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Author Topic: My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!  (Read 3772 times)

MusiqSoul

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« on: February 01, 2006, 12:00:47 PM »
Greetings from Freeport GB, The Bahamas, brothas and sistaz.

MusiQSoul here, Lovin' what i'm reading off the site about recording. So Here's my take on few things:

First, i've been saved since  1990 at the age of 19, been our church's keyboardist and music director since I was 25, i'm 34 now. Married with a son 11, and a daughter 3, and I love the Lord. I also write, produce and do a little home engineering.

I've started recently MusiQSoul Productions. I'm writing an album for a singer on our Praise Team, also I have a good bit of other work to get done for clients, basically demos, beats, laying keybords for tracks, etc, enough work to keep me paid and busy while holdin' down my job as an Accounts Clerk / Computer Operator/ Network Maintenance Manager at a trading firm here for 9 years. Right now, i'm laying and composing the tracks on my Korg Triton, feeding them into my IBM Netvista (2gig processor / 256mb memory ) running FLStudio 5, Reason 2.5 not perfect but it gets the job done for now.

Here's my recording setup I plan to upgrade to soon like this month hopefully.

First My Computer: A hybrid Dell Precision sweetly built to my specs, 3.2ghz processor, 4 gigs of memory, dual hard drives at 200gigs a piece, totally dedicated to MUSIC ONLY!!! Why. The computer won't have any Office suite, or all that other stuff. Why a Dell? Well I've worked on one in a friend of mine's studio and it work pretty well. But, if any here builds music production oriented systems, hey, i'm willing to give 'em a shout, lets keep that dough in the Kingdom.

Then I'll go with E-mu 1820m PCI Audio interface. Here's why: I've red just about every review and website on interfaces, firewire, USB, and PCI, red up on Mbox, M-Audio 18/14, 410, Layla, Focusrite Saffire, I named these because I had the previlege of using them and test driving them in music stores in America and studios here, my thing is, when I went to someone running 1820m and man the card is sweeeeeeet sounding! For real! Clean as a whistle. Overall, It sounded the best. Also it has the the same AD converters (24bit/192khz) that are in the Protools HD 192 systems, hmmm, how's that for the picking. Then, with the DSP chip, it takes the load completely off your comp cpu to do other things, nice aint it? It also comes with Cakewalk Sonar LE, Cubase LE, Ableton 5 lite, Wave lab lite and other software. Then i'll upgrade my Reason 2.5 to 3, and my FLStudio 5 to Flstudio 6 XXL. Get Sonar or Cakewalk for my main sequencer (maybe someone can help me out on that) and then either Cubase Wavelab 5 or A few Waves software (cheapest for my money), and a few other choice plugins for Mastering, add to that some Event TR8 monitors, two Audio Technica AT4040 mics, and two Sony stuidio headphones and bang!

Now, lets jive on software, hardware, more for the money, and the Hoo Haa on Protools: My five and half on it.

Let me first say that Protools is good to work on, but I feel it's geared towards the big studios that can afford it or any one if you have 10-20 thousand to spare. But for the majority, sometimes what will happen is that the people who have a limited budget go out and spend most of it on a Digi 002, or other wise to take for a home studio because they hear it's the new fad in recording and then choke the rest of their home studio with cheaper, less efficient equipment, which won't intergrate properly. Even if you go with cheaper M - powered systems, I feel you still sacrifce a bit of quality. Not my cup of tea when you can get better for the same price of an M-Powered. For me still, there is no substitute for having good mics and monitors, after all, that's where the rubber hits the proverbial road, hard. My AT4040s will cost me $299 a piece, and my Event TR8s will cost $499 for the pair and I'll go even cheaper if I get to test drive some other brands for quality once I get in the stores, i'll be equiped with my brother's laptop and some reference CDs of my own recordins for this task.

Sure, Protools seems to be industry standard, so everyone wants to use it or get  the system for that matter but those prices, when it's all said and done will suck the life out of a budget when its tight. Me, I downloaded the free version a while a go (2004) and tore it apart, really squeezed it good, and man I aint impress at all. Then, you find out that you need a lot of other stuff from them only or else you are pretty much in the Whales belly like Jonah, that's where the the MONEY comes in, sure, the bundles are nice and I give them props but... you get the picture. If I had my way still, I'd buy a hybrid MAC and run Digital Perfomer and master my stuff with Wave Platinum Bundle, but the money aint there at least not yet, so I'm doing other wise. (eventually that's where i'll end up though)

