The forum · September 2003 – July 2004 › MUSIC TALK

What do you use for production?

And what're your fav. FX & Plugins?

Started by Guest · 10 posts · 27 views · this thread in the Internet Archive

Mel David5 Oct 2003, 06:36
What audio software/equipment do you use to produce tracks and what are your favourite effects plug-ins?

I'm on a Mac running OSX Jaguar and I use Sound Studio to record songs/samples which then get mastered in T-RackS. I use iTunes to convert to mp3.
I've got Digital Performer 3 installed but since my pewter gets used mainly for surfing and email, I never bother rebooting into the older operating system in order to use it. I think my system is too old to handle the upgrade to Digital Performer 4.

Most of my tracks are created with loops sampled into my Yamaha A3000 sampler which get triggered by my Roland XP-50 workstation keyboard. I also have a Novation Nova but I hardly use it at all.

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Here's my very minimal but well chosen gear list:

Sound sources: Roland XP-50 Workstation, Yamaha A3000 Sampler, Novation Nova, Roland Meinl Bongos.

Connections: Dick Smith OFC audio cables + Jaycar Best Quality connectors.

Sound system: Behringer 1602a mixer, Behringer Composer Pro compressor, Mackie HR824 monitor speakers.

Recording Marantz CDR630 stand-alone CD recorder (broken), Sony TC-K511S Tape Deck.

Computer: Apple G4 DP-500MHZ (768 MB RAM) running OS X 10.2.8 Jaguar.
Software: Ableton Live, AudioFinder, iTunes, Sound Studio, T-RackS, WireTap.
Trancefuzion5 Oct 2003, 07:12
I've got a minimal setup:

Sony PCV-RX860, 2.4Ghz P4 512MB RAM, 128MB video and DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive, 17" flat panel LCD
running
Reason 2.5 with 5 gigs of refills and 3 gigs of ACID samples
And I tweak the heck out of it in Soundforge 6, Magix Samplitude 7 Professional, and WaveLab.

I also have a Yamaha PSR-282 keyboard interfaced by a Midiman 1x1 (1 in 1 out) USB connection. I haven't used it much but I'm going to be using it even more in the future.

I'd REALLY like to get some Truths and maybe a Nova, Virus, Spectrasonics or JP-8000/8080 but I doubt that I'll be getting those anytime in the near future. So much to buy, so little money *sigh*.
Mel David5 Oct 2003, 07:21
Those Behringer Truths have quite a bad reputation. Actually a lot of people diss Behringer products judging from what I read on forums. Just out of interest why would you choose them over Mackie's range of active speakers? If you are in the US you'd be paying extra just to import the Truths over.
Trancefuzion5 Oct 2003, 09:59
Mel David wrote: Those Behringer Truths have quite a bad reputation. Actually a lot of people diss Behringer products judging from what I read on forums. Just out of interest why would you choose them over Mackie's range of active speakers? If you are in the US you'd be paying extra just to import the Truths over.

Hmm I've actually heard great things about the Truths. I dont know why you think they're bad. Mackies are pretty good too though.
TranceSynthVania5 Oct 2003, 13:02
Behringer is "cheap". I know a dude who's running a *really* professional studio here. His advice is to forget behringer in any way, monitors, mixers or whatever they make.

Anyways, my setup isn't that great either, but I'm only 16, so I haven't got a whole lot of money yet :unsure:

PC running Cubase SX, soon to be Cubase SX2.0 (as soon as they get it in at my local music store). I have WaveLab, which I use for editing samples most. All mastering is done in Cubase now.
I use an M'Audio Delta 44 soundcard which is totally fine.

synths:
Novation NOVA (awesome synth!)
Technics sx-KN6000 keyboard
Roland JV-1010
Spectrasonics Atmosphere

Mackie 1402 mixer (will change that one out with a larger one soon)

Monitors:

Hafler TRM-8 + Hafler TRM-10 subwoofer.

Some pics:

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ephex5 Oct 2003, 19:08
my studio:

Computer:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2100+ [OC 2.13GHz]
RAM: 512MB Corsair XMS DDR333
Motherboard: Asus A7V8X
Graphics: Asus Geforce4 MX440 64MB
Sound: M-Audio Audiophile2496
HD: Western Digital 20GB
DVD: Liteon [POS, almost broken]
CDRW: Liteon [POS, broken]
Logitech Wireless Keyboard
Logitech Wireless/Optical mouse

Software:
Reason 2.5
FL Studio 4
Several freeware plugins
Freeware audio editors
Samples from various sources

MIDI:
Evolution MK225C USB keyboard/controller

Monitoring:
Behringer Truth B2031 Active two way monitors

i need to get some pro audio editor and mastering tools, probably soundforge. I'm also going to get the roland sh-32 and if i could afford it a novation supernova and a access virus c... its nice to dream ;)

as far as the behringer monitors, they arent bad; ive only heard good things about them. ive noticed if you put your ear RIGHT next to the tweeter you can hear its noisy, im not sure why. it happens even when you unplug the audio cable...
also the higher frequencies are not as clear as they could be, but i seem to be the only one to notice it?
honestly i have never heard another pair of studio monitors other than my behringers, so i can't compare :( but its still a big leap from my old hi-fi speakers.
DjDaed5 Oct 2003, 21:31
Here is my current setup, its not much, but it works.

Sharp Actius AV18 Laptop w/ LV AMD Athlon 1800 256 MB RAM

FL Studio Producer Edition
Reason 2.5
Dreamstation DXi
NI FM7
Muon Software Tau Pro Bassline
Muon Software Atom Synth
Synth1
Several Samples from various sources
Some Reason ReFills
Some cheap POS JVC Radio/CD/Tape Player

My favorite Plugin would have to be Muon Softwares Tau Pro Bassline, it gives you the best TB303 sounds for a software synth.
Mel David6 Oct 2003, 00:28
Personally I don't have a problem with Behringer products because I like things cheap but I think they have a bad rep because they are seen as Mackie rip-offs. If you look at most of their range, specially the mixers, they seem to have copied Mackie designs. I've had no problems with my mixer and compressor so far though.

Hey guys, you should check out a demo of Ableton Live - I spent almost my entire long weekend playing around with it. It's bloody powerful and so fast to remix with.

Wow, TranceSynthVania I really like the look of your set-up. It looks like you hired a decorator. Damn it's all layed out professionally. I'm quite impressed. Indeed I am very impressed.

*looks around at my messy & dusty shambles of a studio*
TranceSynthVania6 Oct 2003, 22:19
hehe thanks! I've designed it myself actually, everything from which desks to use for the equipment to the colors on the wall etc.. I've taken inspiration from different studios I've been to as well... The next thing is just to get a larger mixer that uses up my entire desktop space, and some more equipment, and it will look cool ;)
Alle14 Oct 2003, 03:50
HARDWARE:
Computer (P4 2.4 Ghz - 1 Gb RAM - 120 GB HD - Emagic Audiowerk 8)
MIDI Keyboard

SOFTWARE:
Emagic Logic Audio
A huge load of VSTinstruments & FX
A mad collection of AKAI CD's

I'm really like Reactor & Pretty much all the Native Instruments creations.. Waves & TC Native FX's are my favs for FX, EQ & Compression...

//ALex