Instruments |
Instruments
Here are the instruments in my home studio. I plan to add some information about how I use them and include some examples of the sounds they produce.
| Keyboard & Rack Synthesizers | |
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Access Virus Classic - They will have to pull my Virus from my cold, dead hands. It makes great pads, goofy effects, and thick basses. I got mine for a crazy good deal by a guy who had only owned it a month. If I owned my own place i'd even consider keeping it on the desktop next to the DAW so it would be easier to work with. |
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Emu Proteus 2000 + Phatt, Techno, XL7, and Composer ROMs. In the 1990's, these were the bomb for making house or hip hop records. Nowadays, that's not the case -- but you never know, some of the dubby basses and kicks will probably never go out of style. |
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Novation X-Station 61 - OS 3.003 |
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Korg Karma + Dance Extreme ROM + Vintage Archives ROM Of all my gear, this keyboard is the one that turns the most heads when playing the Karma Generated Effects. It is perhaps one of the most inspiring keyboards ever made. |
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Korg MicroKontrol - This is my most recent purchase. I wanted a MIDI controller that would sit on my desk while working in Logic / Protools. It's no longer supported by Korg which is a mistake. The mini keys take a little getting used to, but it's a nifty little controller whether or not you use the Korg virtual synths (I do). |
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Korg MS-2000R - I expected this inexpensive 4 voice virtual analog to be cheezy, but it has some ballsy leads that I would swear came from my Virus. Go figure. |
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Korg Triton Rack + Future Loop Construction ROM + SCSI I find the dual arpegiators inspiring. But the expensive/rare ROMs and patch loading requirements (from floppy disk? really?) are left in the dust by Roland's superior JV/XP/XV series and of course the Fantoms. |
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Korg TR-Rack - I don't use this much, but the orchestral sounds are lush. I got a great deal on it and if I can find a MOSS board for under $450 (CRAZY money) I'll soup it up with one of those. |
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Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX + digital I/O + 128MB RAM + 2gb HD (will add SCSI flash memory card reader) This keyboard is my treasure -- absolutely beautiful 50-60mb sampled pianos, great action, killer D/A converters, and has some amazing sounds. When I just want to sit down and play piano, this is the synth I turn on. And wait for. And then load a Bosendorfer or Steinway or the Seiler or a Baldwin. Wonder why no Yamaha pianos? |
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Roland Fantom X8 + 512MB RAM + 10 + 1GB CF cards and PC card converters + 4 SRX cards: Ultimate Keyboards / Supreme Dance / Platinum Trax / World + William Coakley New York & Hamburg Steinways This is becoming my main axe for composing and creating new sounds especially for my sampling efforts. |
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Roland JP-8080 - this little beastie has the easiest-to-use vocoder and although I have not used it much, since I see it in tons of other producers' studios, I doubt I'd be willing to part with it. |
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Roland JV-2080 + Bass & Drum, Dance, Hip-Hop, House, Techno, and Vintage Synth ROMs There is no ROMpler with a larger and more diverse collection of sounds that are ready to go at the press of just a couple of buttons. Great sounds, quite eclectic. |
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Roland V-Synth - OS 2.x, purchased from a Biker Preacher. I'm planning to release a collection of vintage samples that nobody else has ever heard for use with this beastie to be released sometime in 2010. I just wish it had better computer integration for editing the parameters. |
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Waldorf Wave XT - wave sequencing from Wolfgang Palm. How could I resist? Dumb wall-wart power supply, is ALWAYS on when plugged in -- so I keep it unplugged so I don't have to replace lights that would have gone bad. |
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Yamaha EX5R - 4 different types of synthesis onboard, but wacked-out bugs that will never be fixed -- like the SCSI bug which makes sample transfers take 10x longer than necessary. The onboard sounds are very cool and there's a good online community for finding more. |
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Yamaha TG33 - a groovy little throwback machine, it's got this awesome joystick that stays put wherever you move it, so it can blend between 2 vectors. |
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Behringer RX-1602 Stereo Line Mixer (x2) - 1 for each rack, helps me to monitor the instruments when I'm not recording |
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MOTU MIDI Express 128 - I hate to buy new MIDI interfaces for my studio but I needed ones that were compatible with both Windows 7 and OSX. Apparently the market for these overpriced leashes faded away as people moved to virtual instruments. Sucks that the 8x8's are still so freaking expensive. |
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Emagic AMT-8 MIDI Interface (being retired) - Since it's not compatible with Windows 7, I'm migrating to new MIDI interfaces. |
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Emagic Unitor 8 MIDI Interface (being retired) - Since it's not compatible with Windows 7, I'm migrating to new MIDI interfaces. |
| Live Rig w/ IntaDaBluez | |
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Roland VK-8 - my go-to organ for blues and rock. Mellower than the Nord, but it would benefit from a display and better patch management. |
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Nord Electro 2 73 - For the first time, I found Rhodes and Wurlie samples that have bite and grit, like Ray Charles doing heroin in the 1950's. The organ sounds can scream but be careful when moving knobs while playing -- your volume could drop off a cliff. |
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Roland JV-1010 + Vintage Keys ROM. I just needed a little bit of sparkle on the top end of my sound, and since this has Voxes and Farfisas and Melotron, this was the best choice to give me a little bit of flexibility to my live rig without packing on a bunch of extra unwanted bulk and weight. |
| Guitars | |
| Fender American Standard Stratocaster | |
| Ovation Custom Balladeer Acoustic/Electric guitar | |
| Ovation Applause Acoustic/Electric bass guitar | |
| Ibanez Bass | |
| Strat copy | |
| Les Paul copy w/ hand-wired Harden Engineering pickups | |
| Percussion | |
| Boss DR-770 Drum Machine | |
| Alternative Mode DrumKat DK-10 | |
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