Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Tell Your Friends about Gear that you love

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mojobone
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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You! - Kemper Profiling Amp

Post by mojobone » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:25 pm

Warmchordmusic wrote:Favorite Guitar Amp - Kemper Profiling Amp

If you haven't heard of the Kemper yet and you're a guitar player that needs access to many different types of amps, the Kemper is a godsend. I searched for a few years to find the perfect product to let me record my parts quietly while the kids were in bed. I tried various software plugins (Peavey Revalver was my favorite), but they all lacked something. If you're only playing really heavy metal music, software seems to work ok. However, software currently doesn't reproduce the sound and feeling you get when you plug into a real amp. I tried other hardware modelers like the Eleven Rack and Axe-Fx. The eleven rack is cool and doubles as a ProTools interface, but it just wasn't working for me. The Axe Fx is great and can do more effects than any other unit out there, if that's what you're into. If you're primarily a guitar play and love tweaking everything, this is the best option for you. For me, I'm a drummer turned guitar player. I am picky about my tone, but I want to spend more time playing than tweaking. I found that the Kemper just allows for more plug and play than the Axe Fx. For a songwriter, plug and play is more important than plug and tweak. When you only have an hour or two per day to write, I can't afford to spend half or all of it trying to sculpt the best Fender Bassman patch. The Kemper website has tons of profiles posted and shared by fellow Kemper users and the forum is great. I tend to use more paid commercial profiles from The Amp Factory, which has an amazing collection of modern and vintage amps recorded with high end mics and pres (neves with Royers, say no more). This means I don't have to spend money or time searching for the best ebay deal for a mic or pre, I don't go in debt as I sell the stuff I don't like for less than what I paid, I don't waste time engineering as I write, and I don't have limits on the type of music I can write, due to my guitar gear not being versatile enough. After all, it's sorta difficult to write metal on a Bassman, or play convincing country licks on a 6505......Anyways, I love this gear and if I had nothing else for my guitar, I'd be ok with that!
Line6 has announced a game-changer product that is their most expensive offering to date, but Kemper and Axe-FX may want to take note.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1fBuSjDnCw
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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by melodymessiah » Tue Jul 12, 2016 4:12 pm

burgerbanger interfart rocks!! :P

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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by pether7 » Fri Aug 12, 2016 3:35 pm

Hi Y'all,,,,,

Wow been learning mucho stuff reading through these post, and I thank you all........

I use a Zoom R 16, that only has 8 in, two for stereo keys, two for stereo or mono electric guitar, one sure beta sm 58 for vocals, and one cheap Sennheisser e 835 for acoustic / amp. ( cheap around $100 for each microphone) .. My daw is Cubase 8 pro. I have to boost inputs with a maximiser, due to the Zoom r 16 mike preamps are lacking some. I have nothing in VSTs but the Cubase standard effects.

Generally recordings have some parallel compression on some tracks allowing the original track it's natural performance levels, transients, emotion and other. The stereo out has nothing but head room for most things. However all things may differ by default, the song, my constant being outside and not normal, naturally being different.

Then I take the export stereo track in to Wavelabe 8.5. There I use a multi ban Compressor, 30 Ban EQ just a touch, Digital Dithering, and finally A Brick wall Limiter.

Seems to work well for the most part. I Would love to pick up some of the great sound libraries for instruments, and VST effex. A lot of great stuff going on out there.

Se Ya Soon,,,,
paul

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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by WeWillWriteUaSong » Fri Aug 12, 2016 5:39 pm

Cool thread! Some great setups! Here's my lil slice of the vortex.. :D

My setup:

PC based Win 7 custom build Quad core. Dual 21" and 32" lcd screens

Monitors:
M-Audio BX-8a

Interface(s):
2x RME Fireface 800s, Presonus Firestudio/Firebox/1818vsl

Preamps/Strips:
Presonus digimax d8
Aphex 230
Presonus StudioChannel
2x Art TubePac
Yamaha AD824
2x Symetrix 527e
2x ME15b stereo graphic EQ

Mics:
AT 4040
Bluebird
Shure SM7b
Sony C48
Shure SM57 x5
Shure KSM9 x2
Oktava MK219
Rode NT1
MXL990
Shure KSM 109 x2

Controller (s):
Akai MPK49
Presonus FaderPort

DAW(s):
StudioOne v3
Sonar Platinum
Reason

Plugins:
Cakewalk CA-2A
Fabfilter Pro-Q2
Waves Renaissance bundle
Waves NLS
IK Black76
Slate VTM
Softube Saturation Knob
Maag eq
Amplitube 4
Nebula
Valhalla VintageVerb
Cytomic The Glue
PSP VintageWarmer2
iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced

VSTi (s):
FXpansion Geist
Addictive Drums2
refx Nexus/Vanguard
NI Kontakt/Massive/FM8
Spectrasonics Trilian/Omnisphere2
minimonsta
Zebra2
Z3ta2
EZKeys
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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by jamesnorth » Wed Aug 17, 2016 7:54 pm

Nice list Marcus.

How good are Shure SM7s?! On the right voice they are unbeatable. I've done heaps of records where we've chosen it instead of mics costing 10x as much.

Super great on spoken word tunes, particularly.

Nice to see a non-Pro Tools user :)
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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by waveheavy » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:07 am

Hi friends,

I have a PC running Windows 7 Pro on an Intel Quad core 4.0 GHz board with 32 Gb RAM with 3 hard drives (2 of them SSD). It was built by VisionDaw out of California; they build setups for a lot of Los Angeles composers. They built it in an EIA rack housing. I'm using a 9632 RME audio interface, and a UAD internal card with UAD plugins.

My main DAW is Pro Tools 11, but I just got Digital Performer 9 still getting used to it. I also have SONAR Artist, I started out on SONAR 6.

