What gear is everybody rocking?

[OGBama]

Did @Iron Keys 2 beats in progress in MPC 2 titled “On Chill” and “Slow Rhodes.”

 

[Iron Keys]

Did @Iron Keys 2 beats in progress in MPC 2 titled “On Chill” and “Slow Rhodes.”

tasty titles! post 'em. let us see how you getting on

 

[Delta Skeltah]

Some janky computer that freezes when the screen is on full brightness. Flstudio 10 (recording vocals, sorry attempts at mix and mastering)
Audio technica headphones, scarlette interface, audiotechnica turntable, yamaha 4 track tape recorder ( dust magnet), tascam mk11 tape deck, rodes mic, mpc one, sp 202, sp404. And a gang of tapes and vinyl. Zero synths.

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

I'll start with the PC,
I have my desktop, which I built myself. It has an intel 9700k, Asus Tuf 3080ti, 32 gb of gskill ddr4 ram, 1tb samsung 970 evo, and 2 western digital black 4tb HDD's, with a samsung odyssey G9 monitor (which is legitimately the best purchase for working in a DAW. Having the 32:9 screen space is fantastic).
I also use my laptop for recording vocals. My PC is way too loud for that. It's an old ASUS G750JW that I upgraded to run a 500gb Samsung sata SSD and a 2tb seagate firecuda hybrid drive

As for music gear, I have an akai MPC studio black, a native instruments Komplete Kontrol S49, a first gen steinberg UR22 (I plan on upgrading to the mackie big knob studio eventually, but after the 3080ti purchase that's not happening any time soon), a set of Presonus Eris e5xt monitors, along with a pair of KRK KNS-8400 headphones, and for vocal recording I own an AKG C214.

As far as software goes, I use FL studio for making beats. Its what I know, and I can't be fucked to completely re-learn a new program and all the headaches that entails. I tried fucking around in the version of ableton that came with my S49 keyboard, but it hurt my brain trying to do things in it, even though Native Instruments gear plays waaay nicer with other programs than FL. I generally have to make work arounds to get them to work, but I get there in the end. I have the NI Komplete Ultimate 13 plugin library, as well as a few Anno Domini drum libraries among other plugins. If I were to get into all the plugins and sounds I have this post would be a novel so that's about where I'll leave it.

I use Cubase 11 for recording vocals.

 

[Iron Keys]

I'll start with the PC,
I have my desktop, which I built myself. It has an intel 9700k, Asus Tuf 3080ti, 32 gb of gskill ddr4 ram, 1tb samsung 970 evo, and 2 western digital black 4tb HDD's, with a samsung odyssey G9 monitor (which is legitimately the best purchase for working in a DAW. Having the 32:9 screen space is fantastic).
I also use my laptop for recording vocals. My PC is way too loud for that. It's an old ASUS G750JW that I upgraded to run a 500gb Samsung sata SSD and a 2tb seagate firecuda hybrid drive

As for music gear, I have an akai MPC studio black, a native instruments Komplete Kontrol S49, a first gen steinberg UR22 (I plan on upgrading to the mackie big knob studio eventually, but after the 3080ti purchase that's not happening any time soon), a set of Presonus Eris e5xt monitors, along with a pair of KRK KNS-8400 headphones, and for vocal recording I own an AKG C214.

As far as software goes, I use FL studio for making beats. Its what I know, and I can't be fucked to completely re-learn a new program and all the headaches that entails. I tried fucking around in the version of ableton that came with my S49 keyboard, but it hurt my brain trying to do things in it, even though Native Instruments gear plays waaay nicer with other programs than FL. I generally have to make work arounds to get them to work, but I get there in the end. I have the NI Komplete Ultimate 13 plugin library, as well as a few Anno Domini drum libraries among other plugins. If I were to get into all the plugins and sounds I have this post would be a novel so that's about where I'll leave it.

I use Cubase 11 for recording vocals.

Damn that's a fairlyexpensive setup for someone who does this as an occasional hobbie!

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

Damn that's a fairlyexpensive setup for someone who does this as an occasional hobbie!

