What Gear do you Use??

Stab*City

Hey all im sure you guys are like me and like to have an idea of what people are using, how they use it and what gear they have. So i said ill start off with my setup.. Been Dj'ing a while (a long while) and an intermediate bedroom producer (couple years). Been trying to build up some sort of studio for years, now i finally have some decent stuff to work with.. Also any ideas on how to make my setup better would be great..

Hopefully the mods might make this a sticky.

I will post some photos and my software setup later.
If i forget anything ill edit later..

My "Studio"

Hardware:

Sony Saw Stereo System (600 watts)
2x Techincs 1210's
Behringer DJX 700
Pioneer CDJ400
Denon DNS3000
Sony MDR headphones
Behringer BCD2000
Yamaha PSR420
Easi KeyControl 25 Midi Keyboard

Packard Bell 17" Laptop
Soundblaster mobile soundcard

Self Built PC
P4 chip (prescott)
2.5gb ram
Creative Soundblaster Audigy Platnium

Software:

Reason4, Acid Pro, Ableton, SoundForge and Recycle
Native Instruments Komplete

jtsuited

taken from the interview ICN did with me:

Computer Stuff:


15" Macbook Pro
Logic 8
Ableton 6
Apogee Duet
UAD Xpander



Monitoring:


Genelec 8030A’s and Yamaha HS50m’s



Plugins:


UAD Neve 88rs, UAD Maximizer, UAD Fairchild 670, UAD Plate 140
Sonalksis Compressor
Sonalksis EQ
Obviously all the Logic Plugs
Massey Tape Head
Camel Phat
Camel Space

As far as synth/sampler plug ins go:


I use the EXS24 a lot. Love it. The Logic synths are just phenomenal too. Then I have a lot of 3rd party synths:

Arturia Moog Modular
Arturia Jupiter 8V
Gforce Minimonsta
Gforce Imposcar
DiscoDSP Discovery (sort of software Nord Rack)
Rob Papen Predator
Rob Papen Albino
Native instruments Komplete (Massive, FM8, etc.)
Fxpansion Guru

They’re my main ones

Hardware:


But to be honest, my hardware has a lot of dust on it (testament to how good Logic is).


Roland Jp8000
Novation Nova
TC Electronic Finalizer
Whatever vintage stuff I can get my hands on at any one time.

SteveDon

Bargain bin setup:

Behringer DDM4000
ESI U46 se
Korg electribe EMX and ESX
Korg Kaoss Pad 3
M Audio Oxegen v2
Audacity for recording hardware stuff
Reason 4
Dell PC from 2004

and a budget kam p.a 150 watts

PaulBrewer

SteveDon wrote: »

Bargain bin setup:

Behringer DDM4000
ESI U46 se
Korg electribe EMX and ESX
Korg Kaoss Pad 3
M Audio Oxegen v2
Audacity for recording hardware stuff
Reason 4
Dell PC from 2004

and a budget kam p.a 150 watts

What you reckon on the Kaoss Pad 3 Steve? Is that the wee one ?

Stab*City

jtsuited wrote: »

Native instruments Komplete (Massive, FM8, etc.)

What a collection of vst's!!

SteveDon

Nah its the big one, acctually traded the mini one on adverts for an mc303 then traded the 303 for the big kaoss pad.

Only had it a while, but for the kind of music i make its perfect. Minimal, tech house and techno.

All the effects can be fully edited with the pc and you can do some crazy stuff with samples.

Tried running my guitar through it a few times in an attempt to knock out some tom morello style stuff but didnt findit great.

Stab*City

SteveDon wrote: »

All the effects can be fully edited with the pc and you can do some crazy stuff with samples.

Think i might like one..

How do you use it within your setup?

PaulBrewer

SteveDon wrote: »

All the effects can be fully edited with the pc and you can do some crazy stuff with samples.

Tried running my guitar through it a few times in an attempt to knock out some tom morello style stuff but didnt findit great.

