[rossanne]

I cobble together with -
an old zoom four track
Boss loop station (also used for recording)
Sm58 mic
And reaper on my laptop

It's a real pain because i have to keep transfering the tracks onto my laptop and have rubbish speakers and £10 headphones. But at least i manage to record voice and keyboard (yamahaa p120) at the same time

I really have to invest in better headphones though

[Schavuitje]

Wow! Most of you seem to have some really cool equiptment ! I'm really jealous haha!
I have just added a Novation Nocturn 49 controller keyboard to my collection but now have to find some vst plugins with good samples to use with it. I'm guessing they are not going to be cheap
My guitar was the cheapest in the shop and my bass was 55 quid off ebay  They'll just have to do for now.
I have the same problem as you Rossanne... I only have a cheap pair of headphones to do all my mixing with. I can't decide wether I need good monitors or a really good set of headphones next... Any advice?

[tone]

Hmmm that's a tricky one Schavuitje. The headphones are essential for recording vocals and live instruments - having said that, getting a good mix down without decent monitors is pot luck.

If it's just for mixing, then I'd say monitors win by a long shot.

[rossanne]

hmm i'm gonna have to disagree with you :p. I reckon if you havn't got much cash it's better to go for headphones. Decent monitors are only much better for mixing if you're working in a well tuned room (from what i've read, but not an expert!) which is hard to get without spending even more money. Good headphones will let you hear the mix without the colour of the room you're in, plus i reckon most people listen to music through headphones these days. Ideally i would go for the monitors and dampners and all that malarky, but being broke i'm definitely going for headphones . reading this great book at the mo to try and learn more about it. It's called "gorilla home recording: how to record no matter how weird or cheap your gear is". It's pretty interesting, but i'm aware it's not for the purists and that i don't have much engineering training to really give it a good critique

[Dutchbeat]

i agree, Rossanne

a good pair of earphones is extremely important...but how to find them?

hard to find, I mean, good onces on which your mix will sound even remotely the same as you listener is going to hear it.

earphones are so completely different today (with ridiculous extra bass boost etc.)

I stick to my Philips (sorry for being so old and Dutch) ear phones, cause i know they give sort of a fair picture of what I made

well, they just work for me
in fact not switching is what works in the end, I think

[rossanne]

Yeh I've no idea which ones. To be honest I was going to read lots of reviews and things and see which ones got the most consistently good press. But before that I'm just asking friends and family if they know anyone who has ones I could borrow cos anything has to be better than my iPod earphones. And I've seen a how-to online about turning normal headphones into sound blockers, so might end up doing that. Ah, there's something almost romantic about botch-jobs

[Schavuitje]

It looks like I'm heading for headphones then 
A few people have recommended Bose headphones to me although they are expensive. Looks like I'm going to have to start throwing a few extra pennies in my jar haha.
Dutchbeat... I'm not sure how well known it is that Phillips is a Dutch company but you made me chuckle  Phillips invented the CD too!

[TNMC]

Andy here from TNMC/Neverwas.... I have Cakewalk Guitar Tracks 8 track software studio on an HP pc with a good 24bit soundcard... really seems to make a lot of difference when recording (unless I'm just imagining things in my old age). I have only one mic, a Shure BG 1.0 which is okay, a Yamaha QY10 tone generator, an Atari 1040ste running Logic Notator and/or Breakthru 64, an old yamaha keyboard, a cheapie second hand acoustic and a cheapie second hand Gibson SG copy, a little BC Rich amp and, essential for pre-input into the pc, a Sony Mini Disc Player set on 'record/pause'. Does the trick indeed. I have a Fostex FD-4
4-track digital recorder with a 40gb HDD in fabulous condition which I never use and which I would love to sell to a good home, but nobody seems to want it. I also use a fair few software effects (in the software studio) and the Wave Editor that comes as part of the Nero Burning Suite. I have a fair range of headphones and various speaker setups to test-listen to my mixes with. Still, it doesn't always mean you'll get it right, though!

[Zelig]

Vs 1680 Roland
Rode NT1 microphone
Electric piano Yamaha P-40
Fender stratocaster japan
Pod Line 6
Blackstar pedal
Acoustic folk guitar  : Seagull Cedar
Acoustic guitar (nylon strings)  : Alhambra
Bass  : Musicman stingray

[mihkay]

Rode NT1 microphone

You're mic cost more than my DAW! I'm jealous! 

Worth the cost though...A good microphone is worth it's weight in gold.....True?

[Zelig]

«You're mic cost more than my DAW! I'm jealous! «
YES!!! 
Seriously, it’s very important to have a good gear. I remember when I was young (it’s so long ago that I’m already glad to be able to remember it), we had no material and going to a studio was so expensive that it sounded impossible. And now, it’s not always cheap but very easy and possible to have your own personal home studio.

And recording is like a good song. What is important is to have a good start and a good ending. In the recording, a good start would be a microphone and a good ending would be good earphones (or speakers)

[Dutchbeat]

very well spoken, Zelig!

I totally agree

[Gabe Carter]

Ibanez acoustic
Fender tele
pen
pad
iphone+ iRig/iRig Mic/AmpliTube Fender for demos and practicing.

[Sonic-r]

Wow! Most of you seem to have some really cool equiptment ! I'm really jealous haha!
I have just added a Novation Nocturn 49 controller keyboard to my collection but now have to find some vst plugins with good samples to use with it. I'm guessing they are not going to be cheap
My guitar was the cheapest in the shop and my bass was 55 quid off ebay  They'll just have to do for now.
I have the same problem as you Rossanne... I only have a cheap pair of headphones to do all my mixing with. I can't decide wether I need good monitors or a really good set of headphones next... Any advice?

Native Instruments provide cut down versions of Kore Player, Reaktor and Guitar Rig free. The downloading and registering process will have you tearing your hair out, but it's worth it because it's a pretty impressive giveaway. And a lite version of Rob Papen's Blue vst is available online from MusicStore in Germany for 44 euros.

My set up doesn't compare with those mentioned here:

Mini Mac, M-Audio keyboard controller, Logic Pro 7, Rob Papen Blue LE, Native Instruments Guitar Rig, ReFX Vanguard, Sennheiser HD415 headphones. For monitoring I play a commercially released cd on my JVC hi-fi and the Sony cd player in the car and get as close to that sound as I can with EQing in Logic and mastering in Waveburner. If I had the dough the first thing I'd buy is a studio.

[TNMC]

Good point from Sonic-r about playing a commercially released cd on the hifi/car stereo and the trying to eq as close to that as you can to get a good sound. I thought that's what everyone did, but when I told another home recording dude about it, he looked at me like I was a genius. Would that not occur to everyone?