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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 ; )
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Joe, I'm pretty much a midi kinda guy. I bought a DX7 II FD in 1987 and still use it as my motherboard today. Would never part with it...it's a classic (IMHO).
To that, I've added a Yamaha Motif-Rack XS and a Roland Fantom XR rack...new and better updated sounds to run from the DX7. Throw in a used MOTU midi patchbay from eBay and you've got a system that last forever and always works regardless of updates in computers and software. That's the beauty of MIDI and pretty much the heart of my system...would never part with any of it!
As far as add-ons, pulled out an old analog module a few weeks ago(Oberheim Matrix)uploaded the .ini files, works great with BIAB and RB. Forgot how "thick" analog sounded!
Jeff
Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
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New, state of the art 64 bit computer
Focusrite Interface
Sonar 3
BiaB & RB
Melodyne
Ozone
Kontakt
Weighted midi keyboard
Rode Condenser mic
that would be the basic building block studio I would start with if I was to start over now.
My current rig is 32 bit XP pro homebuilt DAW..... focusrite interface, Sonar 1, BB/RB, Melodyne, Ozone, Kontakt, non weighted keyboard, Rode mic. plus more stuff I picked up through the years....
In other words, I wouldn't alter what I have except to update it a bit.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 03/24/16 02:31 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Do you think the Focusrite would be noticeably 'faster' in your recording and midi playback ? Does the 64 bits actually result in measurable improvements ? ...just curious.
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Just FYI, Sonar 3 (or X3 as I think Herb really meant) is not available any more. It's just "Sonar" and comes in 3 "versions" Artist, Professional and Platinum in order of cost and features. https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#start
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Do you think the Focusrite would be noticeably 'faster' in your recording and midi playback ? Does the 64 bits actually result in measurable improvements ? ...just curious. No. There are tons of choices, all of which would be fine. The 64 bits is more a question of being compatible with other parts of your system, and remaining future-proof for awhile. If we are talking dozens of live audio tracks, then maybe, but since you are talking about recording and playing back MIDI, absolutely anything that connects will work fine. MIDI presents almost no load on a system. The one exception I can think of is polyphony, wherein a synth is limited to a certain number of simultaneous sounds (but that won't make any difference in your MIDI interfaces). If I had your situation, I would call my Sweetwater rep. He/she knows what is needed and will maintain a good balance between the quality of the various parts of the system and your budget.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Reece: Yup
64 bits... that's the standard now for the operating system.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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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"
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Do you think the Focusrite would be noticeably 'faster' in your recording and midi playback ? Does the 64 bits actually result in measurable improvements ? ...just curious. No. There are tons of choices, all of which would be fine. The 64 bits is more a question of being compatible with other parts of your system, and remaining future-proof for awhile. If we are talking dozens of live audio tracks, then maybe, but since you are talking about recording and playing back MIDI, absolutely anything that connects will work fine. MIDI presents almost no load on a system. The one exception I can think of is polyphony, wherein a synth is limited to a certain number of simultaneous sounds (but that won't make any difference in your MIDI interfaces). If I had your situation, I would call my Sweetwater rep. He/she knows what is needed and will maintain a good balance between the quality of the various parts of the system and your budget. Definitely contact Sweetwater (I got all of my equipment from them) A year old Pop Filter busted. They covered the piece for 2 years, shipped me a replacement no cost. All of my studio/road cables with their brand are guaranteed for life. And they don't ask questions. They look up your account, check that it was purchased from them and ship a new cable at no cost.
Last edited by dga; 03/24/16 09:51 AM.
"When you help somebody else you are really helping yourself"
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Regarding 64-bit being the standard - agreed - but 64-bit Windows at least allows the loading of 32-bit programs in the Program Files x86 directory - and I can't imagine them taking that out ever....but who knows.
Given that - one might think that if there are no performance hits running 32-bit software/programs on a 64 bit system (and I don't know if that's true my guess is yes) - unless there's a compelling reason e.g. performance improvement - why worry now or any time soon about the compatibility issue.
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Why does anyone specify a "64 bit computer"? Is anyone still selling new 32 bit computers?
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Why does anyone specify a "64 bit computer"? Is anyone still selling new 32 bit computers? YES!! ABSOLUTELY! It's the operating system that I'm referring too. Yes, all of the new computers are capable of running 64 bit OS now, but.... uhhhh yeah.... you can still put a 32 bit OS on them. My DAW is a prime example. When I built it, the hardware I bought.... the MOBO and Intel i5 processor are all capable of running a quad 64 bit OS. However, I chose, at that time, to go with XP Pro 32 since it was a rock solid operating system. 64 bit OS had come out but lots of people were complaining about issues with it running their 64bit DAW software smoothly AND, not all the music software companies had yet converted to 32 and/or 64bit compatibility. My DAW, as a result is still a rock solid performer when it comes to recording. I actually have no plans to upgrade to a 64 bit machine until this one dies and is not repairable.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Why does anyone specify a "64 bit computer"? Is anyone still selling new 32 bit computers? YES!! ABSOLUTELY! It's the operating system that I'm referring too. Yes, all of the new computers are capable of running 64 bit OS now, but.... uhhhh yeah.... you can still put a 32 bit OS on them. My DAW is a prime example. When I built it, the hardware I bought.... the MOBO and Intel i5 processor are all capable of running a quad 64 bit OS. However, I chose, at that time, to go with XP Pro 32 since it was a rock solid operating system. 64 bit OS had come out but lots of people were complaining about issues with it running their 64bit DAW software smoothly AND, not all the music software companies had yet converted to 32 and/or 64bit compatibility. My DAW, as a result is still a rock solid performer when it comes to recording. I actually have no plans to upgrade to a 64 bit machine until this one dies and is not repairable. Yeah, I figured you meant 32 bit OS cause AFAIK all computers are 64 bit for more than 10 years!
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I'm waiting for the 128bit OS and octo-core processors to be released before I upgrade....
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I'm waiting for the 128bit OS and octo-core processors to be released before I upgrade.... So you're not intending upgrading then? 
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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I'm waiting for the 128bit OS and octo-core processors to be released before I upgrade.... So you're not intending upgrading then? no.... not unless my computer dies and I have no other options. 
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Hey - we got stuck on 32 and 64 bit operating systems - please return to the more fun discussion - sharing particular equipment you either can't live without and have no need to change, or if you are eyeing a replacement and which one : )
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Hey - we got stuck on 32 and 64 bit operating systems - please return to the more fun discussion - sharing particular equipment you either can't live without and have no need to change, or if you are eyeing a replacement and which one : ) I posted my list.... It's essentially what I have and what I consider to be indispensable to the task at hand.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I don't see where you say what you already DO have, or are we supposed to assume you're starting from scratch with nothing?
also there are several other variables to consider:
what and who will you primarily be recording?
guitar?
keyboard?
MIDI?
bass?
drums?
acoustic or electronic?
anything else?
how many will need to be recorded at the same time?
do you need low latency for monitoring software
if you plan to use a MIDI controller to monitor softsynths, you need low latency
if you plan to use guitar amp and cab sims (such as IK's Amplitube) and need to monitor it as you're recording, then you need low latency.
NOTE: if you use keyboard AUDIO out or don't need to monitor the actual GUITAR SIM sounds while you're recording, then you don't have to have low latency - you can monitor from outside the box which makes things a lot eaiser. then you can change the softsynths or Amplitube settings later.
how fast is your current computer?
what other things will you be doing on this computer?
all of these questions and maybe some more need to be answered before I could recommend anything. there are too many variables just to make a blind recommendation.
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