What did you start out with? whats your story

I started with very first an akai so1, emu proteous, atari with cubase 3.0, spirit desk, in about 94, then after using the akai950, kawai k4r & korg m1, things actually started to happen, 1 mb of memory was amazing to me then but time went on then got an emu 6400 for £1800 in 1998 (im still paying for it) a z1 and then stuck with that till i lost all my tracks on the emu hard drive then i went akai 5000, then back to the 6400, then now finally to, emu x, sx2, virus and loads of other rack bits.

Whats are you stories with gear, programs, etc

I wanna see how many people started with a playstations or amiga's, I was exposed to amigas but was always an atari boy at heart, :arrow:

[Macc]

Way way way way waaaaaaaay back when I was about 6 I had Electronic Arts Music Contruction Kit - proper scoring but with naff built in Atari 64XE sounds

Then years later I had a go with Cubase (the infamous Mike Hunt version) and a sampler at school....... I remember being able to record things and play them back on the keyboard at different pitches and going OHHHH MMYYYYY GOOOOODDDDDDD!!!

That was the first time I tried beat progging.


Then my first 'serious' music making was recording my own 'rock' stuff at home, recording drums on a 4 track tape jobby (Tascam, borrowed from school and never returned, naturally ). I used to wonder why it all sounded shit........ I thought you were supposed to make the lights go red

And finally about 5 years ago a mate showed me Acid on his computer and I could NOT believe it....... Worked on Acid for a year or two, then Cubase 5, then SX, SX 2 and so on. Picked up progging, midi and all that as I went, but learned a lot from Cubase.net, it has to be said. Respect to Mr Antonio, Paul Woodlock and Amnesia over there.

Ah.......... memories. Now I am automating a crazy ass reverb on a drum track I once would have shat my pants over, at work. Funny how things turn out........

i had a really crap sampling keyboard when i was about 5-6 (about 20 yrs ago!). but yes, it was good old med and then octamed on the amiga 500, coupled with stereomaster cheapo sampler cartridge.

acquired a second amiga, this time a 1200, then used to sync the two together using a 4 beat lead in on one of them and hitting play at the right time on the other one. that gave me 8 decent channels (rather than the 8 channel fudge which octamed did which sounded awful).

then i got a pc, emu esi32 and cheap mixer. was just starting to get quite good on the production by the time i went to uni. then i ended up selling the sampler to buy beer and weed. started getting back into the music thing once i'd finished my degree and the all-in-one pc studio was born.

now have a lovely setup with a desk, monitors, 2 screens, and all the plug-ins the pc can handle. couldn't be happier!

a wierd synthesis program and sequencer on the c64 (cant remember the name!)

then onto octamed on amiga

then cubase on atari with roland d10 + jp8000, emu esi32 and fostex dmt8-vl hd recroder

then onto rm1x x 2, a3000 sampler x 2 with a mackie desk, this then sprouted into a massive bedroom studio with cubase pc

then i got fucked off with all my rubbish hardware and sold it all and bought a laptop + rme and started running lap5

then i bought lots of really cool hardware
then i combined studio with my new housemate's

new studio:

pc running logic + soundforge
laptop running logic + ableton + sound toys
2 x rme hammerfall dsp with multiface
kurzweil k2500r 128mb kdfx + stereo grand
kurzweil k2661 keyboard
eventide eclipse
studio electronics se1
virus indigo
virus c
waldorf micro-q
rs intergrator modular system with kenton mid-cv
custom logic cotnroller
doepher controller
2 x midiman radium keyboard cotnroller
focusrite penta
rode nt1
pmc monitors
yamaha msp5 monitors
emagic amt 8 and mt4 midi boxes
oberheim ob12
yamaha rm1x
roland mc303
ibanez guitar
tanglewood acoustic guitar
assorted percussion including tabla and triangle!

im sure i forgot somthing...

