What gear do y'all use?

[Steve Conner]

Hi guys,

This forum looked so empty, once tboy deleted all the spam, I thought I should try filling it up a bit. So if you have a home studio, what recording gear do you use? Here's mine:

Computer: 3GHz P4 with 2GB RAM, dual 200GB SATA drives and M-Audio Delta 1010 soundcard. Based on a mini motherboard in a Cubit 5 case. I just got this new machine this summer, before that I used a 600MHz P3 with 256MB RAM, one 4GB and one 80GB drives, and a Delta 66. It was my experience with the Delta 66 that led me to buy the 1010, that and the fact that my local music store had an ex-demo 1010 cheap :-)

Software: Cubase SX and Sound Forge running on Windows XP Pro, also dual boots with Studio-To-Go

Other bits: Soundcraft Spirit M12 mixer, Dynaudio BM5 monitors driven by home-made stereo amp, and a pile of mics, mostly old junk ones (the two best ones are an AT3525 and a SM57)

[Leka]

Hi Steve!

Here is my setup:

Computer:
P4 2800Mhz / 1GB RAM with watercooling for making the box quiet. 2* ATA-100 disks 30Gb and 160Gb.
Soundcard is ST-Audio DSP2000 C-Port.

Software:
Logic Audio, Wave Lab, T-RackS 24 on Win XP

Other bits:
I have only three usable mics, Shure 58beta & SH55 and Audio Technica AT4033.
For recording with AT4033 I have a Joemeek's VC3 compressor which has proved to be an excellent equipment.
I also have a Revox B-77mk2 reel tape recorder for some smooth tape compression.
Mainly I'm using this set for recording our band project's demos.

btw. Which setup would be the best for recording a 12" combo guitar amp with the resources I have?
I have used only the Shure 58b for recording it and it sounds a bit nosy.
The mic has been straight close to grill a little of the center of the speaker which in this case is a Celestion V30.
Basicly I'm looking for rock solid overdrive sound, like many of us I think...

[Regis]

Hi Steve,

I'm still using tape, here is a link to some pics.

An inventory:

2) Tascam DA-78 8 track recorders, synced to 16 tracks
Alesis Studio 32 mixer
Alesis M1 Active Monitors
Computer for mixdowns with Soundforge Mastering and Roxio CD burning software

2) Alesis Nanoverb effects units
Art FX-1 effects unit
Art MR-1 reverb unit

Presonus Blue Tube Dual Microphone Preamp
FMR Audio RNC1773 "Real Nice Compressor"
Behringer Composer Pro compressor
Rocktron CE-1 Compressor

Groove Tube/Alesis AM-61 Large Diaphram Tube Condensor Microphone
2) Marshall MXL 2001 Large Diaphram Condensor Microphones
2) Marshall MXL 603s Small Diaphram Condensor Microphones
Octava Mk-219 Large Diaphram Condensor Microphone
2) AKG D112 Large Diaphram Dynamic Bass Microphones
2) Carvin CM90E Condensor Microphones
5) Shure SM-57 Dynamic Microphones
10) Peavey PL-38 Dynamic Microphones

Sony TC-366 Reel to Reel
Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine
Tech21 Bass Driver DI
4Behringer Ultra DI Direct Boxs
24 Channel Snake

[Sock Puppet]

I'm glad this thread's here.

While I was at work today, my daughter called in to pick up a few christmas presents...

I just checked what she took away and she's somehow managed to pick up (and wrap!) an emu 1212m I'd bought for a second system (3Gig P4) I've been putting together thinking it was a present for her bloke.

How we laughed.

Anyways, I've got a twin OS AMD 3000 with an emu 1212m and 160+320GB IDE +160GB SATA, optically linked to my hi-fi. The twin OS was originally to have the music stuff on a separate bootable partition but the computer has become my tv, radio, dvd player and jukebox as well as the rest of the stuff it gets used for..

The second system seemed like a good idea but it's turned out a big mistake as I just want to duplicate the functionality of this one and can't justify splashing out for another 24" monitor (once you've used one you can't go smaller).

More about dual boot systems here:

http://www.homerecordingconnection.c...w_story&id=151

S.

[Luijo]

btw. Which setup would be the best for recording a 12" combo guitar amp with the resources I have?
I have used only the Shure 58b for recording it and it sounds a bit nosy.
The mic has been straight close to grill a little of the center of the speaker which in this case is a Celestion V30.
Basicly I'm looking for rock solid overdrive sound, like many of us I think...

