Brand New Studio/Rig/Setup

[biru]

Hi everyone.

I have been off the forum for about 6 months thanks to a sudden, involuntary loss of all of my music kit and DJ stuff. I moved cities for work over the Christmas period but due to catastrophic flooding cutting off the route between my old city and my new home, the moving company couldn't transport the container of my belongings.

So they left it sitting in their storage yard, which was about 50 metres from another waterway which proceeded to flood thanks to another bout of 30 year flooding.

So basically in January, I lost almost everything I owned including keyboards, controllers, mixers, computers, etc. Here's a picture of the previous setup.



Now at the end of May I have finally finished the warranty process with the transport company and am about to receive a payout from them, and will be dropping a tidy bundle on new kit.

I have been researching this pretty heavily for a few months because it's not too often you get handed a bunch of cash. Plus, I am working on tune production with a friend and he has some kit as well which will be going into my spare room (soon to be called "the studio"). I rent an apartment, so I will also be doing some acoustic treatments (which will NOT be 'installed' as my landlord won't even let me hang pictures, let alone bass traps).

I thought I'd start a thread and document the process and ask some questions about some things I'm not familar with, as well as share some expertise I do have through 10-15 years of music and event production.

Yes, this is kind of bloggy but I figure some people here will be interested and I can ask/answer questions about the logistics of this whole sh'bang.


Gear Shopping List

There are two rigs to be put together: Production Rig & DJing Rig. And then there's some general studio kit, and the stuff we already have.

Production Rig

• Apple Mac Mini (2.66GHz Intel Core 2Duo/8GB/320GB)
• 2 x 24" LCD Widescreen Monitor
• Logic Pro
• Nexus & Vanguard
• Keyboard w/Numeric Keypad & Magic Touchpad

DJing Rig

• MacBook 13" (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/4GB/500GB)
• NI Kontrol X1
• NI Traktor Pro
• Pioneer DJM-800

Studio Kit

• 2 x Yamaha HS 80M Monitor
• Mackie Big Knob

Existing Kit

• 2 x Edirol Speaker
• Access Virus Indigo v2
• Novation Nio 2|4 Audio Interface (for DJ rig)
• Moto 828 mk2 Audio Interface (for production rig)
• M-Audio 49 Controller Keyboard

QUESTION : Is it possible to run my Traktor library off a laptop's 5400rpm internal hard disk? I used to used Ableton to DJ with but because it streamed off the drive, it wouldn't run properly off the internal without glitching.

Anyways, that's the first post. Next post is going to be about the room itself, and what we've got to do about the sound in it.

[Bisimoto]

i run my tracks from a 13'' mbp like the one you want and i never had a bug

good luck lookin forward to seeing the development !!!

[biru]

i run my tracks from a 13'' mbp like the one you want and i never had a bug

Sweet! I'm only looking at the regular MacBook however that's good to know. Only got two USB outs and with the audio and X1 they're spoken for.

[zestoi]

nice mc303 u used to have. that's the only bit of kit i didn't sell when i sold off all my studio gear a few years ago. i know it's more of a toy than anything but i like it for being a kind of "musical scratchpad". i used to have a mackie as a secondary mixer to my "old but good but way too big" soundtracs 16:8:16. ah... those were the days... sorry for being bugger all help but reading that made me think about the good old days. also sold off my 1200's at the time which was a mistake probably... even though they wouldn't get much use any more.

[biru]

nice mc303 u used to have. that's the only bit of kit i didn't sell when i sold off all my studio gear a few years ago. i know it's more of a toy than anything but i like it for being a kind of "musical scratchpad".

Pretty cut about losing that - I used to use the drum sequencer in it all the time. And I used to use it in my day job to teach about step sequencing. Unfortunately, the insurance company only valued it at $400 and I doubt I'd be able to find one on eBay in the condition mine was in (vintage perfect). It had a dust cover and everything (dust cover off an old lighting console from some theatre rebuild).

Good times. Especially that pointless "bass boost" knob at the back.

[zestoi]

i'd completely forgotten about the "bass boost" button

a quick look on uk ebay show's mc303's going for only about 150gbp. not too bad depending on the condition i guess?

i remember i had mine on preorder for ages and was lucky to be one of the first to get one in the uk. used to love the arp though having more fun with the one in reason now i guess.

edit: released in 1996 according to wikipedia? wow that was a while ago then...

[VirtualLogic]

How do u find the notation 2¦4 ? How do u have it setup for djing ?

[biru]

How do u find the notation 2¦4 ? How do u have it setup for djing ?

My old setup used to be using Ableton as my playback for DJing - would have two tracks set to outputs 1-2 and 3-4 of the nio 2|4 which then went into my Xone:22. I would then use the launchpad as a trigger pad to control the activation of the slots and just use the filters, EQ and cross faders on the Xone.

A friend pointed out to me that I was basically using Ableton like Traktor and I should try that out, which is why my new setup is going to be Traktor based.

Only thing is, I'm still tossing up between a DJM-800 and a Xone:42.

Pros for DJM800 : Industry standard, easy to use.
Cons for DJM800 : EQs aren't total kill, going to be using Traktor fx anyways and I've heard that the sound quality is average.

Pros for Xone42 : I love the filters (especially for long mixes), sound quality is superb.
Cons for Xone42 : Not that common in clubs.

I'm leaning towards the Xone but the lure of the DJM800 as the "industry standard" is tempting...

[VirtualLogic]

could i set it up so one channel on the back is my main output and one of the headphone outputs as my headphone cue ???

[biru]

could i set it up so one channel on the back is my main output and one of the headphone outputs as my headphone cue ???

Absolutely. It allows you to switch which inputs you are monitoring so you can listen to either outputs 1-2 or 3-4.