Your first real working home studio

[IncarnateX]

90s were the workstation era to me. I had ambitions to become a filmcomposer, and workstations were the key to that. Romplers were not seen as signs of bad synth engines or preset machines these days but regarded as natural progress of synth engines,

My 90s studios:

1. Ensonic 1 + Boss DR550 + Roland Sound Canvas 55
2. Ensonic 1 + Yamaha SY55 (DR550 + Sound Canvas 55 sold)
3. Yamaha SY55 + Roland W30 (Ensonic 1 sold)
4. Roland W30 + Roland JV1010 + JP8000 (Yamaha SY55 Sold)

+ some some smaller modules or effect machines that went in and out very fast and never made it in any set up. Used a Behringer 4 track mixer (2 stereo) all through the 90s, which I still got.

I was a poor student. We are not talking about big collections of synths. I had to choose the gear with care. Get the best from my money and not mess it up.

Compared to possible endless bouncing on Tascams, I just learned to work within the sequencer’s track limits. No problem really; if I needed some additional sounds, I could always lay them as kits on my W30, using one track only for several drums, effects and octaves with instrument’s sound above. No need for Tascams either. After sequencing the whole deal from W30, it just went directly to cassette.

[Hink]

I had that same model Cutec also!

felt like superman around 1983 with this and one of those yamaha drum machines that had no song capability, like 5 patterns (rock, disco, waltz, samba and something else) a couple pads on it and of course no midi.



this machine recorded and bounced, no eq not even an xlr (I needed a transformer for my sm57) but it was reported to have amazing heads and it did sound good. I had my little bottles and swabs, took the cover off the transport and cleaned it daily like it was a tascam r2r and I was a serious engineer

the cool kids had the best toys Gary

[jancivil]

I was MIA the entire decade of the 90s except for someone else's record I was the emergency writer and guitarist for. 1997.
We did it in a state-of-the-art studio but the guy ran out of money and had Don Falcone finish it on one o' them Roland jobs. Ruining the CD, which wasn't really mastered.

I highly coveted the Yamaha QY-100 in the late 90s but never got the bread together.


I got a Pentium 4 in 2003 and finally Cubase SX1 and struggled with that for a bit, and moved on up like the Jeffersons.

[risome]

Late 80's early 90's
Tascam 4 track reel to reel
Akai S7000 sampler keyboard
Original MS-20
Roland SH-101
Roland TB-303
Korg Wavestation
Atari ST with Cubase
Roland R8 Drum Machine
Roland TR-909
Korg KMS-30
Some Kenton Midi to CV box
Yamaha NS-10's
and later a Crassio Dat Machine
The MS-20 and TB 303 are still here but have many new friends to play with now.

[IncarnateX]

the cool kids had the best toys Gary

Sure you did, guys, but it looks worrisome old now

[jancivil]

Oh, in 1981 I had my very own Teac 4-track reel to reel and I borrowed the Minimoog we bought hot back in the mid 70s for that whole murderous Charlotte summer. That is when I began composing in earnest. Actually late 1980, on another Someone Else's Minimoog (which later figured into the 1986 setup before it died) and that tape deck, and some 8 channel mixer of mine. Tascam. 4-part monophonic part-writing right to tape.

[BONES]

My first usable set-up was a Roland SH2000 and an Alpine car stereo that, weirdly, had a (preset) drum machine built into it. I quickly replaced that with a TR606 and then the first of my 303s. I used to just record to cassette on my hi-fi cassette deck.

In 1983 I decided to spend a proper wad of cash on some proper equipment, which netted me a TR707, a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder. an 8 channel Boss mixer (with bass and treble EQ!) and the second of my 303s. By then I already had a Korg Delta and MonoPoly so I was able to put down proper tracks (I just couldn't write proper songs). Shortly after that I bought a new DX9 and a used ARP Axxe. Then I got a new SH101 and that meant I never had to hear the 303 make it's awful noise again. Minus the MonoPoly, this was the set-up I used for my first live shows in 1985. It took me more than an hour to set up for a 20 minute set.

