Its all can change but here’s my studio as it looked before I performed some pretty major “hardware integration” auditions over the last year.
You can see me in the DJ side of the old studio room here in an Allen&Heath Xone DB4 & Xone K2 promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU7p5RQqQzU&list=UUBrr0CdoU1IK-WmRx_y5ZGQ&feature=c4-overview
I’m onto acoustics and ergonomics right now because I moved it to a more focused room…but it was bare that day because as a DJ at-heart, I’ve always focused first and foremost on my need for sounds and the space to practice and play in worked fine. That studio picture just above shows the full-blown DJ side of things just a few weeks back when it was all hooked up, and with the full-blown set-up, I could use whatever sound source I had in the studio and fit it into the mix. However, I’m now using something a bit more simpler and functional to fulfill my needs.
I adapt to whatever they have out in the field. I do this by using the following:
#1: Technics SL-1210MK5Gs…any Technics 1200 will do but the MK5s are preferred because of the +/- 16 or 8 pitch control.
I use turntables for feel when playing vinyl (unripped, new, or in the collection)
I use it for access to new and timeless sounds and the feel. I also keep up with the times by using timecode DVS control over mastered tracks I’ve created, ripped, or imported from a CD or Promo download, etc….and all tracks get prepped for Traktor and Pioneer’s USB stick/HID capable multiplayers such as the CDJ-2000NXS
They are there now but I actually felt it was no longer necessary to actually own and keep a pair anymore… if you know how to use and consistently have access to them in the professional realm, they become just a deck. I can keep on playing my collection via vinyl, burn the interesting for use as DVS set-up at home and eventually that becomes a file on USB sticks.
However, the CDJ-2000NXSs actually do free-up the analog inputs for hardware on my DB4 but I don’t feel that is an overwhelming justification to keep them because I’m living vinyl and it already overwhelms me with a by backlog of constantly new and overdue unburnt vinyl which I can only handle when I’m prepping a mix. I don’t carry vinyl since most of the clubs have CDJ-2000NXSs (HID capability too) even when they have phono turntables…. It just keeps it all in perspective as I need the natural feel of the old school way of playing and tracks on USBs are way lighter than the limiting and back-breaking tote of 150 12"s……All recorded tracks get a 6-pass prep cycle for roadwork (Wavelab, MIK, MetaBliss, Traktor-Rekordbox- Rekord buddy) so, I’m good with finished tracks on USB sticks regardless of how using them (CDJs) frees-up analog inputs.
My Xone DB4 mixer & 2 Xone K2s…
DB4 shines with vinyl, software, hardware, analog and digital…the MIDI control…routing Matrix and Pro quality sound card have it all…If I can’t bring mine, I can use a Xone 92 or whatever…
K2s…I use the K2s 8 groups of Maschine in Abelton Live but I also use one at time to control DB4’s loopers.
–NI Traktor: Traktor’s Clock Send Start/Stop/Reset function still helps me integrate Ableton Live 9 into the DJ mix. I use the DB4’s sound card and there’s no direct individual channel-out outputs……so with hardware, I had to use the Xone K2’s sound cards as aggregated to send Live’s audio back to the mixer and one pair to sync hardware clocks via an Innerclock Systems Sync Gen II Pro Cynq Lock….
That proved to be too complicated, laborious, too involved with several sound cards, and even other mixer…so I got rid of most of that because it was a big mess of hardware that couldn’t really be used in a Live setting (independently). It also would not travel well, and too many boxes that don’t change at the same time requires way too much from one person. I’d like to to do this myself so it wasn’t right….
A lot of what was really nice but impractical in touring situation was made redundant by the virtual versions or better that are easier to use as plug-ins within Live or Maschine….I can get way better results and control over those things and plan it for Octatrack.
Gone: MOOG MiniMoog Voyager XL…replaced by plug-ins…
Gone: Access Virus TI|2 Virus Darkstar…replaced by plug-ins.
Gone: Roland SH-101 Circuitbent…replaced by plug-ins
Those were nice but….I simply had to move on…
Ableton Live and Push….stay at the heart and Maschine Studio with it’s eight groups routed and controlled within Live seems to work well right now.
I’m working on it but at the beginning I was running everything separately. It was hard to run and sequence control too many things away from the main focus point. I prefer using two to three hardware devices with the Maschine Studio…one of them is Octatrack because of it’s strengths with handling samples at changing tempos. I send clock from Traktor and/or Tap Tempo and nudge Live’s tempo +/- manually on the K2s before actually starting the hardwares.
Some of the things depicted above here have actually been sold-off too to head in the right direction because I constantly found issues during writing and practicing performances that hindered advances and strategy on a good, functioning workflow. Don’t think too hard on this but only the Octatrack remained……A4 went-out too because it had competition at the time which made sense to let it go. It’s now okay because I’m getting an Analog Keys (when stock arrives) and an Analog Rytm (ditto) to replace the lot of component machines I believe I can use to pull it off.
Stay: Native Instruments’ Maschine Studio which is here to stay because it runs plug-ins and I have to have a software-hardware controller since Push is controlling Live and things. I welcome the Analog Rytm because it will fill the gap where this one left off.
Gone: The Black SPS-1 UW+ MK II - I had a skin I made through Styleflip. I felt it always fun to use and hear within my tracks but it became hard as hell to work with after all these years of advancements after Sysex.
Gone: DSI Tempest, it was analog an sounds great but it was simply was made redundant as it didn’t fit since I had to work the DSI way and could not add my own sounds like the Rytm will offer.
Gone: my beloved Black AKAI MPC Renaissance…nice sounds, nice punch, swing, etc. but another program to run to operate (prior to OS 1.5 it was one tethered pain with another plug-in window to manage like Maschine version 1.X had me juggling).
Gone: the now defunct Feeltune Rhizome SXE…it was nice and I wrote a lot on it but it is unsupported and became a headache at time…hang-ups, etc…and before that it was the
Gone: AKAI MPC 3000LE which started with me nearly 15 years ago…I no longer liked the DIY and old way of worki
ng files (much like the Machinedrum)
Bottomline, Maschine Studio and Live 9 do a lot for me in terms of creating recordings that can be arranged for use in the Octatrack….vice a static MIDI-controlled laptop playback system or the AIFF that isn’t as exciting as a vinyl.
It currently looks like this.
And yep, one Octatrack wasn’t enough for me so one became two…and a friend followed so now there’s four but I’m not alone in the strategy for handling all of this…you can read elsewhere about how one became four and how they get used as two sets of pairs…… recording and writing preparation ITB makes all the difference for samples best used in the DPS-1 tracks…I don’t write everything there but it helps as a workaround….cueing and control over individuals is easier too.
