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| My "studio" as of December 2010 |
Actually the arrangement has changed since that photo (unbend the "∩" shape into a "Γ" shape to put the drums on the back wall and the desk into rear left corner), but the equipment is all there. So I guess I'll just start from the left and start naming stuff.
I have two keyboards: a Casio WK-1630 and a Roland RD-700GX. The first keyboard was simply given to me. I'll admit it's not a "professional" keyboard, but I still use it for input to my computer using it's MIDI capabilities. Yeah, the Roland can do that as well, but the Casio's keys are much lighter, which can be preferred (the weight of the keys of a synthesizer or an organ). The Roland, on the other hand is my professional keyboard, and has the high-grade sounds with the weighted keys that I love. If you hear songs with a very dominant piano part/solo, you're hearing the sounds routed straight from the Roland (that is, not from a plugin). Many of my works originate from my experimenting on this piano, whether the song actually includes "piano" or not. I don't care if you take everything else I have: you're not getting my Roland.
Next is how I hear my music. The headphones are the Sennheiser HD 595. One of the distinguishing features is the "open-aire" design that let's sound through rather than block it out. Other than being studio-quality headphones, the open-aire aspect allows me to live with other people as I work. That is, I can hear people calling me, lol (doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to get my attention when I'm focused still…just easier). I monitor with these more often than I do my actual monitors…
My KRK8's! Anyone who's got KRK's know about the yellow cone of these speakers' woofers. Good sound, not a bad price (I got an open-box pair for a discount *wink*), and just perfect for my room size volume-wise. I hope to get the matching 10" sub they have, but it's not cheap. I'm sure I won't be without it forever. The one's I have still have bass, mind you, but the movie-theater rumbles (I'm talking around 50hz and below) are more work for them, so it'd be much better to have that split off to a dedicated speaker. My car (which I've installed a 12" sub, 300watt-rms) sports heavier lows than these, so I use my vehicle if I really wanna feel it.
Disclaimer: I don't rattle windows/doors/etc. I appreciate a balanced sound from top to bottom…the very bottom. My wattage could appear low for some, but it's really not bad. Not to mention: price. Lol.
What's next? Ah: the computer! That I now don't really use. Yeah I've got a laptop now. Toshiba Satellite with a large 18.4" display, 8gb ram, Intel i7-Q740 processor (4 cores, 1.73ghz each, and hyper-threaded so it's managed like 8 cores), running on Windows 7. I think the desktop computer was only a dual-core with 3gb of ram. Anyways, the point is, as far as how I work, I'm pretty straight with this laptop (I could care less about the size). By the way, I'm never switching to Mac.
Moving on.
The software on the computer I use includes Sonar 8 Producer and FL Studio 10 XXL. The former for recording audio, and the latter for sequencing. I started with Cakewalk's Home Studio 2002 of which Sonar is the pro version of (versus consumer). FL Studio got added later on, and now I link the programs together to get, say, just about all of the trumpet-lead tracks (trumpets recorder in Sonar, which FL Studio runs in sync as a slave). I won't get into why I prefer this setup other than simply saying "convenience" for now.
The guitar is a Crate guitar (no link for this one, sorry). Nothing special. If you set it up right it's not bad at all. It's got its quirks though physically that I've come to work around, but considering I'm not a guitar player and pretty much only do a few rhythm backgrounds and the occasional (very easy) lead part, it does the job. It's just really hard to get a synth to make good guitar sounds with all the nuances.
Last but not least, the Simmons SD9K electronic drum kit. Mine's the special red edition.
Yeah. B)
This is one of the latest instruments I've been up to learning, and so far it seems to be the most fun for me. At this point, I'm finally not bad. Still getting good, but I'm not bad, you see. Some tracks that are to be released has me playing drums in them! But eh, I still did the whole quantizing thing to fix up timing, so they're not un-edited performances. But still! I love playing the drums, and getting this kit was a good idea to me. Paired with some realistic sounds from my sampler plugins, it's the perfect tool. The only quirk is the kick pad. It's been replaced with a certain Yamaha kick pad instead. So now it's perfect. At least for now until I'm pro, know what I mean?
Oh yeah. My trumpet is not in the pic. I've played the trumpet for just about as long as I have the piano (almost 12 years now). It's a Yamaha YTR-8335LA Custom Series trumpet. It's a tangent on the popular Xeno (YTR8335) that is used a lot in schools I think. Anyways, I got this one since it advertises a brighter sound, something I wanted to achieve the more commercial sound. I've got like 5 mouthpieces, but I only use 2 as of now: the stock mouthpiece of the standard Xeno (gold plated Yamaha 16C4) and a LOUD mouthpiece (LM-78M). No really. LOUD (Sorry, the site seems to be in this "splash screen" mode. It's a mouthpiece company, I swear! See their logo?). Oh look: I found a snazzy pic I took a while back of my horn…
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| I was going to do something productive with this arranged photo, but never needed it. |
Sonar V-Studio 100. Yeah: this is now my "soundcard" and "mixer". It's pretty much everything I need as of now as far as physical specs (that is, it's in's and out's and buttons…oh my!). It's also pretty neat because it can work as a standalone, multi-track recorder as well (writes to SD card).
Okay. Is that finally it? No. But there's no need to bring up my sustain pedal, or the 2-tier Z-stand, or my drumsticks, or my harmon mute, or my mouse with a hyperscrolling scrollwheel, etc. I'm not showing off at this point as I consider anything else that I may have as not worth mentioning. Neat? Perhaps, but now I'm just wasting time. Your time. That's rude and selfish. I should stop writing. Seriously.
Lol. :P
Anyways as before, keep your ears open, as well as your mind.
~kpmuzik
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