Equipment
Howdy! For those who are wondering which equipment I use and I would recommend: Here you’ll get what you want!
Production Software: Abletons Live 8 Suite.
I’ve been using Live for about half a year now and I’m very satisfied by its features. Live is the perfect tool for musicians interested in producing electronic music, not the matter if its house, drum & bass or even the kind of music I do. Nevertheless live does not only posses midi sequencing abilities, but can also be used as an only hardware-limited recording and mastering environment.
Midipiano: Yamaha CP33. This midipiano is a very robust and stable piano intended for stage use, equiped with a pitch, modwheel, and two faders for different purposes. The central feature that distinguishes this instrument from its competitors is its very good and heavy-weighted claviature; everyone who is used to classical, mechanic pianos will like this one. As an addition I use three pedals, one volume and two damper.
Midicontroller: Behringer BCR2000. This midicontroller manufactured by the German Company Behringer is low-quality as everything else from them, but it’s a cheap tool doing its job. The BCR2000 features altogether 4*8 freely assignable endless rotary encoders, a number of knobs and possesses 1 Midi Inputs, 2 Midi Outputs, and Input for two analog foot switches. The BCR 2000 is connected two your computer via a standard USB cable and has a preconfigured preset in Live.
Microphone: Beyerdynamic MCE 72. This microphone is also a trade-off between cost and ability. I think the MCE72 brings good value for your money, providing low noise stereo records and a linear frequency response. Because the microphone has thus no special characteristics, its perfect for neutral ambient and field recordings; for other purposes just “post”-color the sound by an equalizer. Anyway, the first one I bought was a bit fucked up with an annoying 50Hz Buzz. But I got it replaced.
Audiointerface: E-MU Tracker Pre. I like this external audio interface for several reason. First, its small, portable, and easy to use. No special gimmicks, but still nothing essential missing. Second, it doesn’t need any external power supply and takes everything it needs out of the USB 2.0 – even when turning on the 48V Phantom Power! Third, this is the only interface in the low-price segment that features 192 kHz audio IO. An finally, it has two low noise Mic/Hi-Z Preamps for plugging in a stereo mic as I use one. Because there’s also a direct hardware monitor, line through and headphone out, this tool is almost perfect. The only point that makes me feel like missing something is the extremely bad working ASIO driver. With my Vista x64 the ASIO driver mutes (yeah, mutes) the sound about every five minutes. I got it fixed by using the public ASIO4ALL asio driver and now it works most time.
As you see, my equipment is far from being professional at the moment, and there are still a few things to add, but I think the central parts – the piano and Live – are perfect for my purpose and I will never try to replace them by anything else.