- 2008-02-26 22:00:34
Set up, the ongoing quest
Recently I've taken a change in lifestyle somewhat, I'm soon to be starting a college course in music technology, a 1 year course which covers production, engineering amongst the core parts of the course, this will lead onto a 2 year course after successful pass for a much more in depth look into several areas of music technology.
So what's that got to do with the post heading? Not alot :D but it shows those that know me, that i'm still here and getting back into the groove again :) I'm currently working on a new mix called ' Heaven and Hell ' which will span the various types of trance, from the darker to the light side of it combined in one mix. Alot of production work will be done to it to maximize the effect of the mix, taking my time to polish it up using software etc, adding small bits after the mix has been done on the trusty turntables and CD players, basically putting some heart and soul into what i can do and showing it off abit ;)
So lately my set up has taken a few changes, namely becoming interested in how the effect of different equipment comes into play when mixing and recording your mix.
Firstly i'll start with the vinyl side of things, there is 2 Technic's 1210 MKII, a pretty trusty pair of decks, combined with these I've also got Ortofon NightClub E carts which are the best I've ever had the grace to use, highly recommended.
CD players are 2 Stanton S450's, these players are the last of the batch before Stanton launched their new case designs, the innards of these CD players are identical to the newer design, and i can't really fault them.
All this is plugged into my trusty DJM3000, and yes my DJM600 was swapped ( ! ) for the 3000, but in all i do like the 3000 better :)
The mixer is plugged into an Alesis 150 Amp which in turn powers 2 Mordaunt Short speakers.
For listening, Sony MDR-V700 headphones, a great pair of cans :)
So all this is pretty standard stuff these days in the analogue sense, plug it all into the back of the onboard sound card in your PC and away you go with recording........or so i thought!
I spent a few days looking around the web for an upgrade for my sound on the PC end, having spent hard earned money on my gear, it seems a waste to deny the listening pleasure on playback due to low grade recording. I was given a Soundblaster 24 Live external sound card by someone, a gift to upgrade for the time being and was midly surprised at the benefit of such a small upgrade. It was then that i looked further into what my equipment can do and i was surprised.
Did you know that the DJM3000 has 2 dedicated digital outputs? hmmm neither did i until i started looking around abit, and this got me thinking abit more. My current soundcard doesn't support digital input other than a Toslink ( which my minidisc is plugged into...yes i still use minidisc!!! ) so I'm looking into purchasing a different one, namely a E-Mu 0404 USB.
Now some of you may be asking that if I'm looking to upgrade my recording process with a new soundcard, why go for a USB and not a Firewire or PCI-E? Well basically my motherboard doesn't have Firewire or PCI-E, it does have the normal PCI slots which are all empty, but knowing abit about comps ( i used to build them into turntables, long story, I'm sure I've posted about it on here awhile ago) the heat issue can affect hardware, and my current comp is set to run as silently as possible, so an external soundcard is more favorable for me ( plus it's easier to plug stuff in ;) )
So the next upgrade is the soundcard and i'll keep you posted as i go along
This is also posted on Homeofmusic btw, thought i'd try and get something moving over there :D
6 comments
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Too Tone says:
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osWald says:
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luke says:
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DJ Cheeky Monkey says:
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anyc1000 says:
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anyc1000 says: