The "Official" Equipment Recommendations Thread

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Posted by DigiNut on Jan-23-2007 02:49:

The "Official" Equipment Recommendations Thread

Purpose

To give readers who are considering buying gear a quick reference for what's (a) used and recommended by TAs, and (b) in their price range.

Rules

Pick one (1) product from as many of the existing categories as you like (but only one product from each!). You can create a new category, but keep it general. For each recommended product, include the following info:

The category of the product (what is it?)
The name or model number of the product
A hyperlink to the manufacturer's product page, if available. Leave blank if not available - no store or distributor pages please. If you're having trouble posting a link, try using http://www.tinyurl.com. Note: You don't have to provide this if your recommendation is already on the list.
The price you paid for it. If you don't own it, say so and leave out the price, don't pick a random store price. Also specify the currency if not in USD.

*** Please do not post specific comments about your recommendation! ***

We want to keep this thread as pristine as possible. No comments, no debates, just the facts. Readers can find plenty of reviews online, but this thread will become unmaintainable and unreadable very fast if there are parallel debates about 30 different products. That also means, don't comment on other people's posts, even if they broke the rules! Seriously - don't make me come over there!

For the readers and lurkers, here are some good sites to get more detailed reviews:
http://www.zzounds.com
http://www.sweetwater.com
http://www.tweakheadz.com
http://www.sonicstate.com
http://www.google.com

Please note that I don't necessarily recommend any of the stores on the above list as places to purchase from. The price ranges are listed here, so you can judge for yourself whether or not they have good deals.

Results

*****************************************************************

Product ....................... Votes ....... Price Range
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Analog/Vintage Synths
Waldorf Pulse ................. (1 vote) .... [$345 .. - .. $345]
Juno 60 ....................... (1 vote) .... [$??? .. - .. $???]

Digital/VA Synths
Access Virus Classic/B ........ (1 vote) .... [$1315 . - . $1315]
Access Virus TI Desktop ....... (1 vote) .... [$2085 . - . $2085]
Roland JP8000 ................. (1 vote) .... [$700 .. - .. $700]
Roland SH-32 .................. (1 vote) .... [$355 .. - .. $355]

DSP Accelerator Cards
Univ. Audio UAD-1 Project Pak . (1 vote) .... [$634 .. - .. $634]

Headphones
AKG K240 Studio ............... (3 votes) ... [$125 .. - .. $160]
Ultrasone PROline 750 ......... (1 vote) .... [$399 .. - .. $399]
AKG K271 Studio ............... (1 vote) .... [$215 .. - .. $215]
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro ....... (1 vote) .... [$200 .. - .. $200]
Grado SR 125 .................. (1 vote) .... [$150 .. - .. $150]
Sony MDR-V150 ................. (1 vote) .... [$22 ... - ... $22]
Sennheiser HD 650 ............. (1 vote) .... [$300 .. - .. $300]

MIDI Keyboards
Novation Remote SL 61-Key ..... (1 vote) .... [$599 .. - .. $599]

Power Amps (Stereo)
Flying Mole DAD-M100pro (Pair) (1 vote) .... [$800 .. - .. $800]

Sound Cards/Modules
MOTU 24I/O .................... (2 votes) ... [$1450 . - . $1835]
E-mu 1820M .................... (1 vote) .... [$395 .. - .. $395]
PreSonus Firebox .............. (1 vote) .... [$299 .. - .. $299]
RME Multiface 2 ............... (1 vote) .... [$1015 . - . $1015]

Standalone AD/DA Converters
Apogee Rosetta 200 ............ (1 vote) .... [$1600 . - . $1600]

Studio Monitors
Mackie HR824 .................. (2 votes) ... [$??? .. - .. $???]
PMC TB2 Speakers (Pair) ....... (1 vote) .... [$1300 . - . $1300]
Dynaudio BM5A ................. (1 vote) .... [$1340 . - . $1340]
Dynaudio BM6A ................. (1 vote) .... [$1835 . - . $1835]
Event TR-6 .................... (1 vote) .... [$399 .. - .. $399]

*****************************************************************

Posted by DigiNut on Jan-23-2007 02:50:

I'll get the ball rolling just to populate the results with something and show the format I'm hoping for:

Category: Headphones
Model: AKG K240 Studio
Link: here
Price Paid: $145 CDN ($125 US)

Category: Studio Monitors
Model: Mackie HR824
Link: here
Price Paid: Wish I owned it

I'm intentionally keeping my list short because (a) I wouldn't recommend most of the gear I own, and (b) I don't want to influence the initial results too much. You guys feel free to post 10 different categories if you like.

