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-- Looking into producing. Gear discussion...

Looking into producing. Gear discussion...

I'd love to make some melodic techno / tech house / prog house kind of tracks. I'm sold on Ableton.

But I'm debating using Ableton Push or just a keyboard like a Novation 25 key or something of the like. I have a nice custom PC but it's built for gaming. I will surely need an external audio interface and great studio headphones. Any suggestions on audio interfaces / cards and headphones?

I'm going to hold off on the monitors for now since I have roommates and all my gear will be in a common area.

Howdy! Keyboard or Launchpad, that's up to your work style. I would go with the keyboard personally, as sound card you probably will want sth with not so many ins and outs for start(I guess you don't plan to get any synths, mics, guitars or sth like that hooked up). The pc shall do just fine, unless you end up with a 100+ channels project. The worst thing you can change about it, if it is to noisy is to... well... make it less noisy, get a quieter case, better fans etc. What's your budget? As sound card I can recommend you a Focusrite scarlett 2i2 for start. Easy to setup, just plug and play. It has the balanced outputs, just in case you change your mind about the monitors... As headphones, AKG 240, gr8 bang for the buck. If you want to mix on headphones prepare for a lot of patience and frustration xD. You shall ignore the roommates and get some monitors too, your job shall be way more easy and your roommates will be able to give you live feedback on your work as well win/win

Budget?

Also, what type of interface connections does your computer have (USB1/2/3, FireWire, ThunderBolt, etc.).

Thanks for replies guys. My PC has multiple usb 2 and 3 ports. Will need to make it home to see the rest of the ports. No budget, I want the goods!

Regarding synths...I'm interested in them for sure but I don't really understand them or how they work. I watched some of the Electron Analog 4. Do you send the synthesizer a key from your keyboard / midi device and then let the synthesizer make changes to that key?

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Originally posted by xstalkrx My PC has multiple usb 2 and 3 ports. Will need to make it home to see the rest of the ports.

Will wait to see what you have before recommending a soundcard.

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Originally posted by xstalkrx No budget, I want the goods!

The three headphones I would recommend:

- BeyerDynamic DT880 (250-ohm version) - my personal favorite
- AKG K701 - my other favorite (yes, I have both)
- Sennheiser HD600

If you can get the TA search function to work, you'll find a lot of threads discussing these (and other) headphones. Try googling "site:tranceaddict.com.....headphones, blah blah blah"

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Originally posted by xstalkrx Regarding synths...I'm interested in them for sure but I don't really understand them or how they work. I watched some of the Electron Analog 4. Do you send the synthesizer a key from your keyboard / midi device and then let the synthesizer make changes to that key?

Each synth is a bit different and you can usually set them up differently, depending on your workflow and gear. Most synths have standard 5-pin MIDI connectors, as do many MIDI controllers and even many soundcards have MIDI in/out ports. You can hook a MIDI controller's MIDI Out directly to the synth's MIDI In using a standard MIDI cable and you will be able to play/control the synth from the controller.

However, most producers want their synths connected to their computer so that they can be controlled by their DAW. Most newer synths and pretty much every MIDI controller has USB connections, so you can connect the controller to your computer via USB and Ableton Live will be able to use it (after you set it up in your preferences). If the synth has a USB port that can perform MIDI-over-USB, then you just connect it and Live will recognize it (again, after you set it up in your preferences). If the synth does not have USB, then you would need to connect it via the standard MIDI connectors to a MIDI interface, which could be built into a soundcard or a separate unit (e.g., iConnectMIDI 4+). After you set that up in Live's preferences, you'll be able to send and receive MIDI from your controller or from Live's MIDI clips to your synth. You'll connect the synth's audio outputs to stereo inputs on your soundcard to hear it played back and to record it in Live. Don't worry, it's actually much simpler than it probably seems.

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Originally posted by cryophonik Will wait to see what you have before recommending a soundcard. The three headphones I would recommend: - BeyerDynamic DT880 (250-ohm version) - my personal favorite - AKG K701 - my other favorite (yes, I have both) - Sennheiser HD600 If you can get the TA search function to work, you'll find a lot of threads discussing these (and other) headphones. Try googling "site:tranceaddict.com.....headphones, blah blah blah" Each synth is a bit different and you can usually set them up differently, depending on your workflow and gear. Most synths have standard 5-pin MIDI connectors, as do many MIDI controllers and even many soundcards have MIDI in/out ports. You can hook a MIDI controller's MIDI Out directly to the synth's MIDI In using a standard MIDI cable and you will be able to play/control the synth from the controller. However, most producers want their synths connected to their computer so that they can be controlled by their DAW. Most newer synths and pretty much every MIDI controller has USB connections, so you can connect the controller to your computer via USB and Ableton Live will be able to use it (after you set it up in your preferences). If the synth has a USB port that can perform MIDI-over-USB, then you just connect it and Live will recognize it (again, after you set it up in your preferences). If the synth does not have USB, then you would need to connect it via the standard MIDI connectors to a MIDI interface, which could be built into a soundcard or a separate unit (e.g., iConnectMIDI 4+). After you set that up in Live's preferences, you'll be able to send and receive MIDI from your controller or from Live's MIDI clips to your synth. You'll connect the synth's audio outputs to stereo inputs on your soundcard to hear it played back and to record it in Live. Don't worry, it's actually much simpler than it probably seems.