I didn't know about the PC editing capabilities. It's always as a live performance tool I imagined it.

jimi_t

Basic enough rig, have two laptops but the main one is

2.4ghz P4 with 2gb Ram
Running Ableton
Kontackt 3, impOSCAR, MiniMonsta, gMedia Mellotron one, Arturia 2600, Jupiter 8v and CS80v, Pro-53, Drumazon, Nepheton, Devastator, Psychon (?) Camlephat and space, Fabfilter 2 Volcano and some Cycling 74 collection. Most other VSTs are freeware.

Hardware wise I have a BCR-2000, Tascam US-428, MFB Synth Lite II, Electribe ER-1 (purely to do live sequencing with drumazon), half-finished x0xb0x, Yamaha TG-33 (Vector synth), Axiom 49, Korg Toneworx AX1500g, Zoom 1202 rack, 5 guitars and a bass.

Dog ****ed my m-audio monitors so I'm stuck with Seinnheiser Cans atm. Next biggest purchases will be a pair of Active nearfields of some calibre, an Xponent/APC-40 and a new audio interface coupled with whatever cheap passive summing bus I can get my hands on. It's a hodgepodge set accumultated over 5 odd years, but it works(ish)

Seziertisch

SteveDon wrote: »

Nah its the big one, acctually traded the mini one on adverts for an mc303 then traded the 303 for the big kaoss pad.

Only had it a while, but for the kind of music i make its perfect. Minimal, tech house and techno.

All the effects can be fully edited with the pc and you can do some crazy stuff with samples.

Tried running my guitar through it a few times in an attempt to knock out some tom morello style stuff but didnt findit great.

Was this directly inline between amp and guitar or as a treatment of an already recorded track? I would imagine that there could potentially be impedance/level issues using it inline. I know the guy from Muse has one built into his guitar, but I am not sure is there some sort of onboard preamp at play.

splitrmx

Roland SH101
Roland TB303
Roland TR606
Roland TR808
Alesis Midiverb 4 reverb/delay effects unit
Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro mixing desk
Genelec 8040 studio monitors
Motu 828 MKII sound interface
Logic 8 to record everything
Apple Macbook Pro to run Logic 8
Kenton Pro Solo II to convert midi to cv/gate for SH101 and to convert midi clock to din-sync for the TB303, TR606 and TR808
One or two other "secret weapons"

I don't really like the sound of most software synths I've tried, but maybe that's because I'm old and living in the past (just like most of my studio!). A lot of times I just hook the Roland stuff all together (no midi involved as they were all made before it existed!), program a sequence into the SH101 built in sequencer and let it play for a while to remind myself of the early 80s before computers ruined everything.

Neurojazz

My bits - a few missing - need to update it

SteveDon

Stab*City wrote: »

Think i might like one..

How do you use it within your setup?

Well i use it as a performance device in a way. I produce 99% of the time on my hardware. So when i want to record a song ive made on my hardware I have to play and switch the patterns and some parameters and record it live in one take, this is the way i like to do things. So while im recording the track i have the effects i want to use on easy access buttons on the kaoss pad and just flick between them and use them when appropiate on the track.

hubiedubie

Hardware:
Apple Mac Pro 8- Core 2.93Ghz, 12 GB RAM
KRK VXT4 Monitors
RME Fireface 400
Novation Remote 25 SL
Access Virus Snow
Arriving Thursday: Akai APC 40

Software
Ableton Live
Native Instruments Komplete
Native Instruments Kore
Native Instruments Maschine
Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Stylus RMX
Lennardigital Sylenth
Fabfilter Timeless Tape Delay
Audio Damage BigSeq2, Replicant, Kombinat
2C Audio Aether Reverb
D16 Devastor, Phoscyon

SteveDon

hubiedubie wrote: »

Native Instruments Maschine

what do you think of it, been looking into getting one

Helix

whats the build like on maschine? the press shots put me off a little coz it looked a bit of a cheap build ala the evolution uc33e

Terry Cotta

Dell laptop (Linux)
Renoise
and lots of breaks......

hubiedubie

SteveDon wrote: »

what do you think of it, been looking into getting one

I really like it. I previously used an AKAI MPD32 + Ableton Drum Racks for drums. Maschine wipes the floor with it in terms of integration and playability.

