The Music Equipment Thread

[SonGohan]

Well the SM57 itself is an instrument microphone. The SM58 is a vocal microphone. I was just curious what the "beta" meant in it.

 

[Electric Grave]

I think that's just the model man, I don't think it stands for Beta as in a test model or something.

 

[fake]

Well the SM57 itself is an instrument microphone. The SM58 is a vocal microphone. I was just curious what the "beta" meant in it.

The Beta series is the next step up from the SM series, price and quality-wise. The numbers are the same though: 57 mainly for instruments and 58 for vocals. Some singers use 57s for vocals though, especially people with a treble-y voice like Tom Petty.

 

[16-bit]

Here are some pics of my hardware:

Cool setup man! I just recently bought a MC-202 and really love the sound of it. That drum machine pictured is not a Roland 727...626 maybe?

Carlson

 

[Jaelus]

Here's my setup (not pictured is my keyboard, a Kurzweil PC-88mx):

Power:
Furman M-8Lx
Furman M-8Dx

Mixer/Patch bays:
Mackie micro 14 channel mixer
Neutrik NYS-SPP-L
Neutrik NYS-SPP-L1
MOTU midi express XT midi patch bay

Synths:
Kurzweil PC-88mx
KORG Triton-Rack with fully expanded memory and 3 addl' synth banks
Alesis D4 (drum module)
Midi NES (sitting on top of the rack) stereo modded to isolate the sound channels

Effects/Processors:
dbx 120XP subharmonic synthesizer
Alesis MidiVerb4
dbx 166XL compressor/limiter/gate
Behringer Ultragraph FBQ-PRO

Recording:
Tascam CD-RW901SL with studio remote
Tascam DA-78HR x2 (master/slave)
Tascam DA-88 with SY-88 midi control board

Monitors:
audio-technica ATH-M50

Microphones:
audio-technica AT2035 (cardioid condenser)
JAX 122 (dynamic)
V-Tech 2010 (dynamic)

 

[Takumaji]

Cool setup man! I just recently bought a MC-202 and really love the sound of it. That drum machine pictured is not a Roland 727...626 maybe?

Carlson

Sorry, missed your question.

The silver one in the background on the left is a TR 606, followed by a TR 626 on the right (not a 727, made a typo in the original description). Both are fantastic little boxes, just like the 202, three machines I will never ever part with no matter what.

EDIT:

Great setup, Jaelus. Once I test-drove a Triton rack version for a couple of weeks, excellent machine! Sadly it was too expensive for me, dunno about the current going price, it's still quite sought-after.

What style of music do you make?

 

[Takumaji]

So... here's my latest acquisition - behold the mighty Yamaha YS100:

(Sorry for the bad picture quality, my cam is about to give up).

This is a FM synthie based on a Yamaha chip with four operators, 8 voices, 8 times multitimbrality, 8 different waveforms per operator (which lets you create incredibly versatile sounds) and a very good keyboard. The design is pure 80s but the interface works quite well, except for the placement of the storage and exit buttons on the far right.

Man, just listen to those demo songs, it's Mega Drive and cheesy 80s porn all over again! Thing is that this only goes for the presets, the fun really starts as soon as you create your own patches from scratch. You will need an editor software for that as the interface of the YS100 only allows quick sound edits. As always, I use YSEDITOR for patch creation. The YS100 really shines at basses, weird percussion, meandering pads, outer space noise and other preferrably electronic-sounding stuff. It's not that good at reproducing most natural instruments but that's not important for me anyway, I could always use my sampler if I really need something like that.

This thing goes nicely with my Yamaha FB-01, now I have two of those FM beasts... yeah... next stop: The holy grail of FM synthesis, the Yamaha FS1R. It's still awfully expensive so I guess it'll take a long while before I find one for an acceptable price, but one day, guys, one day...

Presets demo:



Internal demo songs (the vid shows the YS200, it's the exact same machine, except that it has an additional sequencer):



...and it really was a steal, got it via ebay for 62€ incl. shipping! That was one of the best ebay deals I ever had. Not a lot of people seem to know that the YS100 and 200 are keyboard versions of the legendary TX81Z which usually goes for 150€+... well, good for me I guess.

