keybdwizrd - Studio Tour Part Two

[harvestsoulfly]

Cool studio man!

FYI... never put your monitors in corners and always have a minimum of at least 12 inches of clearance from the walls. Otherwize you'll get massive bass build up and your mixes won't translate right.

[keybdwizrd]

@harvestsoulfly Thanks for the tips.

[adrianh63]

Awesome Home Studio!

I've enjoyed your Home Studio video, very educational!

Please update you Home Studio videos, please.

I'm an beginner Keyboard hobbyist

i'm putting pieces together for my home studio, it takes $ and in God's time it will come together.

[vjrei]

Man, you studio is just perfect. Last year I got some money and I bought from eBay all the keyboards I wanted and I have 6 of them and I have no way to arrange them. I have 2 88, an Ensoniq ASR 88 and a Roland A 90. I have a Roland JV 90, D50, JD 800, Emu Emax II keybaord, Quasimidi Ravelotion 309, Korg Wavestation and Motu MTP II. And the Logic 8 but... too many stuff. But they look fine as forniture, my studio looks cool even I do not have actual use for them ¿?, any way, you got it right.

[VenVile]

You rock! I can't wait to build my home studio. I just don't have the funds...yet... :(

[keybdwizrd]

Well, the stuff I have I purchased over a period of many years. I've bought and then sold instruments I didn't particularly like, while adding things along the way.

I've learned that often less is more. Too many synths and too many sounds can be distracting. Honestly, I'd be perfectly happy with a Motif XS and a Macbook. Sometimes I think about selling everything and just going that route.

[EpidemicVibez007]

WoW! Nuff Respect!!...(On your set-up)....I mean you really are The WIZARD!!!...Thankz for the video, it really helps a lot!...

I learned a couple setup techniques...

-Thank You- =))

[tcfkru]

"my little corner of the world" :))

to be honest i thought that You are using a motu audio interface but seems like m-audio does the job :))

btw your backyard is so nice!!! in my little corner of the world i dont have even a window which affects my me a bit

[immajesty]

I love your talent so much.

[SecondLifeSailing]

what do you do for a living X)))P

[keybdwizrd]

At present I am a business consultant primarily for investment companies and research firms. I specialize in global live entertainment, ticketing, and concert promotion.

[SecondLifeSailing]

ah so the credit crunch is all your fault then ;) LOL

No money in music these days :)))PXxx to many home studios ;))) LOL

[dtml14]

you have a great setup and a really nice backyard :)

[davcar23]

I see you don't use any master controller, so you record every synth from it's keyboard? which keyboard do you use to play the plugins?

[keybdwizrd]

I do have a couple of controllers, but I often use the synthesizer keyboards themselves. At one time I've probably played software synthesizers using each one of my keyboards.

[DRUMMERNIGGA]

hey man im only 13 what do i need just to get started with a setup kinda like urs

[keybdwizrd]

I dunno - parents who are willing to buy you a ton of stuff? :)

[davcar23]

Get some audio engineering lessons so you know what everything does before you spend a penny.

[oli2808]

nice setup, how does it sound?

[keybdwizrd]

Sounds good to me. :)

[nativeops]

man, nice synths and modules. But, i'm scratching my head wondering why you don't own a MOTU audio interface and a MOTU MIDI Interface. You'll get better timing with MIDI Time Stamping because you use DP5. Plus, virtual auxiliary buses are really convenient. And to have the ability to keep your tracks all separate and bounce them to one file by clicking is great.

Do you avoid firewire recording because of latency? Why not get a rack mixer with ADAT out to a MOTU 828? old ones are very cheap.

[keybdwizrd]

My MIDI and audio interfaces date back quite a few years, but get the job done. I haven't noticed any MIDI latency issues, but would like to get a MOTU 828 someday. However, I believe Apple is going to abandon Firewire, so I'm a bit wary about making an investment there. Additionally, I use quite a few multi-timbral synths with just the main outs, not wanting to get too complicated, so much of my mixing happens when pieces are still in MIDI tracks anyway. But your points are well taken.

[nativeops]

yeah, firewire multitrack recording isn't all that it cracked out to be. Nothin wrong at all with using analog gear to route audio. Just using any old computer for MIDI sequencing is a wonderful thing. I hate relying on CPU's as the workhorse for a recording studio. I've seriously considered getting an Alesis Hard Disk recorder with sync and MMC. Seriously, I believe that the technological revolution in the music industry has open many possibilities, but has also destroyed the creative process.

