Blogging in B Minor

For more detailed information related to my studio, check out the My Studio page.

I figured that I’d post some information pertaining to my home studio where I do all of my production. It consists of an array of tools all centered around a digital audio workstation. As with most home studios, the DAW is the centerpiece. I run Cakewalk Sonar Producer Edition, mainly because I have been using it for 15 years since it was a DOS-based program Those were the days!

The computer system I run is based on an AMD Athlon 3200 CPU. 4GB of RAM with 6 hard drives. The digital audio interface, the most important piece is an EMU 1820M. It has the same exact preamps as a ProToolssetup and it sounds just great. This coupled with a StudioProjects C1 Condenser Mic provide great vocal tracks. The primary hard drives that I write all of the music to (the recording drives) are based on a RAID architecture – striped and are 500GB. There is always much discussion about hard drives and the configuration. RAID seems to be the standard but there are many schools of thought – more than I’d care to get into here!

I have a StudioLogic 88-Key keyboard w/weighted keys, a Les Paul quilt-top and a Stellar Acoustic-Electric (very similar to an Ovation Celebrity, sounds amazing). As mentioned in another post, I’m a pianist/keyboard player first so I write on the piano almost exclusively. On board the computer I have an array of soft synths and samples that I use that are all triggered using the keys. I use FxPansion BFD which has amazing drum samples and a Roland Octapad to trigger them. Some other key tools are there for whatever else I need including full orchestral suites. I have some mainstay digital audio plug-ins and a mastering environment when I’m finished with a piece.

A more technical post if you’re without a DAW and do straight analog recording…

Cheers,

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