Pairing down the kit

Any studio--especially project studios--can get a bit crowded.  There are plenty of good deals to be had--$100 romplers, $150 analog racks etc.   Over time, these stack up and can take quite  bit of room, so I think it doesn't hurt to pair down every now and then. 

When I get the urge to purge and cleanse, I look at my gear, then ask myself the following questions:

1) When was the last time I used this bit of kit?  

2) Why am I not using it today?

3) If I trim, what am I losing?  Do other things cover this?.

4) How hard would it be for me to get it back--both in rarity and cost?

5) If I trim, what do I gain?

I tend to trim things that are unused AND take up space.  If it's big, unwieldy / hard to integrate and well covered by other synths...well, out it goes.  I'd almost rather not sell...I'd rather trade to be honest.  

Ebay has its own set of risks...paypal/ebay get their cut.  If the buyer thinks what he got is crap, then there is the headache of returns.  Does my kit work as well as I think it does?  Sure, plenty of people sell hundreds of items every day on ebay.  A local trade, however--both parties, we can see the kit.  Is this something fair for us?  We can try it out there.  We can leave, transaction done, confident of the exchange.

Local trades don't maximize return, this is true.  I've traded things worth $500 for items worth $300.  But then again, was it really worth $500?  Maybe to a few people.  @$300, there'd be a whole lot more buyers.   I usually don't trim for $$$--my stuff isn't just worth it.  A $100 rompler is not going to fetch more then that $100 a few years later.  

Current Setup

CPU

I've setup and maintained several home Linux boxes in the past (since the times of slackware on 25 3 1/4" floppies), so when it was time to get a real pc--linux is not a good audio OS, sorry guys--Mac was the logical choice.  I'm running a Mac Pro (Quad Intel) on OSX 10.5.  Vanilla 2GB ram and a TB drive dropped in for samples. Snow Leopard upgrade is pending.

DAW
Had DP, and long story short, found it lacking for me. I just couldn't get to grips with it, though it had many great features, some of which I miss today.  Logic Pro on the other hand--PERFECT. Logic Pro 9.0 was a nice upgrade for me.  It seems like their synth oscillators have gotten a nice kick in the pants! Could be my imagination.  Also have Live Lite which came with the Korg PadKontrol.  Don't use it much.

AU - Synths
Discovery Pro, FabFilter Twin, Komplete 5, Korg Legacy (Digital).  All great synths and I use them.  I have been hard on NI on the past, but I take back everything: Komplete is totally worth it. The sound isn't as digital as I would have supposed and can actually be quite warm.  Have my eye on Zebra if I ever can get my lazy ass to print out the $50 off card.

AU - FX etc
IK Vintage Comp etc etc.  Not much in the way of third party processors really.  Pretty much bone stock Logic for now.  Would like Duende one day.

Audio Interface
Had a duet, but it died.  Was sequencing a song and PTTJHPPT. Just stopped working!  It got RMA approval, I still need to mail it out though.  Using Kore 1 for now.  The assholes at Guitar Center sold me one that had already been registered, and NI support gave me flack. WTF! I have a Kore, why can't it be registered.  I still have the receipt and stuff so I suppose I could somehow convince NI that my Kore 1 is an actual Kore controller, but too much work.  Works pretty well as an audio interface.  Has balanced outputs which the Duet does not have.  And does 24/96, though I only trust it to 24/44 as it is USB.   I also have a Yamaha N8 (8 x 24/96) which I plan on putting back into action as soon as I find a convenient place to put it.

Midi Interface
Novation X-Station 25--great bit of kit.  Really a lot of value in that package.  Audio quality isn't quite up to snuff but it is no slouch either--how's that for a mixed review?  Still, lots of sliders, knobs, joystick, pad, nice setup program to customize it,  built in audio interface and 3 osc VA?  Not too shabby.  Also picked up a couple of Korg NanoSliders--which I LOVE.  They fit in my desk drawer, helping keeping things nice and clean.

