Starting producing

[rapture]

My other half wants to get into producing and now has the cash to get himself a studio set up. He's looking to produce hard trance and hardstyle.

He has me to ask you lovely people for some general advice on where to go to get all the equipment and what exactly does he need?

He wants to get everything he needs (pretty much) as he knows he won't have the cash to add any more on and would like to get as much as he can now.

Can he go somewhere and buy a PC with all the software required already installed?

[dee]

if i was him i would get a carilon audio system pc from carilon(forgotten web site add) and they do pc with bundle software ,i got mine 2 years ago from there cost me £1,700 and it came with cubase vst,halion,e-lab sound bancks,shit loads of vst effects and instruments well worth it

also try v-station soft synth (love this programme)

[EmotionComplex]

if your just starting out then i reccomend getting a failry powerful pc something like a p4 2Ghz or higher with about 512mb ram + a decent soundcard such as a m audio audiophile or equivalent for around the 120 mark. and get hold of some trial versions of software you might want such as cubase, reason, fruity loops etc, spend a few months or so getting to grips with what suits you best then make your descision what to buy, pourposly built music pcs can offer advantages but realistaclly for starting out it really doesnt matter and youl probobly get one for a few hundred less which you can put towards any vsts/software you might wish to buy in the future.

As for buying as much as you can all at once idont think thats a good idea really as you dont know what you need till you reach a point were you require a solution then you find the peice of equipment/software that will function to provide that solution.

hope that helps in some way :)

[rapture]

if i was him i would get a carilon audio system pc from carilon(forgotten web site add) and they do pc with bundle software ,i got mine 2 years ago from there cost me £1,700 and it came with cubase vst,halion,e-lab sound bancks,shit loads of vst effects and instruments well worth it

also try v-station soft synth (love this programme)

Is this the site?

http://www.carillondirect.com

[dee]

try www.turnkey.com or just type carilon in google

[Basil Rush]

Don't forget to get some decent speakers!

Mackie HR624s or 824s are the pick of the bunch without spending mega money; skimp on the speakers and you'll struggle to get it to sound perfect.

Also decent convertors help with monitoring ... never work off a soundblaster or some cheap sound card. You don't need to spend much mind you I've got the audiophile something or the other that Emotion mentioned that cost me 120 quid and sounds pretty close to the PT HD rig under all but the most intense scruteny (sp?).

PC with Cubase or Mac with Logic Audio seem to be the options. I'm a Mac/logic fan myself but oads of people here use Cubase. If you can get a supported one with it already installed and the soundcard installed you can save yourself a lot of headaches that get in the way of producing music. Carillion as mentioned are the top of the range for PCs in studios as far as I can tell, also worth mentioning are the ones made by Digital Village and Millenium.

[dee]

Is this the site?

http://www.carillondirect.com[/quote]

yes thats the site :)

[duncandisorderly]

PC with Cubase or Mac with Logic Audio seem to be the options. I'm a Mac/logic fan myself but oads of people here use Cubase. If you can get a supported one with it already installed and the soundcard installed you can save yourself a lot of headaches that get in the way of producing music. Carillion as mentioned are the top of the range for PCs in studios as far as I can tell, also worth mentioning are the ones made by Digital Village and Millenium.

just to be different. i run a pc with logic. cant get any new versions but the last one they released has all the bits you need built in. specifically the awesome tape delay with the old dub reggae delay emulator ... oh my gosh awesome stuff!

along with cubase sx 2.2 / sound forge 7 / wave lab 4 / and trusty old acid 4.0 for looping stuff and getting it in time before importing to logic to make it sound good...

[John Ferraris]

I dunno if i agree with getting a powerful computer when just starting out. I'd say buy a cheap-ass second-hand one for say £150-250 and use that until he outgroes it. Problem with getting a fat computer is say, 1 year down the line when he's really starting to use the potential of the computer it will be out of date. Worse still, if he doesn't think its his thing he's just spent a hell of a lot of money. I'd say the same for speakers. Although the difference between cheap PC speakers and expensive monitors is vastly significant, at this stage its negilble in the beginning IMO. I'm saying this based on my own experience so I'm sure everyone does things differently so do what you thinks best.