Originally Posted By: Joe V
Hi all,

I recently shared my setup in a previous thread - and thanks to all of you who commented and helped me think more clearly about the MIDI hookups.

Today's question is - if you had a couple of thousand dollars - and allocated between $500 to $1000 per component, what items would you buy TODAY for your studio - and what pieces of equipment did you buy years ago that you LOVE and would never replace because you can't find a compelling reason to do so.

Feel free to share your enthusiasm for particular components in as much detail as you'd like ; )


I have a Focusrite 2i4 Interface, An AKG 214 (yes looked crossed eyed at the packages when they arrived) I got them as a package from a large music dealer for 450.00 along with a nice Boom stand and a 20 foot cable. The microphone alone is 399.00 everywhere I checked the interface is 199 and this package is 599.00 now. Boom stand I got is 79 and the cable 49. SO I waited a long time and shopped around and I think this was the best purchase I have ever made with regards to my studio. The mic is great for both vocals and guitar.

I have a TC-Helicon VL3 Ext. No more guitar or vocal effects pedals for me. No more patch cables, pedal board "solutions" Its all in there. I use BIAB to produce all of my backing tracks and load the tracks into my VL3Ext so I don't have to lug around a computer or rig up a mixer to an iPod or android device. The VL3 EXT holds 300 minutes of tracks. The VL3Ext has a number of great vocal effects I use on harmony tracks in my studio. But, I find plug ins are better sounding on the lead vocal. But, that said TC's vocal doubler is killer 1-4 vocals and enough parameters to confuse even the most experienced of users. It took me 3 months to start to figure the thing out. But, just like BIAB I am finding out new tricks every day via the user forums.

Those were added to my studio/live rig in 2014 and 2015. Both "SWEET***** DEALS"

Two weeks ago I broke down and purchased a Desktop computer from a warehouse store just under $1,000. HP ENVY 750-247c
i7-6700 processor
24 GB DDR4 ram
128GB SSD
2TB HD
WiFi up to ac
Bluetooth 4,0 M.2Combo

If you are worried about using windows 10 (like I was) I quickly found out you can right click on the start button which now is the windows 10 symbol (lower Left corner of the screen) and you get a shortcut menu almost exactly like the menu you were used to using in Win7 Techies note "all the features you want to quickly access RUN, Device Manager, Command Prompt, Disk Management, Task Manager....with 2 clicks.

BIAB and RB work fine. I can also open 4 copies of BIAB at the same time and have RB open as well. Files rendering much faster, so opening up BB files in RB takes about 1/10 of the time.

"When you help somebody else you are really helping yourself"