The home studio of the 21st and 1/2 century!

[swords]

Well, I shot my card at Guitar Center today....

Got the laptop maxed out on Ram last week (still only 2 measly GB) and tonight filled the nearly blank hard drive with the Native Instruments Komplete Synths virtual synthesizer software box set containing their modulators: Absynth 4, FM-8, Pro 53 and Massive.

The keyboard itself is a M-Audio Axiom 61 key Midi controller which is basically a "shell" of a synthesizer, all the processing and actual "sounds" are created in the software on the laptop. Instead of having several synths like I had in the early 90s so I could have different sounds, this is basically all I'll ever need as recording, mixing and burning to master CD-R is also all done on the laptop. I mean, that's the idea, I still have to learn how to do all that. I'm use to hardware with lots of buttons with sliders and old timey transport buttons that I recognize.

I'm glad it all is working in tandem after I got it rigged up tonight since returning it isn't an option - they don't take software synths back but I could return the keyboard.

Now I can't wait to get my grubby fingers on some symphonic and ethnic virtual instrument software!

Is anyone else here doing music on the PC?

 

[rattler]

i must say......you must be a hell of a lot more talented than me........cool new toys.......

 

[swords]

Nah, I'm no more talented, I just have no "life" so I've got plenty of time to waste fooling around!

I haven't played with a synth and recording gear in quite a long time. I felt a hankering to get back into it and decided to go the newfangled technology route instead of using the stuff I'm familiar with: actual mixing board, recorder and standard synth keyboards. Always a good idea to buy stuff you have no idea how to use right? If it wasn't so space saving and have the unlimited options I would have bought the classic home studio gadgets. They have classes for playing guitar and piano, they should give classes on using virtual instruments and digital recordings. I'd pay some $ to get some one on one tutelege at a local shop to learn how to make the most of this stuff. Since the items in the photo are "it" the whole shmeal could be carried in a single keyboard gig bag if such a class could be found.

Now I just have to learn how to use it all! Guess that's why the stuff all comes with 100-200+ page books!

EDIT: can't sleep, so I'm reading the keyboard manual, it has a "Panic" button (two actually)... is that bad?