Speakers
M-Audio BX8a. What can I say. They are monitors.  They are bass heavy.  I would not want to compose classical on them. Price was right and they sounded the best in my price range with my reference cds.

Room
Completely untreated.  A real horror of reflective surfaces.

The History of Crufty Sound

The Early Years

When Electronic Dance Music first really blew up in the states, in 1988, I was intrigued by what I had heard.  I had been listening to R&B/Rap for quite some time now, and this was a natural extension (for me, anyway--I would learn later the reverse was true!).

I started with MODS, but didn't get anywhere.  I tried Rebirth 5-6 yrs later, but didn't get anywhere.  I had a toy casio piano, tried to teach myself how to play...didn't get anywhere.  No money, no job == no music. That was then.

The Synth Bug

I picked up a Korg MicroKorg for dirt cheap--it was used, beat up but I saw it literally being sold on the side of the road and wow. Had to try it out.  I got hooked.

I couldn't do much.  4 notes. Small keys.  So I started to play.  Bass line riff here.  Synth lead there.  Modulations / cutoffs / oscillators.  I didn't know what the hell any of this stuff was! But it as fun. The Korg MK was a fun bit of kit, I'll say that--a whole lot of value in those tiny 37 keys.

Soon, I really wanted to have drums.  So I had this keyboard, how do I get drums?  The internet led me to Battery.   Now what?  I have to play the drums and my keyboard at the same time?  No...I learned I'd need a DAW. And Battery was a VST--the DAW would play Battery.  And then I could sequence the drums, and play along with the Microkorg.   This is great.  Proteus-X was getting decent reviews, and included a 2x2 midi interface at the time. Now I could play the Korg MK and record what I was doing, and add on more tracks as well. Though Cubase SE was limited, it was fun.

At this point in time, my music was crappier then what I'm doing now.  It really was bad.  I started reading forums--lurking--finish your songs they said.  So I finished my crappy songs.  They were right. It helps.  Listen critically they said.  I started listening to all my old cds.  Listening to how things go.

Expand the Horizons

The momentum began to build.  The computer I was using was my wife's, and she didn't appreciate how I would monopolize it.  A new computer was in order--a mac pro.  With the mac pro came...Digital Pefromer crossgrade.  More synths. Midi interfaces.  Logic Studio came out--DP was really sucking wind in one area (it was not compatible with the virus ti).  A 61 keyboard controller.  More synths.  A rack.   Synths were bought when the deal was right.  A virus TI. A voyager. A jomox 999. A Fr-777. An FR Revolution. Money was saved, pennies pinched. It was not easy.  My car is a piece of crap beater.  But totally worth the sacrifice.  Synths were sold. The microkorg had outlived its usefulness...needed space.  MC808.  Korg MicroX--space. 

All this time, I was practicing.  Figured out what an oscillator does. Not sure how to use it still, but now I knew what it was.  Read tutorials. Read Sound on Sound, Computer Music, until I grew out of it.  Wasted some money (MC808--Damn you Music Tech!)  Wasted some more money (berhinger mixers). Romplers.

2008

Eventually, I had a decent synth setup.  Outboard and room treatment was lacking.  I went from sequencing the fr 777 into an mc808 to a daw + 61 key controller to a daw + 25 key controller. I tried to  record one song a week for an entire year--one complete song in two precious spare hours on friday nights, when all were in bed and I had no commitments.  I got to know my kit fairly intimately.

Much of my output was crap.  Some, as a friend so gently put it--showed promise. Then...kids.  Needed room.  This hobby would have to wait.   I involved my children in the process, let them touch whatever they needed to touch.  A few caps were lost in the process, but such is the nature of life.  

2009

Then the kids got bigger.  Lifestyle changed.   All the synths--in storage.  The mac pro + logic plus whatever AU's I can load up on it. That would have to do, for now.  It is just a hobby. I do not make money from this endeavor, though I have benefited creatively from it.  I could not justify the foot print--for now.  The little ones deserved their corner in life as well, rightfully so.

This brings us to today.  In the weeks coming, I will share what I have done and see where to go.