£500 to spend on studio equiptment. help please.

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-- £500 to spend on studio equiptment. help please.

Posted by Unknown DJ on Oct-10-2003 13:53:

£500 to spend on studio equiptment. help please.

hi. i got around £500 to spend on a small setup for my pc. i know i need a keyboard, i was looking at the oxygen 8 but then found they had lots of other good stuff on Digital Village, but i dont really know whats good and what isnt. do i need a mixer at all? or can i do all editing on reason? also i may need a new sound card but i have other monney for that. is there anything else that i will need? thanks in advance for your help

*edit* im quite liking the Midiman Radium atm.

Posted by DjMorpheus on Oct-10-2003 14:23:

I only give MY opinion here. I have started producing a few months ago so I don´t have much knowledge about it like some others do on this forum.

I don´t know if you already start producing but if you haven´t:
It´s all about the question: do you want to go software of hardware, or even combine these two? If you are a beginning producer (like me) it´s smart to start with software. You can do all the editing in Reason. For editing samples you may need CoolEdit or an other wave-editor.

I don´t think you need a mixer in this stadium because you don´t have any hardware and you can do the mixing in Reason.

What you probably need is a MIDI-keyboard. Such a keyboard doesn´t cost much, so maybe you can spend your other money to monitor speakers. You DONT need a MIDI-keyboard but whithout it, life sucks bigtime! Then you must draw the notes with your mouse.

I don´t know much about keyboards, but I think that there are more topics about it. Have you tried the "Search"?

Another tip is to surf on the internet and search for some reviews of hardware. What do you want exactly?

Posted by Unknown DJ on Oct-10-2003 14:37:

i want to keep it software. takes up less room . the only reason i thought i needed a mixer was because alot of the computewrs at college have mixers attached to them even tho its all software. and i could only find the bass and treble adjustments on reason and on mixers ive seen it can have like 3 different knobs (pots) just for the mid. im only just starting to learn how to use all the programs as im doin a music cource at college, ive also been a dj for about 3 years so thats y i want to start producing, but im not really sure on what i need. im already looking at keyboards but thats where my knolege of the area kinda ends. thats where u guys come in thanks in advance.

Posted by DjMorpheus on Oct-10-2003 21:46:

That's true, but why mix with an external mixer. You don't need the Treble and Bass in Reason on the mixer. You can do it al with EQ. I've even heard theat the treble and bass sucks in reason (don't know if it's true). If you need more bass or power in the lower frequenties, just add an EQ to you subtractor, malstrom or sampler. With this EQ (or even more the one) you can set the frequencie boost or cut more precisely.

You know C-quence and Fictivision - Symbols?
That's made with Reason only! No external synths, mixers etc. I don't want to open a discussion software-hardware, but I know that you can do a lot with software (after many years of practising)

So I recommend that you mix in Reason, because I think you won't use the treble and bass pods very much if you can do it with a better EQ.

Posted by hey cheggy on Oct-11-2003 07:27:

The external mixer in software only setups are usually midi mixers, like the hui, the houston, that sort of thing. Its just a big midi controller. I wouldn't bother with that at the moment. They're pretty damn expensive for a decent one, and unless you get logic and the logic controller, they often have compatibility issues. I know there have been heaps of problems wiht the Houston controller.

Posted by Unknown DJ on Oct-11-2003 13:06:

ok so il scrap the mixer idea. but whats a good keyboard to go for? i dont wana spend loads on it but i want a decent one. thanks for all ur help.

Posted by hey cheggy on Oct-11-2003 16:02:

I use an Evolution MK-249c. 49 keys, 12 dials, program change buttons, pitch shift, volume, mod and pitch bend, velocity sensative keys. All you need in my opinion. You won't be playing any master pieces on it, but for a midi controller, it works fine. USB and midi out and its pretty reasonably priced.

The Novation Remote 25 looks pretty cool but its only got 25 keys and its like three times as much.