To all the bedroom producers, is this a good deal for a studio set-up?

FMuzz

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/2644

Sibelius 3
M Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card
Edirol MA 10A Monitors
M Audio Keystation 88 Weighted MIDI Controller

All for 1161 Euro.

Is it a good deal for my fist set up? Any additional things I could add later on?

I am using the Reason 3.0

Also I'm selling my CDJ800s and mixer to get this. Is it a good idea. Advice would be great.

Anima

Thats a bit pricey to be honest. I'm sure they're all decent products but its a bit overkill for starting.

Helix

ok why do you need sibelius chief?

its not for making music, its for writing it for printing off from a printer. no sound generation involved

so unless youre planning on composing stuff to give to players, dont bother with it.

the ma10as are decent monitors

the keystation is overkill unless youre a trained pianist. get an edirol pcr50 instead

the audiophile 2496 isnt worth thinking about if im being totally honest

overall, that package wont be much use to you at all

especially considering that sibelius (something that im 95% sure you wont ever use) costs a fortune and is driving up the price of that pack massively

go for something like the ma10as, an edirol pcr 50 or 30, an m audio firewire 410, and buy something like reason instead of sibelius

FMuzz

Cool thanks for the advice.

I have reason and now that you told me I wont be getting sibelus.

I am also messing around with live. What would be another good control surface to use with that. Would the pcr50 be sufficient?

Also could you give me some more info on the m audio firewire 410. Is this a stand alone sound card. Im using a laptop by the way. Obviously the firewire connection would shorten latency times, am I right?

Helix

nah firewire isnt gonna change latency

now that you mention youre using your laptop, you DEFINITELY shouldnt get the audiophile, coz its a pci card, and therefore wont work with your laptop anyway

the 410 is a 4 in 10 out card with pretty low latency and midi in and out. its a decent enough entry level card and will be ideal for using with ableton live due to the 10 outputs

tho i suggest you keep your mixer, that way you can run ableton live through it using multiple outputs of the soundcard

the pcr50 is a nice little unit, have one in my studio as the main controller board. its got 8 pots and 8 sliders, so isnt too bad as a control surface, but if youre serious about playing with live id recomment the evolution uc33e control surface as well

its an excellent little box and opens up a lot of possibilities

FMuzz

Yes, though it looked like a pci card.

Ive seen the uc33e around before.

The sound card needs at least four outputs to enable you to monitor in live, if Im correct??

SuprSi

I agree with Helix about the keystation. Make sure it's semi-weighted, not fully. And you don't need 88 keys

Helix

yup

if youre planning on using live in a live situation using stereo channels you need minimum 4 channels

with the 410 you could have 4 mixer channels coming from the laptop

FMuzz

Ok, thank you for all the quick replies.

FMuzz

By the way my laptop has just standard usb connectors, 2 of them.

Would I need firewire port to connect the 410?

Helix

yeah you would

there are plenty of usb 2.0 cards around tho, and the emu 1616 works via your card slot thing (where you plug yer wifi card in and such)

thats one hell of a unit actually, the 1616

FMuzz

OK so your suggesting that I purchase a usb 2.0 card and then the emu 1616, instead of the 410, as I dont have a firewire port.

1. I have a 2.0 connection on my laptop, so that would just mean getting a decent non firewire soudcard, with multiple outputs, to hook up to my 2.0 connection?

3. Does the emu 1616 sound card have multiple inputs for monitoring?

Sorry about all the questions lol

base2

I agree with Helix about the keystation. Make sure it's semi-weighted, not fully. And you don't need 88 keys

Thats madness. Weigthed keyboards are much nicer to play and 88 keys give you much more options than extra sliders. The keystation is excellent value and I'd recommend it as you can use it to learn piano as well, so that you dont remain a one finger musician.

FMuzz

Can anyone answer my above questions, please.

Anima

Don't get a weighted keyboard unless your used to it. Your fingers won't be strong enough to play properly.

FMuzz

FMuzz wrote:

OK so your suggesting that I purchase a usb 2.0 card and then the emu 1616, instead of the 410, as I dont have a firewire port.

1. I have a 2.0 connection on my laptop, so that would just mean getting a decent non firewire soudcard, with multiple outputs, to hook up to my 2.0 connection?

