nectarios

The AKAI MFC is not very robust. One of the artists in the label has had 2 of them and they both malfuctioned within 4-6 weeks of purchase. The Sherman is a good outboard filter uni (famous for its distortion too...goes wild really) and it is built like a tank. You could always get 2 Moogerfooger filters 8) But make sure they have a CV input/output for filter tracking. Tsiou.

I've checked a few, Pro 53, Imposcar, Oddity, the Korg MS-20 and Poly legacy ones, Arturia's Moog Modular/Minimoog, Reaktor and did not think much about any of them. Check the Creamware card ones (Minimax, SCi). They are the only ones that sound kinda decent...in my humble opinion always. Tsiou.

So that's how he probably created the sense of expansion you speak of. Compression as a principle, cannot expand any kind of signal dynamicaly. Yes, I'm based in the UK. Glad to feel welcome amongst greek "colleagues" :) Tsiou.

I am not a WHO fan so I can't comment on that...but... Compression creates a sense of dynamic expansion :?: :!: :o .....That's a first... Are you sure it's not just the engineer having a go at the faders when mixing down? Tsiou

Don't mean to be a spoil sport, but you cannot expand the dynamic range of a signal using a compressor. You can do so by using an expander/gate.

A few good budget reverbs and delays are the Lexicon MPX-1 and TC Electronics M1. The TC D2 is an amazing delay unit, but it's just that... a delay unit. A cheap TLAudio, or Focusrite valve pre in series with the effects processors would yield great results, but if you want a really cheap distortion unit, you could go for the Boss pedal. Tsiou.

Most of my synths don't even have presets/memory...except from the odd picture that I take of a few modules on my modular synths. Every time I fire them up I make new sounds. These limitations have pushed me to come up with sounds that have inspird me to make whole tunes based on them. The absolutely perfect interface of a modular synth makes this job dead easy and fast. Tsiou.

Roland TB-303 Manual :D Tsiou.

Look into a cheap digital desk like the Yamaha 01V. You'll get a mixer and controller as well, since Cubase has sort of "controller presets" that have been made to allow some of the digital desks on the market, to be used as controllers too. Tsiou.

I'll just quote my self to make things clear... This is a music forum, I just put down info from a link that helped run my computer a bit faster when I was on Win XP as that OS has so much extra redundant (for audio) stuff running in the background all the time, that makes the computer slow. I am not a "computer pro" like user "Wow!" claims to be, but seriously now... a few tweaks and changing the registry (back it up before you do off course), don't mean that I have to be one in order to make my system work better for audio purposes. Don't mean to insult anyone, but "aparadekto" is to have a system not working to its full potential when it is only a matter of a few tweaks to allow it to do so. Tsiou.

