Hi there everyone,
Once again, apologies for the little technical error with luv2lykitkrayzee.blogspot.com, it was unforeseen and there's nothing much I can do about it. Either way, this should be equally as good, if not, better than the prior.
Anyway, welcome to the SoundBlog and post number one of the AudioGear posts which will feature not only the equipment I have to my disposal (for a general insight into what I'm working with to produce some long-awaited tracks), but the reviews on the equipment I have, subsequent upgrades to the existing equipment, as well as, reviews on equipment I think are good (from a personal standpoint) and what other people think are good (from their standpoint).
Now, with equipment in terms of audio, the equipment one selects not only influences the sound that you will produce, but it'll also reflect ones own identity - kind of like an audio signature. Timbaland and Jay-Z, though similar in terms of genre, the way they produce their sound with the equipment they personally feel to be good, no doubt about it, it creates it's own unique sound particular to them. So it's important that one doesn't buy gear just because they know so-and-so uses it or it was featured in this song (in some cases, for experimental purposes for example, I'd agree to it - testing out the gear to create your own unique sound). What's more important is to buy the gear you think would fit well into your vision of how your songs sound like, thereby creating your own identity labeling your creations to be, well, yours.
Unfortunately, for this post, I do not have any pictures to backup the text (so bear with me for the meanwhile). I am trying to get video footage of what I have and post it on facebook or youtube or something, or post pictures up at a later date.
So, let's take a little tour, shall we?
So first up, we have my little multitrack machine. For those of you who are unclear of what a multitrack machine actually is - it's basically any device or apparatus used to record multiple tracks in a single session (example: recording on three microphones to three separate tracks, or, recording the whole mix and having individual control of each recorded tracks; so you end up with like 6-10 or so tracks on one session, instead of a single stream containing everything).
The multitrack machine I use is essentially an Apple Mac Pro Quad-Core tower with a 24" LCD Cinema Display. What transforms the computer into a multitrack machine in simply because I'm using the industry standard Pro Tools DAW (Digital-Audio-Workstation; the DAW simply allows us to take an audio signal and record it digitally onto the software). But don't get me wrong, Pro Tools isn't the only software that will make it a multitrack machine, there are many other like programs you can use that will automatically turn your computer into a multitrack recorder.
And here's where it get's interesting. The Mac Pro is connected to the MBox (a piece of hardware necessary to make Pro Tools work) which is then connected to the heart of the system: the Mackie Big Knob Studio Command System. Now, guys, it's not as the name implies - not that kind of knob at least so relax ladies and gents. More on the Big Knob on another post. At this point, everything is basically connected to the Big Knob, and as I said, it is the heart of it all.
To accompany the whole setup, I have the OpenLabs NeKo XXL workstation (a really cool piece of hardware that I will get into on another post). Now, the OpenLabs NeKo XXL is itself a standalone piece of hardware (Check out the upcoming post regarding the NeKo to find out why it's an awesome piece of gear).
For my near-field reference monitors, I use the ever-trustworthy KRK Rokit RP5's (more on that at yet another post).
So as you can see, there's a few toys here I can play around with to make some good tracks, but don't forget, the more toys you have, the more paperwork there will be -_-
So stay tuned, drop some comments if you want to and I'll respond to them as soon as possible. Thanks for tuning in today. Damai.
