about time: state of the studio

its been ages since my last post, as you can see. if just been spending my time doing stuff other than blog posting lately. when the thought strikes me about something to post, its usually gone from my head or significantly fallen in priority by the time in get in front of the computer so my inane thoughts end up bouncing around silently in my head until they peter out and i move on.

that being said, the time is ripe for some updates, opinions and such so here goes:

*** the state of the studio ***

the studio has grown somewhat since the last post. i bought a pair of official active monitors, krk rockit5's which sound great in my small space. fathom recommended them and so did the dude at guitar center after my targetted purchase (m-audio bm5a) wasn't in available.

since my old midi controller bit the farm (oxygen8) i went ahead and got the korg kontrol49. its been really good so far. i love the 16-pad section for doing drum beats.

korg electribe mx1 was something i got for my birthday. its basically a groovebox with 9 drum parts (using samples internal to the hardware) and 5 synths. it has a ton of effects and instruments and has been fun to mess around with. integrating it into my live kit for dj'ing or bringing the audio into the daw of choice for editing was a challenge which i've solved with some creative routing using an alesis multimix8.

the multimix8 is a great buy. 8 channels of simultaneous input, several output options including one that will allow me to pipe a perfectly clean analog signal to my broadcast pc for radio shows. the noise level is almost zero and the quality is pretty amazing. i had some firewire issues due to the chained harddrives which i've solved by routing things around differently.

i route the emx1 into the trs stereo in's and use the midi between the kontrol49 and the emx1 to keep things synched with live5 (or whatever --- but so far its been live5). i can also keep a mic plugged in as well as my guitar due to the number of in's the alesis has so all is finally sorted on that front. i can also use the myriad routing options to set up a pre-listen for dj'ing which will become helpful when i start using it.

i'm using the following software in some capacity on a regular basis:

ableton live5 -- i use this the most by a long shot. i do a lot of my dj work (see below) using it as well as create most song sketches on it. i've had some issues with processor peaking during long shows. i am suspecting it has to do with complex mode warping but i'll need to do some more research on that.

reason3 -- i don't use it as much as i think i should be. generally i opt for other synths in live5 rather than rewire reason. i think if i hit upons some interesting synths in there or have need of the matrix or dr. rexx, i'll start using it more. at least its there if i need it.

absynth -- an amazing synth. i have only tinkered with presets so far but they sound full, rich and layered. i did a few of the sounds on the tracks i have on myspace with it. i tend to use it a lot but it can kill a processor quick. i generally end up recording a midi part, bouncing to audio, then disabling the midi track to reduce processor load.

arturia arp 2600v -- another great sounding synth. i played with it for a week intensely and barely scratched the surface of what its capable of. its also on a few of those myspace tracks.

digidesign protools/mbox -- with the purchase of the alesis multimix8, i've decided to move the mbox and protools over to the pc and use it primarily for vocal and guitar tracking when necessary. live5 is great for a ton of things but vocal and guitar comping is waaay easier in protools. protools has just been too unstable on the powerbook to justify its continued use. i have yet to successfully bounce down a dj mix in it because i generally get a usb or mbox error before it finishes. it accounts for many hours of wasted effort and i'm done dealing with it. after i reimage the powerbook i might consider moving it back over.

i have discovered too may plugins to mention but two of note are supatrigga and livecut. they do some crazy-ass rhythm stuff and i've liked blending them with my more stayed rhythm work to expand the aural bag of tricks.

i got my old behringer bcf2000 midi controller to operate successfully in emulation mode in both ableton live5, logic 7 express, reason 3 and protools. gotta love those flying faders.

as far as music production, i haven't created any songs in a while worth listening to, let alone sharing. most of my effort has been learning and working out the best methodology for using live5 as a dj tool. i have been putting together mixers, doing the show and then playing with creating finished mixes for posting on mixdepot. i plan on getting back to song creation or remixing soon however.