It's definitely changed the way I work / interact with the software - I can turn the monitor off and just use the screen on maschine - makes the whole experience much more musical - being free of the mouse. Also I find the pads much nicer than the Akai. It's very quick to learn and you can get grooves up and running very quickly. Some cool effects bundled and a decent library. You can also use it as an effects module to process other VSTs. This is a big plus when you factor in the level of hardware integration. The whole thing genuinely feels like an instrument and has an immediacy that I've never really experienced in software before.


There are 2 major drawbacks:

1. No MIDI out from the software: You can't currently use Maschine's sequencer to sequence external hardware or VSTs. You can however, use the hardware to control other VSTs / Sequencers and it comes with templates for the most popular ones: Ableton, Battery, Guru, Reaktor Junatik. You can also define your own templates.

2. Limited MIDI input:
When you send midi in to Maschine when it's running as a plugin in your DAW you can only send midi messages to the currently selected sound (ie pad) not to the whole group(ie kit). This makes it a little tricky when working it with DAWs. You can send program change messages to change the currently playing pattern on the kit but you can't play the whole kit via a midi clip or midi keyboard.

Both of these drawbacks are going to be fixed in a future (free) software update. There's no information as to when this will be released but I would hazard a guess at early Autumn at the earliest as it's still in development.

Hope this helps.

hubiedubie

Helix wrote: »

whats the build like on maschine? the press shots put me off a little coz it looked a bit of a cheap build ala the evolution uc33e

The build quality is actually very good. The casing is brushed metal (or it certainly feels like it) and the pads are hard rubber. As good if not better than the AKAI MPD32 and considerably better than my Novation controller.

hans gruber

For me, production-wise, nothing beats the MPC 2kxl for speed-of-use, i just find it very intuitive. I've found myself getting more and more into ableton since picking up a controller a few months ago. So the ableton tends to run the synths, and the MPC does the beats.

Everyone's workflow is different, but i do see myself building and buying some more hardware I think.

jiltloop

My setup after alot of buying and selling recently, consists of:
My pc: Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 3800 , 2.0GHz, 1gb crucial ballistix ram.
Software: Reaper, Reason 3, Virsyn Poseidon, Absynth 4 plus various free plug ins.
Hardware: M-Audio Oxygen V2, KRK Rokit 6s, Spirit folio F1 16/2, Roland SH-101, Novation Super Bass Station.

synesthesia

mixer : allen and heath xone 62, freevox DJ4

Midi controller : MPD 32 , nanocontrol, MS-20 COntroller korg

Synth\ groovebox : roland mc 303, yamaha an 200, microkorg

Decks : 1 x Technics sl1200, 1 x numark ttx

Soft : on old macbook pro, Ableton, reason, korg legacy software, d16 vst

effect : Kaoss pad 2

that's it ! I love the korg legacy + controller but it's a bit of a pain on mac - the software license etc ... work like a dream on windows
I saw there is guys here with unfinished x0xb0x ? any seller ?

Valcin

Computer: Macbook
Soundcard: Fireface 800
Hardware Synths: Nord Lead 2X, Roland Juno 60, DSI Evolver, Casio MT70,MT65
Software: Logic, Ableton, Korg Legacy Collection, Superior Drums
Beats: Akai MPC 1000, Korg Electribe, DrumKat midi drumkit
Effects: FMR RNPreamp, FMR RNCompresser, EHX Poly chorus, Boss DD 7, Rat Distortion, Lexicon MX200

PaulBrewer

I've just bought an MS 2000R a Nord 2 and a Poly 800 !

Neurojazz

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I've just bought an MS 2000R a Nord 2 and a Poly 800 !

Nord - i've seen 3 in my life and 2 crashed - hope they've ironed the bugs out

The poly is good fun though

PaulBrewer

Neurojazz wrote: »

Nord - i've seen 3 in my life and 2 crashed - hope they've ironed the bugs out

The poly is good fun though

Ooops !

