My new setup (work in progress)

[Triptonizer]

from an all software setup I'm slowly building a mixed setup. The quest is by no means completed, but I'd like to hear some comments/suggestions:

PC1 (Pentium4 1.5) with M-Audio Delta 44, running Cubase SX, Reaktor 4 ;) , Absynth, FM7, and for sampling Kontakt and Battery + fx plugins;
PC2 (Celeron 433) for offline audio editing and the NM editor;
PC1 is dual screen compatible so I'm going to get a 'switch box' to use the PC2 screen for better visual management of all those Cubase windows (aaaargh).

Clavia Nord Modular (I just 'upgraded' from the Micro);
Korg MS20 (NOT yet ;) but I'm watching the ads....) + Kenton Pro Solo;

FX rack: TC Electronic M-One or Ensoniq DP4, can't make up my mind;
my mixer (Phonic MM1705) would act as a patchbay from and to the PC, the Modular, the FX unit....
You'll notice there are no synths for pads or bass included; I think the soft synths can cover this pretty much.

Sequencing: still in doubt here... Cubase (or any linear sequencer) just doesn't cut it, but I'm unsure as to the alternatives; I have the PERFECT sequencer software all in my mind, but since I'm not a programmer, it will stay there :).
With all its limitations I like to play around with the sequencers in the NM (or self built stuff with table files in Reaktor, Cubase SX is a great patchbay to route incoming midi to other outports), using odd clock divisions and step length; while one is looping you can start adding others; you can build very complex rhythmic pattens like that. But the problem with these short static step seqs is that your mind can get caught up in the loop (you end up with a very nice pattern but without ideas what has to follow in a song structure, or how long this loop stays interesting in itself etc.. - the linear stuff, hope you know what I mean :-p )
So if anyone has refreshing ideas about this, I'd like to hear.

[pille'ocheoni]

impressive i guess...this much gear would scare me, even though i think every "producer" would like to have all this stuff. seems like a nice collection. i have a freind like this, he just collects gear, and makes music too, but really just likes them as toys. personally i have whats nessescary. i probally have too many pc's but hey, i like the ambience they bring to the room.:)heheh.......ill i need is a laptop, a sk-1, and a rocking soundcard...i think too much brings a stagnent postion in ones production "you never know where to start" or "you get lost really quick" . nice though, i hope this wasnt an unwanted response.:)take care/punshk]

[c s]

Originally posted by Triptonizer
Reaktor 4 ;)

how come ? anyway, the new inspector on the screenshots looked a bit odd to me. is it ?

Absynth, FM7

excellent choice. ;)

[c s]

Originally posted by pille'ocheoni
i think too much brings a stagnent postion in ones production "you never know where to start" or "you get lost really quick"

that's a fact, fortunately i have bit less than he has. ;)

[piscaries]

hey trip, have you ever played with an ms20? they're cool but damn did it annoy the hell out of me. i don't know if i was just being stupid but it didn't seem like you could get rid of all of the modulation, even when the mod is set to zero... but it did sound nice a gritty... they've all got pros and cons, eh? that setup does sound nice though. i haven't heard the dp4, but the m-one sounds really nice. i'm a big fan of it.

[Triptonizer]

Reaktor 4 ;)

euhm.... I should have expressed myself more clearly I guess.

Just to avoid any misunderstanding:

by the time this setup is more or less ready hopefully I will have Reaktor 4

lol

[c s]

you dare showing us a faked setup? with programs not yet out and synths not yet bought? lol ;)

[Triptonizer]

Originally posted by Triptonizer
work in progress....from an all software setup I'm slowly building a mixed setup. The quest is by no means completed, but I'd like to hear some comments/suggestions

can a man be any clearer than that?

:-p

[Triptonizer]

Originally posted by pille'ocheoni
impressive i guess...this much gear would scare me
euhm... really?.. didn't mean to sound like someone possessed with gear lust; the software part is more or less like it always has been, the NM is a natural progression after having owned a Micro for some time now... in fact, come to think of it, I consider myself quite the opposite of a gear hunter, I try to plan purchases carefully and find it far more interesting to know all the ins and outs of a piece of gear, rather than buy stuff just to sell it 3 months later on eBay...

