Your gear

[Cruciform]

@ JeffP - how do you find NI Maschine? I've been eyeing it off but decided to buy a long USB cable to plug my wife's drumkit into my PC.
LOL. Heckuva lot cheaper. Would still like to know how Maschine is...

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What the heck.

Guitars and hardware:

'08 ESP Horizon Custom
'94 Hamer Centaura

Ashton electronic drumkit - soon to be plugged in via USB
Behringer UMX490 midi keyboard controller
ESI 49+ midi keyboard controller (currently being looked at under warranty, bought Behringer to stay productive)
Korg NanoKontrol

Fender Performer 650 amp (quietly rusting as no longer used)

Boss GT-10
Boss Metal Zone
Morley Wah/Volume
Blackstar HT-Dual
BBE Sonic Stomp

Logitech Z-5500 speakers
AKG k271S headphones
Self-built PC running XP MCE, eventually to be replaced with purpose built PC running Windows 7 64 and used only for music.


Software:

Mixcraft 4.5 and 5
Crysonic mastering plugins - whole collection
BBE Sonic Sweet plugins (now defunct because Crysonic are better)

Native Instruments:
- Komplete 6
- Kore 2 + hardware controller
- Rammfire
- The Finger, Deep Freq, Deep Trans
- Absynth Twilights and Spectral Expansion
- Acoustic Refractions and Sonic Fiction
- Paranormal Spectrums
- Reaktor Animated Circuits
- True Strike Tension

EWQL:
- Symphonic Orchestra Gold
- Silk
- Symphonic Choirs + VotA Expansion - haven't used it yet because the manual keeps crashing my computer
- Goliath
- Stormdrum 2 + expansion
- Voices of Passion
- RA

Heavyocity Evolve and Mutations 1 & 2
Camel Audio - Dance&Trance, Planet Earth, Starscape Absynth, Biolabs Absynth sounds Vol1-6
Push Button Bang - Rise, Twist SFX
Funk/Soul Productions - Cinematic Sound Design
Video CoPilot - Designer Sound FX
Sample Logic - Cinematic Guitars

Wishlist:

Axe-FX Ultra
EWQL - The Dark Side
Ueberschall - lots of stuff
Sonokinetic - lots of stuff

[Lazyknife]

Thanks for joining Cruciform.

I was interested in the gear you all use and see if there is "standard" gear. So I've noticed Komplete 7 is used a lot. Can sampletank compete with komplete? It looks to me they're kind f the same...

[Cruciform]

Hey Martijn,

I know nothing about Sampletank, but if you decide to get it, here's a great deal until Sep.30:

http://www.audiomidi.com/IK-audioMIDI-c ... 14209.aspx

FWIW, I'm an NI addict. Komplete is a collection of separate synths, samplers and effects; not so much a one-stop shop like it *appears* Sampletank is.

[matto]

I was interested in the gear you all use and see if there is "standard" gear. So I've noticed Komplete 7 is used a lot. Can sampletank compete with komplete? It looks to me they're kind f the same...

The answer is absolutely not. Komplete comes with far more and far better sounds.

Sampletank could be compared to one instrument in Komplete only, namely Kontakt which is also a sample player like Sampletank. However Kontakt is far more sophisticated with much more professional sounds.

In addition to Kontakt, Komplete gives you a whole bunch of different, discrete instruments with different forms of synthesis for a much wider variety of sounds.

Komplete's sounds are state of the art, Sampletank hasn't been developed much in the last 5 years, which is an eternity in music technology terms.

[mojobone]

Thank you for that, Matto; I wasn't willing to utterly indict SampleTank, because I don't own a full version. Fact is, I never found anything 'useful in a professional context' in the bundled version. Everything sounded worse than a cheesy Casio/Yamaha I could get at Best Buy for less than $200. In fact, the free Proteus VX kicks its a$$ all over the playground, as does YellowTools' Independence Free.

[Lazyknife]

Ok.... fortunatly I didn't buy the latets IK's VI groupbuy (sampletank, miroslav, sonic synth, etc.)! I must say I like the sounds from xpand, minigrand and the other vi's from protools a lot better. Can those compete with kontakt?

[jparker]

[quote="Cruciform"]@ JeffP - how do you find NI Maschine? I've been eyeing it off but decided to buy a long USB cable to plug my wife's drumkit into my PC.
LOL. Heckuva lot cheaper. Would still like to know how Maschine is...

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Hey Rob O.

Maschine is pretty cool since it combines the software and hardware together - The Hardware can work as a controller for Battery and other drum plug-ins (not as cool as your wife's drum-kit (especially cool to have a drummer wife!)). I can also just unplug the controller and use Maschine as a VI in my Host and use the software interface to program patterns. Its loaded with tons of drum kits and has the capability to import your own samples and edit them. I still use Stylus more, but am mixing Maschine in more every day. It does have a little bit of a learning curve because of its deep features, and I ended up printing a hard copy of the manual at Kinkos, and drive my wife nuts working with it in bed at night while she tries to sleep.

HTH

Jeff

[Cruciform]

Cheers Jeff! It really does look and sound great.

[elser]

I just bought a 34cc Husqvarna chainsaw and i'm having a great time chopping up all the over growth in my backyard. Also have 2 regular size ladders and a really big ladder, they all come in useful. I've got a Sawsall for cuttin up anything, a circular saw for cuttin boards. 3 or 4 shovles and two rakes. A snow shovel that works well on the driveway in winter time but is also handy for pickin up dog poop in summer.

Tells ya what I've been doing lately when I'm home. Once things get settled again I'll tell ya about Reaktor 5 which I love, Logic 9, my UAD card, Amplitube, my Parker Fly and Parker Dragonfly and my Vox amp.

But since I won't be able to use that stuff for awhile I plan to be completely enthusiastic about the new chainsaw!

[Cruciform]

Elser,

Just don't forget to mic the chainsaw and process it in Reaktor!