Please post your recommendations!

Posted by DJDIRTY on Jan-23-2007 04:13:

Category: A/D/C (Analog to Digital) - (Digital to Analog) converters
Model: Apogee Rosetta 200
Link: here
Price Paid: $1889.00 CDN

Category: Sound cards
Model: RME Multiface 2
Link:here
Price Paid: $1200.00 CDN

Category: Studio Monitors
Model: Dynaudio BM6A's
Link:here
Price Paid: $2168.00 CDN

Category: Digital/VA Synths
Model: Access Virus Ti desktop
Link:here
Price Paid: $2465.00 CDN

Posted by fr0st on Jan-23-2007 08:16:

Category: Synth(Analog)
Model: Juno 60
Link: Here
Price Paid: $329US

Posted by vccv on Jan-23-2007 09:11:

Category: DSP Accelerator Card
Model: Universal Audio UAD-1 Project Pak
Link:here
Price Paid: $634 US

Category: Headphones
Model: AKG K271 Studio
Link:here
Price Paid: $215 US

Posted by Fledz on Jan-23-2007 14:07:

Category: Headphones
Model: AKG K240 Studio
Link: here
Price Paid: $210 AUD ($160 US)

Posted by System101 on Jan-23-2007 15:06:

Category: Headphones
Model: AKG K240 Studio
Link: here
Price Paid: $150 CAD

Posted by sterilis on Jan-23-2007 15:13:

Category: Synth
Model: Roland JP8000
Link: here
Price Paid: �350 (Pound Sterling)

Posted by T-Soma on Jan-23-2007 15:31:

Category: VA Synth
Model: Roland SH-32
Link: here
Price Paid: $450 AUD ($355 USD)

Posted by Eric J on Jan-23-2007 16:55:

Category: Software Synthesizer
Model: GMedia impOSCar
Link: here
Price Paid: $99.00 USD

Category: Sound Cards
Model: MOTU 24IO
Link: here
Price Paid: $1,450 USD

Posted by Lindo on Jan-23-2007 16:55:

Category: Headphones
Model: Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro
Link: http://www.beyerdynamic.com/cms/Hea...uctdatabase_pi1[showUid][showUID]=44&tx_sbproductdatabase_pi1[showUid][backPID]=93&cHash=cd6f9075a1
Price Paid: $200 US

Sorry the link just won't work.

Posted by MrJiveBoJingles on Jan-24-2007 02:35:

Category: Synth Collection / Synth Builder
Model: Native Instruments Reaktor
Link: Here
Price Paid: Unknown (received as gift)

Posted by camsr on Jan-24-2007 05:00:

Category: Headphones
Model: Grado SR 125
Link: Here
Price Paid: $150

Posted by Mikk on Jan-24-2007 09:16:

Category: Studio Monitors
Model: Dynaudio BM5A
Link: Here
Price Paid: 1038 EUR

Category: Sound Card
Model: MOTU 24I/O
Link: Here
Price Paid: 1419 EUR

Posted by sterilis on Jan-24-2007 22:13:

quote:
Originally posted by Edterup6
check this too
http://maria-sharapova-sucks-balls....rn_clips/156301
regards, Edterup6

what a twat. i think your link gives it away idiot

Posted by wrzonance on Jan-24-2007 22:18:

Category: Headphones
Model: Ultrasone PROline 750
Link: here
Price Paid: 399 US (free shipping from Sweetwater)

Posted by Synchronicity on Jan-24-2007 23:46:

Category: Samples
Name: Ueberschall Techno Trance Essentials
Link: http://www.ueberschall.com/
Price Paid: 6.99 GBP

Category: Production Related Reading
Name: Dance Music Manual (Rick Snoman)
Link: http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/home.shtml
Price Paid: 25 GBP