 

[hyper]

production equipment

I like electronic music, studio riser is as follows:

Emu SP12
Akai S3200XL
Digidesign MIDI 10x10 IO
Roland S-760
Stanton C.501
Korg 03R/W
Roland MKS-50 (x2)
Akai S900
Akai S01
Akai S2000
Roland Juno 106
Oberheim Matrix 6
Sequential Circuits Drumtrak
Casio CZ1000
Roland Alpha Juno 2
Akai S1000KB
Maudio Axiom 61
Roland JP8080

3 PC DAW's [Protools "tape" station, Ableton; audio warping, modular synth/visual fx programming (MAX/MSP for live, Jitter for MAX, PureData) station Reason /w various trackers and midi software)]

Mbox 2
Lavry DA10
Lavry AD10
Daytona handmade 8" reference monitor
Daytona handmade 15" reference subwoofer

Stanton M.304 club mixer (backup)
Rane TTM56
Technics SL1210M5G (x2) /w ortofon nightclub yellows (x4)
CDJ1000MK1
CDJ1000MK3

NI Traktor S4
NI Audio 4 DJ
Traktor Scratch Pro 2
Traktor Kontrol X1
Novation Launchpad

stein upright piano
7 acoustic guitars (Fender, Taylor, Yamaha, Robelli)
Various Solidstate Marshall Combo Amps
3 electric guitars (Fender, Guyatone,)
Various Brass/woodwind instruments
Pearl Stage Full Drum Kit
MIDI enabled Nintendo Gameboy /w LSDJ v3 (x4)

and lots of records.

LOTS of records.

 

[SonGohan]

Necro bump (sort-of)

Ran into a lot of gear this past year. My spare room is looking like a mini Guitar Center of sorts. New toys (huge pics incoming):

Fender Eric Johnson Signature Strat (Blondie)

Line 6 James Tyler Variax Model 89

Ibanez Soundgear Bass

Line 6 KB37 Studio

Line 6 HD Pod (Desktop)

Line 6 Spider IV 150-watt Combo

Engl Fireball 100

 

[Kiel]

I want to get one of these keyboards, just sayin'.

 

[fake]

It took me many years, but I finally own a late 90's two channel dual rectified and 2x12 rectifier cab. The head has a modded green LED.

 

[mr aize]

Interesting thread. Got a couple of bits and pieces but not doing much with them at the moment as haven't fully set them up together..

Got 2 1210s and a Nuo mk5 mixer which get daily use
A xoxbox (awesome tb303 clone which I built from a kit) doesn't get the use it deserves and needs some small work doing to it (rotary bank switch needs replacing)
just found a tr606 in a car boot sale, got it for £30 cos it wasn't working, managed to bring it back to life but think the memory chips are fried, haven't got round to replacing them yet.
Akai s950 sampler, bought from a friend for £25, haven't got it set up properly yet, eventually want to make some old jungle with it as I love the classic grainy time stretched samples it can produce.
Not hardware, but awesome, Renoise on my laptop. Great tracker program (good for me, cos I'm a proper newb when it comes to making music and it's very easy to just jump into) Got a ton of virtual synths/samples etc with it too...
Also got a pretty good external sound card, for recording but can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

Oh, also got a Cello in the loft, that I haven't played in over 10 years, but I used to be very good at it....

 

[EllertMichael]

I play drums in a band and we have some cool gear we bought together (like a Roland Juno 60, mics & recording stuff), but I'll just list the stuff I own:

Drums/Percussion:
Gretsch Catalina Birch Rock (Black Pearl)
Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz (White Pearl)
Sabian AAX Stage Hats & Stage Ride, B8 18" Crash
UFIP 16" Class Series Medium Crash
Yamaha DD-10
Gon Bops California series Bongo Drums
Tambourine (it's a little shitty one, but I do have access to a Ludwig tambo that I consider to be the greatest tambourine in the world.)
LP Shaker Eggs set

Guitars:
Godin Detour Electric (Black Pearl)
Yamaha F-335 Acoustic (Black)

My girlfriend has a Bass guitar and a Banjo that I use but I'm not sure of the make of either.

The Bass is a white Japanese Fender knockoff with a Gibson style headstock and a "V" on it. Decent, but needs some work on the intonation.

The Banjo's logo is a "U" inside a circle. It's a fan-fucking-tastic Banjo and I'm sure she got a killer deal on it from Craigslist. The guy she bought it from said his friend brought it back from Africa as a gift for him, but he never learned how to play it.

