What would your setup look like if you could only spend ~300€/$

[paradisebunny]

I am not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this question, but I was wondering how you all would spend your resources if you were just starting out / going legit / rebuilding from scratch. I played guitar in bands all my life and only recently rediscovered my love for computer based music writing / recording, etc and was absolutely amazed of how much mileage I got out of my limited budget. I mean compare the power of this setup with the price of a decent guitar & amp.

I just thought I'd make a post to encourage people to explore the marketplace and what minimal investment gets you on top of the excellent free stuff that is already out there. So with no further ado, my setup:

(see screenshot because code formatting display doesn't show table properly)


It is important to keep in mind that Ableton Live Intro comes without a bunch of important stock plugins (e.g. The Glue, EQ8, some delays etc). So far I haven't run into trouble with the 16 track limitation, in fact it has helped me as a creative limitation! You could also add another 100€ to this budget for a used interface and a budget mic, I still had my ancient M-Audio Fastrack and my old AKG Dynamic Mic flying around. This is also the only problem I have with this setup: Preamp and Mic are quite noisy and the stock Noise Gate in Ableton can't really cope with the hiss without sounding really choppy in betwenn vocal lines. Any tipps to improve on this software wise?

[whyterabbyt]

If you're really going from scratch, what sort of computer, audio interface and monitors do you get for the remaining $4??

[paradisebunny]

well, if you really wanted to be hardcore you could make it a round 500 and include used interface, mic, headphones and laptop in there, but i was thinking if you have some way of viewing this forum and take an interest in music at all, you can take some basics for granted. but it is true, using my hifi system and headphones for audio is far from ideal, but it is not keeping me from being productive at all. It's probably nothing a bit of EQing cant fix when getting a master.

[Michael L]

How can money be a meaningful measure of musical enjoyment? How do you calculate the "opportunity cost" of saving money on gear but dealing with noisy preamps, microphones, and choppy vocal lines? I think you have the cart before the horse.

[Aloysius]

[whyterabbyt]

'Emerson' Moog Modular (marketplace : £7.50)
4 fully loaded Kyma systems (marketplace : £1.29 each)
Autographed photo of Trent Reznor (£275)

[paradisebunny]

Michael, I absolutely agree with you! My point is that by selling a mere two guitar pedals I was able to explore a whole new dimension of sonic possibilities that had completly dropped of my radar. I have not taken any interest in gear in the past ten years mostly playing Jazz and felt a bit stuck in my musical development. The amount of expressivity that is possible these days just absolutely baffles me as opposed to the days when I started out making music. This post was meant to encourage people to dip their toes into this world and outlining how far you can get on a tight budget. I would have loved information like this as teenager, when I didn't know where to start and where to invest my limited ressources.

[paradisebunny]

Just so that you understand where I am coming from: I am a live musician first, since that is where i get most of my musical enjoyment and this particular video inspired me to investigate the computer as a live performance tool. and it has been a very rewarding expanding of my own musical horizon.

https://youtu.be/MxicMk0Jq7E?t=3

[slipstick]

It's quite interesting to think back to what I did spend.

$60 for Reaper DAW which also sorts out almost all the effects I need
The other effects and all instruments are freeware.
I already had a Yamaha electronic keyboard that works as a MIDI keyboard, an old NAD hi-fi amp and Mission speakers that are fine for monitoring and an old SM58 mic.

I did lash out on a used Focusrite interface for about $50 IIRC.

So I've got $190 still to spend. Of course it all depends where you're starting. If you're already some sort of musician you'll have quite few things that will come in useful. If you're really starting from nothing then keyboard/monitors/headphones/mic(s) are going to cost a bit.

Steve

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Nektar Impact GX 61 - £91
logic Pro X - £199

Total - £290

[sprnva]

Throw in a copy of Computer Music magazine as well. That gets you access to all the plugins in the CM Vault. Some good stuff there.

[paradisebunny]

you both make a great point that it is probably smart to go for a fully featured daw first to cover all the bases. that just didnt work for me since i was really interested in the live and improvisational aspects of ableton live, but the standard version which would be the most affordable comes without any softsynths and I would rather go for the suite once i can justify it .

[Zexila]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Logic-Express-9 ... SwnNBXUNMy + some freebies. Would add Zebra probably and have fun again.

[paradisebunny]

I've got a question about the Computer Music magazine: is it possible to buy a digital copy somewhere online and have the same access? All I can find are physical copies which would have to be shipped to me since I live Berlin/Germany. Edit: found a way!

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Throw in a copy of Computer Music magazine as well. That gets you access to all the plugins in the CM Vault. Some good stuff there.

If you're talking to me, I'm fine. Logic has all I need.

I'd probably spend the last ten on mangos or watermelon