Newbie Intro

Hi Rich.

Good news on getting X2 set up, and welcome to the forum.

Most of us don't bite..........

I bite sort of but not new members. Welcome to the forum Rich. You posted in the right place. If you have any questions about X2 or gear for X2 this is the place to be. 

Really we have a great many good members here that only want to help. I think as time goes by you will be amazed by how much information is offered here. 

One thing to always keep in mind the only dumb question is the one not asked. 

You have already met Bristol and he is one of the best. No, he doesn't bite.

Welcome to the forum.  I do bite occasionally, but only if asked to.
 
As others have said, there is a wealth of experience and knowledge here.  I hope you find it useful.

Hi Bristol,

I've made several attempts to load information into my profile signature like everyone else has but it doesn't seem to want to play ball. Neither does my attempt to link to an of-site avatar. This is the first forum where I've not been able to do this! Any ideas?

Rich


EDIT: Ah.....it doesn't add signatures retrospectively! Got that bit.......just the avatar to deal with now. Here's a few pictures of the set up currently:

Karl. considering the high level of technical ability Cakewalk must possess I find it incredible that when I try and edit the order of things in my signature on their forum it tells me I've exceeded 550 characters whilst I know damn well all I've done is move one line up and removed a comma!! 


Still, it's a small price to pay in order to gain knowledge.......


Cheers


Rich

At least you got an avatar to show up. I can't even do that...

Nice setup you have. The only thing missing is some decent monitors, preferably away from the wall. Do you do most of your work with headphones ?

Hi Rich,

Welcome! Nice setup. Is that small screen on the table a touch screen?

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Welcome. 

Weird place this forum but there are some really knowledgable folk here that are always happy to help. 




p.s.    Why hide that sexy little printer under the desk? don't be embarrassed about it, get it hooked via MIDI and start making some beatz!!!  don't forget to use the Pro Channel on it ;)


 
 

Blimey.......I'm overwhelmed! On the fishing forum I moderate you're lucky to get one response a week! Many thanks for making me feel so welcome!

So.....

@Paul P: I do use headphones most of the time but I will be upgrading the monitors at some point in the near future. The ones I have now are going back in the lounge running off a second pair of V-Studio outputs so I can listen to what I've done in comfort lying on the sofa. Have you any recommendations for monitors for me? I assume you have them on stands?

@miguelito: I had a dalliance with CuBase before but that was years ago. I much preferred Cakewalk and have well over 200 songs recorded in it so I don't see any need to change what I do now. 

@garrigus: You are correct, the small screen is an iPad. In the pictures you'll see it on a goose-neck stand on the right of the main screen, further away on my kitchen breakfast-bar (yes the whole lot is at the back of the kitchen) and finally on the goose-neck to the left of the main screen. The pictures with it the right of the screen and further away show the V-Control Pro app that I use to control Sonar for stuff that's a pain with the V-Studio 100. It's useful for "Save" and skipping between markers, as well as being able to do all the slider and pot functions. With it's remote ability I've actually recorded stuff out in the garden using the iPad as the control surface for carriage as the connection to the PC is wireless. 

In the dark picture with it mounted to the left of the screen it's featuring the Omni TR app which I use to control the Omnisphere VST. It can do some pretty amazing things which would be difficult to explain so look at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsBQVgW6cLo for a demo (it's long but very interesting). I moved the stand to the left so I can use my left hand to control the Orb and Ribbon functions whilst playing the keyboard.

@Zonno: I do use the GR-55 quite a bit as I'm pretty crap with a keyboard to be honest! I have a GK-3 pick-up on a Squier Strat (which you can see in the picture) and this sends the Hex pick-up and the main pick-up sounds to the GR-55 and then guitar out to the Line 6 Pod with the synth and guitar modelling sounds into the V-Studio. I think it's a great bonus particularly the guitar modelling side. The synth sounds are pretty good as well although understandably, for the price they're never gonna bring the house down. 

Another big advantage for me is that I can simultaneously trigger and record a stereo guitar via the Pod, the GR-55 synth in stereo, the Roland JV-1010 synth module in stereo (a bit old but still brilliant) and the Omnisphere. I've got one song where the Omnisphere is outputting 8 different synth voices (all stereo) plus the above so that's 11 stereo voices live from one guitar. Obviously you have to be a bit sparing when mixing it all down but the sound is unbelievable when playing it originally.

One thing to note if thinking of buying a GR-55 is that it DOES NOT accept incoming MIDI from the DAW to trigger the sounds. The incoming MIDI channels are purely for patch changes etc. Personally that doesn't bother me too much as I tend to record as much as I can live, leaving things like drums and messing about for consideration in MIDI tracks. Latency is pretty good considering it's an added on pick-up but you do need to do a bit of pruning to get rid of MIDI farts in the DAW. Nothing that bothers me unduly though. One day when I've robbed a bank I'll buy one of those guitars with the hex pick-up built in but that can wait for now!  

@SilverfoxUK: The printer's crap. I want an AirPrint one...........