Keys and Odds & Ends:
Magnus Chord Organ
Hohner Melodica
Casiotone MT-30, MT-68, PT-32
Casio SA-2 (circuit bent)
Wentworth Musical Saw
Antonius Strings Violin (Chinese)
No name Ukelele I found at a flea market (it sucks.)
Toy Accordion
Proll Keymonica
Baby toy keyed bells I picked up at Salvation Army
Tascam Portastudio 414


Stuff I want? I don't even want to start making that list

 

[oldschool]

This thread should have added the option of instruments you've owned and sold, I love hearing those stories. Main players are my original run Wolfgang Special (first guitar I owned), a '71 SG (chestnut>cherry), and recently got my girl a 2box electronic drum kit. Hope to do some recording and arranged soundtracks when I can get my music room all fleshed out.

Right now I'm keeping an eye out for a well used Gibson Les Paul. I had an old Hohner LP copy that I permanently lent out, I miss how versatile it's sound was when I used to learn music by ear with my effects unit.

 

[OrochiEddie]

All I can really fit in my little apartment bedroom at the moment.
Eventually once I have the space I hope to get a normal drum kit and eventually mix the Roland and the regular together. Something like Bill Buford during 80s King Crimson kind of stuff.

 

[NeoTheranthrope]

My poor, lonesome, rarely-played bass (and hipster Domo-kun who thinks cheap Squire repo basses are too mainstream):

A Fender Squire (Indonesian-built) P-type 4-string bass in metallic blue, upgraded with custom Seymour Duncan 1/4-pound SPB-3 passive pickups, custom classic Fender (P-type) pickup cover and bridgeplate, with DR (or GHS, I forget which...) medium flatwound strings. Not pictured: Fender Rumble-15 Bass practice Amp, which I use more as a nightstand than an Amp... Also, I have a Roland 40-watt Guitar amp in storage that was given to me from a co-worker, which I have no use for, but I don't know that value of.

Due to an unfortunate (wanking) misadventure, I injured my right hand shortly after buying (and upgrading) my bass, which sucked. Although, I do pull it out once in a while and play some scales and arpeggios or fuck around with my pedals (Boss CEB-2, ODB-3, & AW-3 W/T Roland EV-5) and make dubstep noises, I lost my enthusiasm for playing after the accident.

 

[Takumaji]

Interesting thread. Got a couple of bits and pieces but not doing much with them at the moment as haven't fully set them up together..

Got 2 1210s and a Nuo mk5 mixer which get daily use
A xoxbox (awesome tb303 clone which I built from a kit) doesn't get the use it deserves and needs some small work doing to it (rotary bank switch needs replacing)
just found a tr606 in a car boot sale, got it for £30 cos it wasn't working, managed to bring it back to life but think the memory chips are fried, haven't got round to replacing them yet.
Akai s950 sampler, bought from a friend for £25, haven't got it set up properly yet, eventually want to make some old jungle with it as I love the classic grainy time stretched samples it can produce.
Not hardware, but awesome, Renoise on my laptop. Great tracker program (good for me, cos I'm a proper newb when it comes to making music and it's very easy to just jump into) Got a ton of virtual synths/samples etc with it too...
Also got a pretty good external sound card, for recording but can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

Oh, also got a Cello in the loft, that I haven't played in over 10 years, but I used to be very good at it....

Good stuff. I'm an ex 303 owner (sold mine in the early 2000s), couldn't justify keeping it for one or two acid livegigs a year. It's an awesome little box but ultimately very limited. The X0xb0x is great, best 303 clone around and even has additional sequencing and modulation options.

Old Akai samplers are great, I have a small Akai S-20 desktop sampler which still gets used a lot in almost every track (mainly for bassdrums and percussion). Great punchy sound, easy to use, that's all I need. Heh, I remember the days when Akai S-1000 samplers where the big thing, everyone wanted one, including myself. However, it cost more than my whole equipment was worth back then so I kept on looking for alternatives. Was THAT close of buying a used Roland S750 but then got an E-mu ESI32 sampler on loan from my label boss for about three months. Excellent machine. Finally I found a cheap S-20 and bought it straight away.

Did I mention that I bought a Korg Monotribe not too long ago? Now THAT's some fine piece of inexpensive equipment, love it a lot and used it on a couple of tracks already. Highly recommended.

