furiousape

furiousape

GearIQ 174 Joined Sep 2015 0 Followers

I'm a Software Developer and a hobby Musician. Always learning new stuff. #LearningAddict

Every rig tells a story. Start yours.

Catalog your gear, wishlist what's next, and share the setups behind your sound — free.

Create your Equipboard

DAWs 3

The 10.4 update was a massive addition to an already stable and well renowned DAW. Not as much fun to work in as Reason 10, but absolutely a safe and cost effective choice for those that want to go the safe route and invest their time in a professional DAW with tons of built-in functionality for a very nice price. Also with more and more studios now supporting its use, it should not be a problem to go the Logic way, even if your goal is to become proficient in music production on a professional level. There are plenty of well known producers that work solely in Logic.
Version 4 is a great update to an already great DAW. The upgrades to Impact XT, SampleOne XT and Presence XT is awesome, I've also purchased the Presence XT Editor upgrade: https://shop.presonus.com/Presence-XT-Editor Enabling unlimited creative possibilities with scripting and the whole shebang. IMHO this should have been included, but, I got it for a nice price, so I figured, why not... The chord track and pattern editor are both great additions, making it easier to create beats and melodies. Download a free trial and give it a chance!

Guitars 3

Like it a lot. Has a pickup combination I like. Good quality for a reasonable price.
This is the real deal if you want a very good sounding Les Paul and don't want to spend maybe 4-5 times its price to have a different logo on the head stock. I had to adjust the pickups slightly (lower the bass and raise the treble) and adjust the intonation after changing to a different string gauge, but nothing I couldn't handle with ease. My favorite these days!

Studio Equipment 9

This interface is really something. It has a modest amount of ins and outs, but the two inputs, one Mic Preamp (Amphenol) input with phantom power switch and one instrument input for guitar or bass are really top notch. You can even hook this up with your iPad with the MFi connector cable. Super low latancy ASIO and CoreAudio drivers and USB 2.0 gives you 24-bit 96kHz recording possibilities and it's very portable, well suited for connecting to a laptop (which is what I do). Two balanced 1/4" TRS Outputs, direct monitoring switch and a separate headphone level knob is all you need for simple comping and laying down some fast tracks. Highly recommended for anyone wanting a compact, portable, hi quality audio interface.
Has a very nice "feel" to it, compact and rugged. Has velocity sensitive / pressure sensitive pads for max drum programming pleasure. Works well with all DAW's and drum software I've tried.
This is a rather Cubase specific interface, featuring the AI-Knob and punch in/out recording via a midi sustain pedal. Very useful if your trying to nail that guitar take... Works as a regular sound interface with other DAW's also, but I'd rather buy a more "neutral" interface if I wasn't using it with Cubase. Low latancy ASIO drivers from Yamaha works very well, has Hi-Z for line in and Phantom powered Mic-pre inputs. It's a good performer with lots of bang for your bucks if you're running Cubase.
I've been using this about every day since it was new (MK3) and it's been a while. Still, it hasn't degraded in usefulness or in wear and tear. Nowadays I'd go for something slimmer, maybe with some drum-pads integrated, but as a overall cheap, down to business, no-nonsense keyboard / controller I think it still shines more than many alternatives out there. Works flawlessly with both Ableton Live 9 and Reason 8! Had some trouble getting the "DirectLink" setup function with Cubase, but it's easy to use the midi-learn feature, so no real problems. I recommend it!
Works really great as a controller surface in both Logic Pro X and in Propellerhead's Reason 10 that I use, but the quality of the keys feels a bit on the cheap side. Not accurately aligned in height and just feels too light and cheap for a Nektar product. But it functions great as is expected from Nektar, and the DAW integration is one of a kind.
The keyboard and the pads are all fine, and the size and feel of both keys and pads are good, but the integration with my DAW of choice (Reason 10) is not up to date. Don't know if I should blame M-Audio or Propellerheads, but the mapping of the knobs and pads is not working great at all. Guess the DirectLink protocol mappings are not up to date or something. Pads are all over the place in Kong and in other instruments and effects, some knobs work while others don't. Just a pain to have to re-map everything manually. But the quality of the unit feels nice and firm.
Nice interface for those that only need two inputs. The Crystal Mic Pre-amp works fine and the instrument line in works without any noise or artifacts with my guitar plugged in. I usually record at 24bit/96kHz and this has worked without any problem what so ever. Nice to be able to connect the interface directly into the USB-C input on my MacBook Pro, as it only has USB-C/Thunderbolt inputs. Both USB-C and regular USB cables are included, but they could easily have been a bit longer! But, bottom line is: Incredible value for the money. Nice set of plugins from Air Music tech also included ($300 value).
This one is pretty useless to me, as it registers double hits sporadically, not a specific pad, just any pad now and then, making it a PITA to use for laying down beats. Use the Presonus Atom instead.

Software Plugins and VSTs 2

Other Gear 3

I'm very satisfied with this thing, having used it for some years now, it has proven durable and dependable. It gets rather hot, but what can you expect... It's a great pre-amp stage for guitar and vocals IMHO.
Well, it was all right when I purchased it many years ago to brush up on some piano skills. It has "real" midi out voices that actually sounds pretty good for its price range. Also it has a built-in sound card with direct monitoring and extra inputs for hooking up a microphone and a guitar or whatever, so all in all it is a nice addition when you need more than 25 keys to play...

Wishlist 0

Nothing here yet.