the classic "take a photo of your setup" thread

[rockonin]

I dont trust my monitors at all. Need to think about some acoustic treament soon. Plus need to invest in some studio headphones. Hopefully the AKG 712 Pros.

[Still Young]

What monitor's are those?

just some old sony speakers.. no point in monitors before acoustics right? since room is gonna color the sound anyway
i thought about gettin serious headphones.. but im not much of an headphone guy so i'll probably save up till i have enough for serious monitors.. taxes are crazy here shits costs almost twice

I really wouldn't worry too much about acoustic treatment unless you're thinking of becoming a professional mixing engineer. Just worry about making good music, which you can do with what you've got already.

i take mixdowns very serious.. its part of the craft for me i wouldnt let someone else mix my tune
thats cheating for me :\

i still make music on what i have tho i just dont upload it to anywhere and keep it low

btw a small update:

[rockonin]

Nice wall mount for the monitor.

[fragments]

[nowaysj]

Whoa dude, that is pretty serious.

[fragments]

Whoa dude, that is pretty serious.

Thanks ;p

I just cant do the DAW for the entire process anymore. It also took me a long time to figure out that a lot of what I was trying to do in my DAW was jam on an instrument. That is the key to what I get out of hardware. Obviously, as far as price versus ease of making a quality electronic music song, software wins hands down. However, just loading up my Maschine template I have mapped out for my setup and going to work on those boxes puts me in an amazing creative space. These days I don't even care about having the coolest, newest most options heavy gear. It just doesnt bother me. Am I going to make peak hour floor destroyers with this setup? Fuck no. But honestly, I probably wasn't going to ever make tunes like that in my DAW either. I love doing this for myself and if others happen to enjoy, that is cool too.

I do want to figure out a way to use groups so that I can do a Live PA kinda thing. I'm thinking I will probably have the melody and chord progressions premapped and partially wing the patch making since I am working with some pretty simple (for lack of a better term) synths. Have the beats set up on the Electribe R and just cycle through the tunes...not sure how to work out transitions yet exactly...

the last article wub posted about that live techno project Blawaan is doing with the other guy (forget his name) was pretty inspiring. I almost don't care about doing multitrack recording or worrying about the mix too much anymore.

[nowaysj]

I think you need to worry about the mix. But only to a certain extent. Just enough so the feeling comes through. A fuck tun of hi passes/low cuts, and maybe a little compression followed by a really good limiter and you are there.

Transitions: DELAY! haha! That is the solution in my head. Send it out into a high feedback delay, and then madly start tweaking your gear into the next form, can swing that delay up or down to get to the next song's tempo, and boom, drop in your new elements. As elements come in, be setting up the next sounds/events, and drop them. I don't know. That is just what I'm doing in my head. Start building a set like that, start with one song, and then be like how do I get into the second song? From there, just keep adding songs. Your solutions will be part of who you are as an artist, your aesthetic, blended with your gear, what your gear can and cannot do, or ways that you can bend your gear to your will.


Sidenote:
I also had a vertical dual monitor setup for a while, for working with live when they were ONE VINDOW ONLY!

[fragments]

You are spot on to how I have been working with my little mixer lately. Its all HP and LP filters on things. I have a couple compressors, but havent worked with them yet. Should do that. but yea...you do have to worry about the mix to some extent. I get bummed that so much production talk is about the mix TBH.

Kind of in a rush here, but I love your ideas on building the set and figuring out the trasitions. It might be cool to slowly morph from one patch to another. Let the patch from the first song play the notes of the second song and just slowly morph from one to patch to the next. Hrmm....good thinking here man...defo got some ideas stirring. I think I will start working that way. LOL@delay...I thought about that...but I dont think it would be cool to do that for a whole set hehehehe.

[Crimsonghost]

Figured I'd update. Not much changed, just my tunes got worse.

[Crimsonghost]

@Fragments;

I hear you on that. I'm trying to go more to a hardware based setup also. It's just more inspiring to have something tactile to jam on.

