Gear advice?

thabutcha16

I getting a good chunk of cash coming to me real soon and I was wondering if their are any pieces of equipment that you think are better for garage music productions


I'm gonna buy a used MAC comp.


I looking for a

sequencing program

keyboard/snyth

Sampler

soundcard

mixer

compressor

does anybody have any suggestions????

Script MC

ur ist mistake is buying an apple

Sen

Script, them are fightin' words!

:box:

macs own joo!

Butcha, just link me when you get a chance and we'll chat software/hardware/whatnot

what's the cashflow like?

Oh, and we should chat with Delfino...he works for Roland you know

later

DJ Fat Zed

You have omitted montiors.....

.........there's not much point making usic unless you can accurately hear what you are doing

Sen

yeah, no monitoring on PC speakers for you Bry...not a good picture of what the sound is really like...FatZed, what do you use for monitoring?

General Midi

sen your link to your web page doesnt appear to work


Have you got any tunes up to listen to mate..

lady-j

good monitors will cost a pretty penny. i suggest that you invest in a good pair of studio headphones like Sienheiser or AKG because regardless, you will need them. i dont have monitors just a good set of headphones and a stereo. of course i am far from a pro..

lady j

BREAKER

I used to mix down on headphones as well, pretty good, but I felt to get the real stereo effect I need monitors. So I got the best I could afford = Tannoy Reveal, at £175 a pair well worth the money.

DJ Fat Zed

“	.FatZed, what do you use for monitoring?	”

I use PMC IB1 as main monitors, genelec 1030 nearfields and blueroom minipods for a home listening contrast.

I think that chosing monitors is a very difficult. The nicest monitors I ever heard were a £64,000 pair of genelecs. They actually sounded pretty unpleasant because they were so clinical. It's easy to make the mistake of buying a nice sounding pair over an accurate pair.

When choosing a pair, forget what the salesman tells you and bring music that is very detailed and look for a revealing pair with a clear bottom end and no boominess.

In dance music people often make the mistake of buying a very bassy pair of speakers. Using such a pair of speakers will have the end result of you making music without much bass because you become accustomed to a very high level.

DJ Fat Zed

Another thing........

“	i suggest that you invest in a good pair of studio headphones like Sienheiser or AKG because regardless, you will need them. i dont have monitors just a good set of headphones and a stereo. of course i am far from a pro..	”

You really should avoid monitoring through headphones. Because they are equivalent to having a loudspeaker at each ear they give a very distorted stereo perspective. It'll mean messing up your reverbs, panning and equalisation.

I occasionally use headphones to look for clicks or edit very fine audio regions but other than that they are pretty useless.

BREAKER

They do £64,000 monitors!, I can start studio with that. A very good point was made about not buying over bassy speakers. I believe headphones can be used to start a tune, but you must switch to monitors when mixing-down and mastering, without fail. To create a great mix you must be at a distance from your monitoring source.

Sen

you need proper stereo seperation, which isn't exactly what headphones give you. But yes, get the most non-colouring, transparent monitors you can afford. The cleaner the sound, the better the mix will be.

Sen

as for my www linkup...it should work...click on the likkle orange square in my sig...it's a flash thingee though, and very large and not at all updated (my bad)

sigh

Bozak

butcha -

sequencing - logic or digital performer ... anything less isn't worth the time learning how to use it.

synth - don't bother .. unless you go analouge which is $$$$all expensive virtualsoftware is on par with virtualhardware. get some cracked software synths and resample them into your sampler. the subtracktor in reason is great.

sampler - EMU all the way. don't go for less than the 6400ULT because it's DON! the filters in it are amazing.

moniters - these are the most important part of your studio. the best nearfields on the market are the Mackie 824s.

mixing desk - for starts go analouge. mackie is solid. so is spirit.

soundcard - MOTU's 2408 good as is the digi001.

compressors - get as many as you can. analouge is the way to go. get a couple of "really nice compressors" (that's the name of em) for about 100quid each and then spring for a tubecomressor as well for that warm fat sound (run every sound you want to sound fatter through this piece and resample). the HHB radius 30 is great (about 600 quid) or if you can spring for it go for the avalon.

effects: plug ins on the sequencer are great for audio ... if you want outboard the TCElectronix Fireworx is amazing!

the most important part though is to get to know how each peice of gear sounds and how it will contribute to your overall sound. give everything a test drive before purchasing and remember: RESAMPLE RESAMPLE RESAMPLE.

hope this helps

-max

DJ Fat Zed

“	moniters - these are the most important part of your studio. the best nearfields on the market are the Mackie 824s.	”

I disagree!!! Mackies sound nice, but that's not what to look for. Monitors are a personal thing and should suit your ear. Listen to as many as you can and pick the pair that reveal the most to you. Flattering monitors do the opposite as soon as your music leaves the studio.

“	sequencing - logic or digital performer ... anything less isn't worth the time learning how to use it.	”

Sequencers should again suit you and be ergonomic for you to use. Download the demo of a few and pick the one that you find most intuitive. Always try and use several pieces of software as this will broaden your talents and prevent your computer from limiting what you can do.

“	the most important part though is to get to know how each peice of gear sounds and how it will contribute to your overall sound. give everything a test drive before purchasing and remember: RESAMPLE RESAMPLE RESAMPLE.	”

The more that you resample through external devices, the more you will degrade the sound quality, adding distortion, background noise and digital artefacts. Try to keep the signal path as clean as possible. Once you have converted a sound into a digital format, that's the place to stay, so only resample through digital devices.

I could go on but I don't think it's worth the effort.

Sen

Not that you're not worth the effort...just that it's a lot more complex than it's worth, right Zed?

DJ Fat Zed

Harsh phrasing from me, I fear.

I meant that I could have written a book but it wasn't quite the time, the place or the bandwidth...........

I am writing a book though, "Music Recording and Production Principles, Beginner to Pro" watch this space.....

Sen

Nice1 Zed, keep it coming - you are a guru when it comes to this stuff

Bozak

i fully agree that monitors should be bought to suit your ears, and of course each persons are different. i think for someone starting out though, who wants advice on some specific pieces, the mackies are good. personally i own a pair of events but ive found that they are less revealing than my friends mackies. theres really no way to find out which are best suited to your ears unless you have a chance to mix on both. often first time buyers don't have that luxury. the mackies have a very flat response and are good, in my humble opinion, to start out on. not everyone can afford the genelecs. and of course, one should keep a pair of normal speakers in the studio to cross check against.

as far as sequencers, logic and dp are the most powerful for twisting audio in the personal studio environment, hands down. midicapabilities are the best as well. there are lots of other programs that are easier to use but at the end of the day it comes down to these as far as manipulative options.

resampling ... zed you're absolutely right that DA/AD conversion can degrade sounds in all of the ways that you mentioned, not to mention losing loads of harmonic overtones. however, resamling can be a powerful tool that shouldn't be so easily dismissed. if you want to get a fat, complex bassline, resampling can be great (as long as you monitor meticulously for artifacts and add distortion and backround noise from analouge gear deliberately and go digital otherwise).

really, everyone should research extensivly every piece of gear that they buy. butcha seemed like he wanted some advice on specific pieces of gear and no one really was giving it. so i did.