Neurojazz

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Ooops !

- if you have a mac, check out the virus TI - it's errr... large... very advanced, easy to use... windows users have to check compatibility with existing hardware throughly though to avoid nightmares.

That's the top end synth for the whole scene pretty much.

PaulBrewer

Aye -

My plan is to have a couple of squelchboxes knocking around just for flavours for some tracks.

It'll be a case of think of something and play it there and then .... and move on.

Lets see what happens!

splitrmx

Dance Music Production section gets started and now members of the original music production section are posting here, buying synths and asking about techno.....*rubs chin*.

PaulBrewer

I actually bought them for a specific project ! Not Dance specifically, but Dance related .
It's always good fun to learn.

splitrmx

I actually hate the phrase "dance music". I'd prefer if this section was called "electronic music production". Dance music production could be describing the music people line dance to!

Caoimhín

Gear? Depends on how fast i am going. I find that if i dont move out of 3rd gear inside town/city limits, i find it easier to stay within the speed limits.

Neurojazz

splitrmx wrote: »

Dance Music Production section gets started and now members of the original music production section are posting here, buying synths and asking about techno.....*rubs chin*.

Don't worry, they didn't get the implants from the mass abductions in the late 90's

jtsuited

splitrmx wrote: »

Dance Music Production section gets started and now members of the original music production section are posting here, buying synths and asking about techno.....*rubs chin*.

yeah apparently though we were full of guff and the only sound to be heard if this forum was set up would be the sound of tumbleweeds.

Helix

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I've just bought an MS 2000R

did you get a receipt?

*edit*

actually based on this post:

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I actually bought them for a specific project ! Not Dance specifically, but Dance related .
It's always good fun to learn.

you'll do fine with it so. its very hands on, its just that it sounds a bit pants and has the most unreliable sync and unstable lfos in the UNIVERSE

PaulBrewer

Helix wrote: »

did you get a receipt?

*edit*

actually based on this post:



you'll do fine with it so. its very hands on, its just that it sounds a bit pants and has the most unreliable sync and unstable lfos in the UNIVERSE

I bought it offa honest man ... I'm sure he'll give me my money back!

Dragan

jtsuited wrote: »

yeah apparently though we were full of guff and the only sound to be heard if this forum was set up would be the sound of tumbleweeds.

*grins* Once a thread seems to contain a techno track people post, anything else gets Tumble Weed.

I'd nearly change the name to "The Techno Forum" tbh.

Neurojazz

All gone downhill since Boschland tbh

ICN

Dragan wrote: »

*grins* Once a thread seems to contain a techno track people post, anything else gets Tumble Weed.

I'd nearly change the name to "The Techno Forum" tbh.

I wouldnt agree with that at all Man..

I dont think that you can fairly say that theres a Techno bias, especially given that a lot of contributions here from people from every area - Electronic and/or otherwise.

Theres lots of different styles here.. you just have to look in the tracks section.

It would be unfair to limit it to one genre.

Dragan

ICN wrote: »

I wouldnt agree with that at all Man..

I dont think that you can fairly say that theres a Techno bias, especially given that a lot of contributions here from people from every area - Electronic and/or otherwise.

Theres lots of different styles here.. you just have to look in the tracks section.

It would be unfair to limit it to one genre.

I am not it's a bad thing for the forum ( or for music ) but the simple fact is that techno is a BIG area in electronica. As such, i would pretty much expect any open genre music production forum to end up being a bit more on the techno/house/electro end. Sadly they are just not genres i am really into. But that's my own issue.

That said, the amount that i have learned from just reading posts here is badass.

Right, i am going to stop derailing the thread now.

At the moment i use

Physical Stuff
1) Laptop
2) Korg KP3
3) Korg Kaossilator ( i have this to be very useful for just adding tiny details over things, plus it has an interesting mood where you can basically beat slice with it, which leads to some pretty weird loops ).
4) A Shure Mic. I tend to use this to record my own hits and sounds.

