My Gear
My studio is pretty bare-bones at the moment. I’m what’s known as a laptop wanker. All software and a bunch of MIDI controllers. I like it because it keeps me small and portable. However, there are some outboard pieces that I want to get – like a Nord Modular G2 Engine and a Machinedrum. But for the most part I’m content to keep it in the computer.
Here’s an out-of-date (and out-of-focus) picture of my “studio”:
Here’s what my MIDI setup is (the top row is stuff that’s connected directly to my Mac):
And here is all the gear:
| Shelton-Farretta classical guitar | The pride of my studio. This is an amazing guitar. My old guitar teacher saw it and knew I’d go nuts, which I did. Its most incredible feature is that it has two bodies – one around the other. You can read more about it. |
|
| MidiMan Oxygen 8 | A two-octave MIDI controller keyboard with lots of nifty dials. |
|
| Novation MidiCon | (on loan to Drew) The plainest of the plain-Jane controllers. But, at least it has strap hooks so I could be an 80s pop star if I wanted. |
|
| Korg Electribe EM1 | A sweet little groovebox. It adds a bit of the DJ/live feel to the setup. Two synth parts, eight drum parts – it’s practically a studio in itself. Which is good, because I’m building a battery pack for it that will let me play with it outside, on a plane, wherever. |
|
| MOTU 828mk2 | The mighty studio hub. All audio and most MIDI travels through this box at least once. |
|
| Casio VZ-8M | (on loan from Drew) A nifty synth that has features designed for MIDI guitars and horns. Which means I might break down and get a MIDI unit for my guitar. |
|
| Ensoniq ESQ-M | (on loan from Drew) I haven’t gotten my head around this synth yet. Admittedly cool patches, but the interface hurts. |
|
| DigiTech GSP-7 | An old-school (circa 1997) guitar signal processor. Once I locate it again, I’m going to jam it in the chain somewhere. |
|
| Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer | Old overdrive stomp box. A true classic. |
|
| home-made octave doubler | Currently broken. I gotta get around to fixing it. |
|
| Apple 12" iBook | This is the best computer since sliced bread (Yeah, it was a Tandy box – the sliced bread 3000). |
|
| homebrew PC | An Athlon 1.8 GHz box with two monitors. I have it dual-booting Linux and Windows. I don’t really use Windows, but I have Logic and some other useful tools there at the moment. |
