Studio
The heart of my home studio is my PC…
…equipped with M-Audio FireWire Solo:
FireWire Solo is great audio interface - it provides very low latency and high sound quality. What’s more it has input for guitar (and bass/synth etc) and input for microphone (with phantom power, so it is great for capacitor microphones). And, last but not least, it looks great on the desk:)
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I use 2 MIDI controllers: CME UF 6 and M-Audio Finger Trigger. CME is very useful keyboard with 61 keys, 9 sliders and 8 knobs. I use it to play virtual instruments and compose melodies, chord progression etc. Thanks to the sliders it is also useful during recordings of automations of sounds effects like reverb, delay etc. Whereas Finger Trigger was born to program drums and basslines. MPC-like pads are very intuitive and often help me creating drumloops. Trigger Finger also has sliders and I use them in similar way to those belonging to CME UF6. |
Of course in my studio there are guitars (because I’m guitarist or at least I used to be:P) and guitar amps simulator - POD XT Live:
Guitars are: acoustic Jasmine by Takamine S34C, Ibanez AXS 32, Japanese copy of Stratocastera, Cort Action Bass 4 and mandolin Stagg M30. My main axe nowadays is copy of Stratocaster - single coils sound great on clean or slightly overdriven channel. I use to add many effects or modulate the sound with wahwah pedal and single coils really weep with such settings. I play Ibanez (it is tuned to C and has strings for baritone guitar of gauge 68-14) when I want to achieve low, powerful, distorted sound for heavy riffs. However at the same time Ibanez is great for jazz licks or ringy chords, thanks to the thick strings it sounds really fat and warm on the clean channel (especially with a little bit of chorus). Acoustic guitar serves well as a rythm instrument, it nicely fills the mix.
Cort bass guitar is pretty versatile instruments - it is possible to achieve dark, muddy sound great for nujazz or dark electronic downtempo, but it is also possible to get funky, bright tone.
Mandolin is a little bit different instrument - it has different tuning (same to volin) than guitar/bass. It has also different sound - mainly thanks to shape of resonant box and fact that it has strings in 4 pairs. Very inspiring instrument - I use it to get oriental melodies great for dark trip hop. However it sounds best while playing folk like Scottish or Irish traditional melodies.
Line 6 POD XT Live replaces guitar amp in my studio. It is a digital guitar amp simulator and makes possible to simulate bunch of amps, guitar cabinets and even microphones that records sounds from cabinents. It has also implementation of lots of stomp effects like choruses, delays, overdrive/distortion pedals etc. Thanks to its reamping option I use it not only with guitar, but also to route signal from computer, add in example wahwah modulation and route it back to computer. Even though POD XT Live is digital gear it works great with analog stuff - I own Budda Bud-Wah pedal and it sounds really impressive with POD.
If I don’t play my guitar, basketball or football, then it is possible that I’m just playing Star Wars Miniatures that are residents of my studio:
