Musical Hardware or Software, Whats Your Passion?

[jaycey]

I thought this would be a good discussion topic after Smogs 473nm sale thread started going OT.

When I was young free and single...with no kids I enjoyed a good session making some *Cough*Music*Cough*

I started around the late 80's with a Roland JX3P, Roland D50 a TR909 (wish I had that one now!)
Later came a Akai S3000 Sampler, Roland JP 8000 and finaly a Access Virus B.

Between me and my friends we used to get some good old school house tunes recorded (when we wern't stoned )

All just a distant memory and I am now converted to software.
I bought Propellerheads Reason V1 soon after its release and a Marian MARC 4 MIDI audio card, then came Propellerheads Recycle and Steinberg Wavelab.
All controlled with a M Audio Axiom 49 (most recent addition) and a Kenton Controlfreak Studio

KRK K-ROK Monitors complete the lineup

Today if I get a chance, I still tinker with it and still love my House Music!


Sooooo...what ya got, what ya had....what do you still yern after?

[taggalucci]

Hey Jaycey

My first experience with music production was at about age 15 in my home country of Zimbabwe on my mates Amiga 500+ using OctaMed tracker. It came with some cheesy samples, was pretty easy to use and was great fun

When I was about 19, I built a PC and spent a small fortune (in Zimbabwean terms) importing an American soundcard and built a business around vinyl to CD transfers (amongst other things).

I managed to get a copy of Cubase, some soft synths e.g. Propellerheads Rebirth and used that for a little while. My mate had a Korg Poly800 which he gave me (I still have this) and used as a MIDI controller. The latency from the soundcard was so bad that I could count what felt like a full second between hitting a key and having the note come out the speakers! It was impossible to play/record "live" and I ended up having to program all the notes.

When I moved to the UK a few years later, I finally had access to buying decent equipment and decided with all the instability and latency issues that it was time to move to hardware. So I bought a Novation Supernova II keyboard which is awesome. Great for the trancey, acidey sounds (subtractive synth) I had grown to love.

Later, an upgraded PC and an RME HDSP Multiface at last opened up the world of soft synths and computer music. The Supernova gradually became less of a sound engine and more of a MIDI controller, with the audio IO between the Supernova and Cubase being too much of a pain to keep configured (more a reflection of the state of hardware software integration back then).

Around about this time I picked up some new Genelec studio monitors (which are to this day amazing)!

Eventually I saw sense and invested in an Apple computer, a PowerBook G4. The PC had continuously given me a hard time: crashing; blue screens of death... the usual. With the Mac I could finally focus on just making tunes (well more like a noise!) and not continuously propping up Microsoft's shitty little bloated operating system.

Investment in studio gear took a back seat for a while during the 2 year wait for Australian residency visas. After that wait, we finally knew we could move and get on with our lives. So the big move and the opportunities that Australia would provide my music making past time...

Logic Pro has since become by DAW of choice, though I dabble in Ableton Live; particularly when collaborating with my mate who could use Ableton with his eyes closed! I rarely use the Supernova now.

Since buying a house, which almost unbelievably came fitted with a fully sound-proof recording studio (recording room and separate control room), I have invested in a MacPro 8-core along with an RME FireFace 800; the real workhorses in the studio. I have a number of controllers to make the user experience a lot more friendly:

Behringer BCF-2000 8 Channel Faders
Novation SL MKII Controller Keyboard
Novation Launchpad
Mackie Big Knob (great for controlling the two rooms)
Native Instruments Kore 2

Apart from all the great stuff that comes with Logic (and you don't really need any more) I use soft synths like Rob Papen's Albino 3, Blue and Predator; as well as reFX's Vanguard and Nexus 2. I also have some great AU and VST plugins too, like Schaak Audio's Transient Shaper, and the mastering plugins like iZotope Ozone 4 and T-Racks 24.

I have also invested in some outboard like a TL Audio VP1 Valve Processor, which I find adds a real shine to digital content.

Although I don't spend enough time in the studio, more recently because I'm up to my neck in , I do intend to get back to it!

I've always been keen on having a great big desk, ideally a DAW control surface mirroring Logic's mixer - something like a Euphonix System 5 MC (maybe when I win the lottery)!

You can hear my latest work here.

Cheers,
Tony

[SideFX]

Hey Guys!

As someone stated in his signature here: 'This hobby killed my other ones' totaly applies on me.. Since I went into the 'laser business' my music hobby sort of deteriorated..

I have a classical background, but since around 1991 I've been collecting synths.
I like the technical aspect of electronic music. the algorithms for sound creation, the devices, the lit up displays and leds fascinated me since I was a child

My setup currently consists of a Roland D70,D550,JD990,aJuno-2, Kawai K1, K3, K5, Korg 01/W, poly800, Novation nova, Yamaha TG77, SCI Pro-one, Oberheim matrix 1000 and a Emu e5k ultra sampler.