[nowaysj]

I have to say, I'm back at that point where I can barely stand to be in a daw. I finish in daw, but it is painful. Can jam for an afternoon on pads, but like doing some simple shit in the daw is like starting to be allergic again.

Had some scratch that I was gonna use to pick up the Microgranny, but maybe, it'll be a mixer, finally.

[Crimsonghost]

Being in the daw is just bs. Only way I can even come up with ideas now is on my guitar. Been getting into looping riffs and leads lately, hopeing synth or even a proper keyboard can help.

Fucking sucks being poor. Although, seing as a couple years ago I would just buy shit that I wouldn't use, it is nice to force myself to use what I have.

[fragments]

I have to say, I'm back at that point where I can barely stand to be in a daw. I finish in daw, but it is painful. Can jam for an afternoon on pads, but like doing some simple shit in the daw is like starting to be allergic again.

Had some scratch that I was gonna use to pick up the Microgranny, but maybe, it'll be a mixer, finally.

I know I should record 3-4 tracks when doing live takes...I have the technology...then mix them in my DAW. But I can even begin to express how utterly bored and sterile my DAW makes the process feel.

That MicroGranny just looks insane. That would be a tough decision. Pretty sure my mixer has two dead/dying channels on it : ( I have a more complex Berhinger mixer, but it just wont fit in my workspace (its like 24 channels, 4 sub groups etc). Anyway...I dont think I would like my setup w/o a mixer even though I have an 8 in interface.

Being in the daw is just bs. Only way I can even come up with ideas now is on my guitar. Been getting into looping riffs and leads lately, hopeing synth or even a proper keyboard can help.

Fucking sucks being poor. Although, seing as a couple years ago I would just buy shit that I wouldn't use, it is nice to force myself to use what I have.

My thoughts on DAWs, see above : ) They are amazing, but ugh... as for money...yea...I use BillMeLater through paypal. Ive budgeted so that I dont ever pay interest. Zzounds also offers payment plans on larger ticket items. All these things are preditory lending...if you biff it they dump a bunch of interest on you. I almost got in trouble once, so I am more conservative these days.

Im kind of off dreaming about 1K synths and drum machines at this point. There are lots of perfectly usable boxes for ~200USD. Im also off botique guitar pedals. I recently bought two analogue delay pedals (not that the analogue matters so much, I just like dark gritty delay) one that retails new for 29 and one for 39. Love em. Real straight forward and a knob per function. Twisting the time knob on each gets you all that fun pitch fuckery. I had a EHX memory man delay at one point. It sounded quite metalic and poo.

Anyway. I dont think you need a studio filled with vintage stuff, dave smith and elektron to make good music on hardware.

[wolf89]

what delay pedals did you get then so cheap?

[nowaysj]

Thank you for asking...

[fragments]

Heh, sorry guys, wasn't meaning to be a tnuc

Rogue analog delay: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... ects-pedal

Joyo analog delay: http://www.cheaperpedals.com/collection ... f-33-pedal

Again, the analog isn't really the point...I had asked around for dark, grainy delays that were inexpensive...basically something easier to deal with and less noisy than the Monotron Delay. Really nothing special or spectacular about them, they are what they are. I like their sound, I like the pitch weirdness you get from turning the time knobs.

[CreamLord]

sorry for the massive picture :/

Turntables - 2xReloop RP-4000M3D
Mixer - Numark M2
Speakers - Philips FWM608

[nowaysj]

Heh, sorry guys, wasn't meaning to be a tnuc

Rogue analog delay: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... ects-pedal

Joyo analog delay: http://www.cheaperpedals.com/collection ... f-33-pedal

Again, the analog isn't really the point...I had asked around for dark, grainy delays that were inexpensive...basically something easier to deal with and less noisy than the Monotron Delay. Really nothing special or spectacular about them, they are what they are. I like their sound, I like the pitch weirdness you get from turning the time knobs.

Yo soy stereoeoeo oeoeoerets yos oY

[wolf89]

I was looking at a Joyo that was really cheap earlier today.

[fragments]

I was looking at a Joyo that was really cheap earlier today.

They have a nice digital stereo delay as well...called seed something or other