Alas, I cannot claim to be freed from the cable mess. Or excess of gear. Two months since my last photo in this thread, I have managed to figure out where everything is going and am in the process of cabling up the gear on the desk. Once done, I will begin to move everything into its proper place and then hang the acoustic panels. Though it’s hard to tell from these photos, I am in the last stages before completion.
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Had it working one day for an hour (I only recently bought myself the AK and AR) but then I updated my iMac to a newer one and now OB does not find my synths any more. Hadn’t had the time to look into it. Too much work related stress and this synth haven of blissfull thoughts and peace of mind pictured is away from my home at our studio. I need a free sunday at some point to spend there.
Hope you get it soon.
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Much like a few of the more recent posts I have seen one here, I too for a long time have been stalking this site but only recently have gotten a account.
Long time Elektron user(bought a SIDStation new way back when, and was one of the first 100 customers/beta testers to have a Machinedrum). Anyway that was a long time ago in a studio far away and sold. Just got back into making music and wanted to go the whole DAW, USB audio, with actual hardware route(i always hated my cabling and the damn cables were so much $$). Thankfully I did my research before purchasing(in Nov 2017) and picked up MK1’s of the AR and A4. Saw a Digitone new $100USD off a few weeks ago and just couldn’t resist(but haven’t really had a chance to play with it as I am waiting for Overbridge for it). Also Really love the Soundcraft mixer… 24 outs and 22 in’s all over USB2! It always makes me laugh when people talk about Overbridge not working for 8 channels as I have mixer with so many and it works(and it’s WAY less money then a dedicated analog mixer and USB sound card!)
Updated image with new lights and stand for Digitone.
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That thing looks sick. Is there somewhere I can get that same case?
I’ve stripped my home studio to the bare minimum, got rid of the seaboard, OP1, Blofeld, TR8, TI Snow, Prophet 8, minilogue, Octatrack… even just sold the MS20. I felt they were more of like a distraction rather then something I’d actually use in my music.
Now I’ve got only MPC Live for sampling and drum programming.
Analog Keys because it’s my favourite.
Prophet 12 module and Mopho X4,
Moog LP … one of the old ones which takes forever to warm up… but when it does…
Eventide H9 Max which is mainly sitiing in the box because I’m lazy to re-cable my gear.
Absolutely ancient PC… it’s at least 12 years old.
A couple of old Yamaha FM synths in the corner… because when I need FM it’s just easy to grab them.
Komplete Kontrol S88 for libraries… still haven’t installed the software which is included…
What’s not visible; electronic drum kit… 2 Hohner professional B-bass guitars… one absolutely knackered… Just bought the second one because old habits die hard. And my Schecter Banshee Elite with the sustainiac pickup… & Strat.
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Jealousy @ the Sub 37. Next on my purchase list.
What makes you keep an A4 and an AK at once?
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I honestly don’t know, sorry…
bought it second hand, so didn’t even bother to investigate
I just like the sound of them, and the difference between them. Not to mention I’m hopeless with a DAW, so the more sequencers I have, the better.
AK is running Bass lines (2 tracks unison) and heavier mono synth tones (2 tracks unison).
A4 is is doing the lighter/ambient pads, sweeps and quirky bits. If I had to do it on the AK only, or A4, it would be too few tracks for where I’m going now.
AK “keys” not going to waste since I’m using them to play the Lead4.
By the way. I have a Subsequent37 up for sale. It’s in the market place here.
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I just got my A4 last week so i’m a bit broke now!
Nice space! Cool b&w photos too. I’ve been curious about these Soundcraft USB mixers for a while now. I’ve probably even asked others questions about theirs in this very thread. But, I’d still like to know a bit more of your opinion on:
- Build quality. Wobbly knobs or faders? Built to last a decade or more?
- How you use yours. Do you have more equipment out of sight? Planning to get more equipment? Or do you use the extra mixer channels to mix audio from Ableton? (You can route vst tracks, etc. from Ableton over USB right?)
Thanks!
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The build quality is pretty good. I don’t think I would take it on the road or anything but everything feels pretty good I don’t foresee it kicking the bucket anytime soon. Nothing is too plasticy feeling. Fader have a good amount of travel and I love the EQ’s. Nothing is too wobbly. Overall the mixer feels heavy and solid, especially for the price you can get them at! Feel as good to me as a Mackie, A&H, or Behringer in the same price point(but without as many features!)
Presently I do not have anything else aside from my Electron gear running all USB going to the first 16 mono channels (24bit 4 channels for the A4, 12 channels 16bit for the AR) and then I am using the rest of the board for as you said sending out VST synth plugins to the board. I really love this feature and when looking for my new studio I wanted to be able to use the power of the computer(DAW) and VST audio effects on the analog hardware with out limiting me in the future if I wanted to get back more into hardware or dive more into “evil” software. With this mixer and Overbridge on the Mk1’s I was able to do that without spending double the money on a sound card and mixer separately, plus the hundreds of dollars saved on cables! I was worried that since I couldn’t find another USB mixer out there that had this feature that it would not work the way I wanted it to(sound craft does not do a good job I think hyping up this feature) but it does… now if only overbridge on OS X was a little more stable…but that another story:)
hope that helps!
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Wow, thank you so much for the detailed reply. That’s great insight into your reasoning and workflow. Sounds about identical to the way I want to work except that I have sold my A4 and Rytm - still have a few bits of hardware and might get a couple more, but also love to use plugins.
I’m on OSX as well. OverBridge worked fine for me on my mkI’s for quite a while until I upgraded my OS version and then it just stopped working, period. Ugh. I hope yours continues to be as solid as possible. Sounds like you are a researcher and have found a great combo of gear. Congrats! And thanks again for the info. Cheers.
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I decided to save up some money in the past months to beef up the comfort of my setup a little bit. Past setup from around the end of march:
And here is the new one I finished up today:
Got a Mackie 1202VLZ4 to replace the little Behringer Mixer. The routing possibilities of the Mackie are phenomenal. I got it because I read a lot of good things about it on this forum, so thank you guys! Send 1 goes to the Zoom Pedal, mainly for delays and reverb. Send 2 goes into Input L of the Digitakt, so I can easily sample any of the channels going into the Mackie. Channel 3/4 is fed by a small line input for sampling e.g. pocket operators or Gameboys or other stuff which I can switch on the fly. Control Out goes into the Audio Interface (Edirol UA25EX) to record things into a really old version of Cubase. I’m also really glad I got the Jaspers keyboard stand, it is really sturdy and I can highly recommend it. I went to the DIY market store to buy some multiplex boards which are supported by aluminium angular bars which also prevent the instruments from sliding off. At last, I finally decided to invest in some proper monitor speakers (Adam Audio T5V) and I’m in heaven. They are my first monitors, so I got nothing to compare them to in that regard, but I think they sound very good.
Very happy with how it turned out! No more gear in 2018 (fingers crossed)!
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First: SERGE!
And also:
Thelema!
Fantastic!
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Interesting, that just few people have proper room treatment 
Without it there is no way to get good quality of sound. So, instead to buy new device just spend 200€ for acoustic improvements 
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Maybe because lots of people do it as a hobby in their living or bed rooms and don’t want to or can’t fill their rooms with bass traps etc? I don’t live alone and in my case it’s already more than half the living room I’ve got occupied with my shit 
Plus I think you can still pump out great sounding tunes without having a properly treated room. I did that for years, but of course it’s up for other people to decide if it sounds dope or not
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Actually you can’t It can be nice in your room, in position where are you playing, but in 90% times when you send it to somewhere it will be not that nice. Im talking about production case. Of course if you want have fun and play it is enough to be without any sound preparation.