Hah, well its pretty frequent that I make stuff, and its been something I've done for like 15 years. I started to outgrow the cheaper gear that I owned, so the past three years has been a whirlwind of me building up the tools piece by piece. I've got a decent job and no girl at the moment so i got money to burn too hahaha. Also helped that the NI Komplete plugin library was on sale for like 90% off because I own the S49 keyboard.

 

[Iron Keys]

Hah, well its pretty frequent that I make stuff, and its been something I've done for like 15 years. I started to outgrow the cheaper gear that I owned, so the past three years has been a whirlwind of me building up the tools piece by piece. I've got a decent job and no girl at the moment so i got money to burn too hahaha. Also helped that the NI Komplete plugin library was on sale for like 90% off because I own the S49 keyboard.

nice.

Like @2GooD Productions said, "music's an expensive hobbie"

15 years a long time. You must got bangers

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

nice.

Like @2GooD Productions said, "music's an expensive hobbie"

15 years a long time. You must got bangers

I dunno if you think like I do, but every time I get on some new shit I find I hate everything I made before it. It's been a long road of trial and error. My current issue is now that I have my new mic, the shit that I recorded in the past sounds like doody. Not to mention out of the tracks that I would like to remake with the new mic there's not even enough for an EP right now. I'm workin on it, but silence is hard to come by here. I spend most of my time fucking around in FL more than anything, which between learning the program and learning what sounds good has been years of trial and error to get where I'm at now. Up until a couple years ago, I never produced any beats that I would consider good enough for a song, I was an Anno Domini leech for a good 5 years out of the 15.

 

[LiveLargeBeats]

My setup:

Macbook Pro retina 2.6 ghz 16 gyg ram 500G SSD

Few external drives to go with that.

PreSonus Eris E7 Studio monitors

PreSonus Studio24c Audio interface

AKG 712 Pro headphones

Arturia Keylab 61 midi controller

LG 34'' wide screen

Wireless Apple keyboard + Apple Magic mouse2

Daw: Logic Pro X

A pair of good ears and motivation like Dwayne The Rock Johnson (got the guns too lol)

 

[DPrezd Beggar]

(got the guns too lol)

 

[slimegreenbeats]

I'm liking this thread. Lol I think the biggest thing is the computer. Like getting a way better computer makes everything. Second I would say speakers/headphones of course.

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

I'm liking this thread. Lol I think the biggest thing is the computer. Like getting a way better computer makes everything. Second I would say speakers/headphones of course.

The computer doesn't mean anything, necessarily. You can make a dope beat with even big multi-gigabyte plugins.. Probably not with a 4gig ram i3 chrome book or something of that calibur, but those can hardly open browsers. Infact probably most people here are better than I am at making beats, with worse computers than mine. Even at the lowest possible end, you just have to convert to audio files when you're done with what you're tracking out. If you're sampling you will never have a problem as far as I'm concerned (at least in FL). Audio loops are a lot less CPU and RAM intensive than midi controller shit, so once you're confident in what you've laid out, convert to an audio file and then do the next track out.

You definitely don't need a computer like mine though. Least of all the GPU. I built this comp for gaming, but the fact that I like fucking around with music makes it that much more useful. I can run like 10 NI plugins and the worst that will happen is it'll take a minute to load.

 

[LiveLargeBeats]

Atleast 16 gygs ram is what you need these days. And SSD drives.

 

[konceptG]

I put this rig together between late last year/earlier this year.

PC:
Custom built Xeon X3220-based PC (X3220 = Core2 Quad Q6600)
Intel DQ965GF Socket 775 motherboard
2GB RAM
320GB HD
Geforce 8400GS
2x Dell 1400x900 monitors.
runs Windows XP SP3

Software:
Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer Edition
FL Studio 10
Sound Forge 8
Korg Legacy Digital Collection
Lounge Lizard 2
NI Battery 3, Kontakt 3, Pro53, Absynth, and Massive
Waldorf Attack
Waves Diamond bundle
TC Native Reverb (extra old OG version)
and assorted random freebie plugins collected from around the net.