What i'm saying is that if the funds is there for Protools fine it has it's advantages, but disavantages as well, but if you really want to get more bang for your buck, go with FLstudio and Reason, and then Sonar  4 or Cubase for your main programs, or even Ableton live, which i plan to do, I've seemlessly worked my FLstudio 5 and my Reason 2.5 together with the sounds from my Korg like MAGIC!!! man i've been getting killer drum tracks, synths, loops, bass from them and together, OOOOHWEEEE!!!, they are rocking, especially when I import some of the FLStudio drum samples into Reason, just leaves me Gasping.  I'll tell you a story: In Reason, with a few FLStudio drum samples, I simulated Isreals "Who is like the Lord" and Rejoice, also Kurt Carr's "Sanctuary" And it was so indentical it was SCAAARRRY! I listened to each of them side by side.

Get the Picture?

So here I am, getting better recordings from my cheap system than some here get from there huge expensive Protools HDs (ha, my God is a good God) don't be fooled people, Cubase, Sonar, Digital Performer, and Reason, are well beyond Protools, for the money that is, but that's just my opinion.

So, It's Feb. and I'm getting the funds together to hit Sam Ash in Miami Florida, then use my credit card to buy and download my carefully, handpicked extra plugins.

In closing, I say, work your software, strip it bare, know it inside out and push it to it's very end to get what it's worth, it suppose to do what it says. GET EDUCATED. Knowlege is the key and wisdom opens the door, you don't have to go "industry standard" perse to get great home recording masters ready for duplication. Do your research. It helped me ALOT! Find whats best for the budget. I'll give pointers to anyone who needs it and i'll take pointers from anyone who can give it.  Me not being a novice has alowed me to get fairly priced equipment and software that I know I can tweak, manipulate, and fine tune just enough to get the quality I need, but at the same time not taking away from the integrity of the software, but for a first timer, this isn't easy, I'll be sharing more soon.

Let me know what you think people.
MusiQSoul

Offline psychopianoman

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2006, 04:44:58 PM »
Woul it not be eaiser to have someone master your music for you and be cheaper at the same time. When I start writing and recording music I will just focus on the music and let those who have spent their life in studios being trained and educated in mastering do all the hard work, sure I will tweak it the best I can but let someone else master it.

After reading your post I am now afraid. Why so much software. I am wanting to buy some stuff and start making some music and will be purchasing some items at the end of may so what do you think I will need. Here were my plans. I was going to purchase a computer with 1 gig ram and 160gb harddrive and top of the line AMD processor. Totally cleaned with only music software on it.  Then I was going to buy Sonar 5 Studio Version or FL Studio 5. I can only afford one, so why do you need all those. Being that I can only have one, which one should I buy? Since you know so much could you reply with a breakdown of what each software does so I can get a good idea of what to buy.

Offline ddw4e

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2006, 05:22:26 PM »
I have a typical setup.

Keyboards
Roland RD700sx (not mine but used it several times)
M-Audio Radium 49
Generalmusic WX2
M-Audio Midisport Uno (Midi Interface)

Computer
EMachines AMD 3200+XP processor (2.21 Ghz)
1 Ghz PC2700 memory
160GB hard drive
CDRW
DVD RW

Sequencer Software
Reason 3
Sonar 5 Producer Edition
Fruity Loops 6 XXL
Cubase 3 (don't like it tho LOL!)

Virtual Instruments
Native Instruments B4
Native Instruments FM7
Native Instruments Pro-53
Native Instruments Eletrik Piano
Spectrotonics Trilogy
Spectrotonics Stylus RMX
Korg Legecy Collection
Gigastudio (not installed yet)
Sampletank (not installed yet)
I have more but can't remember them right at the moment
MERCY EN!!

MusiqSoul

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2006, 09:10:52 AM »
Quote from: psychopianoman
Woul it not be eaiser to have someone master your music for you and be cheaper at the same time. When I start writing and recording music I will just focus on the music and let those who have spent their life in studios being trained and educated in mastering do all the hard work, sure I will tweak it the best I can but let someone else master it.

After reading your post I am now afraid. Why so much software. I am wanting to buy some stuff and start making some music and will be purchasing some items at the end of may so what do you think I will need. Here were my plans. I was going to purchase a computer with 1 gig ram and 160gb harddrive and top of the line AMD processor. Totally cleaned with only music software on it.  Then I was going to buy Sonar 5 Studio Version or FL Studio 5. I can only afford one, so why do you need all those. Being that I can only have one, which one should I buy? Since you know so much could you reply with a breakdown of what each software does so I can get a good idea of what to buy.