Ifs funny how many tunes i got that were made on the amiga blatent, Slammin Vinyl anyone, I also hear thats what dillinja used to use 2 amigas, I don't know how far back that was though

first exposed to music making via octamed on my mate's amiga.

then years later got into djing then messing about with breakbeats in sound forge. spent way to long arsing about in there without any idea of how to get things moving, then spent a year learning the very basic elements of computer music with cubase 5 and halion + a few other bits.

then this year managed to get a new direction with some good software and more importantly, by actually applying myself to the task of getting tunes finished, also paying attention to the fundamentals of eqing breaks etc...i am a slow learner and very lazy

props to those who have helped me out so far - many many thanks!

currently running an all software studio with sx2, kontakt () reaktor ( but ), absynth, waves plugs etc. hopeful to get my first demo cd finished in less than a month.

[Macc]

(hello wave)

(gimme a cd wave :d )

i started out on an acorn risc pc in 1994, using amf doom tracker to start with, then moving on to some demo of a commercial tracker that was never finished and so never released.

eventually i got a decent tracker called digital symphony, but it couldnt handle 16bit samples when i upgraded from an 8bit soundcard so i wrote my own sample player and hacked it to be played by the tracker

then i got hold of ft2, and a pc card for the acorn, which actually let you put an x86 processor in the acorn to run pc programs. but you couldnt run them with sound, so i ended up using ft2 on the pc card with no sound to edit tracks, then closing it and playing them back in an xm player on the acorn to hear it, then booting back up the pc card to edit some more!

finally got rid of the acorn and started using a pc in about 2000 and been learning cubase/vsts and all about stuff like compression and reverb and filters and stuff since. ive only properly finished about 2 tracks since i stopped using trackers cos having to bounce when u run out of cpu is too annoying.

(hello wave)

(gimme a cd wave :d )

technicality is my deadline (assuming you will be there, otherwise i'll post it).

I've only ever needed one thing - my ideas.

32(.

[Macc]

I've only ever needed one thing - my ideas.

32(.

So how do you get them out?

Do you have a jack plug in your temple or something?

I've only ever needed one thing - my ideas.

32(.

So how do you get them out?

Do you have a jack plug in your temple or something?

:mutley:

i started out in '89 with a four track reel tape (fostex), alesis and roland drum machines, my guitars and basses, a four track cassette, an Akai that was so primitive it ran on five inch floppies, which i sold to friend Stephen of the deftones for $100... wishing i didn't, but who knows, the 'tones are friends of mine, i should call them up and ask them if they still have it i was rocking out and doing ministry-style industrial beats way back then... still have all the tapes

...about '93 got an Apple and a Korg M1 into the setup, the mac was running a midi prog called "beyond" does anyone remember that?


...so now my setup is two pcs, some old keyboards, an emu, and even more electric basses and stuff because i play live more than dj or produce electronic music (this year has been terrible for production because i'm so busy playing)

i've been playing different instruments since a kid but started out with electronic music in around 95 on tracker software.. scream tracker it was - since then i used many different programs, gathered some equipment in the side whenever i had the money and then moved to logic and midi a few years back.. the next step is putting up a brand new studio with some friends!

started with a yamaha cs1x (was blown away when i discovered what filter cut off was ) in 1997 and gradually built the studio to the point where i had an s2000 (cost £1k new and took me 18 months to pay off ) an old apple running logic a spirit folio mixer and a few bits of outboard ...

sort of went through this weird stage of just being into the equipment and not really progressing (or being interested) with the music till i got an e6400 which made an amazing difference to my music and really made me wanna do stuff ..

also picked up a jupiter 6 which i love although don't really use it enough ..

then got a yamaha 01v (mainly so i could use the scene settings to work on different tracks at the same time and save me ever having to finish anything ) ..

then about two years ago i got a g4 and really got into plug ins and logic .. just got logic pro and now basically just use logic the 01v and the emu (along with a k station i got as a kind of little controller keyboard) .. would happily ditch all my outboard if it was worth anything (apart from the jp6) ..

