Are you a hoarder? [Extensive gear chat]

[AlexHall74]

REF:

"I think the multitrack is just down to personal taste really. Most of all, no more crashes or reboots, just plug in and record & edit. Bliss.

PS: I was experiencing shed load of trouble with my old computer DAW"

I know that feeling all too well. My first year of recording/sequencing was very frustrating. I had a fairly basic setup (1) M-Audio 2496, (2) Behringer UB-1204 Mixer, (3) 2031A crap monitors, (4) PIV 2.6 GHz PC w/ 1GB RAM. I was trying to use the Cubase LE version that came with my soundcard. It FREAKING sucked! I hated it to death. I tried Reason LE and HATED it more.

After minimal success with budget apps devoid of intelligent interface the Tracktion 2 ads caught my eye. "Want a single screen easy to use interface? Want to concentrate on making music instead of figuring out your sequencer?" I bought it, and got along with it quite nicely. I am not trying to be George Massenburg, I only want to live out my childhood dream of recording the songs in my head!

Sometimes I wonder if I should have bought a really nice workstation (like the Fantom X7) and used it exclusively, for the sake of not worrying about reboots, crashes, RAM maxing out, etc. You can record a whole album on that damn thing I'm sure. But now I wouldn't think of buying one unless Roland spends an extra $50 and puts a damn VGA video card in it to use a decent widepanel LCD monitor. I hate teeny-tiny LCD displays, God bless you Access (and Yamaha too!)!!!

I guess that's where I am in life right now, finishing unstarted projects before starting any new ones, and making the next big leap. My first album should be titled "Finished Loose Ends..."

[Gary_Munday]

The trouble I had with my computer daw was hideous. I should of followed my original instinct and either saved for a mac or a carillon. But something good can emerge from something bad, and I'm glad to have the hardware recorder now.
Initially, the memory started to go like.....2 months after I purchased. Then it finally died on me just 2 weeks out of warranty. Pre planned?
So I throw in another stick of 2GB and guess what................that went as well. So everytime I opened up a project, the PC would reboot..........because of faulty memory etc. How can you record like that? So now I'm fuming with this broken computer just sat there and refuse to use it anymore.
The hardware recorder was a really good buy and a good choice. I'm very much an 80's (watch DS emerge) person so having some older ways of recording is ultra appealing.
With custom daws you can never be too sure. Some people are lucky, others are not. But risk is the name of the game.

Be sure to post links when your album is finished btw

[AlexHall74]

A spontaneous reboot is most always the devil's work. I've been really lucky after my one year long experiment that led to my surprisingly reliable current rig. The worst choice I made in the last year or so was to buy a nice new Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705 laptop (Dual Core 1830s, 2 GB RAM, Windows XP, 7200 RPM hard drive, etc..) to use as my DAW. It has a firewire port so my Mackie Satellite works fine with it, for awhile, until that damn little 4-pin port got screwed up some how and I had to wait for months of tech support hell "chatting" with Dell's tech support staff in India before I was granted a service call.

Once that happened a technician came over to my house and replaced the motherboard, it runs like a champ now, but I am very hesitant to try and use it for anything with the firewire port (which sucks because I wanted to use it for mobile DJ gigs) but oh well, it's a great laptop for school...

Ultimately though, if I need to, I can record remotely with it. I have a license of Tracktion 2 on it and a few simple VSTi's so it is possible to show up and record some vocals on the fly. This is the one last big hope for that little rig as it is so hard to get good, original vocals, and if I come across a singer (or a volunteer with a good voice!) it would be really cool to be able to grab some tracks while the opportunity existed...

REF:

Gary Munday wrote: Be sure to post links when your album is finished btw "

Absolutely! My dream is to be able to play it on Pete Tong's Essential Mix or Kiss 100 or another BBC live broadcast. High hope for a freshman effort, but stranger things have happened...

[Gary_Munday]

Originally Posted by AlexHall74

My dream is to be able to play it on Pete Tong's Essential Mix or Kiss 100 or another BBC live broadcast. High hope for a freshman effort, but stranger things have happened...