Category: Analogue Synthesizer
Name: Waldorf Pulse
Link: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/199...ldorfpulse.html (No description on Waldorf's site)
Price Paid: 175 GBP

Category: Virtual Analogue Synthesizer
Name: Access Virus Classic/B
Link: http://www.access-music.de/products...ct=virusclassic
Price Paid: 670 GBP

Category: Sound Cards/Modules
Name: EMU 1820m
Link: http://www.tweakheadz.com/review_of_the_emu_1820m.html (No description on Emu's site)
Price Paid: 200 GBP

Category: Vsti
Name: Native Instruments Battery 2
Link: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may.../nibattery2.htm (No description on NI's site)
Price Paid: 70 GBP

+1 on Mackies and sorry for adding more categories!

Posted by LENG on Jan-25-2007 00:48:

Category: Headphone
Name: Studio Monitor Series Headphones MDR-V150
Link: HERE
Price Paid: RM 78.00 (USD 22.29)

EDIT: this is "okay" for entry level producers, but not for professional usage. you get this one when you are just starting out producing cuz it's cheap. the downside of this is that you lose plenty of details and the bass isn't accurate.

Posted by fr0st on Jan-25-2007 02:34:

Category: Headphone
Name: Sennheiser HD 650
Link: here
Price Paid: $300US

Posted by DigiNut on Jan-26-2007 01:48:

Finally updated. Sorry for the delay in the update, it was taking forever to get all the formatting right so I threw together an Access database with some scripts to do it for me. Much better!

Now, as for some of the software posts, this is a tricky one. On the one hand, people ask about software just as much as hardware, and most members here probably specialize in software, so it would be foolish to exclude that as a category. On the other hand, there is a ton of software out there and it doesn't make sense to create special categories for every type of plugin/program, nor does it make sense to lump them in with the hardware categories or as some sort of blanket "software" category.

What I think I'll do is create another one of these threads for software. That way I can include all the different categories without making a mess of this thread. Now that I've got the scripts set up, it won't be too hard to keep two threads up to date.

So feel free to post software here if you want and I'll put it into a separate software database. I'll post the thread probably tomorrow or Saturday, so if you want to wait 'til then, so much the better.

Thanks again for the votes guys! Keep 'em coming!

Posted by djverne on Jan-26-2007 04:49:

Category: Studio Monitors
Model: PMC TB2 Speakers and TLE Subwoofer + 4 Flying Mole Amps (Bi Amplification)
Link:PMC TB2 Speakers
Flying Mole Amps
PMC TLE Subwoofer
Price Paid: $1300 for the speakers, $1600 for the 4 Flying Mole Amps, and $1200 for the TLE Subwoofer (Absolute Ebay Steel)

Posted by DigiNut on Jan-27-2007 16:08:

Well, seems to have mostly fallen off the map... kind of disappointing since I know a lot of you guys have posted recommendations in other threads.

Anyhoo, I'll try one more bump, if it's not revived then I'm giving up.

Posted by Synchronicity on Jan-27-2007 22:16:

quote:
Originally posted by DigiNut
Well, seems to have mostly fallen off the map... kind of disappointing since I know a lot of you guys have posted recommendations in other threads.

Anyhoo, I'll try one more bump, if it's not revived then I'm giving up.

Cool, I see how my recommendations for samples and books weren't appropriate.

This is potentially a really helpful thread and if it ends a few of those annoying noob questions then it's worth taking a minute to recommend favourite gear or software.

Posted by System101 on Jan-30-2007 17:03:

bump! this thread should be stickied IMHO

Posted by DigiNut on Jan-31-2007 01:59:

Synchronicity: Not inappropriate or even unexpected, just deserving of its own space I think. I was going to do the software thread and then I sorta saw this one falling off the map, so I wasn't sure whether or not it'd be worth it. Probably a software thread would be more popular though.

System101: I was going to ask for a sticky status if we got a lot of votes, although right now it doesn't seem like there's enough to be too useful. Stickiness is a mixed bag - it's more likely to be seen by the newbies, but most regulars will gloss over the stickies and so it'll be even harder to acquire votes. Dilemmas...

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