Sometimes it's amazing what somebody who is using their ears can get out of average equipment. Some of the best records ever made were done like that. It doesn't matter if you have "expensive microphone type such-and-such" or "expensive preamp type such-and-such", although there is a big hype around these items. Which doesn't mean that there isn't a lower limit of what good equipment will cost you. But, after all, what counts is the ear, and feeling, of the person turning the knobs.
I know that you know this, but it's never wrong to reinterate!
Best o' luck with your work,
Ralf