hardware always ends up more than software, and $400 for acid is really a great deal, but furnishing a studio with hands on gear doesnt have to be horribly overpriced. I tend to buy alot of my stuff on Ebay now, and while its not always the best route, as long as you dont go after very specific things (or make sure you dont get an attack of wanting it so badly you overpay for it), and going slowly, you can find alot of things at a very reasonable price.



My latest example of cheap studio hardware is a purchase of an old Silicon Graphics Indigo machine. it cost me $85 , and is now setup to do my final dat mastering from AIFF files. Its an old machine, but it has all the capabilities I require to do something as simple as master from a computer audio format direct to dat. (Does it really really fast too).



I pride myself on what can be seen as Frankenstein gear, a mess of hardware interconnected that doesnt always look like it could work, and sometimes impromptu software to patch things together that may not be possible with someone strictly focusing on music, (i like to integrate both audio and video together in as strange as possible ways) , but its in range of just about everyone.



I have copies of most of the standard in use software, and I do use them sometimes, and theres even alot of gear I havent yet been able to afford, and might never afford, but getting what might not be the latest and great eat piece of gear (i still have a roland mt-32) it still gets the job done without relying on software routines



The more I think about the significant differences between software and hardware work, I am starting to realize that software can be the easier route, and is ALWAYS the less expensive route, but for style points alone, hardware will always win.





I am such a gadget jockey.



All prices in US dollars btw. I havent gotten the hang of on the fly conversion to pounds





Mike










You go in hard, and you go in fast.Edited by: sinner at: 10/17/02 1142 am