Ok guy, don't mean get you outta focus, but here's the deal.

First, for a tight budget, getting someone to master your album can be an experience you would love to have but when the cash isn't there, you gatta go with what you can, secondly, there are so much info out there and on this sight especially about recording, effects, compresion, and so on, you can really take advantage of and weigh in on doing it yourself, what I plan to do is when i'm mastering, I know "thee guy" who does mastering here in the Bahamas WELL!, He's agreed to give a few pointers and even sit in on some of the sessions, besides, He's distant family, so I gatta little inside track to getting done what I need. And then when you do it yourself and learn it, then you can do it for others as well and earn extra income, see where i'm going?

Now if you can only get one Get Sonar 5, reason being  Sonar is more Heavy Duty, and Professional than FL Studio, though, I use FL Studio only to get a good mix of rough tracks down quickly and convert them to wav. and I know it from the ground up since it was like version 2, that's why I use it and some of the effects and samples are real good when you know how to use them, then I import the wav./or midi tracks into like a Sonar or a Cubase to mix and fine tune with effects and so forth, then into say a Wavelab 5 for mastering, but Sonar can do it all any way from rough track to master, if you are willing to work the software (know it inside out) Besides, FLstudio really is not a "true" sequencer for wave files, but Sonar and the rest are, I have Reason 2.5 which I use for drums and synths only. But everything is done in stages 1: Rough mix tracks (Flstudio 5) 2:Final Mix and Master (Sonar) So please don't get raggled it's just me and what I need. so I would say for wht you want get Sonar 5, by the way your computer specs are NICE! anything else I can help a brother with let me know man, i'ts one of the things we are here for, to help the Body....MusicSoul

Offline psychopianoman

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2006, 11:21:17 AM »
Thanks for the input musicsoul. I have been looking over these softwares for a couple of months and have had a hard time deciding what to buy but have been leaning towards the sonar, not because I could tell it was better or anything it just felt better, if that makes any sence.

MusiqSoul

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2006, 11:30:18 AM »
Hey Pianoman, thanks for the feed back Bro.

Just enjoying the sunny weather here at home in The Bahamas (Freeport), on my day off. Needed the rest. Hey guy anything I can help out with is fine by me.

Offline Annon

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2006, 02:55:27 PM »
Musiq,
   I have been on both sides of the spectrum when it comes to production.  I first started out with my Pentium 3 600 and a sound blast card.  I now have a have a P4 with 2 gig ram and 200Gig of harddrive space.  (Took me 5 years to build up to it).  Since I am now moving on to bigger projects I bought a Roland VS2480.  It is a beast.  I only have my Phantom X7 to produce my tracks with and some software (Sonar Producer edition 4).  You are spot on though when you say that whatever you use make sure you master it.  I have to say that I have heard many home recordings made on Delta 1010 cards that sound better than some thing mixed up in a $50,000 studio.  The most important piece of a studio is the ears and mind of the producer.

T_Keys

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2006, 03:01:22 PM »
Hey Musiq I like the setup... it's what I am working towards myself, a continuing process I started  two years ago.

Stay with that setup! It's a beast!

MusiqSoul

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2006, 03:07:29 PM »
Quote from: Annon
Musiq,
   I have been on both sides of the spectrum when it comes to production.  I first started out with my Pentium 3 600 and a sound blast card.  I now have a have a P4 with 2 gig ram and 200Gig of harddrive space.  (Took me 5 years to build up to it).  Since I am now moving on to bigger projects I bought a Roland VS2480.  It is a beast.  I only have my Phantom X7 to produce my tracks with and some software (Sonar Producer edition 4).  You are spot on though when you say that whatever you use make sure you master it.  I have to say that I have heard many home recordings made on Delta 1010 cards that sound better than some thing mixed up in a $50,000 studio.  The most important piece of a studio is the ears and mind of the producer.


Now Das what i'm talkin' 'bout bruh, I did say when the rubber hits the road it boils down to your Mic and Monitors, but what I should have said was actually trusting your ears and what you are hearing, take for intance; if a kick drum is too loud and sounds muddy out of the frequncy spectrum at around 35-40hz it'll sound that way on the CD and mastering will be a killer, costin too much time to fix.

MusiqSoul

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My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2006, 03:12:00 PM »
Quote from: T_Keys
Hey Musiq I like the setup... it's what I am working towards myself, a continuing process I started  two years ago.

Stay with that setup! It's a beast!


Thanks 4 da input Keys and the rest, keep 'em coming!

