Studio's - lets talk about 'em for a second

Hatchets McGee · Post by **Hatchets McGee** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:58 am

sonsofthehounds wrote:the industry has us on lock.....'you need this....actually, come to think of it you need this aswell'....this ain't news to anyone on here but sometimes just tinkering with new gear is fun...sure it doesn't finish tracks but you might have enjoyed yourself, the same way a kid does kicking a football around in his brand new england strip after watching his team win . It's up to you...it's there for the taking...there's no illusions here....finish tracks and get your shit out there if you want to........otherwise just enjoy yourself

dont read Future Music (UK - and probably the US version too) , its the biggest 'buy this buy that' rag out there...

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 3:52 am

njh wrote:using just software is great if you only want to do electronic music.
but if you want to do anything else you do need a little more gear.
you can not get a real guitar sound out of software. and you do need a good mic unless you want every vocal track to sound lo fi.
also if you want your drums to sound real its better just to use real drums.
like i said this you can do it all with software thing really only applys to electronic music.

Have you heard Victor Pinheiro? this Brazilian musician uses only software (Reason) to compose and record jazz...and this is not electronic music. And all those who compose music for films?

sonsofthehounds · Post by **sonsofthehounds** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:48 am

I don't read future music...there's nothing much to read

....thing is, I've been there through years of gear lust but thing is none of it has made my music any better. In fact, when i first started with my atari and sampler and little desk my music sounded almost better in retrospect.

Then came the time when I actually have some money to throw at some gear and it's most likely i spent more time setting gear up and figuiring out teething problems and going thru hell getting cracked software to work.

I think I'm now getting back to basics though...ableton, nord, virus and all the free plugs from dontcrack and it's all I need. My music is starting to work for me again....it's been a while.

No new gear.....k i s s

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:56 am

Where I work we've got this saying...

Got all the gear - but no idea

njh · Post by **njh** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 1:06 pm

Atomikat wrote:
njh wrote:using just software is great if you only want to do electronic music.
but if you want to do anything else you do need a little more gear.
you can not get a real guitar sound out of software. and you do need a good mic unless you want every vocal track to sound lo fi.
also if you want your drums to sound real its better just to use real drums.
like i said this you can do it all with software thing really only applys to electronic music.
Have you heard Victor Pinheiro? this Brazilian musician uses only software (Reason) to compose and record jazz...and this is not electronic music. And all those who compose music for films?

its hard to belive that some one is going to get real jazz sounds from the orkester sound bank. it would be cool but, i know sampled sax and trumpet when i hear it...
im sure within the next ten years we will hear realistic useable samples but we are not there yet.
i have heard alot of sample sets including east wests symphonic orchestra
and none of them sound as well as real instruments... i do think they sound good but i dont hear as much detail and natural flaws (such as string squeeking or the wind that you hear with brass) as you hear with the real thing.
this is just my opinion of course..

STRATEGY_510 · Post by **STRATEGY_510** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:06 pm

djadonis206 wrote:Well the point of the thread wasn't to start a debate -

I was hoping to encourage some people to get off the buy buy buy upgrade upgrade upgrade train and get busy with what you got

It's nice to have things, want things dream about things

but if you stopped doing all that you might just fuck around and make a jam

about 10 years ago I had a friend who was getting pretty handy with the EPS 16+ (predecessor to ASR-10). He didn't even have a mixer, just mixed interenally inside the ensoniq out to his home stereo. Guy was really making good beats.

Then he had ancle surgery and the hospital botched it, he got a crooked lawyer and came up on 250,000. He ended up with a slight limp and faked much of it.

anyway, dude buys tons of equipment, synths, a couple of rack modules, big board, tons of stuff. Suddenly he stops making music for months because he's clueless and doesn't know the first thing about setting it up properly. Coming from using a single MIDI device you really don't know shit about MIDI until you have to make several midi devices work together (without a PC). So he doens't even know how to make any of the instruments talk to each other, doesn't know how to route his efx racxk through the board, etc.

Ends up finally going of on some kind of meth binge and later sold all his equipment for quick cash for cheap brandy and crack.

You might think it was the drugs, but I think it was the equipent and the desire to have the latest best fastest state of the art studio that did him in!

STRATEGY

jdp · Post by **jdp** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 1:47 am

Thanks, Adonis, for your remarks.

I've been a DIY guy since before I learned the term from Peter Gabriel, started with homemade oscillators & filters & adsrs in 1975. I've really only had three studios in that period. The first was based on two two-track reel-to-reels, that PAIA kit synth and a big patchcord ARP. The second was based on the first Sequential Circuits MIDI synth, a Commodore 64 and a B&W TV. The third is based on Mac G3 Powerbook, Live 4, and electric guitar.

When the time comes, I like to upgrade to what I think represents the direction I want to go with music and will endure for a few generations of development.

After that, it's all about making interesting sounds and putting them together in ways that please you. Every new sound is a new piece of music. Whatever gear you have has so many sounds you'll never run out of ideas for new pieces.

Maybe it's different if you are actively selling your recordings or productions to particular audiences . . . ?

- Joel

Hatchets McGee · Post by **Hatchets McGee** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:51 am

the only thing i dont understand is...why knock the notion of having lots of gear over a minimal cpu setup ?....to each their own...dj syncro put it better then I, basically his fishing analogy was spot on imo.

of course GOALS and VALUES and TASTE come into play...which is why knocking one method (of enjoying and participating in sound stuff) over another seems far fetched to me

Parisongs · Post by **Parisongs** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:12 am

Hatchets McGee wrote:the only thing i dont understand is...why knock the notion of having lots of gear over a minimal cpu setup ?....to each their own...dj syncro put it better then I, basically his fishing analogy was spot on imo.

of course GOALS and VALUES and TASTE come into play...which is why knocking one method (of enjoying and participating in sound stuff) over another seems far fetched to me

A great piece of music is a great piece of music no matter how it was made or who made it- as long as it wasn't stolen.