Later in 1985 I bought a little Yamaha QX7 MIDI sequencer and a Casio CZ101, which was 4 part multi-timbral, and that was it for analogue gear, including the Fostex. From then on it was digital all the way, record from the mixer straight to stereo cassette and I never looked back. The only piece of gear from those days that I sort of miss is the Delta. It was a beautiful sounding thing with a really good filter and unlimited paraphony. That said, if I had to choose I would take my old CS1x over the Delta. Nostalgia only gets you so far.

My last hardware set-up was simplicity itself - a Korg Trinity workstation with the MOSS board and multi-track recording options, plus an Ensoniq ASR-10 running through a DP/4 effects unit via a special cable that split the ASR's output. I recorded my vocals onto the multi-track, mixed the two machines through a small, rack mount mixer and then recorded the output to cassette (same JVC deck I had from the beginning). That's how we did the first thing NOVAkILL ever released, an early version of one of our songs for a compilation. After that we were ITB all the way.

[BONES]

Analog didn’t mean shit these days, but synths with midi and presets meant everything. It was the core of a working selfcontained synth studio.

Amen!

[foosnark]

Tascam Porta One.

Yeah, that was the piece of gear that first said "kind of a studio" to me. At one point I had that, a Yamaha DX-100, RX-17 drum machine, and QX-21 sequencer. I traded the DX-100 for a Korg DS-8 (because velocity and built-in delay FX, and it was much better for performing with the high school jazz band when we couldn't drag the Rhodes) and picked up an Alesis Microverb.

That was the height of my studio for a while, because at that point I was living on my own, broke as hell. I messed with Acid, Sound Forge, SoundFonts and a couple of eBay garbage synths a little bit around 1996 or so.

In 2003 I got into VST plugins and FL Studio 4, which is when I started getting a lot more serious about recording stuff. I stuck with FL Studio until about 2013 with Maschine 2.0. Got into hardware again in 2016 which led me down the Eurorack rabbit hole

[BONES]

You shouldn't mess with acid, maaaaaan, it will f**k you up for life.

[meldavid]

You shouldn't mess with acid, maaaaaan, it will f**k you up for life.

...which led me down the Eurorack rabbit hole

Follow the white rabbit!

My first proper set-up: (items in bold are still in possession, red means it's not working)

Roland XP-50 with Orchestral I & Dance Expansion board
Yamaha A3000 V2 Still works but CURSE those erroneous knobs! If had INC/DEC buttons I'd probs still be using this for drum kits and voc samples
Novation Nova desktop module
Behringer 1602a mixer
Behringer Composer Pro
Tascam Porta 3
Marantz CDR630 CD recorder

I'll see if I can dig up a pic later

[IncarnateX]

My first usable set-up was a Roland SH2000 and an Alpine car stereo that, weirdly, had a (preset) drum machine built into it.

That sounds like an unbeatable beginner’s kit, and a runner for an annual prize, if this thread ever had one.

I call THREAD CHALLENGE!

Can anyone beat BONES’ Car stereo rhythm box?

[tapper mike]

Ever since we got the Korgs with midi, our old analog gear was down the drain.

I knew that well. Mid 80'a till early 90's I had money to burn. But lack of midi no matter how fat had room in my rig.

[vurt]

You shouldn't mess with acid, maaaaaan, it will f**k you up for life.

it's the kind of thing that in later life leads to
"duuuude! you know what cars need? fuggin drum machines!"

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

You shouldn't mess with acid, maaaaaan, it will f**k you up for life.

it's the kind of thing that in later life leads to
"duuuude! you know what cars need? fuggin drum machines!"

“The door is ajar.” We pulled over and thought about that for 12 hours. “How can a door be a jar?” … “Why would they put a jar on a car?” … “Oh man, the freeway’s melting!” … “Put it in the jar.”