i suggest you get a mac.

not all sennheiser stuff is good they make alot of domestic headphones that are quite frankly pieces of shit, their pro gear is good but it is also over priced compared to other pro audio manufacturers that make the same quality equipment but cheaper. except for radio mics and receivers, noone can out do sennheiser on rf equipment.

Terminal Pharmacy hit it on the head, mic wise. But I guess you already have one. Just make sure to buy a pre-amp for it or it will a) be quiet as fuck on your computer, and b) sound like shit because you'll have to turn up the volume. Musicians Friend.com has some suitable mic pre-amps for under $100.

Also, GarageBand isn't only processor intensive. It's mainly RAM intensive. GarageBand is allocated RAM when initially started but when you fill it up and it starts to fart, keep hitting "Okay" after it gives the "I farted" message. It's some complicated process that my friend tried to explain to me, but it dumps RAM from other applications that aren't used or being used presently and will allocate some more, it just takes a little bit. But sure, it could affect your processor a bit.

But anyways. GarageBand is really not so professional. But for free and standard on a Mac, any small shit that I want to do is perfect for it. Any pro shit, and I would probably use Pro Tools or Logic.

if he purchases a sound card he doesn't need a pre and i think you may mean a phantom power box. the preamps in the motu are better than anything else on the market and for my ears equal to the pre's in the rme soundcards, the metric halo ones are a little nicer. the motu ones are based around neve mic pres.

protools is good for recording and is a really nice sounding prog but it sucks ass for editing and its midi isn't that great either. i would use cubase over protools if i had the choice, but digital performer over both.

what about acid? is it any good?

my boyfriend uses audiophile and protools. but a girlfriend of mine sent us acid and we've never installed it?

each to their own I guess then. I like my carry around sh headphones.

what other pro gear do you recommend that is cheaper but just as good then?

for loop based software it is far better than garageband, but i would go with ableton live for that type of work.

the big three are protool, digital performer and cubase, but alot of mastering studios these days are taking up pyramix which is also very good but more aimed at mastering.

I used Sony Acid for a while when I had a PC. Really strong at looping, as Terminal said, and it has nice mastering capabilities. But don't even bother recording in it. Seriously, don't bother. It's really just opening the Control Panel in Windows and finding the Microphone application and recording yourself.

beyer dynamic and audio technica but for different things, beyer make great mics and headphones etc audio technica make some great mics, except for sm 57, 58s and beta87s shure pretty much suck. akg also make fine equipment. it depends very much on what you want.

so beyer dynamic for headphones then? cos I dont need a mic :P

and also depends on what purpose. you want, home studio, foh mixing, monitor mixing???

dunno. personally I'd love to create a lot more soundscape stuff to use when I have an exhibition or installation.
but it'd be nice if it were something the boy could also use. I forget what kind of sh he used to have (they're lost somewhere)
really fabu powerful crisp sound as well as external noise cancelling type deal?

nah, ive done my research that is all. my inlaws have a sony tv-- it looks like shit. but because sony makes so many products some of the are actually good, like their cd/dvd drive mechanisms, or the trinitron monitors before they lost the exclusive patent, and these monitor headphones i mentioned which are a great value. im only trying to be technically accurate, brands can kiss my culo.

the dt770 head phones have 35db of attenuation of outside noise which isn't noise cancelling but it is a very good amount of attenuation, they are very comfortable and flat, if you want crisp you may want to find a set of headphones with say a 3db lump at say 5khz and 8khz to give that top end sizzle but if by crisp you meant flat and transparent then the 770s are great and retail at around $350au. i use the dt770m's but i would only recommend them if you are using them on stage for monitoring because they have a volume pot (good for a monitor mix for drummers with an orchestra) otherwise i would say the dt770pro 80ohm these are only 18db attenuation though. the 250ohm model don't go loud enough.

I'm not an audio tech, I do not understand most of what you said, so that in mind, which ones would be best? The boy does techinical production so he would notice more of all this than I do, with the stage stuff, but hes not here at the moment. I doubt he'd use them at work cos he'd use work's stuff.. at work. but he's picky with that stuff the way that I am with the things *I* understand. :P

what? i don't understand... :D

its cos Im speaking elf.

you both freelance? or you work for coda or sytem or something like that?

Terminal Pharmacy deserves an arseload of pos rep after this thread.