The actual equipment:

Tascam FW-1082 audio interface/console
Akai MPC 500 w/128MB RAM and 128GB CF card
Boss DR660 drum machine
Boss DS330 GM/GS rompler
Korg Electribe EA1
Tascam TM-180 microphone
M-Audio Axiom 49 (1st Gen)
M-Audio Axiom 25 (1st Gen)
M-Audio Trigger Finger (OG 1st Gen)
Mackie CR3 monitors
Pyle turntable (for sampling/listening)
Audio Technica ATH-M40fs headphones
Audio Technica ATH-M20X headphones

 

[konceptG]

Also, not pictured is a Tascam US-428 audio interface/console, M-Audio Axiom Air Mini 32 keyboard controller, Tascam DP008-EX multitrack recorder, and a Pyle PDMIC71 condenser microphone.

The last two are currently in my 23 year old daughter's possession 'cause she's expressed an interest in songwriting, so I threw her those two to get started.

 

[Fade]

I put this rig together between late last year/earlier this year.

PC:
Custom built Xeon X3220-based PC (X3220 = Core2 Quad Q6600)
Intel DQ965GF Socket 775 motherboard
2GB RAM
320GB HD
Geforce 8400GS
2x Dell 1400x900 monitors.
runs Windows XP SP3

Software:
Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer Edition
FL Studio 10
Sound Forge 8
Korg Legacy Digital Collection
Lounge Lizard 2
NI Battery 3, Kontakt 3, Pro53, Absynth, and Massive
Waldorf Attack
Waves Diamond bundle
TC Native Reverb (extra old OG version)
and assorted random freebie plugins collected from around the net.

The actual equipment:

Tascam FW-1082 audio interface/console
Akai MPC 500 w/128MB RAM and 128GB CF card
Boss DR660 drum machine
Boss DS330 GM/GS rompler
Korg Electribe EA1
Tascam TM-180 microphone
M-Audio Axiom 49 (1st Gen)
M-Audio Axiom 25 (1st Gen)
M-Audio Trigger Finger (OG 1st Gen)
Mackie CR3 monitors
Pyle turntable (for sampling/listening)
Audio Technica ATH-M40fs headphones
Audio Technica ATH-M20X headphones

View attachment 6132

Very nice! I thought that was an SR16 on the right there until you mentioned Boss.

 

[konceptG]

Very nice! I thought that was an SR16 on the right there until you mentioned Boss.

Yep, that's the DS330. I call my DS330 and DR660 the "wonder twins" 'cause Roland decided to use the same tabletop case for both units (as well as the Sound Canvas SC-33 which the DS330 is based on). I used to make beats on the DS330 back around '95-96 along with Power Tracks Pro 3.0 on a 486SX-25. PT3.0 allowed you to load and trigger a single sample at a time back then, so I used it as a sampler and the DS330 for the rest of my tracks, but I always wanted a DR660 to go with it but couldn't afford one back then. Earlier this year, I finally bought both of them.

 

[Fade]

@konceptG That's dope. I love hearing stories like that.

For me I always wanted a Boss DR-5 and Alesis SR-16. They look like fun to play with.

 

[konceptG]

@konceptG That's dope. I love hearing stories like that.

For me I always wanted a Boss DR-5 and Alesis SR-16. They look like fun to play with.

I used to sell the DR-5 and SR-16 when I worked in MI sales back in the 90's. The SR-16 I ended up selling to a lot of guitarists and bassists just so they could practice.

The DR-5... I can remember selling one. As neat as it seemed, it was almost always avoided and sat in our stock at both of the shops I worked at back then.

 

[Fade]

I used to sell the DR-5 and SR-16 when I worked in MI sales back in the 90's. The SR-16 I ended up selling to a lot of guitarists and bassists just so they could practice.

The DR-5... I can remember selling one. As neat as it seemed, it was almost always avoided and sat in our stock at both of the shops I worked at back then.

LOL really? I remember checking the DR5 back then it seemed pretty good.