
"Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen, recorded on a Portastudio and originally intended as a demo to try to land a recording contract, it became a hit.
 
"Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones. Recorded in a rented house in France. They did have a mobile rig out in the driveway, which was well-equipped by the standards of the day but primitive by current standards.
 
 
 
 

but, 
in almost all of these particular examples,
high quality microphones were used.
 
this is the most critical item in the sound capture path,
the daw or tape deck or whatever is saving the 'track' is almost irrelevant compared to the quality of the microphone.
 
mic 1st,
then preamp,
then everything else.
 

 
McCartney - 1st album - 4 track Studer machine - no mixing board  - Plugged  straight into the back of it and used his ear for "Levels" ....I do believe it was mixed at EMI Abbey Road though 
 
Well not a GREAT album but it did give us "Maybe I am Amazed "
 
 
 

batsbrew
but, 
in almost all of these particular examples,
high quality microphones were used.
 
this is the most critical item in the sound capture path,
the daw or tape deck or whatever is saving the 'track' is almost irrelevant compared to the quality of the microphone.
 
mic 1st,
then preamp,
then everything else.
 

Even microphones can be cheap, and still deliver. F.ex. Shure SM7 (or SM7B) which was used for Michael Jackson's Thriller. Most sold album of all time :)

decent song
talent 
decent mic,
then preamp,
then everything else.