Ok, I have:

x1 1394 firewire, x6 usb 2.0, x6 usb 3.0, x1 esata, x1 sata power, x1 SPDIF, x1 optical out (optical currently being used)

"I have a million dollars to spend on gear but i'm just gonna use it for tech house"

Welcome, ableton is a stellar daw for you to cut your teeth on. Spend lots of time with it, and keep your expectations relatively low to begin with. Plenty of help here as well as having a strange ego is required.

quote:

Originally posted by xstalkrx Ok, I have: x1 1394 firewire, x6 usb 2.0, x6 usb 3.0, x1 esata, x1 sata power, x1 SPDIF, x1 optical out (optical currently being used)

I'd go with a small FireWire interface. The Focusrite Saffire series are supposedly pretty good and not terribly expensive, but I've never owned one. MOTU UltraLite is probably more unit (in terms of ins/outs) than you need now, but could serve you well down the road if you think you might want to add some hardware, record live vocals/instruments, etc.

And on the MOTU I noticed 192 khz. Is this the quality of sound on the output (monitors, recording, etc.) ?

How do you get .wav quality resolution?

Nevermind, I realize sampling rate is different from the bitrate.

Also, will my mid 2012 macbook pro retina 15 inch with 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 and 8 gig of ram be plenty for a large project in ableton? I will be getting an external audio interface and wireless mouse as well. Would be nice to use the thunder port on the mac too. That Motu ultralite can be powered by the thunderbolt instead of dc power which is attractive.

Just want to make sure I don't get a big project going and start bottlenecking.

It shall be 'nuff. I am running a 60 channel project atm on some antique DELL only with some little stuttering from time to time

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Originally posted by Constantin It shall be 'nuff. I am running a 60 channel project atm on some antique DELL only with some little stuttering from time to time

Awesome. Yea, I'd like to keep all my music dealings on my mac and leave the PC for gaming.

Your Macbook is plenty powerful enough, and you don't need to run an audio interface on it either as Core Audio works perfectly well with large multi channel projects. Just plug your headphones into the headphone outputs on the Mac.

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Originally posted by tehlord Your Macbook is plenty powerful enough, and you don't need to run an audio interface on it either as Core Audio works perfectly well with large multi channel projects. Just plug your headphones into the headphone outputs on the Mac.

Any drawbacks to this? Sampling rate and everything will be kosher?

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Originally posted by xstalkrx Any drawbacks to this? Sampling rate and everything will be kosher?

The only drawback will be that there is a slight increase in output quality of a bespoke audio interface, but not enough to really make a difference to your ability to mix a track.

Sampling rate is whatever you set it at within your DAW project, it's not dependant on the interface you use.

There is also one tiny advantage in a dedicated audio interface in that the drivers are usally slight better written/slightly more efficient so you can squeeze a little more processing power out before things just chunchy, but to be honest, mac onboard audio is that tight the difference is minimal.

We'd be having a different conversation if it was a PC you were thinking of using.

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Originally posted by xstalkrx Also, will my mid 2012 macbook pro retina 15 inch with 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 and 8 gig of ram be plenty for a large project in ableton? I will be getting an external audio interface and wireless mouse as well. Would be nice to use the thunder port on the mac too. That Motu ultralite can be powered by the thunderbolt instead of dc power which is attractive. Just want to make sure I don't get a big project going and start bottlenecking.

the bottleneck is not your soundcard. The driver stage is where it happens unless you are sending 96 tracks to a digital mixer. Thunderbolt performs the same as usb2 pretty much

People on the internets are saying that 250 ohm headphones are too much for the onboard macbook pro audio. What do you think?

just tried the dt 9990s

fine. Most people listen about 20dB too loud. Used macpro laptop and my iphone. Iphone was at about 80dB.

most peole on the internet regurgitate gearsluts bullshit.

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Originally posted by Looney4Clooney just tried the dt 9990s fine. Most people listen about 20dB too loud. Used macpro laptop and my iphone. Iphone was at about 80dB. most peole on the internet regurgitate gearsluts bullshit.

So true; Headphones should actually be listened to at lower levels - it makes your brain work and actually pick out the detail, rather than having a driver less than an inch away from your eardrum slam soundwaves at it.

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