conyeezy

I'm hoping to pick up a Blackstar 20w later this year, but I've been using amp/cab sims for years and have little complaint. NI's Guitar Rig is good for effects and Waves GTR has some good amp sims, seriously. Think about the sheer amount of value you are getting for the low cost on either of those products. I will say that I've been using my ElevenRack almost exclusively for a few months now and am madly in love with it. It is all emulation, but whatever algorithms they are using are far above and beyond the competition. If I still played live then I'd add a GroundControl to it as well but for studio work the editor in Pro Tools is quite convenient. I should also mention that I have the Sweetwater presets as well as the official expansion.

As someone who makes their living selling audio gear I can personally attest to many tales of people pirating anything and everything they can get their hands on to save a couple bucks. You might have found $25,000 worth of cracked plugins, but if their net worth to YOU is zero (because you didn't pay anything), then their net value to you is zero as well. It radically disincentivizes (Did I make that word up? We'll never know) the end user to learn how to use their gear when it is treated as a disposable commodity. Don't get me wrong, I know some people with racks full of Manley preamps and Lexicon reverbs that can't work a mix to save their life, but the percentage of people with that calibre of gear who suck at mixing is extremely low. On the other hand, I know a massive amount of people who pirate their DAW and plugins and are content with a $100 condenser and a $100 interface. These guys generally don't have a clue how a compressor works, would rather use their eyes than their ears for EQ, and couldn't give you a definition of "mastering" if you offered them real studio time. Saying that you're taking money out of the wallets of the developer isn't necessarily true, although I know it can feel that way to them. I'm sure most pirates would say that they just wouldn't have bought the software to begin with if they had to. At the end of the day, you need to value people's time and expertise. Their time and expertise created the tools available to us to create music and we should feel personally obligated to support them in their craft. That's how a market works - you have the luxury of being able to decide who you want to support with your money, and not supporting those you don't want to. If you hate Pro Tools, don't buy it. If you think Omnisphere is the most amazing software since Giga, then buy it. The reality of the situation is that software developers, more than anyone, have to learn to compete with a free alternative; namely, pirated copies of their own product. No-one has figured out the perfect solution, but adding value and support is the easiest way of going about it, I think. I'm not here to preach the gospel of my employer, but that is most definitely our business model and it is working out extremely well. Sorry for the rambling!

Looks like an M-Audio Profire2626, but I could be wrong...

+1 to both of the below comments! Even miniscule changes to velocity can have a dramatic effect on how the music is received. I will add that reverb can go a long way to livening up any sampled/synthesized instruments. Don't go overboard, obviously, but a touch here and there helps immensely. Add some width to your mixes by experimenting heavily with pan control and multiple takes of the same instrument. Overdubs and automation will thicken up your mix significantly.

Nope. You can barely get a "good quality" wired microphone for twice that, and that's only really dynamics. You can probably get a Nady wireless set for dirt cheap at the Shack, but I wouldn't necessarily expect too much out of it.

Too easy man... Grab something you've been working on, some demo or WIP, and send it to me. I'll put ya to work

As a rapper, I often find myself with writer's block. It helps to force yourself into the studio, honestly. I like to set aside a few hours on a saturday morning and lock myself in the lab with some coffee and just start writing to whatever beats I have available, even if it's not the greatest stuff I've ever written. At least it keeps me from getting rusty, and there are always ideas and concepts I can take away from the practice session. The only real musical inspiration I can truly preach is to collaborate with other musicians. It's one thing to try to force inspiration when you're alone, but it tends to flow more naturally if you have another musician next to you with an instrument and just start bouncing ideas off of each other. Make a schedule where you get with a friend and force yourselves to do a barebones sketch of at least one song every time you're together.

Let's keep in mind that even 8" monitors aren't necessarily going to give you a lot of low frequency extension and when mixing, you're looking for accuracy in your monitors, and BX5A's (of which I have a pair as near-fields) actually seem to overemphasize the low end...The ideal here should be getting mixes that translate well to other systems, so accuracy in your monitors should be prized over them "sounding" a certain way. You might come across people raving about their "terrible-sounding" monitors, and this is what they actually mean. Adding a sub like the SBX10 would certainly give you more thump and kick when you're listening but that doesn't really mean you'll have a more accurate representation of what's going on in the mix. Treating your room properly will give you significantly more benefit per dollar than dropping money on alternate monitors or a sub. Do you have any acoustic treatment in your room?

yep, married for almost two years, blessed with a daughter and hoping for more

hiphop, hiphop, hiphop, as always... i'm always looking for beats, as i have so many disparate projects i'm working on! i've got a lot of ideas for some ska and punk stuff too, but until i get out from under this mountain of hiphop, it'll stay on the backburner

i'm with ghetto on this one - the BLUE snowball will give you better results than any 100$ condenser i am familiar with... more presence, no brittle high-end to it, and it's extremely convenient. i mean, ideally you'd have separate components for your signal chain (mic, pre, converter, interface, etc), but for 100$ or less, the snowball is honestly the best option on the market.

for under 100$, i don't think you'll honestly find a better bang-for-the-buck package than elements... even if you only end up using and enjoying 1/10th of what's in it, you'll have a much greater appreciation for what you'll want to invest in for the future, and that has value in itself

long time no post, but i'll have some significant upgrades and photos in a few months when i get everything together... i bought a house, so i'm no longer making music in the old apartment, haha i got rid of the dbx 162sl and have added a digi elevenrack and waves GTR to the mix. come early next year, i'm adding a manley voxbox and blue kiwi, swapping out my crap cme midi keyboard for a novation sl-mk2, and possibly investing in some new monitors (thinking m-audio dsm-2)... i'm debating on moving from my emu 1616m to a lynx aurora-8, but i don't really need the extra outputs until i get a summing amp, i think, and i'd rather add a dedicated clock into the mix first as well i'll have photos once all my crap arrives, and maybe i'll have a nice desk then too, haha

well, it's designed to give realistic guitar 'feel,' if that makes sense... anything that would be impossible to play on a real guitar is impossible to play on this as well. because you're getting 'clean' tone (altho you can alternate tunings, pickups, etc), any tone modification needs to come from dedicated effects processors. all that said, match this with your effects of choice (for me, guitar rig 4 or digi's eleven), and you're getting the absolute most realistic guitar sounds outside of real life. i play the majority of my guitar stuff, but if i'm looking for ultra-technical playing or attempting a genre outside my comfort zone, i use electri6ity and just program it.