What did your 1st recording setup consist of?

I was just sitting here thinking how much power sonar, or most daw for that matter, gives me. I mean I started out with a yamaha 4 track, a juno 106, a roland sampler (8 seconds recording time), a QY10 sequencer\sound module, and a cheap mic and man I use to really make some good songs (atleast me and my buddies thought so). If there's any old school guys out there like me, isn't it mind blowing how much power we have now with daws and soft synths. Just out of curiosity, what did your setup consist of.

Back In The Day...

My first real recording setup was the TASCAM Porta One I bought back in 1984, which was a big step up from the two portable stereo cassette tape decks I had been using in ping-pong fashion to create some very rudimentary "multitrack" recordings.

I remember how mind-blowing it was to have four whole tracks to work with on a standard cassette tape.

And of course I still had to ping-pong and carefully manage basic stems.

Ah, those were the days.

And yes, every now and then when I drop in an instance of Kontakt 2 with 32 tracks to work with -- and more available from additional instances if necessary -- it does indeed blow my primitive mind. [sm=rolleyes.gif]

1999: Behringer 16 ch mixer into SoundBlaster line-in using Cubase VST 3 and some cheap Shure mics. I was lucky to get a max 55 dB of range because of all the noise...

ORIGINAL: jonespnice1

I was just sitting here thinking how much power sonar, or most daw for that matter, gives me. I mean I started out with a yamaha 4 track, a juno 106, a roland sampler (8 seconds recording time), a QY10 sequencer\sound module, and a cheap mic and man I use to really make some good songs (atleast me and my buddies thought so). If there's any old school guys out there like me, isn't it mind blowing how much power we have now with daws and soft synths. Just out of curiosity, what did your setup consist of.

My first studio was an AMR 4 track cassette and a fostex 8 channel board. The board had more hiss then the cassette LOL ! and that was with noise reduction off. That was my lesson not to cheap out, so I got an ADAT as soon as they were invented, a Mackie 24.8 board, Tascam DA-30 DAT, an AKG C414, SCI TOM drum machine, AKAI AX-80 synth (still have it), a Roland U-220, JLCooper DATASync, and a 286-12 with Cakewalk 3 for DOS. Oh, and about a mile of cables. Then I was hooked. Took the next 10 years to pay off the credit cards.

Craig 212, AC Adapter and a Mic.

Then, I got one of these.

1999 ? I'm guessing ? Whenever Fruity Loops 2 came out. And a Korg keyboard on an old, old computer with 64 MB ram, and some slow CPU. It was a Compaq

First time playing music was in elementery school, but first real step was 10 or 11, (1990 or 1991), when I got my first (drum) kit, and started taking lessons.

First "gig", I was 15 (I think), in front of 150 or so people at a backwoods redneck bondfire party. Gotta love Mississippi Since, "highest" place I've played would be Hard Rock Cafe Memphis, I guess, but played sevral other places, just that would be most well known to non-locals.

I know I said more than you asked, but that's fun too

Mine was a Craig too; a tabletop mono reel to reel, and I had a Radio Shack Mic that sat on a little plastic desk stand. By 1973 I had graduated to an Ampex reel to reel which was almost as old as I was back then but worked pretty well. Later on I thought it was great when I got one of those all in one stereos by Soundesign and it had a cassette recorder that recorded in stereo! I borrowed an old SM58 with a switch and a real mic stand from the band I was in, but had to use an adapter to get the 1/4in plug down to 1/8in. After a couple of years it died though, and I didn't have the expertise to fix it, so I managed to get a couple of Tascam Syncasets and a Schaller Tape Echo unit that I bought at a garage sale, and used to ping pong until mud oozed from every track.

It wasn't long after that I got a day job as a gofer in a pretty good studio and learned how to fetch coffe and sweep up cigarette butts.

Those were the days.

Paul

I started with a "top-of-the-line" Windows 95 machine running FastTracker 2. Granted, that wasn't actual recording, more composing. First recording setup was Music Creator several years ago on a Windows 98 Compaq (First machine available w/1GHz processor) using the built in Ensoniq AudioPCI card. Ahh, the "old days."

A small, mono reel to reel with a mic attached by a curly, old telephone-style cord that I borrowed from my older sister. Then my dad brought home a big reel to reel from work that bathed everything in a film of white noise. I thought it was cool, and recorded piano drifting through the fog, somewhat like Merzbow [if anyone out there is familiar with the Japanese avant-garde]. Bounced between tape machines and a VCR until I got a Yamaha MT-100.

In 1986, I was in Jr. High and my first band was a friend who played drums and I. We recorded our first "album" on a monophonic Panasonic Karaoke machine that had two cassette decks, and I did the sound-on-sound thing (record a track onto one deck as the other deck was playing previous tracks).

My first real multitrack was a Yamaha MT1x 4-track cassette machine in 1987.

I started on the Tascam 80-8 eight track reel to reel in 1978. My friends and I set up a studio in a converted pig barn, and we had the time of our lives learning how to be engineers. I now use SP6, and I wouldn't go back for anything.

Lynn



www.wifemusic.com

I remember an Amiga 500 running Bars&Pipes and Dr.T KCS in the setup along with a 2- 2 track
tape decks. Instruments included various Paia keyboards and a Takamine acoustic guitar, Mc-202, and a Casio CZ-1.
Also was present at that time, was a lust for a midi guitar, that I satisfied in later years.

I am not sure what direction my life would have taken, if not for the music and equipment that
appeased my creative urges.

cheers,

Geo.

It was 1967, I was 13. The family had a 3 in one Music Centre by Grundig. It had turntabl, radio & a reel to reel deck with sound on sound capability. I also had a portable 3 inch reel to reel that I used to record then bounce onto the bigger reel to reel. Thought I was it because it had Sound-On- Sound.

Just gotten crazier since then with the gear.

Teac 2 tracks ,4 tracks reel to reel, cassette 4 tracks & 8 tracks, AKAI MG 1212 then computers, Amiga Bar s& pipes and then PC's with Cakewalk now SONAR.

Boy I'm getting old just remembering all this. Only took a minute to fly through 40 years. Still haven't written that elusive number one. Had a lot of fun; though!

My first real recording setup was the TASCAM Porta One

Same here, that and a little Mackie 1202. Then back in 1996 I picked up a Digidesign Session 8 system and a Mackie SR2404. Now I have a Dakota/Montata setup and a 500 ft^2 studio.

Did I ever imagine I'd be where I am now as I sat on my bed at age 13 with a $5 radioshack mic and two cassette decks bouncing tracks and retuning to account for the speed differences of the decks? You bet! I think that year I checked out the "how to build your own recording studio" books 10 times. :-)