Hardware:
Keyboard: Yamaha DX 630
A somewhat old e-piano (from 2009), which was actually designed for the ambitious living room entertainer. ultimately I don’t use all the built-in frills. The reason for choosing this instrument is that it has a very high quality and weighted keyboard that has the full range of 88 keys. The built-in speakers are very useful if you want to play something spontaneously and don’t have to start the whole machine right away.
Loudspeaker: Edirol MA – 15 D
The speakers (near field monitors ) are from Edirol (Roland Group) and have a very balanced sound to my taste. This is of course very important, because otherwise glaring mistakes will occur when mixing the sound. It is also very pleasant that you can connect headphones directly. Depending on the impedance of the headphones, this is helpful, as is the tone control. In terms of performance, they are absolutely sufficient for my mini-studio. And they also look pretty
DAW controller Behringer X Touch One
After the (beloved) Alphatrack is making more and more problems under Windows 10 and just gets out of the car during a recording, the AT has now been replaced by a Behringer X Touch One. Very pleasant work and lots of lights
Sound module: Steinberg UR 22 MK II
The biggest enemy of recording is called “latency”. This is the time that elapses between pressing a button on the instrument and playing the sound. Especially slightly older or weaker sound cards in PCs cannot be used for this due to the amount of data. So the sound module is more or less an external sound card (which can, however, do a little more). The UR 22 also has a MIDI connection so that additional MIDI-compatible devices can be connected to the computer. In addition, there are two controllable Neutrik (combination of 6.3 mm and XLR) inputs for instruments or micros. The experience we have gained with the UR 22 has been very positive, the workmanship is top-notch.
Computer: HP Compaq, i5 3.7 GHz Quadcore 16 GB RAM, 256 SSD, Windows 10
The computer was configured in such a way that only the DAW software and the plugins are installed on it. Nice and fast and stable.
Software:
DAW software:
REAPER The heart of the software is the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), i.e. the program that is used to record, cut and edit. Here I decided on REAPER because it is really affordable and is in no way inferior to the “big” DAW. Another advantage that is very important to me is that it requires relatively little computing power and space on the hard drive. Of course, I haven’t understood everything about this program by a long way, but I’m on the right track.
VST plugins:
Miroslav Philarmonik 2
Since I like to work in the classic area, I had to find a plug-in that delivers classic instruments. after some back and forth, I decided on the Miroslav. The sounds are really awesome. I just love the natural reproduction and the lovingly played instruments. The grand piano alone is incredibly good. But strings, wind instruments and a lot more are just great.
VST plug-in Native Instruments Komplete
Very good sounds, is an absolutely high-quality expansion of many standard instruments such as organ, Fender Rhodes, drums and a huge selection of synthesizers.
VST Indiginus
A great solution to implement a huge scoring relatively quickly. Conclusion: All in all small but nice. The components are well coordinated and so composing and working is a lot of fun and is not dominated by technology.