Oh, and Korg announced their brand-new MS-20 mini at the NAMM show, street price will be around $700-ish. It's a proper MS-20, not a DSP clone or summat.

But the best news for me is the revival of the Music Easel by Buchla, it's one of my dream machines. Sadly, it will be around $4k-ish new... aaargh...

Heh, I also played Cello for a bit while I was in school. I love the sound but string instruments really aren't my cup of tea. When my music teacher found out that I didn't practice enough and often used my Cello as a bass guitar while jamming with a friend, he threw me out of the string instruments group. Good thing too.

 

[NeoTheranthrope]

Heh, I also played Cello for a bit while I was in school. I love the sound but string instruments really aren't my cup of tea. When my music teacher found out that I didn't practice enough and often used my Cello as a bass guitar while jamming with a friend, he threw me out of the string instruments group. Good thing too.

Damn Kids and Your “Rock and Roll” It's the DEVIL!!

 

[cannonball]

instruments
- selmer alto saxophone
- gibson les paul standard (wine w/ cream bindings)
- kremona orpheus valley fiesta fc classical guitar - cedar top
- ibanez dreadnaught acoustic
- a cheap beater classical guitar that the hippy who sold it to me said would be good for taking into the woods camping. this guitar actually gets better sound out of the bass strings than my good nylon guitar. go figure. i think it says stadium on the head stock. never heard of them before.

recording equip
- blue yeti microphone
- Acid music studio 8

 

[mr aize]

Heh, I also played Cello for a bit while I was in school. I love the sound but string instruments really aren't my cup of tea. When my music teacher found out that I didn't practice enough and often used my Cello as a bass guitar while jamming with a friend, he threw me out of the string instruments group. Good thing too.

Ah ha ha ha ha haaa. Actually it was my music teacher at school who put me off the cello too... Bet he'd be thrilled if he heard the kind of music i'm playing now...

 

[Takumaji]

Ah ha ha ha ha haaa. Actually it was my music teacher at school who put me off the cello too... Bet he'd be thrilled if he heard the kind of music i'm playing now...

Music teachers... I only had one that I considered worth his salt, the others were narrow-minded idiots who never gave me the impression that they actually liked music.

At the time I got Cello lessons at school, I also had an old Bontempi organ with a five-octave keyboard that started to sound like an injured whale when it ran for more than an hour. My buddy Frank bashed away on it while I held the Cello like a guitar and played spooky pizzicatos, sometimes my sister joined the cacophony and played drums on the couch with large knitting needles. Good times.

 

[complexz]

only my little akai MPC-1000 and a shitty consumer casio keyboard with usb midi support, but hey a shitty consumer keyboard with usb turns into some big synthesizer possibilities with a PC obviously no replacement for thousands of dollars in equipment.... but pretty fun

 

[SuperDeadite]

Yamaha SY22: Hybrid synth that creates sound from vector control using 4 elements (2 FM+2 sample based)

My modules:

Yamaha MU2000 Extended Edition
Yamaha PLG150-DR (Drum Plug-in board inside the MU)
Roland CM-64
Roland Cm-500
X68000 PC (Yamaha YM2151)

For software I stick to SY Edit, Yamaha SOL, Sound/Music SX-68k

 

[Liq_Wurm]

I'm sure that all reading this thread will be glad to hear that Dave Grohl has released an awesome documentary called Sound City, and anybody who knows anything about recording is going to LOVE this doc. Really, even your casual music fan who enjoys rock 'n roll, your going to want to watch it too. its just really well produced and very enjoyable. I'll stop talking about it now but if any of you cats have seen it, Back me up! this doc should be mandatory viewing for visitors of this thread

You can download a legit copy through itunes or High quality HD DRM-free on their official website. $12 - totally worth every penny.

 

[SonGohan]

Amp-wise, I'm playing a Mesa Boogie Mark V through a Carvin 4x12 (soon to be upgraded by either a Mesa 2x12 or 4x12). My main guitar is an Ola Frenning custom Caparison Horus (used to record Soilwork's "A Predator's Portrait").

My new goof-around axe is an LTD FM-408 8 string guitar, which I tune down to drop E (so there's 3 E strings). It's extremely fun to play, although the super wide neck takes a bit getting used to.