3. Does the emu 1616 sound card have multiple inputs for monitoring?

Sorry about all the questions lol

Thanks for the keyboard info.

Can anyone answer the above questions

wavin

FMuzz wrote:

Thanks for the keyboard info.

Can anyone answer the above questions

could get a pcmcia firewire card thing for your laptop?

Helix

the new emu 1616 pcmcia card is sexual

youll get that for about £275stg if you shop around

beatpoet

1. I have a 2.0 connection on my laptop, so that would just mean getting a decent non firewire soudcard, with multiple outputs, to hook up to my 2.0 connection?

Emu 1616 / 1616m is a PCIMCA card, it does not work over usb. Just slots nicely into the side of your laptop. Keep your usb slots free for controllers and other stuff. If you're controllers are sharing IRQ's with your audio card you could have performance glitches, esp when playing live.

You get better performance/latency on your PCIMCA slot with the than on a firewire/usb2 port anyway.

3. Does the emu 1616 sound card have multiple inputs for monitoring?

Yes, and a whole lot more, SoS reviewed recently and said it was the cat PJ's

Helix

its not multiple inputs you want doe monitoring, its multiple outputs

beatpoet

Opps !!!

Yeah, true.

It has them anyway, extensive routing too in the mixer.

condra

Hey man.

Glad you didnt go for the origional package- would have been a great waste of cash.
Ableton Live 5 is money well spent in my opinion, and combined with Reason 3 you already have most of the software youll ever need, in fact it would probably take months to master both apps anyways.

Some training videos, which are available for both applications, would be worth their weight in gold.
There is a new Ableton Live 5 one coming out soon- check this linkage:

http://courseptr.com/ptr_detail.cfm?group=Music%20Technology&subcat=Audio%2FMIDI%20Recording%20and%20Production&isbn=1%2D59200%2D987%2D5

Come to think of it, I cant emphasise enough- Ableton Live is fkn amazing software wether youre a DJ, producer, performer or a bit of everything.

One other bit of software you may get good use from would be a VST [plugin] sampler such as Kontakt. Of course Reason has 2 samplers already, and Live has a basic sampler in "Simpler" but you may want something "professional" like Kontakt.
If you havent looked into it already, you can "rewire" Reason to Live, making them work in sync, basically making Reason an extremely powerfull plugin!

Hardware wise, I wouldnt rule out second hand stuff. If you look around, there are plenty of people [here, buyandsell.ie, on gigsmart, and ebay] selling decent monitors like Behringer Truths etc, for nice prices.

Regarding soundcards, midi controllers and midi keyboards, these can be bought seperatly, or you can get interesting hybrid combinations.

The Behringer BCR is a very popular controller for Live and Reason. Faderfox also do some good DJ stuff made specificly for Live.

Personally I would hate to have to use any keyboard with less than 49 keys, but there are some kool ones like the oxygen 8, which are great for basslines. Theres a dude selling an Oxygen 8 on Gigsmart for 80 quid come to think of it.
The Korg Kontrol 49 is one of the better midi keyboards. It looks kool too.

If youre used to playing a real piano you would definatly prefer weighted keys, otherwise I wouldnt worry too much about it.

What kind of laptop are you using? MAC/WIN? At least 1 gig of ram would be reccommended obviously.
If youre running Windows, dont forget to tweak it for maximum performance [and more reliability if youre performing live]

If youre buying new audio equipment, Music Tech Ireland are a nice crowd and offer pretty competitive prices. Here is their site:
http://www.musictechnology.ie/
I read somewhere that music technology match Thomann prices or at least try.
Waltons are pretty steep I reckon.

Soundcards- its gotta be USB. Incidentally, Im selling one of these:
http://www.jam.se/images/BCA2000_frontsm.jpg
here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=317495
for 140 euro. [bought for 227]
Thats a Behringer BCA 2000.
Its a great USB soundcard with lots of I/O. The reason Im selling this baby is because Ive switched from XP to Mac and unfortunatly its Windows only.
Feel free to ask other muzos their opinion of this - Im sure theyll tell you its a nice deal.

Regardless, let us know how you get on.