Originally posted by piscaries
hey trip, have you ever played with an ms20?
briefly, it's just that I love the modular concept and the grittyness, this is maybe my only sin against gear lust :D I DO have some experience with this baby though (EMS Synthi-100, big brother to Cristian's Synthi AKS):

http://www.synthmuseum.com/ems/emssynthi10002sm.jpg

when I lean out my window, I can see the room where it's kept... but that one's definitely beyond my means.

lol

[c s]

Originally posted by Triptonizer


can a man be any clearer than that?

:-p

well i'd still like to deliberately misinterpret this as 'this is not even all gear & software i plan to have available in the end' -but who cares anyway... lol

[piscaries]

damn bastard. do you live next to jack dangers or somethin? i'd love to play with one of those bad boys. i'm trying to make friends with a guy i know at a local university who teaches music. apparently they have a pretty beastly moog modular...

[pille'ocheoni]

i wish i knew more:) about this big hunk of sound.

[Triptonizer]

Synthi-100 at IPEM (university of Gent) (http://www.synthmuseum.com/ems/emssynthi10002.html)

[piscaries]

you're still a bastard.

[mattp]

Hi,

You might want to try SoftStep http://algoart.com/web/softstep.htm

I don't know how good it is .... but its on my list of things to try ...

[phono]

mattp, softstep looks good! :)

did anyone use it? any comments?

[Triptonizer]

yeah, softstep looks great, gonna try it out for sure, thx mattp!

And BioEditor also sounds interesting:The BioEditor allows you to create Bio Sequence Table (.bst) files for BankStep and SoftStep, from standard DNA and Protein data sequences that are freely available on the Internet. Two excellent free sources of genetic sequences are the Swiss Protein Data Bank and the NIH GenBank.


lol

[euterke]

So you wiil reach your perfect setup for April.... cauz Reaktor 4 will be available at this time!

[c s]

Originally posted by Triptonizer
And BioEditor also sounds interesting:


hmm another word for random data? ;)

[anarchosyn]

Hey trip, your setup sounds quite a bit like mine (well, how it will look in a months time:

PC1: Intel 1.4 ghz box (256 ram)
PC2: g4 867 TiBook (768 ram) running OSX

PC1 is what I'm on right now, and used to be my primary audio box. Now, I'm happy to retire the buggy windoze based shite to sample editing duties (granulab, sound forge 4.5, wavelab, cool edit, coagula, reaktor 3.0) and dump via ethernet to the g4 for sequencing with:

Cubase SX (thinking about switching to logic 6 since Steinberg seems to dislike mac users, doesn't have AU support yet and is pretty buggy), Bias Peak LE (might upgrade to the full), Max-Msp-Jitter, Reaktor 4.0 (obviously, a few of these have yet to be purchased due to unavailability, but will come in very soon).
*kontakt, battery, FM7 will get snagged up when AU versions are released.

externals:

Nord Modular rack
Esi 32 sampler (oldie, used as a preset drum machine now)
Dr. 660 drum machine
Yamaha tx81z fm synth
roland Tr-626 drum buddy

plan to readd my old MS-20 back into the mix, but then my focus will turn to real modulars, like a modcan system.

Effex = quadraverb GT, midiverb II, wedge and a 3630 compressor. Plan to add at least 3-4 modern rack effex of unknown design, plus a spring verb, if I can find one I like.

Externals routed into my 16 channel mx 2642 mixer (behringer) and then fed continously into the audio ins of a m-audio box (I own the quattro now, but will probably upgrade to the firewire box (http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM03/Content/MAudio/PR/FireWire-410.html)unveiled at NAMM). Externals summed with internals via max-msp or reaktor, then drumped out of the m-audio box into a submixer, which runs to my MD and monitors. Recording normally takes place on the HD, but the MD is kept for nostaligic reasons.

This setup is far more professional and flexible then my previous setups, but lacking in the external department compared to what I used to own (I was an analogue whore ;)). What I like the most is it allows me to sample my external gear through effex without needing to reroute cables, but it introduces latency due to the externals crossing the A/D - D/A divide.

