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Music workstation

I decided to take a picture of the current state of the music workstation.  I wish I'd done this a few times in the past so I could reflect on how it evolves but there you go.  Anyway, here's the first in a series.

List of Stuff

Computer -- home-brew PC (hidden behind a wall so's not to noise-pollute the mic when I'm podcasting)

Software -- SONAR 8.5 Producer, Jamstix

Keyboards

Yamaha PSR-1500 (my favorite for banging around in a jam session)

Yamaha S-08 (the "serious hard-core" keyboard)

Edirol PCR-300 (the little one -- super handy for composition)

Tenori-On -- a gizmo I'm still trying to figure out

Audio -- Crown Powertech 3.1 (500 watts/channel at 8 ohms) into EV Sx300 speakers, couple Behringer mixers, MXL-2001 mics

Update -- about a year later -- June 3rd, 2011

 

My goodness what a difference a year makes.  Here's the current state of affairs.  I finally switched back to the Mac for music-making after a long time away.  I gave up on the PC -- the platform was just too unstable.  Yes, I changed everything (hardware, software, peripherals, cables) trying to diagnose the repeated-crashing/freezing problems.  Don't want to go there.  The Mac "just works" and it's on a laptop so I can haul it around with me.  I'm now enjoying a much higher ratio of "making music" to "fixing the setup" time.

The new additions:

MacBook Pro

Logic Pro

M-Audio Axiom Pro

The old Roland JV880 (hanging on the music stand down there under the S08)

I'm liking this new rig a lot.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 11:40 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Music workstation”

  1. steve cheatham Says:
    May 8th, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    Nice layout.

  2. Michael Fraase Says:
    May 15th, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    So, Mikey, when are we going to hear some of this alleged music?

    I'm trying to decide on new near-field monitors (for listening; not producing). Thought I had it whittled down to M-Audio Studiophile AV 40, Behringer Truth B2021A (active monitors), and B&W MM-1 (was really looking forward to these; they're very disappointing). But none sound as good as the Missions that came paired with my Denon UDRA-M10.

    Any suggestions?

  3. Mike O'Connor Says:
    May 15th, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    Hi Michael! I posted one tune a month or so ago. Here's the link - http://www.haven2.com/index.php/archives/new-mikey-tune-first-flight-of-lots-of-new-stuff

    But to be truthful, I've got a long way to go before I'm super-prolific. The newest version of the software I use (SONAR Producer) has just swamped me with new features and approaches. Right now I'm learning about beats and slicing from my younger-generation friends. All I can say about the result is... Um... I have a lot to learn. :-) But I'll try to post something soon...

    Speakers are tricky. Super dependent on personal taste and the kind of music you listen to. So my monitors (the edge of one of the EV Sx300s is just showing in the upper left of the picture) would probably drive you crazy -- they're really left-overs from my stage gear. They're fantastic when you throw a lot of watts at them and want to rock the hall but they hiss like crazy in this quiet room 'cause they're so efficient. I actually need to hook up a pair of really *bad* speakers for mixing. I find that my mixes, done on these speakers with the Crown amp, often sound terrible when they come through the little speakers on my MacBook for example.

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