You can try mixing the 58 as you use it now with the AT as an ambient mic a few feet away from the cab and facing at it. Just beware of phase problems with the two mics so proper positioning is critical.
Some people even put their mics a little out of phase to achieve some sort of unusual EQing of the signal. Think of it like fine tuning the phase difference between mics and using it as a tone shaper. Lots of room for experimentation here.

[matndona]

There's a thought

I like the Christmas list idea.... a lot!

We should run a couple of good threads like this the day after Thanksgiving every year!

[Mark Lavelle]

...if you have a home studio, what recording gear do you use?

I'm not sure I'd call it a studio (it's really a pig sty), but now that my brother (who's always been more the sound man/recording engineer of the two of us) has threatened to move all the way to the other coast I've gotten a bit more serious about being able to do it all by myself.

System:
* 2.8GHz P4 with 1GB RAM and 440GB of SATA disk space (80GB + 80GB + 280GB).
* WinXP Pro & SUSE Linux dual boot, but the Linux is really just there for amusement and disaster recovery. I'll try some of the Linux recording SW eventually...
* Until a couple of months ago I was using an M-Audio Delta 66, but then a co-worker found me a mint-in-box Echo Layla (24-bit resolution; 8 ins, 10 outs) in the trash(!) at work, so now the Delta 66 is sitting idle.
* Edirol UM-2 MIDI interface.

Software:
* Sonar 6 Producer Edition. I was into MIDI in the early days and Cakewalk was the best PC sequencer SW at the time, so I've stuck with them (it's always been cheaper to upgrade then switch, too). I've also got Cakewalk's Project 5 and Dimension Pro soft synth, but I'm not sure why...
* Sound Forge XP 4.5 (very handy for quick edits of WAV files)
* Taking up the sax a couple of years ago has also pushed me towards more interest in notation SW, so I expect to be acquiring the full-feature version of Sibelius as soon as the budget will allow. I'm using the (free) Finale NotePad SW until then.

Audio gear:
* Mackie 1202 mixer.
* A couple of MXL 990 large-diaphragm condenser mics (excellent value!).
* AKG 1000E dynamic mic.
* Shure 588SB "Unisphere B" dynamic mic (i.e., a cheap SM-58).
* Speakers: relatively high-end Altec-Lansing PC 5.1 rig (6+ years old).
* Sony MDR-V6 headphones.

MIDI/synth gear:
* M-Audio Keystation 49e (4 octave keyboard controller)
* Ensoniq EPS 16+ sampler (with a huge sample library that I got when our co. was talking about co-developing a PC card synth with Ensoniq).
* Yamaha QY70 sequencer/synth.

Lots of stuff that's been living in the closet for years:
* 2(!) MIDI patch bays.
* Dual compressor/limiter
* Alesis Midiverb.
* etc.

Damn that's a lot of crap (even if it did take 20 years to acquire). Now I just have to find the time to put all this stuff to work!

[David Schwab]

Not a new system... but it's still doing its thing!

Hardware:
PowerMac G4 (Digital Audio) with a 1GHz Upgrade card running Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Tiger). 1 GB RAM, IBM/Hitachi Deskstar 120 GB System drive, Maxtor 30 GB drive for audio, M-Audio 2496 sound card. Roland VM-3100Pro digital mixer, using the S/PDIF in to the 2496. Behringer Eurorack 1604A mixer for monitoring. Alesis NanoCompressor, TubeWorks BlueTube, Korg Pandora, Monsoon speakers. Sure SM57, SM58, Oktava MK-319 mics.

Software:
Cubase SX, Spark XL 2.8, Peak Pro 5.2. Bunches of plug-ins and soft synths (most notably LinPLug LM IV, FM 7, Albino 3, Aturia Minimoog Model V, and ARP2600 V).

Instruments:
Various basses and guitars, most of which I built. Oberheim Matrix 6.

[David Schwab]

btw. Which setup would be the best for recording a 12" combo guitar amp with the resources I have?
I have used only the Shure 58b for recording it and it sounds a bit nosy.

The most common mic for rock guitar is the Sure SM57. That's what you hear on all those Van Halen recordings... You have to mess with mic placement a bit.

