conyeezy

word, myf has been absent from the nerdcore boards for quite a while too, but he drops in every couple months... still waiting on his tape to drop @bgc yea, those are DSM1's... i've since dropped down to mackie near-fields, as i'm picking up the jbl lsr4's and sub for my midfields

most of the software is NOT NFR... a few softsynths and sample libraries are, but i tend to work most with the gear i've invested in i copped that e-mu 1616m a few years back when they had the PCMCIA version, and i got myself a PCI adapter for the card. i absolutely LOVE it. nice high-end a/d conversion, and the d/a conversion is nothing to sniff at either, but a miniDAC does go a long way regardless maschine is dope as hell, i need to really dig into it more, but the software is pretty intuitive (i love NI stuff), plus i've adapted it to MOTU's BPM as well i've got quite a wishlist of gear that i don't yet have, but the studio is coming along nicely at this point i'm always down for collabs if anyone needs some rapping done

http://la.gg/q.php http://la.gg/q.php plus these: software = wayyyy too much to mention - several DAWs, waves, motu, NI, etc (no, nothing cracked)

i'll second that about KRK - they used to use really nice focal drivers but for the past several years they've devolved into consumer-grade monitors up and down the line pick up some mackies or m-audios in that price range and you'll be getting the best bang for your buck

for instrumentation (esp guitar cabinets), i love my audix i5 for cheap condensers, you're really only going to start getting above 'consumer-grade' quality once you hit something like the blue baby bottle... if you are really budget-constrained, everyone could use a cheap studio projects or akg perception mic tho

for under 200$ i would get the mackie mr5's, hands down if you were to shoot a little bit higher, step up to the MR8's and throw some auralex mopads underneath them

hex tells me it was the best one yet and that the (tentative) plans for next year are ridiculous too bad i didn't make the cut this year, would've been dope to meet you IRL

audio technica ath-m50's

enough people have already mentioned the mid-range sennheisers (HD280's), and they are a good bang for the buck; they and the audio-technica atm40fs are decent starting headphones for those wanting something to mix with a great mid-range set of mixing headphones would be the audio-technica ath-m50's, and they are standard in mixing booths that do a lot of hiphop work at the really high end, the sennheiser hd650s are golden; to lithe, these are incredible for mixing work, but the key is using them in an acoustically treated environment...