Unfortunately no 'big vintage guns' here.. like a jupiter, CS60, or anything of the likes. except the pro-one perhaps. My budget was never really big.. and wasn't able to keep the money in my pocket for a long time
I also own a Moog Sonic-six, but due to a blown transistor in the PSU part a lot of hard-to-get components got overpowered and melted down.. a shame because the sound was awesome..

I hope to find time in the near future to fire it all up again. Altough its a shame it is all collecting dust in the attic, I find the feeling comforting it is 'there'.. so when I have a spare sunday (like that will ever happen..) I can just go up there, turn it on and make music.

My dream would be to own a Fairlight CMI (the IIx). I almost bought one from a guy in NY, but we couldn't get the shipment figured out. Do to the shape and weight of the components shipment was a big hassle..

[dave]

I lost interest in making music a long time ago ( funny, as other ppl are saying, right about the same time I got sucked into lasers), but I have owned over the years the following, all of it gone now
:-( - Wish I still had the OSCar..

TR909, TB303, TR606, TR808, TR707, SH101, Waldorf Wave rack, Waldorf Pulse, Akai S3000XL, Akai MPC2000, Akai MPC2000xl, Oxford Synthesiser Company OSCar, Yamaha A4000... Hmm think that's about it..;

I also spend my working days fixing this sort of stuff..

[Ubersapian]

Awesome Track on your myspace site tony !

[taggalucci]

Awesome Track on your myspace site tony !

Cheers

................

[colouredmirrorball]

Except from my Viscount Allegro electric piano and a lousy MIDI keyboard I don't have much hardware. For making music I use Reaper, a program that is similar to Cubase but has a total different way of dealing with tracks and samples. It's a really amazing software, pretty powerful and, if you are used to it, easy to use. However it has a rather steep learning curve (it took me a while to figure out how to play MIDI - hint: VST synthesizers can be found under the FX button of a track).

You guys have some great hardware lists, I have been sucked to lights and lasers too soon it seems!

[kitatit]

Wow guys! We have even more in common than I thought.

My love of music that goes thump in the night started when I was 17 and went to my first rave party in 93. I drooled and dreamed but it was out of reach on an apprentice wage and I was renting a house in a city 500km away from my parents.

after a couple of years I couldn't get it out of my head so I saved up and bought an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler, Roland JX-8P, second hand apple 7100av, Logic Audio and a Yamaha CBX-D5 hard disk recording system. Then over the years I've had 2 Juno-60s one which I fitted a Kenton midi retro fit, Juno 106, TR909, Jupiter-6 Akai S3200XL, Mackie 1604vlz, Yamaha O3D digital mixer, Roland HPD-15 drum kit, Clavia Nord Modular rack, Korg Triton, Rode NT2000 condenser mic,2x MOTU miditimepieceAV 8in/8 out midi interfaces, Tascam DM4800 digital mixer
Logic studio, Melodyne Studio and MacBook Pro.

The laser/ music passion started at around the same time. When I was a little raver bunny. I would buy oem red lasers (3mw I think) diodes with drivers and mount them on glasses and dance around with laser beam vision.

Also i may have made a suit completely covered in mirrors( yes 2000 glass mirrors I cut myself and yes it was heavy).
Whilst wearing said suit, I may have been dancing on a platform in the middle of a stadium at a rave with a twin head 7watt white light Ion laser scanning effects on me.....Hey I was nineteen, it was 96 and I didn't know better... but boy was it fun and what an effect!

Oh the good/bad old days

My main interests are in creating exciting live entertainment that sparks peoples creativity and brings them together to share and optimistic and exciting new future.

I want to be a performance artist that combines exciting technology with music and light.

Despite all the music gear I've bought, I haven't really seriously made the effort to practice and learn what it takes to make it. I've been a big fat poser.

I'm so glad I did an search for the state of where lasers are at about a year ago as it made me realise, yeah! it is doable now!
I've been absolutely obsessed with lasers again now that I found PL.

I'm really excited about the midi of LivePro and LD2000.

Lasers are going to draw me back into getting serious about music production so I can link them together via midi.

I know I can be good at this, I think I've found my path to follow now!

Peace brothers.
Kit

[SideFX]

Wow guys! We have even more in common than I thought.

Hey man.. nice Jupiter 6 you got there
wanna trade it for a CNI 250mW 473nm laser? Ok i'll throw in a extra 1.5W 445nm

well..?

[SideFX]

BTW all you Australian guys (I counted 4 so far in this thread).. aren't there any Fairlights lying around at fleamarkets etc over there..? parts perhaps?

Here in holland we can buy old philips parts and instruments for scrap.. figured this would be the same with australian companies