I’ve been dabbling with music recording, mixing and production for a couple of years now, and my experience as well as collection (both hardware and software) keeps growing. It’s enormous fun and I think there’s never been a better time to get into it: amazing new music software applications are coming out all of the time and bringing recording into the relam of the hobby budget. Here’s where I’m at.
This is my workstation, which neatly shows off my newest addition: a pair of Tannoy Reveal 5As. I spent quite a while in Sound Control the other day listen to Bruce Dickinson’s Tyranny of Souls through a variety of near-field monitors at low to high volumes, and these babies made the cut.
The Phonic MU1002 mixing desk. I’ve had this one for a while now, and while it does its job, it will be replaced by something a bit more powerful, like the Alesis MultiMix8, in the near future.
I got the Shure PG58 mike at the same time as the mixing desk above, now over a year and a half ago. It’s a great and versatile dynamic mike, a little bit cheaper than renowned all-rounder 57.
This Yamaha PSR620 was my father’s keyboard before he shipped it up to me from Luxembourg. It comes with a large array of synth sounds, although I use it mostly as MIDI keyboard for my VSTis. A MIDI keyboard is simply essential to recording, regardless of genre.
And here’s a snapshots of my amps. The main biggie – the Crate VTX212 – is a decidedly loud beast, and a birthday present from my wife Karen. The Fender practice amp on the right has fantastic sound for a thing of its size, and the one in the background is a bass amp. Various guitars, eletrical, acoustic and ukuleles, and sundry instruments are dotted around the room too.
My main DAW (digital audio workstation) is the great Samplitude 8, which I recently got free with Computer Music magazine. A collection of free softsynths, other VSTis, and plugins round off the setup, along with the sublime ezDrummer, which is easily worth its pricetag.
Current Wishlist:
- Cakewalk Sonar 6, when it comes out
- Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2 (there is none higher)
- Pentagon II (although I believe that’s included in Sonar 6)
- ezDrummer Drumkit from Hell Expansion (which should have been out by now)
That’s it for now. You can check out some recent stuff at amaranthlive.co.uk or this here MySpace, though more is in the works!