Sounds cool, and absolutely no reason why you can't! I've come to a little conclusion that luck and opportunity occur when you least expect it. Will power and determination can create luck so keep what you want in mind....
Do you have any links to your tracks?

As for the faulty gear, yeah just one of those things. I had a lucky escape a few months back......went to plug in my MS only to find out that the live had pulled out inside the plug and was close to touching the neutral. Could of caused some damage.....thankfully it didn't. Who an earth wired that? = Not me.

As for hardware multitrack, time stretch/compression is not as good as software algorithm etc. The way I record is very much dated now. Everything is recorded live directly into mono channels to link a stereo - I wanted to make it sound a bit more natural. So recording freely without any correction shifts the accuracy ever so slightly. That don't matter though............on one of my fathers old 70's cd, a guitar riff goes *painfully* out......lol

I'm guessing on a lot of today's styles, you just wouldn't get away with that.....so everything is by far more precision.

[jasedee]

Good thread.

I think I'm guilty of being a hoarder. There are things in my studio that I never use, but for some strange reason, I can't bring myself to sell. The fact that I won't get much money is probably one reason, and then there is this feeling in the back of my mind that says that one day I might need it.

I've truly run out of space in my studio/bedroom.

[Gary_Munday]

I have to laugh. If anyone visits, they nearly always say 'you got enough gear' 'you have so much equipment'..........I'm like.........well hang on a minute, this is hardly rackmount palace. You ain't seen nuttin. Go take a look at JMJs studio, or someone who does own a lot of gear..............and put the meaning back into 'you have so much gear' hahaha

That said, if I thought for a second that I needed more power I'd go buy another synth. Not a problem. As it happens I just dont. My classic desktop is a little gem, and I've been using that for the best part of 4 years now. I work that synth and it just delivers what I'm looking for everytime really.

Of course it would be nice to own a mighty modular or something one day............but ah well, not losing sleep over it

[AlexHall74]

The only thing that cured my gear lust was becoming a father...for the second time.



But now it's in check, and I'm content. Of course that would most likely change if for some reason I suddenly became unexpectedly laden with cash. One must reserve the right to get smarter as they move along...

[Gary_Munday]

Yup, true Alex. I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to wires however. If I had a box of broken wires, I'd keep them just incase they come in handy. Wires can be a nightmare as I'm sure you know, and if you don't have space you might aswell be living in a wired cobweb. Strangely, it's possible to re-break and re-wire broken wires

There's some nice desks which tidy up wiring by feeding the wires down into the frame. The quiklok z-600 is an example, and a beautiful desk. I had it in mind but they are a complete nightmare to get hold of. It's a big desk but because of the large workspace can house quite a bit of gear including racks. So that would really tidy the setup. I can't seem to get the z-600 anywhere........

[AlexHall74]

I've had a mother of a time finding a good desk to organize my setup. Oddly enough On-Stage Stands, the company that makes quick-lock keyboard stands and various mic stands, released a metal-frame DAW desk that essentially has platforms for everything, 2 19" LCD monitors, nearfields, 2 synths, a rack underneath for a power conditioner, mic pre, and maybe a synth or two, keyboard, mouse, etc. It doesn't look that sexy without gear on it but in the end its more adjustable than anything, and its around $300 I think. I'm considering this oprion as I'm not spending $500 on some partile board RTA desk and don't have the cash of $1,000 or more for anything Mid-Atlantic.

Oh yeah, wires are awesome!

[Gary_Munday]

Be careful with x-frame stands. A few times I've almost had mine topple without noticing, and you have to be ultra careful with 2-3 tier stands as the weight and load must be watched as well. Saying that if you have a bit more cash handy I think higher end quik-lok frames are designed to take the weight, and are safe--all be it pricey. I don't use a very expensive stand, and quite often have to tighten the tooth lock manually. I should really rethink about where I put my gear.

As for the metal frame desk/workstation, is it the WS-500? Some great flexibility there. I quite like the concept of a modular desk, where you can add on optional extras if you wish. Another that caught my eye was the versa audio video development center. I don't like the way the monitors are housed on that though. Still, it appears tidy.

On stage/studio I guess they are. Just not in bedroom lol