The word that you always hear as a new producer is that it doesn’t matter what you have in your studio, is what you do with what you have, and i think its some truth in it. If i told you that “Platitude” was made with only an old Acer (ntel Celeron M Processor – 512Mb ram), a crapy pair of Sony walkman headphones Ableton Live 4 and some plug-ins, would you believe me? Well its true, actually my first three signed tracks was made like this until i updated to a real workstation and the rest is history… Thank god. Even tho it worked it was most of the time quite painful since the performance sucked, but you gotta start somewhere.
So this is what i use today, and i cant say so much has changed with How i work, its more what i work with i am gonna tell you now. And if you are expecting to see some big super studio here im afraid im gonna have to disappoint you. There are two reasons why i don’t have more that i do and the first most obvious reason i money, money and money. This is not a very cheap “hobby” we have, everything cost a small fortune but i take small bits at a time. Second reason is space and since we live in a pretty small apartment now i had to put away some stuff and make the best of it. Ideal would be to rent a basement or something and build one but then we have problem number one again, money. But enough with the crap and on with the good stuff.
Hardware
My workhorse. I have had many computers throughout the years and all of them have been PCs. I have worked with most os´s, Win 98, XP, Vista and Win 7. But one day i had enough with the unstable crap that Microsoft is making and i did something you should not do, but i installed Leopard OSX on my PC (dual boot) just to try out Logic Studio for a while.. Aaaand i can tell you that i didn’t take many days until i was sold. If OSX could make my crappy workstation to perform almost twice as good as Win 7 i had to be good, and it was. So today I’m a happy owner of a real workhorse called iMac…….And no i wont go back…Ever!!!
Specifications:
- iMac 21.5“ LED – Running OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.4
- CPU: 3.2GHz Intel Core i3
- RAM: 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
- HDD: 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA
- ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB
- 8x double-layer SuperDrive
Then a MUST for all producers is a good backup drive and software and OSX has a really amazing backup software built in called “Time Machine”. It makes hourly, daily and monthly backups without me having to do anything and i can easily go back in time to fetch a project that i may have changed, deleted or whatever. The best thing is that it doesnt get full….Well it does but its smart enough to delete the oldest backups to free some space. For some this may not be so good but for me i think its awesome. And for this im using a Seagate external harddrive called Seagate FreeAgent.
Specifications:
- Seagate FreeAgent Desk™ 500Gb
- Triple Fire-Wire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces, plus Fire-Wire 400 support
Sound-card is not always easy to choose and many times i have thought of upgrading to something new and better but this little box has served me well for many years now and I’m very happy with it so far. It has all the things i need for now at least. However there will probably come a time when i need more. You dont really need a external sound-card today since the quality of the sound-cards today are quite good compare to when i started. However if you are on a PC you should try to get one with ASIO support to increase performance and fix latency problems. My card supports ASIO but it doesn’t do any good on a Mac or Linux since ASIO is Windows only what i know. Mac and Linux doesn’t not have this issue, another argument to choose a mac. The card I’m using is from M-Audio and its called Audiophile USB.
Specifications:
- 24-bit/96kHz, full-duplex recording interface with MIDI I/O.
- Two (2) analog inputs accept common unbalanced audio connections on 1/4” or RCA jacks.
- Two (2) analog outputs with level control provide common unbalanced audio connections on RCA jacks.
- Two (2) channels of coaxial RCA S/PDIF I/O.
- 1×1 (16 channel) MIDI I/O.
- Headphone output with level control.
- High analog dynamic range: D/A 107dB,A/D 109 dB (both A-weighted).
- Data paths support up to 24-bit/96kHz performance.
- MME,ASIO, and WDM (Me or greater) Mac OS drivers with ASIO support also included.
One of the most important things we have in the studio are the monitors and the headphones. This is a very individual choice, some use only monitors, some only headphones and the most ideal is of course both. However i prefer mixing with headphones even tho i know its Not the best, but this is what im used to and i know how they sound. Getting to know your equipment must be one of the most essential things and your monitors or headphones should be good. There is no point i buying a pair of crappy monitors is it? So for the price you spent on those crappy monitor i would rather spend on a pair of top of the line headphones and the get those monitors when you can afford them. Anyway as i said this i very individual and if you go for the headphones then go with the good stuff. Ive been using my Beyerdynamic DT990 for almost three years now and i absolutely love them. At the moment i can not have monitors because of the space situation, but i do perfect without them.
Specifications:
- Dynamic
- Half open
- Freq. response: 5-35000 Hz
- 250 Ω per cartridge
- 96 dB SPL
- T.H.D < 0.2%
- Power 100 mW
Last but not least we have my baby, the Access Virus KC. Now days its not hard to start making music because of the technology, the software synths are just getting better and better and i will get back to y ou on that later. But there is something special with a real hardware synth and especially the “Virus”. It has a unique character that you just cant get with a computer, well at least not yet. I cant say that its good for everything because it isn’t, BUT the things it does good, it does really good. If you sometime wonder how those fat leads, those big pads or those nice plucks are made, well now you know. Also its great to have layering sounds with, for example you have a nice lead created with your fav. vst synth but it lacks in warmth and depth, you just add a layer with the Virus and you get the best of both worlds. Also this is what i have as a master keyboard because it covers pretty much the whole register with the built in “Transpose” feature on the keyboard.
Specifications
Software
Essential to all studios today is the “DAW” (Digital Audio Workstation) or “Sequencer” as some calls it and there are a lot of them out there today but some of the most known are probably “Steinberg Cubase”, “Ableton Live”, “ProTools”,”Reason” and “Logic Pro”. My quest started with “Reason” form “Propellerheads”, then i got “Ableton Live” which i used to “ReWire” with “Reason” at first but then i left “Reason” completely since i thought i lacked in compatibility (However i do not know much about how it is today, but this was like 5 years ago i think). Then i worked with “Live ” for many years and i really loved it, and i still do BUT it has it downsides and I’m not gonna go into that now, however “Logic Pro” that im using now just is better in many ways and more versatile for pure music production.
Then we have the VST´s and this part is something that tend to change with time since new and better stuff keeps coming all the time but im gonna reveal some of my favorite plugins the im using at the moment. I made a top 5 list based on which i like the best and use the most.
1. Logic ES2 – Use this for about everything. One of the best software synths i have worked with and believe me i have tried most.
2. NI Massive – This synth is a monster when i comes to lead sounds and bass. Very sharp and powerful .
3. Logic EXS24 – Great sampler that is very versatile for most things.
4. Novation V-Station – This has been with me from the start and it sounds great and is very easy to work with.
5. Spectrasonics Ominsphere – This one is just awesome for everything but i use it most for stuff like stings and pads.
Then off course we have the effects and samples and i will answer some quick questions here by telling you my favorites that i use a lot.
EQ? Logic Channel EQ
Compressor? Logic Platinum Compressor
Reverb? ArtsAcoustic Reverb
For vocals? Waves Rvox
Enhancer? Waves Rbass and S-Imager
Filter? Fabfiler Volcano 2
Delay? Logic Stereo Delay
Sample CDs? Vengeance Sounds (Most of them)
Soundset? Standalone-Music
Limiter? Waves L3-LL
So there you have it folks, i think i have covered the most and i hope you enjoyed reading this. As you can see i do not use much and most of the rest is native plug-ins in “Logic”. Why? Because most of them sounds awesome. If by any chance i have forgotten to tell you here then just ask, but i tried to cover the most essential tools that i use.
Take care
//Chris