Offline NDAMST

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Re: My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #10 on: August 30, 2006, 04:57:19 AM »


Now Das what i'm talkin' 'bout bruh, I did say when the rubber hits the road it boils down to your Mic and Monitors, but what I should have said was actually trusting your ears and what you are hearing, take for intance; if a kick drum is too loud and sounds muddy out of the frequncy spectrum at around 35-40hz it'll sound that way on the CD and mastering will be a killer, costin too much time to fix.

Offline NDAMST

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Re: My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2006, 05:00:26 AM »
Greetings from Freeport GB, The Bahamas, brothas and sistaz.

MusiQSoul here, Lovin' what i'm reading off the site about recording. So Here's my take on few things:

First, i've been saved since  1990 at the age of 19, been our church's keyboardist and music director since I was 25, i'm 34 now. Married with a son 11, and a daughter 3, and I love the Lord. I also write, produce and do a little home engineering.

I've started recently MusiQSoul Productions. I'm writing an album for a singer on our Praise Team, also I have a good bit of other work to get done for clients, basically demos, beats, laying keybords for tracks, etc, enough work to keep me paid and busy while holdin' down my job as an Accounts Clerk / Computer Operator/ Network Maintenance Manager at a trading firm here for 9 years. Right now, i'm laying and composing the tracks on my Korg Triton, feeding them into my IBM Netvista (2gig processor / 256mb memory ) running FLStudio 5, Reason 2.5 not perfect but it gets the job done for now.

Here's my recording setup I plan to upgrade to soon like this month hopefully.

First My Computer: A hybrid Dell Precision sweetly built to my specs, 3.2ghz processor, 4 gigs of memory, dual hard drives at 200gigs a piece, totally dedicated to MUSIC ONLY!!! Why. The computer won't have any Office suite, or all that other stuff. Why a Dell? Well I've worked on one in a friend of mine's studio and it work pretty well. But, if any here builds music production oriented systems, hey, i'm willing to give 'em a shout, lets keep that dough in the Kingdom.

Then I'll go with E-mu 1820m PCI Audio interface. Here's why: I've red just about every review and website on interfaces, firewire, USB, and PCI, red up on Mbox, M-Audio 18/14, 410, Layla, Focusrite Saffire, I named these because I had the previlege of using them and test driving them in music stores in America and studios here, my thing is, when I went to someone running 1820m and man the card is sweeeeeeet sounding! For real! Clean as a whistle. Overall, It sounded the best. Also it has the the same AD converters (24bit/192khz) that are in the Protools HD 192 systems, hmmm, how's that for the picking. Then, with the DSP chip, it takes the load completely off your comp cpu to do other things, nice aint it? It also comes with Cakewalk Sonar LE, Cubase LE, Ableton 5 lite, Wave lab lite and other software. Then i'll upgrade my Reason 2.5 to 3, and my FLStudio 5 to Flstudio 6 XXL. Get Sonar or Cakewalk for my main sequencer (maybe someone can help me out on that) and then either Cubase Wavelab 5 or A few Waves software (cheapest for my money), and a few other choice plugins for Mastering, add to that some Event TR8 monitors, two Audio Technica AT4040 mics, and two Sony stuidio headphones and bang!

Now, lets jive on software, hardware, more for the money, and the Hoo Haa on Protools: My five and half on it.

Let me first say that Protools is good to work on, but I feel it's geared towards the big studios that can afford it or any one if you have 10-20 thousand to spare. But for the majority, sometimes what will happen is that the people who have a limited budget go out and spend most of it on a Digi 002, or other wise to take for a home studio because they hear it's the new fad in recording and then choke the rest of their home studio with cheaper, less efficient equipment, which won't intergrate properly. Even if you go with cheaper M - powered systems, I feel you still sacrifce a bit of quality. Not my cup of tea when you can get better for the same price of an M-Powered. For me still, there is no substitute for having good mics and monitors, after all, that's where the rubber hits the proverbial road, hard. My AT4040s will cost me $299 a piece, and my Event TR8s will cost $499 for the pair and I'll go even cheaper if I get to test drive some other brands for quality once I get in the stores, i'll be equiped with my brother's laptop and some reference CDs of my own recordins for this task.