I like to compose in Finale more than in a DAW. I'm actually a guitar player, not a keyboard player, so I find it a bit difficult to play in the parts in my DAW using a keyboard. I have MIDI Guitar 2 by Jam Origin and I'm still getting used to it. That's how I plan to play in the notes in my DAW in the future.

My main string libraries are VSL Special Edition and Spitfire Albion I & II, and 8Dio's Adagio string libraries. I really love the 8Dio stuff. But the VSL library is the easiest to do articulations on. I have the original version of Reaktor, Battery 3, and Omnisphere for synths.

I'm in the ballpark for a new synth if anyone can recommend a good one for today's pop and EDM sounds (I was thinking Orbit maybe, I prefer something to write dreamy cues that would go with orchestral instruments). I have EZ Drummer, AGML acoustic guitar, Ilya Modern Bass (really nice), 8Dio clarinet, alto flute, English horn; EW Symphonic Choirs; Ministry of Rock 2; etc.

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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by cosmicdolphin » Sun Jun 04, 2017 3:13 pm

WeWillWriteUaSong wrote:Cool thread! Some great setups! Here's my lil slice of the vortex.. :D
Fabfilter Pro-Q2
My favourite plugin of recent years !...I sold my Faderport though as it was sat in the corner for 5 years. I think the issue was it made older projects not open unless they had been created after it was installed...crazy.

My slightly aging set up :-

Win 7 Core i5 PC / Dual 22" monitors
Focusrite Pro24 DSP
Adam A7 Monitors
Avantone Mixcube
Old Boombox
Behringer Monitor2
Evolution MK-225c Keyboard
AT 4040 Mic
Focusrite LiquidMix

Sonar ( still using Sonar 8.5 as I don't like how they changed it after that and except for better integration of Melodyne there is no killer feature )
Fabfilter Bundle
Brainworx Bundle
Izotope Alloy
Echoboy
Waves Plugins -SSL , API etc
Elysia Alpha Compressor
Breverb
Valhalla Room

Wavelab 6
Har-Bal 2.3

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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by Razor7Music » Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:43 pm

Kewl! Here's my main stuff:

Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit
ADK custom built PC DAW - (out of business 2018)
Intel i7 4930K CPU
Core i7 SB-E MOBO
16 GB DDR3 RAM
7 TB SSD and HDD Storage
Layla 3G PCIe SoundCard/interface a/d converter (11.5 ms Round-trip Latency)
UAD-2 DSP and Powered Plugins
ART Pro MPA II tube pre-amp
Cakewalk by Bandlab DAW (tracking/mixing/some mastering)
Native Instruments kontakt 4 sampler, 6 player
Abby Road series drum samples (Modern, 80's and Studio)
Addictive Drums 2 drum sampler
SSL, Blue Cat Audio, Sonex, Waves, NI, etc. etc. plug-ins
WaveLab 8 Pro 64-bit (mastering/encoding)
Sound Forge 10 Pro (wave editing/encoding/CD burning)
Rode NT1000 condenser mic
Shure Beta 57 and 58 dynamic mics
Godin LGXT AAA quilted maple trans blue flame electric guitar / with acoustic bridge saddles and synth output
Yamaha 6 string acoustic guitar
ESP LTD B-104 bass guitar
M-Audio BX5 powered monitors
M-Audio 49 key MIDI keyboard controller
Thanks,

Stephen Davis, Songwriter
Music: here
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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by akira » Thu Apr 02, 2020 8:44 pm

I'm a newby at audio engineering but I'm catching up. Here is my current setup:

DAW: Reaper by Cockos. (My band-mate wants me to switch to Cakewalk by BandLab) Reaper can use their tracks for audio, midi and video. I just learned that they have an effect called NINJAM that can be used to have a virtual jam session online.
Mixer: Behringer XR18. (I'm borrowing it for now but I like it enough to buy my own. It is the size of a small toolbox but can connect to WIFI to control mixes while in the audience.) I have been told to stay away from Behringer from some old-time pros but they might have up'd their game.
Keyboard: Yamaha MOXF. (It is lightweight but packed full of instruments and MIDI sequencing capabilities.) I think it is great for "live" performances but it is very complex to program since they packed everything into a lightweight small package.

I'm using average headphones instead of monitors since I'm making music at home. I'll search the forum to see which monitors are recommended by other members.
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Re: Tell Us What Works Best for You!

Post by Robertj64 » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:23 pm

Good day all!

Great to be here. I am a newbie so I will post some info about my studio setup. I have always been a Cubase guy and I worked many years with Cubase SE ( I think that is close to Cubase 4 overall). I decided to do research with what is out there but in the end I felt going with what I already elementally understand in a DAW. I got Cubase 10.5 Pro and came up with Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 as the sound card/interface. My research told me it worked well with the DAW. I also got Wavelab 9 for the mastering although I could have done the mastering in Cubase. For the virtual software, Steinberg Cubase was more generous than I had thought. They offer Halion SE, Mystic, Prologue, Retrologue among others with the package. I have gone over it and have found lots of great sounds. For the main virtual software, I decided to go with Kontakt Kontrol 12 pro by Native Instruments. It simply offered a lot of quality strings, brass, kits. More than I can use. I have a Rode NYK mic which has served me very well.

There is a temptation to allow the software to dominate the ideas and so far, I have resisted that. I believe the songwriting idea is the core. It is kind of like a cookbook where the song is asking for the ingredients. "What does this song call for.... trumpet, strings, techno keyboards etc? It is wonderful when the software with great sounds can serve to enhance the overall sound and not the other way around. I'm still learning with this software and it is a very exciting time to be producing. Hope you all are as equally excited and get the most out of your technology!

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