For sure,
he always does whenever there's "audio tech" talkin' involved.
And the good thing isn't just that he has a lot to tell in terms of infos/experience, but that his suggestions are 100% spot on.

ah, both my hd recorder and mixer have phantom power, when needed.

no point keeping information to yourself

You mean that I should have said about the phantom power before or that you're glad to share your knowledge? :D

i meant i'm always happy to share my knowledge, no point keeping it to yourself if other people can benefit from it

I agree 100%. But your kindness and receptiveness (is this the right term?) are definitely a plus, so, a big THANK YOU once more.

Uh, since we're talking about this stuff, does anyone have "equipment" to sell? I'm curious.

Yeah I unfortunately bought one...

stupid question: is it ok to use xlr "mic" cables to connect the mixer output to the powered monitors??
I'm kinda confused about the mic/audio/line cables distinction....

yes that is perfectly fine, and it is how it is done in the pro world. nearly all pro desks are xlr out for all signals, obviously there are exceptions. the desk output --> eq input (xlr3), eq output (xlr3) --> amp input (xlr3), amp output --> speaker (speakers can be many different connections), is a general easy to understand signal chain. As you are only running a signal cable to the monitors it is fine, the monitor amplifiers take care of the rest internally.

Cool, thanks once more, I knew it "worked" but had some strange thoughts induced by the different names cables apparently equivalent are called on different sites and stuff.

the most common you will find --

1/4 inch balanced jack --> 1/4 inch balanced jack
xlr3
xlr4
xlr5 (the numbers are in regards to how many pins there are)

ep4
ep5
ep6

speakon connectors look the same but come in different sizes depending on the core of the speaker cable they are attached to.

mostly will only need the xlr3 and the 1/4inch balanced jack --> jack and your obvious instrument leads etc

another question eligible as "stupid-ass question of the month":

CRT monitors
LCD monitors

does the different technology imply some kind of side effect on the rest of the studio stuff? interferences and so on... I'm about to google this, but this thread became a sort of "thoughts' diary" for this thing, so, yeah, I posted it here first...

makes no difference at all unless there is an issue with their power which put an earth loop into your system, however that would be exceedingly rare and nothing to worry about. the biggest problems with home studios is usually fan noise from the computer and other external noises.

That's not a stupid question :D

My CRT screen interferes a lot with my Jazzmaster. I think I wouldn't have that problem with an LCD screen.

he he I was just checking a bunch of "suggested" silent components to build a low-noise pc here
http://www.pcsilenzioso.it/
:).


I think I'd "overcome" that kind of problem (instruments/pc monitor interferences) in any case, cuz I'll most likely record guitars/bass/keyb on the hard disk recorder and then transfer wavs-> pc for mixing-mastering. My main concern was for that phase of the process.

it isn't neccesarily your guitar it is interfering with, it is more likely the lead or something else in your signal chain, unless of course you have single coil pickups. if you have single coil pickups it could be more than your crt adding noise. it could be your lights, fridge or anything else in the house that is running on the same circuit. try running an extension cord to another room that is on a different power circuit and plug your crt into that. or try running your guitar into a di that has an earth lift on it and lift the earth.

so, I'm buying pieces to build the pc, an intel E2180 (Dual Core 2.0GHz 1MB 2nd level cache, FSB 800MHz) should be enough to work with a bunch of tracks/plugins, right? Eventually I'm going for a decent-but-cheap/cost effective pc, and I plan to save enough money to buy a motu ultralite..

the pc setup should be:

Asus p5b-vm mobo
E2180 cpu
2 GB dd2 ram (either 667 or 800 mhz in dual channel)
hmmm I guess a seagate barracuda with 16MB cache and 7200 rpm
a rasurbo silent psu
a decent case (possibly with some noise-blocking features like the antec solo).

looks more than enough, dont gforget to get a graphic card.

once you've installed xp say something, i can give you some tips.
things like putting the system resources using primarily the psysical memory, small things bur that make a huge difference on performance.

The mobo already has an integrated video card, since I'll use this thing just for music related stuff I think the on board card should be enough (and there's always a pci express slot ready, for future additions).
If you want to share some tips, I thank you in advance, you could start giving suggestions earlier since I have xp sp2 already insalled in the pc I'm typing with :p he he, unless you meant tips that are useful for a "home recording" pc rather than an all-around machine... If those tips imply long posts feel free to mail me if it's more comfy for you! (even if those could be "public service" posts...)

oh ok. yeah ok, give me a minute.