[Missing Words]

Simple thread, really. I'm just curious at to what gear all of you are using to create your tracks?
I know that its a bit of a minefield, and there's now so many ways of producing a track these days it can make your head spin.

Personally, while I have been in a major slump as far as writing goes, I have used the time to slowly built up a project studio, and tried to learn as much as I can about music tech and production (from a hobbyist point of view, not gone to uni for it or anything like that) in order to be ready for when the muse hits...

Anyhow, as of now my gear list is as follows:-

Roland HP-507 Digital Piano (my pride and joy!)
Ableton Live 9, Push and APC40
Studio One
Korg MS-20 Mini
Acoustic and electric guitars
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 interface
Shure SM57, SE2200a condenser
KRK VXT4's and 10s sub
Several software synths, main ones Komplete 9, Superior Drummer and Omnisphere.

I just thought this thread would be good to get an idea of what people are using to make music over here, and hopefully this will enable us to help each other with the recording process.

Fire away!

Andrew

[S.T.C]

Sheer natural inspiration ..is my favorite bit of kit.

[Missing Words]

Sheer natural inspiration ..is my favorite bit of kit.

Indeed.... When are they releasing version 2.0 lol!

[Boydie]

ersonally, while I have been in a major slump as far as writing goes, I have used the time to slowly built up a project studio, and tried to learn as much as I can about music tech and production

I did exactly the same thing last year and it has been AMAZINGLY rewarding and time well spent

Here is how I do my "thang"...

My "studio" is in my living room so it has to be "put away" every night - so I have had to design my equipment around this

My PC is therefore a laptop - but to be fair it is a monster i7 laptop with 32GB RAM and 2 hard drives  

My DAW is SONAR X3, which I find amazing. I wrote the review of SONAR X2 for FUTURE MUSIC magazine so had a good play with it and upgraded to X3 immediately

The "Pro Channel" section of SONAR is incredible and deals with the vast majority of my compressing and EQ needs - as well as a little tube saturation, console emulation and tape emulation to give a warm "analogue" sound

My audio interface is an M-AUDIO Fast Track Ultra (USB)

ALL of my guitar is done "in the box" using AMPLITUBE (for cleaner sounds) and GUITAR RIG (for the dirty stuff)

Vocals and acoustic guitar are recorded with an SE 2200T condenser version (I think the tube gives it a lovely smooth clarity)

I can't monitor using speakers (   ) so I use KRK KNS-8400 headphones for monitoring BUT I also use a FOCUSRITE VRM BOX to simulate the experience of listening through speakers - as well as giving some alternative speaker set-ups to test mixes on

I have a variety of plug-ins but the main ones I am currently using are: Komplete 8 (especially Massive, Battery and Kontact for my "pop" stuff), Addictive Drums, Chris Hein Horns Compact, and Melodyne

I have recently discovered EZ KEYS, which is a ridiculously easy to use piano plugin that not only gives a VERY authentic sound but it is also an amazing songwriting tool - and I think it is fantastic value for money...



...and a little inspiration but I am waiting for the patch as mine is a bit buggy at the moment

[dnafe]

The studio (that's closing) uses a RADAR front end into an i5 PC running Reaper via an RME 9652 (we also have two UAD cards in the rig for additional plug ins) and then back out again to the RADAR unit to ADAM P33A monitors.

Mic selection is quite diverse but we have the standard Shure, Sennheiser, AKG mics as well as a couple of hand crafted U47 knock offs and two omni SDC mics that are freaking amazing.

Pre amps are Neve 1272s and Burwin Victor S990s along with a Presonus Digimax 8 channel Pre / converter for extra inputs just in case we need them.


My mix room is a dual rig setup

The first one (a quad core) houses a PARIS dual card system (with two UAD cards) connecting two MECs (hardware interfaces) which house 8 - 24 bit input converters 8 - 24 bit output converters and 16 channels of ADAT light pipe as well as a main and monitor audio outputs

The second rig (an i3) houses Reaper which gets it's audio from Paris via the adat lightpipe into a Frontier Designs Dakota Card then back to the PARIS rig via lightpipe

The monitors are Note Perfect Alpha Pro (mods) from Australia - killer speakers made by an ex-patriot Canuck from Toronto - and a steal as the Auzzie dollar was worth squat when I bought them

Anyway when the studio closes my partner and I will divvy up the spoils as previously agreed and hope that we can rebuild. Either way I'll be upgrading my mix room ASAP to include a full midi suite loaded with VSTi instrumentation, keyboards and E-Drums (both of which have been sadly under used as of late.

Hope that diatribe isn't too confusing but it is what it is  hehehe

[Jamie]

Hi all,
         I'm a complete novice when it comes to recording and engineering a song. I decided to go for what I thought would be the simplest way to get into the technical side of music recording (having looked at various software packages). I bought a Roland boss BR1600 . This is a stand alone box covering all aspects of the process, from base recording through mixing mastering and burning to cd. It is pretty flexible and someone who knows what they are doing can manipulate every aspect of the process ( although I know so little about recording that others may  disagree ), or you can use pre set patches, which is how I started out. I've started to get into it, but it was a great way to enjoy learning whilst recording reasonable standard recordings. I've had mine for about a year now and I know infinitely more about recording than I did then, so for me it was a good way to start. I also have an SE2200T mic which give a really nice warm vocal or acoustic guitar sound. I have a org Kronos which is a great synth, and Yamaha piano. I have a mapex drum kit with sabian symbols. Guitars are a longer list- Gibson les Paul standard, Gibson SG standard,American  fender strat , Gretsch 5750, Yamaha Pacifica,a Yamaha Spanish guitar, and a Martin acoustic with Roland electrics.i record all my electric guitars directly into the BR 1600 which has some great programmes built in. For live work I have a fishman acoustic amp and a Mesa boogie lonestar 2x12.
I guess I will grow out of this at some stage and will have to look at something else, though you can buy another BR1600 and join them to get a 32 track system. Any advice or experience let me have your thoughts.
Cheers
Jamie

[montydog]

I do all my recording in my little room (to give it it's grand title) or cupboard (if you were to describe it accurately.)