As far us the upgrade gasability thing goes- I have to. Stylus RMX and Kontakt are CPU pigs and I want to use them a lot. So I will upgrade to dual core.

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 6:42 am

djadonis206 wrote:
hambone1 wrote:IMO, it's all about the talent. The tools are simply a means to an end.
Well put...

Yes.....except......when shit is crashing all the time. It's always something......

Live is pretty good..........but I'm pretty tired of everything else.....and the plug ins.........jesus h ch.........can't they ever just work.

Yep, I'm in ranting mode............

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:19 am

FINALLY... my studio has become 'transparent' to me. MIDI controllers are configured and memorized, the Live set is finalized, computers tweaked and efficient, and I can start being productive.

But now I'm bored. Retarded gear/upgrade lust once again overpowers my common sense.

I don't even need Live 6, I don't need a Lemur, but I know that I won't be able to resist the new bells-and-whistles, and I'll spend untold hours wasting time with useless features that probably won't make a rat's-ass difference to what I'm doing.

Anyone got a cure, besides a lobotomy?

forge · Post by **forge** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:20 am

I totally agree - I have finally reached my "sweet spot" with gear and I think live is the only thing I'll upgrade from now on

and I think the music coming out lately is showing this is happening for alot of people

seriously all the tools do so much it is taking years to figure out how to use it all properly

but as superflat mentioned - the bar has been raised - competition is alot tougher

like that MBM remix comp - I thought it was one of the best things I'd ever done - not even a mention - competition is definitely stiff now

so I guess this is what drives the gear lust

maybe while I'm saying I wont bother upgrading anything, maybe in 3 years you'll only get 5.1 HD albums on super audio DVD and we'll all have to find ways of doing it or we'll sound behind!

and BTW - i dont think forum posting is testament to low productivity - I do alot of my bullshit speak while working on or listening to music - sometimes you need to seperate yourself from it for a few seconds, so i flip accross to mozilla with live still going

and like Adonis was saying about putting through a DJ mixer - you have to put your music in context sometimes and listen as you would other music - like in the background while doing something else

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 1:46 pm

hambone1 wrote:FINALLY... my studio has become 'transparent' to me. MIDI controllers are configured and memorized, the Live set is finalized, computers tweaked and efficient, and I can start being productive.

But now I'm bored. Retarded gear/upgrade lust once again overpowers my common sense.

I don't even need Live 6, I don't need a Lemur, but I know that I won't be able to resist the new bells-and-whistles, and I'll spend untold hours wasting time with useless features that probably won't make a rat's-ass difference to what I'm doing.

Anyone got a cure, besides a lobotomy?

Heroin.

But I think you should be social and use your last inkling of free will to build a couple of hydrogen bombs, to cure the rest of us as well.

-Paws (BA student, Misanthropy)

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:18 pm

hambone1 wrote:FINALLY... my studio has become 'transparent' to me. MIDI controllers are configured and memorized, the Live set is finalized, computers tweaked and efficient, and I can start being productive.

But now I'm bored. Retarded gear/upgrade lust once again overpowers my common sense.

I don't even need Live 6, I don't need a Lemur, but I know that I won't be able to resist the new bells-and-whistles, and I'll spend untold hours wasting time with useless features that probably won't make a rat's-ass difference to what I'm doing.

Anyone got a cure, besides a lobotomy?

You could try developing a crazy pot habit and then you wont have money to buy shit - which will force you to use what you got and you never know

Here's the gig I think - once you reach a goal in your music, whether it be it gets signed to a label, your favorite dj plays your track at a big party, you get some radio play, a commercial, a video game, whatever...you step back and look at how you got there

if your journey involved collecting all the gear in the world so be it, but if this happens at some odd moment where all you only have is a few records and Reason, cool - it's a feeling inside of contentment. Not saying you've made it and you're shoulder to shoulder with Dave Clarke playing I LOVE TECHNO main room at 3am but...

for me it's about being content - I want and dream about a lot of shit but everyday i get more and more content with what I have (music wise) which frees me up to pursue other goals - namely school and leaving the country.

I'm hoping this journey I'm on musically will start paying the bills but I'm learning the one virtue in all of this is PATIENCE - whether it be waiting on Live 6 or waiting for your first record to come out you made 2 years ago - PATIENCE means so much

jerry123 · Post by **jerry123** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:29 pm

Yeah, I wouldn't buy something I don't know haow to use. And I wouldn't buy something after owning an item that I could not use to it's full potential. Mostly, at home, I've had the guitar/pc desk/amp/drumkit/bed/dresser setup where the 'studio' is incorporated into a room in the house but there's something about leaving home to enter a room filled with lights and knobs(I'm definitely a hardware kind of girl). It seems to give me a sense of creativity.
Kind of like playing a guitar. I may not be the most talented player, but sometimes a new guitar will inspire me to play something different.
I find the same thing happens with a new piece of software, like a delay for instance. If you stopped using all of your delay pluggins except for the most limited one in your collection, do you think you would be more creative with it or become frustrated with your sudden limitations? Granted, you know what every control an a general delay does.

Studio's - lets talk about 'em for a second

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