U2start.com | General Chat 16

Yeah, not sure why I'm complaining though, I'd rather not race through the days

How is your music coming on? It's been a while since you shared something here

Best while you're young to enjoy it. You only get to be young once. Although you can when you're much older, it just doesn't hold up so well. Still looking out for some work, did an interview the other day and hoping something in the next month breaks open so I can get back into work - kinda missing it which sounds funny but when you were working for a few years and you're not for six months it sort of becomes a void.

My music - well I finally upgraded to an actual instrument so I've got a few weird things here and there that I'm working on and trying different things. It's a lot better (and more creative-wise) to have hardware where you have to do most of the programming.

iTim

13 years

As a kid you can't wait for the Summer holidays, but at university, where you get days off during the week and have a social life at night, it all becomes just too much. I still need to sort something out for my final year at university, find a course to enroll on. Then I HAVE to find a job.

What's the 'actual instrument' you've acquired?

drewhiggins

13 years

Well that's it, you're doing hard work - what are you studying? - and during the week you'd be exhausted. I know I was with my work and being called in at last minute and working ridiculous hours - 3pm to 8pm, or 5pm - 9.30pm. They weren't long hours but it's at the arse-end of the day where all you wanna do is crash out lol.

The actual instrument is - a synthesiser:

It runs via USB and allows me to create sounds and modify them on my computer, then layer them all together through Garageband or Logic.

iTim

13 years

Stylish piece of kit

I was studying a sound and video technology course, but having finished that, I want to top it up to a degree, so I'm looking at music technology courses. I would've been finished now, with a degree in the original course had I not messed up in the second year. Fortunately, I still graduate with a qualification which provides a good foundation for a one-year degree top-up course.

drewhiggins

13 years

It's great when I finally worked out why certain parts weren't responding to input.

Music technology courses, is that including things such as instruments and playing within bands or reading music notation? As long as you're able to graduate with something worthwhile then it's worth it in the end. Good luck for whatever it is that you do continue on with.

iTim

13 years

The modules you study will make use of the extensive resources including an 80 seat computer centre incorporating Cubase, Reaktor, Reason and Sound Forge, five traditional studios and three ProTools HD2 suites. The University also has Avid accredited status enabling you to undertake a further recognised industry qualification.

The course is highly practical and you will learn about recording technology, studio equipment, synthesizer technology, live sound, acoustics and electro acoustics, as well as recording systems integration and mastering.

Basically.

drewhiggins

13 years

The course is highly practical and you will learn about recording technology, studio equipment, synthesizer technology, live sound, acoustics and electro acoustics, as well as recording systems integration and mastering.

The bold part is the best-sounding part of it all. So you reckon this would be your forte to pursue? When you start working with music production and other technology relating to production, you won't be able to get enough of it. Creativity is key - it sounds very similar to what I was going to go for in university.

I just finished my retail course a week or so ago. I feel much more comfortable applying for jobs and knowing the basics of how retail works - now just to find a job. I have a month set to my own standards and then I don't know what I'm gonna do.

iTim

13 years

All of those little pieces were part of the sound section of the course I did up to HND. Every week I was working in a recording studio with a small group, recording live sounds, tinkering with the effect units and ultimately mixing tracks for end of year projects. The facilities were great, the university had spent a lot of money on them in the years prior to me joining. But yeah, I've messed with plenty of mixing desks, synth equipment, studio hardware etc.

drewhiggins

13 years

That'd have been the ultimate in awesome, to be able to work with all the in-studio stuff. So what sort of hardware or software were you using - or pretty much was that all the software and hardware above you worked with?

Do you play any instruments outside of study or courses?

iTim

13 years

Originally posted by drewhiggins:That'd have been the ultimate in awesome, to be able to work with all the in-studio stuff. So what sort of hardware or software were you using - or pretty much was that all the software and hardware above you worked with?

Do you play any instruments outside of study or courses?