next step over the next few years is to get everything onto a laptop (and somehow work out how to ditch the emu ) to give a bit of flexibility for moving in with girlfriend / living abroad ...

pc running logic + soundforge
laptop running logic + ableton + sound toys
2 x rme hammerfall dsp with multiface
kurzweil k2500r 128mb kdfx + stereo grand
kurzweil k2661 keyboard
eventide eclipse
studio electronics se1
virus indigo
virus c
waldorf micro-q
rs intergrator modular system with kenton mid-cv
custom logic cotnroller
doepher controller
2 x midiman radium keyboard cotnroller
focusrite penta
rode nt1
pmc monitors
yamaha msp5 monitors
emagic amt 8 and mt4 midi boxes
oberheim ob12
yamaha rm1x
roland mc303
ibanez guitar
tanglewood acoustic guitar
assorted percussion including tabla and triangle!

man that is a NICE set up you got there

I've only ever needed one thing - my ideas.

32(.

So how do you get them out?

Do you have a jack plug in your temple or something?

Yo Macc,

A while back I thought of that, but I don't think its possible at the moment. But the Idea could definitely happen in the future, processing power is always increasing, and soon we might be able to recognise a correlation between certain kinds of cells or chemical releases and frequencies or beats or something like that, imagine you would be able to make a tune in like 10minutes, or make a tune while your on the bog or something!

But at the moment I use:

S2000
evolution midikeyboard
spirit m8 desk
focusrite tonefactory
zoom 79quid fx
logic on a pc with a guilmot isis soundcard
valve eq
acid
waldorf pulse
c3000 microphone
portable minidisc

started off with a casio ht700 keyboard, and that keyboard is still the don! until it died

32(.

new studio:


pmc monitors
yamaha msp5 monitors


im sure i forgot somthing...

what r the yamahas like on bass response with a 5" cone?

I knew that the tunes I listened to were made with a sampler and sampling old records. I didn't know what a sampler really did tho and I bought one, Roland Dr. Sample.

It was alright fun for like a month, load a drum loop into one pad while triggering samples with the other pads a few fx to twiddle with.

Went back to the music store and spoke to one of the guys working about what I wanted to do and what I had and he explained that 'sampler' wouldn't cut it.... returned it.

Bought my first computer a year later (2001) and internet! Few months later got a hold of Reason and from there picked up Cubase....

wow, you guys started out lightyears ahead of me.

the first time i tried to do any sort of "producing," i discovered a wave editing program (waveeditor by creative technology 94-95) and all it could do were the most basic operations (cut, paste, mix, special features included; amplify volume and... reverse, wow) so everything was 100% sampled - no eq. i didn't know what the hell a sequencer or a multi-track recorder was so i just pasted loops together creating ridiculous 5 minute long .wav files of unprocessed sounds.

it took a looooonnng time and objectivity was gone in a matter of hours so the next day i'd decide, "i don't like the progress i've made" and spend a looooooonnng time redoing it. then i discovered soundforge, and eventually acid pro 3.0, and a few years later here i am, scraping together my pennies, wishing i had a mac and logic 6.

i'm pretty ignorant in terms of music and production but i like doing what i do, and even if it takes me another 10 years to become adept at producing i'm sticking with it.

from the depths any newer people want to add to this ? wow moved on loads since then
my current but pretty unused setup
cubase5 / reaper, shortcircuit / kontakt3
Siel DK80, Siel Opera 6, Yamaha Sy99, Novation sl25, akai 950, emu morpheus, Tannoy Precision 8, 1210s, focusrite saffire, 2x uad 1

and i make fuck all music

[denaris]

Blimey, great historical thread

Here's my journey. Started off on the C64 way back in the 80s, never did anything substantial. Moved onto the Amiga in 91 with Soundtracker and the good old ST-01 samples disk (old Fairlight, Juno etc samples, awful!!). It really started to happen with Med & later Octamed having got a tune put into a commercial Amiga game (for the life of me can't remember what!) and various demoscene productions. A few foray's into jungle productions at the time but mainly concentrated on a-typical Amiga demo/game style tunes.

