Studio Hardware

People always ask me “What hardware do you recommend?” my response is always “well what music do you write?” Studio hardware can vary quite a bit depending on the style of music you create, so I’d like to briefly discuss ways you can maximise your sound quality and work flow without costing you an arm and a leg.

If your serious about creating your own music it pays to do it right the first time. While I’m going to show you how to save money, let me tell you it not going to be cheap, I mean your Audigy soundcard just ain’t gonna cut it guys.

Computer System

First off lets start with your PC, if you buy a second hand or superseeded model then you’ve just cost yourself more money. Buy a PC that you can get a few years out of and one that can be easily upgraded when the time comes. Audio production demands a fast CPU, a large amount of RAM and plenty of Hard disk space but thankfully these days a powerful PC won’t cost you the world.

Soundcards

This is when spending the right amount really counts, after all this piece of hardware is whats processing your finished product so spend you hard earned cash wisely. No matter what kind of music you write I suggest a soundcard with an in-built word clock, this feature is very important as it keeps the bitrate in perfect sync allowing you to avoid Frequency drift which can slightly deminish the output clarity. M-Audio sell high quality and reliable gear for the studio and the road with prices that won’t break the bank. However if you’ve got the cash and you want the best, why not have a look at what RMEhas to offer. RME’s hardware has a great reputation and is always jam packed with juicy features like active jitter suppression, stand alone functionality, 648 channel matrix routers and stacks more. Before you buy your soundcard you also need to consider what functions are important to you and what aren’t, for example if your more of a live act you’ll need more input and outputs, if your an electronic music producer, inputs and outputs aren’t as important, so it pays to do your homework on different soundcards and what functions they offer.

Control Surfaces

Here’s another piece of your kit that will differ depending on what your needs are. Midi keyboards are an obvious must and an essential part of composing, they allow you to quickly and creatively play with your plugins and samples with a hands on approach. Many Midi keyboards now have a varity of features from trigger pads to intuitive recall functions and if you play live, the ability to quickly switch between sounds and trigger samples is very important.

Aside from your keyboard other control surfaces you might want to look at are mixers and various other audio and midi controllers. If you love creating your own synth sounds and want a hands on feel why not have a look at products like Behringer’s BCR2000 great for assigning all your synth’s parameters to actual rotary knobs or the BCF2000 for mixing. If your drums lack that human feel why not check out Korg’s Pad Kontrol these are just examples of hardware that can easily connect to your PC and give you instant creative control to your sounds.

Software

Talk about what software to use these days is certainly a matter of opinion, I personally find Ableton live to be extremely creative and powerful enough to deliver my ideas to the finished product. Whatever Host Software you choose is entirely up to you, Cubase and Logic Pro are very popular choices but can be complicated for beginners, Fruityloops and Reason are still powerful platforms but are easier to use. If your unsure of what Host will suit you I suggest downloading the trial versions of each and see for yourself.

Softsynths or VSTs (Virtual Studio Technology) is becoming more and more formidable each year as technology advances. Virtual instruments in many peoples minds are still second place to real hardware, yet recently with the latest releases from the likes of Spectrasonics, Native instruments and Rob Papen, the fine line between software and hardware is quickly becoming blurred with higher resolutions and more complex algorithms. Purchasing plugins can be extremely expensive and in many cases can cost you more than hardware itself, so it pays to choose plugins that have the ability to create sounds from scratch, giving you creative flexablilty otherwise you may find yourself limited to the samples supplied with the plugin. If you only buy one plugin I suggest Omnisphere by Spectrasonics, it combines both sample and synth based sound sources providing literally limitless possibilities while packing nearly 50GB’s of content. This plugin isn’t cheap but has replaced nearly half of my selected plugin library.

I recommend these VST instruments

I recommend these VST signal processors