It's about 8ft by 5ft and contains my microphones (Se 2200a & Shure SM58), digital workstation (Yamaha AW 1600) which very similar to what Jamie uses. I do all the recordings for the band I'm in so I need something which I can pick up and carry round to other peoples houses, rehearsal rooms etc so this is easier than having an interface that can take 8 mics at once and a laptop.

Then there's a pair of speakers (ancient  Mordant Short things) headphones (beyerdynamic DT770 pro closed back), the best I have ever heard or owned, and the guitar I'm currently using hung on the wall. I also have a Yamaha PSR 9000 keyboard (weighs the same as a Welsh rugby scrum but will last longer than me) in an adjacent room.

I record straight into the Yamaha workstation and then transfer the wav files via USB to my DAW (Sonar 7 still soldiering on) which is in the adjacent PC. I don't understand 95% of what Sonar can do, I just import the files, put a bit of EQ, compression and reverb on them and away they go.

For live work I have a Marshall AS50D acoustic guitar amp which handles a guitar channel and a vocal channel and is a lovely thing indeed.

Instruments:

Gibson J200 Studio jumbo acoustic guitar

Michael Terris squareneck dobro or resophonic slide guitar to be more accurate. This was built by a master guitar builder in New York state and there's probably less than a hundred in the world. It's my pride and joy and I would weep blood if I ever lost it. I bought it in America in 2012 and brought it back on the plane.

Epiphone AJ500 M acoustic guitar. Wonderful all solid wood dreadnought which is no longer made and impossible to find used. Again blood would flow if I lost this.

Guild D125 all mahogany 12 string guitar - my most recent purchase

Gold Tone MC 150R 5 string banjo - currently learning how to play this with not a great deal of success yet.

Thanks for reading (if you've managed to get this far - congratulations and have a cigar).

M

[Jamie]

I forgot my monitors, I have A7X's which seem incredibly true to me. My studio is a purpose built room about 8mtrs by 7 mtrs. We use it for band practice too.
Cheers
Jamie

[tone]

Hehe threads like this make me think of Spinal Tap for some reason (no offence peeps)

What gear do I use.... well, a pair of slightly road-worn ears are my best asset I suppose, followed by a restless imagination and unshakeable desire to turn small finger movements into music

Enough of that mischief! Since I'm here, I'm going to assume that you lot are genuinely interested, so here's a shortened list as some of its not worth mentioning.

Technics E Piano (& midi keyboard)
Jasmine acoustic guitar (20 years old, remarkably still sounds good despite being not very expensive)
Fender telecaster
Vox AC15 amplifier
Fender precision bass
Shure SM58 mic
MXL condenser mic (cheap)
Vintage mac running Logic pro with a tascam stereo interface
ooh and some of my favourite gear: a bunch of hand made percussion items and random noise-makers such as bells and wine glasses I pick up at charity shops. (I highly recommend this - it's a lot of fun capturing weird noises and trying to turn them into music)

That's about it I think.

[seriousfun]

I was going to post a run down of my recording gear and software but then I thought, what if my wife finds this thread and works out how much I have spent on all this stuff?

I can afford the gear but I cant afford my wife to find out

[dnafe]

I was going to post a run down of my recording gear and software but then I thought, what if my wife finds this thread and works out how much I have spent on all this stuff?

I can afford the gear but I cant afford my wife to find out

wise words...heed them people hehehe

[tone]

Hahah I can sense a very expensive Valentine's day meal coming your way, Allan :p

[alexthekidd]

Hi Folks,

I have been reading some of the posts and to be honest all this is going way over my head. I have literally just started looking into recording and borrowed some equipment to test it out, hoping you guys can shed some light on what I need to start recording. I have a semi acoustic guitar and got a lend of an aardvark direct mix USB 3 interface.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--AARUSB3

I have ableton live 9 on my computer. For some reason I cant get it to work via ableton live so not sure if it is the interface or if you can connect a semi acoustic guitar to record this way. Ableton recognizes the device but when I select it and try to record the guitar there's nothing happening.

To sum it up I was wondering what you would recommend to get started in terms of an audio interface to use for my semi acoustic guitar which would work with ableton Live?

Many thanks,

Shane.

[Boydie]

It looks like you have everything you need

You would connect your guitar to the aardvark (jack lead) and then connect to your PC (via usb)

The trick bit is getting your routing sorted in your DAW (Ableton)

Unfortunately I am not familiar with either products but I am sure you will find a few guides or videos on t'internet

I would start by checking your device is listed in ableton's audio device set-up

You then need to select the right input for the right track

I am sure you will get it up and running

[alexthekidd]

Hi Boydie,

Thanks very much for the reply. Much appreciated. I will keep tinkering away until I get it right. 

cheers,

shane.