Maybe, one day, I'll add one of these (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~concuss/concussor/pp.htm) to my setup for easier repatching. Imagine, a VCS3 styled matrix patchbay..

btw- I also own a midicontrol (49 key controller with 12 knobs), a peavy 1600x and plan to pick up the new novation remote 25 (http://www.novationonline.co.uk/nov_route/docs/front/remote_front.htm) (by far THE sexiest midi controller ever made).

[anarchosyn]

Originally posted by phono
mattp, softstep looks good! :)

did anyone use it? any comments?

I had a copy for a second.. it was an interesting idea, but didn't make for decent music. The midi was a bit sluggish, and the interface had a steep learning curve.. well, steeper then I cared for at the time. Worth the time to play with if you can find it cheap, or if they fixed the code up a bit, but I'll stick with MAX and Cubase for now (well, maybe Logic.. not sure about that one yet).

[M H]

Originally posted by Triptonizer

You'll notice there are no synths for pads or bass included; I think the soft synths can cover this pretty much.

Surely you've got a fair bit to play with just with the modular....
If you've got a sequencer with audio capability you can bounce stuff down to audio..

Originally posted by Triptonizer
Sequencing: still in doubt here... Cubase (or any linear sequencer) just doesn't cut it, but I'm unsure as to the alternatives; I have the PERFECT sequencer software all in my mind, but since I'm not a programmer, it will stay there :).


I swear by my MPC, but I do like doing stuff occationally in Logic... Awesome sequencer..

[euterke]

My setup is composed of


MPC 4000
2 Micro Modular
Su 700
MS 2000
EZbus mixer
1 MO-FX
1 Warp Filter
1 EQ Killer
1 Speak n Spell in French with a pitch down + line out
1 MD

In the past...
DR-2002
SP-202
RM1X
A5000
Filter Queen
Kaoss Pad
2 ES-1
ER-1
EA-1


One laptop HP Pavillon P4 2.0 with 512 meg ram

Soft Studio...

- Live 2.0.1
- Reaktor 3.0.5
-Audio Mulch
-V-Stack
-FM 7
-Pro 53
-Absynth

[Weishaupt]

euterke

danm....nive pic....very impressed...really!!!!!!!!

[KaOz]

Powerbook 17" ( My other Car is a g4, and it cots much more as yours :))
maxmsp
eventide dsp 4000
mackie 1402 vlz pro
moog prodigy
Pc p4 3,01 ghz, asusk333,matrox parhelia dualhead
emagic logic control
midiman oxygen8
rme hammerfall pcmcia
audiophile 1010 delta

thats setup *dream*

[euterke]

Just got some new toys as :

- Allen & heath xone:62
- Numark TTX
- C-loop
- Kaoss pad 2


Fun too waste time and improvise with this setup...


I will a some pics next week

[pille'ocheoni]

where can i buy your records eurteke?

[piscaries]

here's my studio in it's current state:

powerbook g4 550mhz
-logic 4.7 (waiting for logic6!)

nord modular (rack)

yamaha rx5 drum machine

novation mm-10x controller

korg d16 multitrack (lets me record, mix, and add effects)

guitar pedals
-big muff
-some overdrives
-some delays
-gonkulator modulator (sounds better than it actually is)
-shitty wah pedal

some decent marshall mics

m-audio bx-8 active monitors

all i need to get now is a decent breakout box (i'm thinking m audio quattro) and i'll be set. as of right no i have no audio inputs available on my mac (damn you apple!)

[euterke]

Originally posted by pille'ocheoni
where can i buy your records eurteke?

I've nothing to sell ;)

Actually a label ask me to produce some plate for them... so I will seen later on 2003.

But u can hear some of my stuff on the erutufon ftp right now under a folder with my name.

Dunno if it's your kind of music, but it's a cut of the last P.A I did on the 14th of february.

[pille'ocheoni]

well i truely loved blendub, great track, id buy that to add to my tech house collection. very presise control. i love the atomspherics, you realy have that shit down and thats something im just now starting to feel comfortable with. im impressed and surprised you havent allready released. please inform us when you do.pece/p