AGF MEMBERS GEAR LIST, TUTORIAL VIDEOS, PODCASTS, & COMPREHENSIVE BEGINNERS GUIDE

[robj144]

I'm not huge into high end stuff, but I use a Alesis Multimix 8 as a USB interface and it works great. Although, it's fairly old now and there are a lot of options out there now. I also use fairly cheap mics that work well enough to me. I have a couple of AKG 200 large condensor mics that cost me about $100 each that I think work well enough and a Marantz large condensor that cost about $60. That's what I use in my home studio.

When I'm out, I used to use a Zoom R16 with those mics and that worked well. But for the past year or so I use a Tascam DR40 with a pair of Behringer C2 mics since they are very portable. Together with the internal mics, they actually do a really good job for just capturing a jam. If I wanted a higher level recording away from my home studio, I would and have used the Zoom R16 as an audio interface with a laptop and use the large condensors though. Again, the DR40 with the Behringer mics are amazingly portable and honestly do surprisingly well. And, the total price of all of it is about $250.

I also have used Adobe Audition for a while, but wanted to go up to a more complete solution and tried Samplitude a few years ago when they offered a bundle for about $150. I like the virtual instruments included with it and their sample library, but I always found the interface clunky and weird. Even after using for months, it was still clunky. Eventually, I decided to try Cakewalk by Bandlab and haven't used Samplitude much since then. Cakewalk is absolutely awesome for free. (Yeah, I know nothing is for free as they're probably selling my email address and statistics to other companies, but oh well....) Getting past my parenthetical note, it is a 100% full fledged DAW with just about every advanced editing and mastering technique you can think of... and they are updating it quite often too which is slightly unusual for freeware. And, to me, it is very straight forward to use unlike the months I used Samplitude. I honestly don't know why anyone would pay for a DAW who is starting from scratch unless you are worried about them doing shady things with your data.

In the list you have Cakewalk as free to $500. $500 was the price a few years ago before it became free. It is completely free now. Maybe you should change that?

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by robj144

I'm not huge into high end stuff, but I use a Alesis Multimix 8 as a USB interface and it works great. Although, it's fairly old now and there are a lot of options out there now. I also use fairly cheap mics that work well enough to me. I have a couple of AKG 200 large condensor mics that cost me about $100 each that I think work well enough and a Marantz large condensor that cost about $60. That's what I use in my home studio.

When I'm out, I used to use a Zoom R16 with those mics and that worked well. But for the past year or so I use a Tascam DR40 with a pair of Behringer C2 mics since they are very portable. Together with the internal mics, they actually do a really good job for just capturing a jam. If I wanted a higher level recording away from my home studio, I would and have used the Zoom R16 as an audio interface with a laptop and use the large condensors though. Again, the DR40 with the Behringer mics are amazingly portable and honestly do surprisingly well. And, the total price of all of it is about $250.

I also have used Adobe Audition for a while, but wanted to go up to a more complete solution and tried Samplitude a few years ago when they offered a bundle for about $150. I like the virtual instruments included with it and their sample library, but I always found the interface clunky and weird. Even after using for months, it was still clunky. Eventually, I decided to try Cakewalk by Bandlab and haven't used Samplitude much since then. Cakewalk is absolutely awesome for free. (Yeah, I know nothing is for free as they're probably selling my email address and statistics to other companies, but oh well....) Getting past my parenthetical note, it is a 100% full fledged DAW with just about every advanced editing and mastering technique you can think of... and they are updating it quite often too which is slightly unusual for freeware. And, to me, it is very straight forward to use unlike the months I used Samplitude. I honestly don't know why anyone would pay for a DAW who is starting from scratch unless you are worried about them doing shady things with your data.

In the list you have Cakewalk as free to $500. $500 was the price a few years ago before it became free. It is completely free now. Maybe you should change that?

I added the AKG Perception 200 and Behringer C2 to the list.

This list was intended to be for those who were contemplating getting an interface/daw combo so for that reason recorders and mixers were not included.

Cakewalk still appears to have upscale versions that are not free so I'm going to leave that as is.