I record all my guitar direct though amp sims. I've never had god luck mic'ing up small amps. They always sound fizzy.

Here's an example

[Steve Conner]

Gosh, there sure is a lot of recording going on here! It's good to see that a lot of folks have home studio setups. Mark, that pig sty of yours looks kind of like my apartment I found some pictures of what my setup looked like over the years:

http://www.scopeboy.com/music/studio_pix.html

I mostly used my studio for writing electronic music, but when I got into a band, it really started to come in handy. We were able to partly record and mix our first demo CD in there, although we had to hire a local studio to track the really noisy stuff like drums and cranked electric guitars. When it came to our next CD we did it the other way, doing the tracking for the quiet songs ourselves and taking the raw track files on a DVD to another studio for mixing.

some more recording related stuff:
http://tentofiveproject.com/gallery/...s.php?cat_id=2
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...logID=73802857

[Mark Lavelle]

You're going to have to work a lot harder to qualify for full "pig sty" status, Steve!

My own usage tends toward demos of songwriting ideas, the vast majority of which are instrumental and guitar-based. I sing and play my own bass, tenor sax & (one-hand) keyboard parts, and I use samples for drums/perc.

I haven't got any talent or ear for drum parts, but I've been using a neat old ACID loop set called RADS to help out. It's got 900+ loops of the same dry kit, where each loop is 8 beats (or "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &" if you prefer to think of it that way), and the loop names tell you which beats the hits are on. There are separate kick+snare, cymbal, hi-hat & ride loops so you can mix & match to taste. I think the disk was discontinued when Sony bought ACID, but the samples appear to be in their current "Drum Pack" set (check out the first two sample samples).

[david2]

I had a nice computer built with recording in mind. I'm not a techy so i forget the specs. After trying all sorts of recording software i found Riffworks and my search is over. The Line 6 TonePort is so easy to use even i can do it. i would recomend it to anyone.It's Fun! www.sonomawireworks.com

[Minion]

Hi , I"m new here....

My very Modest setup entails a P-4 2.6ghz PC with 512mb Ram and a 80-gb HD useing a Delta 44 sound card and I record useing Mackie Traction 2.1....

Since I am the only one in my Band and I play all Instruments i use a small Mixer and a Mixture of Cheapo Mics and simple DIY Mics to Mic my Drum kit, I use a Couple INA217 Based Mic preamps to Mic the Snare and Bass drum and use a stereo mix of the Toms and Cymbols to take up all 4 inputs of the Delta 44.....

After recording the Drum Track I will Mic up my DIY Solid state Guitar amp (that I designed and built) to record the Guitar and Bass tracks and then I do the Mixing monitoring through some cheapo Yorkville Powered monitors......

My recordings sound OK, I can"t sing so there are no Vocals but I still enjoy doing it.....

I got into DIY out of nescessity as I don"t have a Lot of money to throw arround so I figured I would try to build what I could useing whatever Parts I could scavenge or salvage from other equipment......

I have only been doing DIY for about 14 months and had absolutly no knowlege about DIY electronics before hand and actually had quite a Big Phobia of electricity but I have mostly gotten over that.....

In the Last year I have built several Mics and Mic preamps and My trusty Guitar amp which is still constantly evolving (Installing a Compressor/Sustain curcuit in the amp Tonight pluss it has 3 different Flavors of overdrive) and am in the middle of designing and building a 100w Bass amp and a 8Ch Mixer and Have a 8Ch Mic preamp in the works also.....


Thanx

[Steve Conner]

Sounds cool Minion! Got any pictures of your gear or mp3s?

[James O'Donnell]

Hello, I use a simple setup for direct recording. I have 2 inputs, left and right, and record with XLR-in to a Pinnacle DC2000 video capture environment. This is mostly using the Adobe Premiere 6.5 application for single track capturing at 48kHz. The computer is dual Xeon 2.8 with 2Gb RAM and uses U320 SCSI Raid array of 146Gb drives. The mainboard is a Supermicro X5DAE, SC833S chassis. (I have never experienced latency) Tracks (wav files) are edited and mixed with Goldwave or Audacity. I currently have no mics but look forward to getting a pair instead of recording direct. Maybe it'll work, maybe not. Direct is very clean, but the EQing is never quite the same as what I hear from the cabinets. I always film the affair, just to get an idea of what/how I did it, since they are mostly recorded spontaneously.