Gear


Gear

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What is gear?
The word gear usually refers to whatever produces sound - In my world, it is mostly electronic devices, computers, and software.

Why is it important?

In the absence of real music skills and any ability to play a real music instrument whatsoever (like it is the case with me) the only sound I can produce is the sound of my gear. An this is a critical difference between real musicians and electronic projects like Inphal - the latter do not have their own sounds, they sound like whatever synth boxes they have at the moment. And very often the character of the sound is dictated more by fashion than anything else. This is (fortunately, I hope) not the case with Inphal - I do not care about fashion because I do not have to sell the results my labors. So, I allow my equipment to age gracefully and stick with the gear that proved itself useful.

But, again, there is no such thing as too much gear.

Hardware

		This is just a simplest mixer one could get for the studio work - Samson PL-1204 (mixers for a live performance are another category). My set-up has several sources of sound that are described in more details below: A-90EX keyboard Roland XV-3080 synth Waldorf Q synth Poly Evolver Computer's sound card They all have to be plugged somewhere for me to be able to hear them and this is what the mixer does: it combines all the sounds all the other boxes make. I also use it to produce recording of all hardware synths (software's output is already on the computer).

		The Waldorf Q rack is an analog modeling synth - the long time dream of mine. It has plenty of knobs and buttons to mess with the sounds it produces. This box, probably, has the greatest "play value" of anything I own.

		Poly Evolver Rack from the esteemed synth designer Dave Smith. Great hybrid box with true analog and digital circuits. It sounds great and weird, but I wish it either had more knobs and buttons on the front panel or more convenient MIDI implementation.

		My "workhorse" is Roland XV-3080 - a sample playback synthesizer that contains most of the basic orchestral and electronic sounds. It's simple and versatile, has a lot of built-in sound effects. Everything that comes from it sounds somewhat more real than from anything else in my set-up.

		The Samson Servo-260 amplifier amplifies whatever comes out of the mixer, so I can hear what I'm doing.

		My main keyboard and MIDI controller is a legendary A-90EX thing - the cheapest keyboard with the key action undistinguishable from a real piano (for a non-professional, of course). It also has a small built-in synth that produces great keyboard sounds: pianos, organs, harpsichords, etc.

		My secondary MIDI controller is an Axiom 25, whose main advantage is its size - actually, the lack thereof. It fits on my desk and can be easily removed when not needed. It has knobs, buttons, pads - all programmable and very convenient, especially for playing soft synths.

		This is a very, very convenient "splitter" for MIDI messages - called MIDI interface/patcher in music lingo. Usually one can daisy chain all of the availalbe MIDI gear and configure each box to respond only to its assigned channels (major hassle, believe me - I suffered for full 6 years!). The Edirol UM-880 allows each MIDI device to have all 16 channels for itself. It sounds deceptively simple, but in reality there are good reasons for these beasts to exist.

		This is just a rack-mounted power strip Sampson PS-9. Does not do anything sound-wise despite claims to the contrary by the manufacturer, but adds a lot of convenience - if nothing goes right it's easy to stop it all, just one button.

A PC		The computer is the heart of it all, but compared to all other hardware it's nothing look at: gray box is a gray box, not really an eye candy. I assembled it myself from the components. Not a big deal, really.

		The TerraTec's Phase 28 is just a sound card - a device that makes computer to produce sound. The card has a multitude of connections and generally it's a good value. Unfortunately, the drivers are buggy and the tech support is very, very slow - must be German unionized workforce or something.

Software

		The Sonar is billed by the manufacturer as a "multitrack digital recording system" which means a sequencer on steroids. It can do both MIDI and loops, and it has a DXi plug-in architecture for expansion. It's my "everyday" (or more precisely, every-session, I cannot do it every day) arranging and recording environment.

		The Band-in-a-Box program compensates for my lack of counterpoint education and ability: it provides auto-accompanement for a given chord progression along with improvisation, harmonization, etc. I usually do not use the result directly, especially drum tracks. But sometimes it produces amazing riffs that I cut and paste unchanged.

		The Project5 program is another crutch for the musically impaired - it helps to whip out cool grooves in no time at all. Whatever its shortcomings are - and there are plenty - it is much more fun than any other software in my library. I start it when I have a writers block and this toy usually unstucks me.

		The Pentagon I from rgcAudio is an analog modeling DXi software synth that plugs into the Sonar. It has plenty of cool sounds and every knob on the picture has a double function. Unfortunately it eats up a lot of CPU cycles, but it sounds great.

		The z3ta+ from rgcAudio is, probably, one of the most potent software synths available. It developed a cult-like following and I am admitting to be a member of this cult. If you are uncertain, that you can write an electronic music, but are willing to try, get this piece of software first. Granted, it will not sound like you - it sounds like its creator René Ceballos, but it will show what is possible!

		The DimensionPro from the same guys (i.e., René Ceballos and Cakewalk, whch acquired rgcAudio and René) is another René's masterpiece! It somewhat less convenient than, say, z3ta+, but its sounds are really, really deep.