[1StarProductions]

So true! 10 years ago I had my home studio in "perfect" shape, then I had to upgrade everything and totally destroyed the creative process. Now, yet again I'm facing the same situation moving to Intel Mac machines, sigh

[nativeops]

if all your doing is recording synths and samplers, it's actually a very good idea just to record MIDI only. you'll never have to worry about filling up your hard drive.

Then after everything is done being sequenced, get your hands on some good out board processing for mastering to audio..

[unclehoney]

wondering if the new m-audio fast track ultra will do for me what your little m-audio box is doing for you...any insight there? I'm a bit of a greenhorn ( tho w/grey hair!) as they say.

thanks for your good work in sharing brother.

[LunatiqueSF]

Just curious, what do you do with all the other synths in your studio (ones not in your overall layout)? Or are all those other synths you demo'd borrowed and not actually part of your studio?

[keybdwizrd]

My Yamaha Motif keyboard lives at the bass player's house where my band practices. The Micro X wasn't set up when I made this video. I sold my Moog Rogue some months ago, not really having any use for a monosynth with no MIDI or patch memory. I sold the Waldorf Micro Q because I really didn't care for the sound.

[searchme45]

I found some of your music for the internet ie; kwl_sy02.mid for use on websites..do you still got those?...and is Tropico in mp3 format..?

[bananito2]

Respect keybdwizd

Do you have any experience using the iphone as a controller?

[keybdwizrd]

No, I don't. I dl'ed a program that allows my iPhone to control iTunes on my laptop. :)

[bananito2]

thx :D

[Adrenalinex03]

Nice studio bro. Big Ups my dude.

[newpro5657]

Thanks Michael, as one of the viewers who has asked for this information, this is really helpful.

You seem to have reduced your keyboards...earlier you demonstrated the MicroX and other boards. And you used to have a Motif keyboard. Are you selling others (like I do) to upgrade. The acquisition of the Prophet is major...I want one too. My video setup has not evolved yet but I hope to get up to your quality someday. I really enjoy your work...the virtual concerts are stellar!

Steve (Sam Utah)

[keybdwizrd]

I still have the Motif 6 keyboard - I play it in my band and it lives permanently at the bass player's house (where we practice) when it isn't on stage. I bought the Motif Rack to replace it so I'd have those sounds at home. I also have the Micro X, but it isn't set up at the moment.

[electriktricks]

when you're recording a hardware synth do you send midi to the synth and record the audio or do you play live?

I was thinking of getting some hardware synths in the future, but as much as i'd like some vintage (and fairly cheap) synths like a Juno 60 i'm not sure if lack of midi would be a real loss, and i'm not convinced that cheapish hardware synths are really that much better sounding that soft synths. I bet software is a lot easier because you can change notes/settings without re-recording?

[keybdwizrd]

I initially create songs by "recording" all of the parts to MIDI tracks. Sometimes I then simply mix all of the parts in the sequencer and in my Mackie mixer, and just have the sequencer (Digital Performer) play all of the MIDI tracks while I then record the auto output to a single stereo audio track.

[keybdwizrd]

I do not record hardware synth parts "live" directly to audio, because I may want to change them (and/or the sound) before recording to audio. In any case, the MIDI track always exists. Bottom line - working with hardware synths doesn't necessarily mean giving up any of the flexibility of software synths.

[lvecsey]

excellent setup i wonder if that mixer with the three stereo outs could be strapped to an Ergotron laptop tray, so you can raise and pivot it towards you a bit more.

and for the videos perhaps that third stereo pair could be mated to a video track in a video editor. to line it up you play a tone on any keyboard that also has a led that illuminates the moment it starts playing

[keybdwizrd]

Thanks, I should look into a laptop tray.

[bentsynth]

You my friend are a pimp to the highest musical degree. 5 *stars*

[DeejayLarz2006]

where's part one??

[keybdwizrd]

It's there, but sometimes YouTube takes a while to copy stuff out to their different servers. If you go to my main channel page (click on "keybdwizrd") the first part is featured there.

[BlackGnosis]

You're welcome. Thank you for giving us a free show and Demonstrating with great skill what various synthesizers within your studio can do.

[carvedlegion]

awesome! Great setup very inspiring!