Lets discuss our DAWs and equipment and networking thread

[akalink 163]

So I thought I would start a thread about what kind of Equipment people use. Things such as DAW's (Digital Audio Work Station), microphones, instruments, etc. Also what kind of background you have is optional. I guess this would lead to better musical networking in the community.

 

 

 

Anyway I'm clarinet player, but I play a lot of other instruments. I can play a bit of piano and less guitar and even less bass. I'm a fan of orchestration and I want to be an professional orchestrator or composer someday. Sadly I'm kind of poor right now, saving up for the tools of this age is hard. You really need a mac, along with some of the DAWs that cost $500+ and samples that cost $500+. I own the full version of finale 2012 which I use to compose and notate. I own reaper which is kind of useless right now because all I have are free chiptune plugins. I own a ok microphone a mxl 990 (Livingtombstone has a usb version of this microphone) and I recently got a cool interface to replace my old non-phantom power interface.

[DusK 1,264]

Software and Notable Commercial Plugins

• Image-Line FL Studio 10 Signature Bundle (still haven't bothered to upgrade yet)
• Miroslav Philharmonik CE
• Line 6 POD Farm 2

Hardware

• Schecter C1+ guitar (EMG 81 bridge, EMG 85 neck)
• Ibanez SGE220-CS acoustic-electric guitar
• Squier P-Bass
• Akai Pro MPK Mini MIDI controller
• Line 6 POD Studio UX1
• Shure SM58 dynamic microphone
• Audio-Technica ATH-M45 studio headphones

 

I mostly do metal and various other forms of hard rock, fused with orchestral or electronic elements, and the occasional soft track. I'm no stranger to collaboration, so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Edited July 24, 2013 by DusK

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I'm a 14 year pianist, 6 year saxaphonist and self taught guitarist. 

 

No plugins at the time 

 

But I do have 

 

Finale 2012

Finale Printmusic 2010 & 2011 

GarageBand 

[Broseph 215]

I own a Mac mini, and do all my recording and mixing in Logic Pro 9.

My instruments include a Mexican Fender Stratocaster, an Epiphone SG, a Squier Jaguar Bass, An electronic drum kit of which I can't remember the name (It's all beaten up and broken anyway) and an AKAI LPK 25 MIDI keyboard

However I have a very cheap way of recording everything, I just plug each thing directly into my computer via an adapter (probably not recommended but eh).
I mostly just do rock songs, however I like to put other instruments in such as piano or strings, and for that I just use my MIDI keyboard or the piano roll in Logic.

[Satsuki Kiryuin 1,155]

I'm a producer of no traditional background, other than the fact that I was a pianist for 4 years when I was young. I forgot how to play anyways. I use FL Studio, and my roster of VSTs(Virtual Instruments) include Sylenth1, Kairatune, and a crap ton more third party VSTs. I mix and "master" everything on FL, and I volume adjust using Audacity. I tag my tracks with MP3Tag, and I used WinRar to send file packages. I also have a huge roster of samples I will probably never use in my life, but it makes my inventory look more packed and old.

[John 793]

Ableton Live 9 suite,

Cubase 7,

 

Used Fl studio when I started out, however it began to feel like a toy and slowed my production times.  Its very fluid and has a nice piano role and functions fine as a DAW, but its slow paced and makes me feel like I'm on a windows version of Garageband.  One thing I'll admit I like was the Edison wave editor.  It was also nice how the second parametric EQ showed you where the formants were hitting so you didn't need to bring out your frequency analyzer unless you're really fine tuning with your EQ.

 

Speaking of Frequency analyzer, I recommend a free one called "SPAN" by Voxengo.  It works well, its free and has a variety of useful modes.

 

I use many synths, but my favorite and most used would have to be the infamous "Massive" by Native Instruments.  If you want a fat filtered bass or a wobble, I would recommend Massive immediately.

 

Speaking of a fat Bass, a nice tool to have is "Sausage fattener" by Dada Life.  (A pretty self explanatory VST)

[Gay Bird 421]

Software:

Ableton Live 9 suite

GuitarPro

Native Insturments Massive

 

hardware:

Zoom H4n (Audio IF)

 

Insturments:

novation UltraNova hardware synth

American Fender strat

indonesian fender starcaster j bass

some sort of ovation acoustic guitar

my brother's pearl drum kit (for samples)

my voice

 

That's basically everything I use. I do have a piano, but I have no way of recording it.