New to the Whole Music Production Scene

[tianuk3]

Hey guys!

I'm a complete newbie to all this music production stuff... but I want to start to try and makes beats and produce tracks....

My plan so far... Logic Pro... Macbook and one of these Apogee Duets...

I take it the Apogee Duet is basically the "external soundcard" which will provide input for devices such as guitar and keyboard? and produce great sound (if plugged into speakers) rather than the mediocre Macbook speakers?

What else would you recommend...could you guys recommend a good pair of headphones, a midi keyboard and what else do I need to get started? I am on a tight budget....so anything decent but cheap is what Im looking for...

Thanks for help...

 

[juxtaposer]

I posted this in the other thread but I guess this would be the best place for it...

Novation make a nice, affordable range of USB Midi Keyboards, I use the Remote 25 SL at home, and I tried the even more affordable model the Remote 25 LE and that was a brilliant Midi controller for the price. Obviously they're only 25 key models, but they do make models with 61 keys (Remote SL61).
Sennheiser make some great headphones and their HD25's are my current choice at home. They do make some more affordable models ideal for flat response monitoring.
Hope that helps, good luck tianuk

 

[tianuk3]

I posted this in the other thread but I guess this would be the best place for it...

Cheers mate.. Yeh I shouldn't have posted in the Apogee thread in the first place hehe...

Whats the main difference between the Remote 25 and the Remote 25 LE...


The Remote 25 LE would be a good choice for starting off right?

 

[juxtaposer]

Cheers mate.. Yeh I shouldn't have posted in the Apogee thread in the first place hehe...

Whats the main difference between the Remote 25 and the Remote 25 LE...


The Remote 25 LE would be a good choice for starting off right?

Well essentially they are both semi-weighted 25-key USB Midi keyboard controllers. The main reason that I chose the SL was only due to it's larger memory banks for saving controller templates, but both have a 'Logic' template as default anyway, so the LE would be fine for Logic. There are a few extra features that the SL has (dual LCD screens, sliders), but none of these will be essential if you are using Logic. The pressure sensitivity versus velocity sensitivity is another difference, but again, it probably wouldn't make a huge impact on the performance in Logic.
The LE would be a great choice for starting off with, especially with it's built in functionality with Logic. All of it's controllers (dials, pitch, mod, XY Trackpad) are fully programmable for whatever software you decide to use anyway.
Hope that helps tianuk, any other questions don't hesitate to ask
Juxtaposer

 

[Mr.Pibb]

For headphones I would get some flat frequency response headphones that are used for studio work as opposed to those DJ headphones that are EQ'ed to hell and back. I absolutely love the Sony MDR-7506's. Cost just under $100 and are great for live and studio work.

For MIDI controllers I guess I'd take a look around at some of M-Audio's stuff.

I would also recommend a 7200 rpm external firewire hard drive thats at least 500GB for all your samples, songs, loops, effects... everything. Take a look at LaCIe, Seagate, or Western Digital.

 

[tianuk3]

For headphones I would get some flat frequency response headphones that are used for studio work as opposed to those DJ headphones that are EQ'ed to hell and back. I absolutely love the Sony MDR-7506's. Cost just under $100 and are great for live and studio work.

For MIDI controllers I guess I'd take a look around at some of M-Audio's stuff.

I would also recommend a 7200 rpm external firewire hard drive thats at least 500GB for all your samples, songs, loops, effects... everything. Take a look at LaCIe, Seagate, or Western Digital.

The Remote 25 LE looks like it will be my midi keyboard controller of choice, thanks Juxtaposer Still contemplating which mic (im guessing i should get an unbalanced mic as i will be getting the Apogee Duet?) and headphones.

Just a small question, I know I asked this before but would the Macbook in your opinion (after the recent upgrade) be perfectly suitable for production? as long as i put in a 7200rpm drive and 2gb of ram that is.
Any other tips or advise Juxtaposer?

 

[juxtaposer]

The Remote 25 LE looks like it will be my midi keyboard controller of choice, thanks Juxtaposer Still contemplating which mic (im guessing i should get an unbalanced mic as i will be getting the Apogee Duet?) and headphones.

Just a small question, I know I asked this before but would the Macbook in your opinion (after the recent upgrade) be perfectly suitable for production? as long as i put in a 7200rpm drive and 2gb of ram that is.
Any other tips or advise Juxtaposer?

Hey there tianuk3. To answer your question about the Macbook, yes it would be perfectly suitable for production. The 7200rpm drive and 2gb RAM should help to future-proof the Macbook, depending on what kind of production you will end up moving into. Saying that, so far I haven't had any problems with this current Macbook (5400rpm/1gb RAM) that I've got on loan until my SR Macbook arrives. But with the upgraded HDD and RAM, you should have yourself a brilliant, portable production suite.
As regards Microphones, the one's we use at work are all Rode's. Have never had a problem with sound quality and clarity. Even the more affordable models are absolutely great for clear vocal work. The 'Rode NT1A' is a nice, affordable condenser mic. Having used it in the past on a couple of occasions, I can safely say from experience that if I was in the market for an affordable vocal mic, that is the one that I would go for.
Headphones are difficult to recommend, as it is mostly personal taste. Also, headphones aren't exactly perfect for monitoring (but can obviously be useful if you get the urge to record late at night and you have miserable/pre-menstrual/violent neighbours), so just make sure you get a set that are flat-response to minimise your time spent at the mixing desk wondering why the levels are 'just a little bit off'. Obviously the recommended brands would be Sony/Sennheiser/AKG. So go crazy and pick the prettiest of the bunch
Hope that helps, have fun and good luck,
Juxtaposer