The most important purchase was Millennia HV-3C mic pre amp. I've been using RME Fireface 400's internal mic pres for now and I felt that the quality could be improved with this baby here. I wasn't wrong. This mic pre sounds quite smooth, transparent and natural :) I'm currently using it with my AKG C414XLS and DPA 4091, but I'm planning on buying Gefell UM930 as my main mic for most duties and a matched pair of Gefell M300's for stereo recording. I would imagine HV-3C and the Gefells would be a killer combo.
I also purchased Expert Sleepers ES-3 ADAT to CV converter (Eurorack module) to be used with MOTU Volta. These allow me to have sample accurate control and timing with my Eurorack modular synth. The super tight timing is really important if you write dance floor stuff like electro-house etc.
Expert Sleepers ES-3:
MOTU Volta:
Sennheiser HD25-1 II Pro headphones will be used from now on for tracking and headphone mix checking. They're closed back models so they don't bleed out sound to the mic during tracking vocals and acoustic instruments.
And finally: Larrivee B-03RE acoustic bass. I've wanted to buy a good acoustic bass for years now. I'm not much of a bass player, but I like the idea of just sitting on my couch, computer turned off, and composing new music with it. I'm also going to incorporate it into some of my dance floor productions. I'm thinking of using it for progressive/electro-house genres as well as more traditional groovy trip-hop and so on.
Hey man, I'm really digging your blog. Does the ES-3 send out just CV voltages or both, CV- and Gate voltages? And why did you choose Volta, isn't Silent Way better and cheaper?
ReplyDeleteThese days I don't use the Volta anymore. Silent Way seems to do everything much better and more reliably than Volta. So I've switched to Silent Way.
ReplyDeleteES-3 is capable of sending anything you feed to it: CV/Gate/Audio... It's a very handy module to have. Highly recommended!
Thanks mate, I also like your API2500 & Distressor demo. I found you on Gearslutz, I will show you in the next days how close I can match similar results by using plugins. An API 2500 + Distressor is around 4000.-€ in Germany, that's like 4 powerful computers, way too much for me.
ReplyDeleteYou can probably get quite close with SW compressors if you really tweak the sound. Where API2500 and Distressor shine is the breadth of material and parameters they work on fabulously.
ReplyDeleteI you're ever going to buy a high end HW compressor for drums, I can highly recommend the Distressor as the first choice. It works great on pretty much all material you feed it (single hits and drum buss) and can easily add that bite into the sound. Even with 14dB gain reduction it still sounds full and powerful.
API2500 on the other hand is more of a "make it a tight and clean sounding package" type of a compressor. It's nice for all kinds of jobs but you can quite quickly hear the sound losing it's fullness once you apply a few dB of gain reduction. So it's a compressor for a careful guy :)
Thanks for your reply Kraku! I hope you don't mind using your files. Here is the thread that I announced recently: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/643687-hardware-api-2500-vs-waves-api-2500-edm-samples-hear-action.html
ReplyDeleteNo problem :)
ReplyDelete