My final GAS list

[Panopticon]

Originally Posted by F5D

I still store the patches in my synths' own memory but I give every midi track a name of the synth & used patch so I always know what patch was used for the track.

I used to do this, but I changed the bank content on my synths so often that my sequencer would inevitably point to a location that had been changed. So I smartened up and started using a better system: start all of my songs on measure 2, and use the first measure for a simple SysEx single patch dump. This way you're guaranteed the sound will always be there...

I also think Jasedee said everything best in the post above...

[Hollowcell]

Originally Posted by jasedee

I think from a musicians point of view (Juho) the all software option is a better one....but from an engineers point of view, we could never go past hardware (Mixers, FX/Dynamics processing, Synths?)

Yep, I agree for sure. I want the most solid, warm and unique sound I can, this means using outboard. Took me years to finally realize this. If I was into electronic music for the "catchy riff" or crafted arangements I can see the plus of an all software setup, but I'm not, I'm into it for the "sound".

Software sure makes life a little easier....but it isnt quite there yet in terms of sound quality (and Vibe!). Why do you think all (Alot) of big-name artists will record in digital, then for mixdown, hire a Neve room (or SSL, if thats your thing). Cos they sound foockin' hot! It's the best of both worlds!

Yup.

My ideal would be a HD system with top notch converters, with vintage pre's (Courtesy of the Studer) and then an analogue desk (and outboard) for mixdown.

I could spend $4000 on a Tascam control surface for 24 faders......or I could spend that $4000 on a Nuemann Mic and boutique preamp. I know what I would rather have....

The Tascam????

[matsa]

You sneaky bastards, having a serious topic going on here. I'm having serious reservations about a reply, but agggggh..

Mixing room can be an instrument in itself and would like to be, ideally, as tangible as a keyboard, guitar or even, god help us, a drum kit. I haven't got one anymore, though. All I could hear was the terrible acoustics of the room.

Softsynths are brilliant. I think it's great that 14 year olds can have access to them on a cheap PC. When I was 14 (1976 muthas) can you imagine that my dad would have bought me a Fairlight CMI? But, if you've got space for all that junk, go for it! I love having old stuff. As does my wife, clearly.

[AlexHall74]

Matsa wrote:
Mixing room can be an instrument in itself and would like to be, ideally, as tangible as a keyboard, guitar or even, god help us, a drum kit. I haven't got one anymore, though. All I could hear was the terrible acoustics of the room.

Go mobile!

There is the possibility now-a-days of having a very effective mobile rig.

Get either a nice Mac Powerbook OR a nice Pentium Centrino with maximum RAM + a nice firewire/USB 2.0 breakout box + a microphone and you can record all kinds of shite anywhere.

Run soft synths on it, Run your tracks through a sequencer, VST FX, etc.

This would be a nice way to go for the sheer portability of it.

Imagine how many different people and studio environments you could extract material with while equipped with such a rig.

You might be able to convince the Dallas Cowboy's cheerleaders to let you in their lockerroom for shower time for the sake of preserving the sonic imprint for posterity...Hmmmmmmmm...

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by jasedee

I could spend $4000 on a Tascam control surface for 24 faders......or I could spend that $4000 on a Nuemann Mic and boutique preamp. I know what I would rather have....

What's the function of this line? You're wondering would you get a mic or a digital recorder?

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by matsa

Softsynths are brilliant. I think it's great that 14 year olds can have access to them on a cheap PC. When I was 14 (1976 muthas) can you imagine that my dad would have bought me a Fairlight CMI?

Yup. Cheap gear gear is really nice (although it increases the number of trance producers, but I can handle it).

But, if you've got space for all that junk, go for it! I love having old stuff. As does my wife, clearly.

Sure. All women like junk lying around in their apartment, like rusty motorcycle bodies, broken synths, a Soviet made truck Ural...

[Juho L]

As I've said earlier, tube compressors and EQ's and other analog gear really sound great, but is it truely worth of the price and effort? Like Jasedee said: If you want analog, go to rent a place for mixing the stuff you've made on digital system. For a hobbyist (and even on a professional musician) a working analog hifi studio is way too expensive. Even with relatively high budget you can only get really limited system. So why to get a crippled analog studio instead of fully working an joy-to-use digital studio?

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by F5D

Hardware synths are under control as long as you don't record them to audio.

Well, this is not possible unless you make minimalistic druk junkie music. Especially on VA's the polyphony is just too small to allow full sequencing without mixdowns.

[F5D]

Originally Posted by Juho L

Well, this is not possible unless you make minimalistic druk junkie music. Especially on VA's the polyphony is just too small to allow full sequencing without mixdowns.

I don't understand people who always keep thinking that you should get all the sounds, polyphony and outputs from a single synthesizer. It will never work, until the TI (however it still lacks the outputs), but I still wouldn't use the TI for all the sounds.

All synths have their own sound character and that's why many studios use many different synths and it's also alot easier to use 1 synth for 1 sound and forget the multi setups. That's just what many big studios do.

I use only 1 midi-channel for every hardware synth I own and I don't have any problems doing so. In fact my super bass station and pulse are pure monosynths so I couldn't even think of using them polyphonically or multitimbrally. I use them for the sound they have. The same goes pretty much for the JP80x0 too. The stereo output can be devided to 2 separate mono ouputs but I rather use the good onboard stereo effects and the 10 voices of polyphony for the sound I need. I don't need to get all the sounds from a single synth. I don't even want to. And I don't do mixdowns anymore unless the sound is not playing in main role and can be looped easily. That was the key to a better producing. And I am happier to use 1 channel of real jp80x0 than 10 instances of superwave p8. I still like software very much like I have said. I would go for a software only solution but I need some sounds which cannot be made with software yet, or ever.

[ten]

FSD, how do you combat the latency for mixing with hardware in realtime and using dsp plugins? (powercore/uad)

ten