[robj144]

Originally Posted by jim1960

I added the AKG Perception 200 and Behringer C2 to the list.

This list was intended to be for those who were contemplating getting an interface/daw combo so for that reason recorders and mixers were not included.

Cakewalk still appears to have upscale versions that are not free so I'm going to leave that as is.

Thanks... that's old info for Cakewalk. There are no upscaled versions now. It's 100% free.

The Zoom and Alesis can 100% be used as USB audio interfaces though.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by robj144

The Zoom and Alesis can 100% be used as USB audio interfaces though.

I don't want to get into a prolonged debate about this but the primary function of those devices is not as interfaces. The Zoom is a recorder and the Alesis is a mixer. That's not a knock on either but that is their primary intention.

I put that list together to be a helpful reference for people who want to head in a particular direction. Originally, it was just going to be a list of the DAWs and interfaces members were using. Some expansion of things peripheral to DAWs and interfaces made sense so I expanded the list to include microphones of various kinds. And then expanded it again to include outboard gear but I made the decision to limit that expansion to just preamps, compressors, and equalizers. Records and mixers head in another direction that, while related, are not really what this list was intended to cover.

Lines have to be drawn somewhere or the list becomes too large to be of any use to anyone. I put a lot of hours into querying, compiling, and sorting that information into something usable. For the reason I already stated, I don't want to make it bigger just for the sake of making it bigger.

I appreciate the input but I'm going to leave it as is.

[catdaddy]

FWIW- I use Logic Pro X as a DAW, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface, and an MXL V67 LDC mic.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by catdaddy

FWIW- I use Logic Pro X as a DAW, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface, and an MXL V67 LDC mic.

I added your gear to the list.

[jim1960]

A new section with recommended tutorial videos has been added to the Masterlist. It can be found at the bottom of post #2.

Thank you to the members who helped build the list!

[rick-slo]

Don't see much in the box effects (digital VSTs for example) listed for things such as compression, reverb, equalization. Mostly in the box is how most people work these days.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Don't see much in the box effects (digital VSTs for example) listed for things such as compression, reverb, equalization. Mostly in the box is how most people work these days.

Nothing on reverbs yet but there are a bunch of videos on compression and EQ. I'm not sure what you're specifically saying is missing.

Edit: Since I already had some videos picked out, I added a Reverb section.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Nothing on reverbs yet but there are a bunch of videos on compression and EQ. I'm not sure what you're specifically saying is missing.

Edit: Since I already had some videos picked out, I added a Reverb section.

Lists of in the DAW VST type choices in equalizers, compressors, reverbs...
Examples those by Waves (eg Renaissance Maxx), FabFilter (eg Pro Q), Liquid Sonics (eg Seventh) Heaven, etc

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Lists of in the DAW VST type choices in equalizers, compressors, reverbs...
Examples those by Waves (eg Renaissance Maxx), FabFilter (eg Pro Q), Liquid Sonics (eg Seventh) Heaven, etc

Ahh... including videos on those would be a much larger endeavor. I intended the videos there currently to be a sort of primer on each subject where the basic functions and technique for use would be explained. In other words, I was hoping the videos would arm people with enough information to learn to use the stock plugins in their DAWs and/or investigate other plugin options. But I suppose a simple list of some of the more popular third-party options could be helpful. I'll work on that. Thanks.

Edit: Lists have been added.

[Doug Young]

Nice collection of videos, Jim. I watched a few, and will get to some of the others.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Nice collection of videos, Jim. I watched a few, and will get to some of the others.

Thanks Doug. While there's a little bit of overlap between some, I tried to make sure that each video offered some information of value that the others did not. When I had to decide between two videos I deemed of equal value, the decision mostly came down to presentation but I also tried to give some exposure to those YouTube channels that offer a lot more videos containing valuable information and, especially for the novice, are worthy of subscription.

[min7b5]

A made little youtube video yesterday about how I mixed the recent album I made with Jamie Stillway

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by min7b5

A made little youtube video yesterday about how I mixed the recent album I made with Jamie Stillway

Thanks Eric. The video is well done and informative. I added it to the video section.