Sure, Protools seems to be industry standard, so everyone wants to use it or get  the system for that matter but those prices, when it's all said and done will suck the life out of a budget when its tight. Me, I downloaded the free version a while a go (2004) and tore it apart, really squeezed it good, and man I aint impress at all. Then, you find out that you need a lot of other stuff from them only or else you are pretty much in the Whales belly like Jonah, that's where the the MONEY comes in, sure, the bundles are nice and I give them props but... you get the picture. If I had my way still, I'd buy a hybrid MAC and run Digital Perfomer and master my stuff with Wave Platinum Bundle, but the money aint there at least not yet, so I'm doing other wise. (eventually that's where i'll end up though)

What i'm saying is that if the funds is there for Protools fine it has it's advantages, but disavantages as well, but if you really want to get more bang for your buck, go with FLstudio and Reason, and then Sonar  4 or Cubase for your main programs, or even Ableton live, which i plan to do, I've seemlessly worked my FLstudio 5 and my Reason 2.5 together with the sounds from my Korg like MAGIC!!! man i've been getting killer drum tracks, synths, loops, bass from them and together, OOOOHWEEEE!!!, they are rocking, especially when I import some of the FLStudio drum samples into Reason, just leaves me Gasping.  I'll tell you a story: In Reason, with a few FLStudio drum samples, I simulated Isreals "Who is like the Lord" and Rejoice, also Kurt Carr's "Sanctuary" And it was so indentical it was SCAAARRRY! I listened to each of them side by side.

Get the Picture?

So here I am, getting better recordings from my cheap system than some here get from there huge expensive Protools HDs (ha, my God is a good God) don't be fooled people, Cubase, Sonar, Digital Performer, and Reason, are well beyond Protools, for the money that is, but that's just my opinion.

So, It's Feb. and I'm getting the funds together to hit Sam Ash in Miami Florida, then use my credit card to buy and download my carefully, handpicked extra plugins.

In closing, I say, work your software, strip it bare, know it inside out and push it to it's very end to get what it's worth, it suppose to do what it says. GET EDUCATED. Knowlege is the key and wisdom opens the door, you don't have to go "industry standard" perse to get great home recording masters ready for duplication. Do your research. It helped me ALOT! Find whats best for the budget. I'll give pointers to anyone who needs it and i'll take pointers from anyone who can give it.  Me not being a novice has alowed me to get fairly priced equipment and software that I know I can tweak, manipulate, and fine tune just enough to get the quality I need, but at the same time not taking away from the integrity of the software, but for a first timer, this isn't easy, I'll be sharing more soon.

Let me know what you think people.
MusiQSoul

Offline jfj007

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Re: My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2006, 02:26:31 AM »
Hi Musiq, My name is John and I m planing to start a home studio. So what do you recommend for a new comer to the home studio? I am saved and love the lord very much. I am married and my wife is saved and she can sing. So, my plan is to produce her myself. I do have some friends that are into music and recording with home studios but they seem to be always busy when I need them. I write and my wife also write potery. She has a book out that I help get into print. I have always wanted to do music when I was growing up but now that I am saved I know now that God comes first and we want to do it for the Lord. We have some nice songs written and ready to record but no studio. I have been reading alot about home studio's but as I having been reading here. It can be confusing picking the right software. A friend recommended Pro tools M-powered but he has Sonar 5. Well, let me start at the basic with my computer that I have at the moment. AMD Anthlon (tm) xp 1.14 Ghz and 512 MB Ram but plan to go up to 1Ghz, Windows Xp Home Edition and not sure what the hard drive is but I will find out. My budget is tight but can aleast spend 3000 to 4000 range. Can you give me an idea plan for a new comer. Thanks you in advance and may God bless you.

John
Deacon Johnson

MusiQSoul

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Re: My Digital Recording Setup - let me know what think!
« Reply #13 on: September 16, 2006, 05:02:07 PM »
Hi Musiq, My name is John and I m planing to start a home studio. So what do you recommend for a new comer to the home studio? I am saved and love the lord very much. I am married and my wife is saved and she can sing. So, my plan is to produce her myself. I do have some friends that are into music and recording with home studios but they seem to be always busy when I need them. I write and my wife also write potery. She has a book out that I help get into print. I have always wanted to do music when I was growing up but now that I am saved I know now that God comes first and we want to do it for the Lord. We have some nice songs written and ready to record but no studio. I have been reading alot about home studio's but as I having been reading here. It can be confusing picking the right software. A friend recommended Pro tools M-powered but he has Sonar 5. Well, let me start at the basic with my computer that I have at the moment. AMD Anthlon (tm) xp 1.14 Ghz and 512 MB Ram but plan to go up to 1Ghz, Windows Xp Home Edition and not sure what the hard drive is but I will find out. My budget is tight but can aleast spend 3000 to 4000 range. Can you give me an idea plan for a new comer. Thanks you in advance and may God bless you.

John

Hey John, let me know what your budget is then we'll go from there.
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