Hi everyone,

I'm currently trying to take my productions to the next level and I'm not quite sure what equipment (plugins, interfaces and so on) I should invest in. I'm hoping to get some advice from the community here.

Here's what I have so far:

• iMac - Studio one 6.1.1
• JBL 308p
• Novation Launchkey 49 MK3
• Volt 476
• Esp -Telecaster
• Fender Jazz Bass
• Warm audio - Wa-47jr Condenser Mic

Plugins - UAD - Pure Plate Verb
LA-2A Collection

Plugin Alliance - Townhouse Comp - Amek 250 - Amek 9099 BAX EQ - Knifonium - Lindell MBC - SBC - MC77 - SPL Iron - Shadow hills (Green One)

SSL - All the fusion plugins - Vocal Strip 2 - X valve Comp - X - Saturator

I don't have much synths (just cracked ones) I was thinking about buying that UAD Creative Edition (Is it worth it?)

I'm wondering what else I should add to the mix to improve my workflow and the overall quality of my productions. I'm open to suggestions for hardware, software, or anything else that might be useful.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards,

Tayh

I have 700$ to buy some new things

 

Last edited: Apr 18, 2023

have you done anything to the room acoustics ?

 

Yeah. I do have good rooms in my Studio

 

okay , maybe some nice Headphones ?

 

Well what kind of music are you going to use your studio for?

I'd say microphones, cables, maybe some cheap-ish instruments. But that could be more or less important depending on the kind of music you're going to work with.

For that money, i'd go with a fairly decent mic, and the best chair you can find with what's left.

 

Keep your money in the bank. I have just about one of everything anyone could possibly want in my room (at least 14 synths) and a rack of outboard gear, a selection of great microphones, plus as @mk_96 pointed out, I have a really nice chair. This year, I have been enforcing a self imposed rule.....use the "in the box" abilities of my studio to the full. I spent the last 5 years thinking the solution to my lack of musical expansion was due to a lack of equipment. Turns out the blockage was in my head. GAS is real kids! Don't mess with it or you'll be addicted for life.

 

R&B, Hip Hop, Trap, Pop and Rock. I have a warm audio Wa-47jr and I also have a great headphone

 

Damn. That was a wise answer. Thanks

 

In that case yeah, get yourself a good chair, save the rest. Looks like you have the basics covered, the rest will pop up in time and you'll want to have money for that (it's probably not going to be related to gear at all).

 

I'd suggest a Townsend mic to broaden your mic collection but I forgot UAD opened up their platform so I'm not sure if you have the necessary equipment to use it or not but that's what I'd get

 

I'd look at alternatives to the Jazz bass.
I got a Cort 5 string A5 Ultra Ash with Fishman Fluence soapbar pickups that give you half a dozen sound variations for 1399 Cdn from Thomann.
I also have the Fluence pickups on my Jackson Dinky zebra.
Nothing like them at the price.

 

%

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jul 17, 2023

Think now is the time for unpopular purchases, improving your room acoustics, that will not render your music better all of sudden, but at least you will be able to hear everything properly and work easily without guesswork, after you sort that out, than purchasing higher quality monitors will make much more sense. Than you will be able to appreciate every small improvement in every aspect, like new audio interface and so on.

There's solutions like IK ARC, also virtual headphone mixing solutions like Realphones, VSX and etc, do check those out.

Investing in knowledge is another unpopular one, patching your skills, especially if you are doing it all alone, mixing is art form for itself, you can always improve in that regard. But all the improvements will seek to patch some other things up too, like unpopular room acoustics issue.

Pair of Auratone's may not seem like a big deal, but that mid range focus is maybe just the ticked for getting better mixes than translate even better, especially in genres you are interested that have so much focus on low end and you sitting in front of speakers that take away your focus easily too.

There's series of streams from one of the most famous urban mixers, mixedbyAli, where you can see him mixing music on the spot, his work ethics, how he approaches everything, how he use that same plugins you got to solve problems and all that, really amazing stuff to watch, here's just one stream, you will find others on that same channel.

Hope this all helps, good luck with your journey.

 

Damn. No words to thank you enough bro. God bless

 

Looks like you've got things pretty much sorted for now, only buy something if you run into limitations of your existing gear would be my advice.

But there's two things: backup... and backup. Something like a solid external drive _and_ a cloud backup. Unless you've got terabytes of material, then this can be had for free or cheap. Never ever skimp on the backup.

Better speakers are always nice of course, and then when working in ITB you can't go wrong with some solid MIDI controllers... a keyboard with transport/jog/knobs for instance, and a MIDI drum pad controller. Or a footpedal so you can record without hands. And and...

But I think these are entirely optional if you're happy otherwise. Maybe save for a rainy day in case your computer goes tits up. But again... backup! It's a thing like sunscreen, you'll regret if you don't use it and you realize that perhaps you should have

 

The first thing I would buy if you, would be the Logic book by David Nahmani.

 

What about a Hardware Synth for Sound Design?

https://www.thomann.de/gb/korg_ms_20_mini.htm

https://www.thomann.de/gb/arturia_microfreak.htm

https://www.thomann.de/gb/korg_micro_korg.htm

 

A lava lamp if you ever wish a song or album to go platinum. Without one you're a loser.

 

To my experience, the most unpopular purchase in the audio world are books about audio fundamentals.

 

Maybe a DAW controller, ie. X-Touch, Icon, SSL?