Well there are four recording studios and each one is different from the other. I'll just post up a list of all of the hardware/software that was contained within those:

Studio A - Sony DMX R100 Desk. Protools

Monitoring
5 x Genelec 1030A
1 x Genelec 7060A

Dynamics
DBX 166XL
TLA 5021

FX
Yamaha SPX 990
TC Electronics M One
TC Electronics D Two
Lexicon MPX 100

Preamp
Universal Audio 2-610

Other
Digidesign Command 8
Emu Morpheus
MOTU Midi Timepiece
HHB CDR-850
Tascam DA45
Sony MDS-E12
UAD 2 - Duo

Studio B – Yamaha 02R 96. Protools

Monitoring
5 x Genelec 1029A
2 x Dynaudio BM15A
1 x Genelec 7050B

Dynamics
DBX 166XL
LA Audio 4+4

FX
Yamaha SPX 990
TC Electronics M One
TC Electronics D Two

Preamp
Universal Audio 2-610

Other
Digidesign Command 8
Emu Morpheus
MOTU Midi Timepiece
HHB CDR-800
Tascam DA30
Nord Lead 2X
Native Instruments Kore 2
UAD 2 - Duo

Studio C - Mackie 8 Bus Desk. Protools

Monitoring
2 x Tannoy Little Golds
2 x Genelec 1029A
1 x Genelec 7050B

Dynamics
DBX 166XL
TLA Ivory 2
Drawmer DS201
Behringer XR2000

FX
Yamaha SPX 990
TC Electronics M One
TC Electronics D Two

Preamp
TLA Ebony A3

Other
Digidesign Command 8
Emu Morpheus
MOTU Midi Express
HHB CDR-800
Tascam DA20
Waldorf Blofeld
UAD 2 - Duo

Studio D - Digidesign C24 Control Surface. Protools HD

Monitoring
Blue Sky Sat 6.5 Mk ii System
2 x Dynaudio BM15A

Dynamics
Tube Tech SMC 2B
Crane Song STC-8
SSL XL Logic G Series

EQ
Manley Passive EQ
Prismsound Maselec MEA-2

FX
TC Electronics D Two
Alesis Quadraverb 2
Lexicon MPX 100

Other
Digidesign Command 8
HHB CDR-800
Tascam DA20
Waldorf Blofeld
UAD 2 - Quad
------

My favourite studio was Studio B, with the Yamaha desk, probably because I spent most of my time in there. But many preferred Studio A with the Sony. Studio D wasn't complete until midway through our second year and that was when we were split into four groups to complete a project so I never got to use it. We had an hour or so demonstration of some of it's more unique features compared to the other studios, but other than that, I didn't go in.

As for software, we primarily used Pro Tools both in the studio and in the computer lab. Other than that, the only other primary software we used was Reason. We explored Audtion, Cubase etc to get a feel for other software, but all projects were completed in Pro Tools.

In those computer labs, we had a keyboard and a Blofeld synth for input.

drewhiggins

13 years

Studio B would have been my choice because of all the keyboards, tech and synths contained within. What's amazing is in such a small area, you can do music creation in a studio. Even setting up a small home studio nowadays is so affordable and so possible - which in this day and age is incredible. But it's been like that, again, for a while now. Some of the best records of all time were produced in such small rooms or studios - like the Nine Inch Nails records, Trent's studio is not massive - it's about the size of three rooms, and he created full records in there.

I've never used ProTools (just got Logic a couple of weeks ago), probably never had a real use for it - my music has never gotten that advanced, and what I want to do, I always do it in different ways. Whereas someone might play the sounds they want, live, I usually just loop them if I like the sound and can't really make it any better, or I might just change the key and keep layering it.

Audition is a great app, I used to use it a lot. Probably my first exposure to music production and creation - I was amazed that I could load in a drum sample, loop it, add effects and then sing and put my own voice on to it; I could have a simple but workable song that I'd come up with myself, even if the drums aren't my own but why not.

So you just had a regular computer keyboard - that'd have been for putting software inputs in, like hit a keyboard key and you can trigger a drum or a snare, or an orchestral stab (disappointed my synth doesn't have orchestral stabs - so cheesy but so much fun).

Hey Olof. Doing alright, you?

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