Got an Yamaha SY85 around 96, which still sits in my bedroom and Blu Mar Ten's old E64 sampler in 98. Did a few copycat tunes on them, loads of Good Looking style tunes with the Amiga sequencing it through Octamed. Used that through until 2000 then upgraded (?!) to a decent PC for the time and Reason 2.0. I've moved through the Reason versions up to 4.01 along with an iMac in 2006. Now I've made a sort of switch to Logic but I'm just not warming to it. What I'm using more is Native Instrument's Maschine, which I'm loving. Might even try Reaper out, see if that suits me more than Logic or really get into Live, I know I like that.

So here's the rundown of what I've got now :

iMac (soon to be changed to a Macbook Pro)
Novation X-Station synth, mainly used as a soundcard & MIDI controller
NI Maschine
Too many soft synths
Yamaha SY85
Commodore 64 running MSSIAH sequencer / synth / bassline cartridge
Nintendo DS running Korg DS10
KRK Rokit RP6 monitors
Logic / Reason / Live

Regret getting rid of my Waldorf Blofeld a year ago Grave mistake. Not had the cash to buy another.

Just like Leo, about 2 tunes a year get finished!!

a packard bell PC, cubasis AV, general midi sounds

(i used it to make a copy of warhead )

I feel like a total newb, compared to some in this thread :]

Really wish I had sorted stuff out and got involved with music production much sooner, thats the only slight regret I have...

I started out with decks around 1998 [i was 17/18] and after a few of years mxing and raving as much as possible, I felt like I had to try to make my own stuff. I started with those playstation2 games, Music, Ejay and that MTV one, which to be fair were pretty damn good back then imo considering it was PS2!
After a few months, about 2005 I got a PC with Reason and Cubase SL3... thats when it really started for me.

I must admit, it was a big step up from the PS2! Reason absolutely confused the hell out of me, I remember for a 2 week straight period getting extremely vexed trying to work it out. What threw me the most was when you flip it round and see all the cables
After failing miserablely to use reason on its own and rewired into cubase, I sold reason and concentrated on Cubase as to me it made much more sense. I found it pretty easy to navigate etc, and didn't have anywhere near the issues I had with reason.

I'm still using Cubase SL3 now, on that same P4 pc with 3gb ram... I also got an x-staion 25 and event tr5 monitors. To be honest I'm still learning all the time, something that I enjoy and the setup I have suits me and the way I work. One day I would like to bust out the hardware though, maybe an akai sampler and a beefy synth. That would be nice.

Software wise I use audacity / sony soundforge for chopping / processing breaks and stuff. VSTs, I use a lot of free ones (legally free lol) and one of my favourites is Toxic3. Also shortcircuit is very handy.

Thats about it really, if I get any windfalls then I would like to upgrade my pc for something more powerful, as I find it stuggles once I breach the 25 track barrier (which is quite often lol).... and also the new features on Cubase 5 look really useful, especially where you can import a sample and it tells you the notes and midi etc.

Currently I get about a tune a month done (I got a job so don't always have time or energy for music) but I see that I'm getting quicker getting the main stuff down which is good.

first amiga, then atariST with sequencer 1, with a sampler cartridge, fiddled with some trackers on my dads pc, and then leaped up to a peavey dpm1 synth/sampler, then bought an SH101, then got a PC of my own with cakewalk pro audio, got a bass-station, and a crappy yamaha reverb, then an Akai S2000 (student loans bizness), with a zoom fx unit, then a yamaha 500TG sound module, then upgraded PC and started using Acid (revolutionary at the time), then worked my way up to where i am now from cubase SX1 to Cubase 5, with 3UAD1s and a UAD2, and a rode NT1A mic i never use... akai is now a monitor stand. Currently using mainly NI Komplete5 synths, some freeware, the audiodamage stuff, loads of UAD stuff and a few other bits (100% legit now, although did a fair bit of 'trying' in the past.... )