Programs
Fruity Loops
Ableton Live ( haven't really started with this yet )
And a huge amount of random VST's and junk.

Next on my shopping list are Monitors (KRK RP5's) and a Midi controller ( hopefully that arrives soon ).

synesthesia

Finally decided to get a future retro orb ... anyone ever used a revolution ???

empirix

synesthesia wrote: »

Finally decided to get a future retro orb ... anyone ever used a revolution ???

interesting - let us know how you get on with that!

My Gear:

Nemo Sequencer(the shizzle!!)
Korg Radias
Vermona Perfourmer
Little Phatty stage 2
Dave smith Mono Evolver
Sherman filterbank 2
Elektron machine drum/sampler
Akai mpk 49
Genelec 8040's
Macbook
PT8, Reason,recycle, soundforge
Vst: the minimoog one(actually pretty good), zt3a(pretty good too)


and for fcuking around with mates:vestax vci 100a nd traktor/virtual dj + sony headphones 700


Next on the list is the daddy(in my opinion) Alesis Andromeda a6

synesthesia

got the Orb - really great .... works like a dream on my microkorg, and even with ableton ...
the remix and loop functions are great !!! really perfect for making some infinite variations live ....

Quiggers

pc running cubse sx3, reason 4 and abelton live7 and cool edit.

krk6's speakers x 2
waldorf blofeld desktop
korg ms2000r
emu proteus 2000 with 2 boards, xlead and phat planet
novation a station
electrix filter factory,
electrix mo fx
electrix warp factory
behringer vamp pro
behringer bcr2000 and bcf2000
korg padkontrol,
midi keyboard
focusrite twin trak and penta
bbe max com
2 turntables and a microphone sennheiser e845
akg perception 400 mic
and a yamaha tenori-on
a stylophone and a zylophone

and 3 patchbays

synesthesia

Dude, you have a Tenori on ? this is definitly my next buy - really want to get one; and i didn't find any good emulator that i can use ...

Tenori on are great ...

seannash

will someone please explain to me the use for a tenori.
and dont spout out what is on the website,in laymans terms.i can never seem to find anyone using it in the "revolutionary"way its meant to be

Neurojazz

Matrix sequencer with pretty lights.

synesthesia

Well, i think it's quite a nice 16 step sequencer ... and it's midi, so you can easilly integrate it in your live setup .

It's using a layered system, so i gives you great flexibities - It's really easy to program and make variations ... I actually really like the drum layer .

It's pretty cool for melodies too ... have a go with tone matrix :
http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

( fot those who don't already know try auditool : the cheapest live setup you can have !
http://www.hobnox.com/audiotool )

I used Obo for a while on mac - nice to use synchronised with live, but not too limited

Weepr give you a good idea of the layer and system and drum side of the tenori on : http://www.weepr.com/

If you didn't see anyone making really cool stuff with a tenori on, well, I don't believe the problem is coming from the tool, but more from the person who use it ...

seannash

Neurojazz wrote: »

Matrix sequencer with pretty lights.

yeah thats what i figured.i cant see how it got its revolutionary tag.

it seems like its taking a simple thing and trying to make out its doing something fantastic.

call me underwhelmed i guess.the price is shocking for it too

jiltloop

jiltloop wrote: »

My setup after alot of buying and selling recently, consists of:
My pc: Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 3800 , 2.0GHz, 1gb crucial ballistix ram.
Software: Reaper, Reason 3, Virsyn Poseidon, Absynth 4 plus various free plug ins.
Hardware: M-Audio Oxygen V2, KRK Rokit 6s, Spirit folio F1 16/2, Roland SH-101, Novation Super Bass Station.

Just added a Nord micro modular to my gear list. On first inspection this seems to be a really powerful synth. Endless amounts of possiblities, I 've a feeling I'll still be learning new things about this synth even after a couple of years of tinkering.

empirix

tnori on is a toy in my humble opinion!

what id buy for the same price:
Elektron monomachine