I use Win 98SE because my PC works like a dream, but should you choose to use Win XP, do the following to optimise the OS for audio. Set Visual Effects To Minimum Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Visual Effects Tab > Adjust for best performance, re-enable “Show Window Contents While Dragging”. Set Processor Scheduling to “Background Services” Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services. Startup and Recovery Options Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery Settings > Untick Automatically Restart. Disable Error Reporting Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > Advanced > Error Reporting > Disable Error Reporting. Fix Swap File (Virtual Memory) Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory Change > Custom Size. Set initial and maximum size to the same value (768MB). Disable Fast User Switching Start > Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts > Change the way users log on or off > Untick Use Fast User Switching Switch Off Power Schemes Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Always On > Turn off monitor and turn off hard discs to Never Switch Off Hibernation Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate > Untick Hibernation Activate DMA on Hard Discs/CD ROMS Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers > Right Click Primary and Secondary IDE channel > Properties > Advanced Settings Tab > Transfer Mode to "DMA if available". Disable System Sounds Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab > Sound Scheme to None. Do Not Map Through Soundcard Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Hardware Tab > (your soundcard) > Properties > Audio Devices > (your soundcard) > Properties > Check the "Do not map through this device" checkbox. Disable System Restore Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > System Restore Tab. Tick the "Turn off System Restore on all Drives" Disable Automatic Updates Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > Automatic Updates > Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually Disable Remote Assistance Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > Remote > Untick Allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer Disable Remote Desktop Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Remote > Untick "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" Disable Internet Synchronise Time Start > Settings > Control Panel > Date and Time > Internet Time > Untick "Automatically synchronize with internet time server" Disable Hide Inactive Icons Start > Settings > Taskbar and Start Menu > Taskbar TAB > Uncheck "Hide Inactive Icons" Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Desktop > Customise Desktop > Untick "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days" Remove Unused XP Components C:Windows > Inf folder > Sysoc.inf. Replace the word "hide" with nothing, save file. Control Panel > "Add or Remove Programs” > "Add/Remove Windows Components". Components to be removed: Accesibility Options, Indexing Service, Update Root Certificates, Windows Automatic Updates, Windows Messenger, Games, Desktop Wallpaper, Explorer, Communications, MSN Explorer. Disable Disk I/O Performance Logging Start > Select Run > Type in “diskperf –n”, then hit Ok. More User Options (XP Pro only) Start > Select Run > Type in GPEDIT.MSC Make Windows Explorer start in a different folder: Right click on the Windows Explorer Icon, select Properties. Then copy the following into the “Target” field: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, c:\ (replace "c:/" with whatever folder you want Explorer to open in) Clean your prefetch to improve performance. Cpen C:/windows/prefetch, delete all files, reboot. Should only be done once a month. Registry Tweaks Speed Up Menus Start > Run > Regedit > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop Folder. Set MenuShowDelay to 1 Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips Start > Run > Regedit > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced. Create a new DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips and set to 0. Disable CDROM Autoplay Start > Run > Regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Services > Cdrom. Set autorun to 0. Disable Unused XP Sevices Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services NOTE: This Services guide was designed for a PC running ONLY music software. This does not apply to PC’s online, on networks, or with printers and other peripherals attached. In most cases the gains to be had from these tweaks are minimal. Use at your own risk please. Alerter- Disabled Application Layer Gateway Service- Manual Application Management - Manual Automatic Updates- Manual Background Intelligent Transfer Service- Disabled ClipBook- Disabled COM+ Event System- Manual COM+ System Application- Manual Computer Browser- Manual Cryptographic Services- Automatic DHCP Client- Manual Distributed Link Tracking Client- Manual Distributed Transaction Coordinator- Manual DNS Client- Manual Error Reporting Service- Disabled Event Log- Automatic Fast User Switching Compatibility- Manual Fax Service- Manual FTP Publishing Service- Manual Help and Support- Disabled Human Interface Device Access- Disabled IIS Admin- Manual IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service- Manual Indexing Service- Disabled Internet Connection Firewall- Manual Internet Connection Sharing- Manual IPSEC Services- Disabled Logical Disk Manager- Manual Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service- Manual Message Queuing- Manual Message Queuing Triggers- Manual Messenger- Disabled MS Software Shadow Copy Provider- Manual Net Login- Disabled NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing- Disabled Network Connections- Manual Network DDE- Disabled Network DDE DSDM- Disabled Network Location Awareness- NLA- Manual NT LM Security Support Provider- Disabled Performance Logs and Alerts- Disabled Plug and Play- Automatic Portable Media Serial Number- Manual Print Spooler- Manual Protected Storage- Manual QoS RSVP- Disabled Remote Access Auto Connection Manager- Manual Remote Access Connection Manager- Manual Remote Desktop Help Session Manager- Disabled Remote Procedure Call- RPC- Automatic Remote Procedure Call- RPC Locator- Manual Remote Registry Service- Disabled Removable Storage- Manual Routing and Remote Access- Disabled Secondary Logon- Disabled Security Accounts Manager- Manual Server- Manual Shell Hardware Detection- Manual Smart Card- Disabled Smart Card Helper- Disabled SSDP Discovery Service- Disabled System Event Notification- Manual System Restore Service- Disabled Task Scheduler- Manual TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service- Disabled Telephony- Manual Telnet- Disabled Terminal Services- Manual Themes- Manual Uninterruptible Power Supply- Disabled Universal Plug and Play Device Host- Manual Upload Manager- Disabled Volume Shadow Copy- Manual WebClient- Disabled Windows Audio- Automatic Windows Image Acquisition- WIA- Disabled Windows Installer- Manual Windows Management Instrumentation- Automatic Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extension- Manual Windows Time- Disabled Wireless Zero Configuration- Disabled WMI Performance Adapter- Disabled Workstation- Automatic Tsiou.

I've used the Houston controller in college and I tell you, learning the key commands of your QWERTY will yield faster results using your sequencer. Besides having instant access to basic transport functions, you get instant access to a lot of functions regarding the arrangement window, the regions/events and with a lot of audio parameters. Get a mouse with a roll bar on top so you can zoom in and out at your desired point ultra fast. Also once you get your sequencer set up a default arrangement with your desired screen sets stored on the QWERTY's numeric keypad. It'll only take a few minutes and you'll only do it once and save it as the autoload song (your customised default set-up/enviroment). These little but basic things will take a day to learn but will mean that your workflow will be flying later. Tsiou.

Simple answer. If you want to use Logic/PT/DP, get a Mac (Although I run Logic 5.5 on a PC and can do anything I want with it). If you want to use Cubase/other sequencer, get a PC. If you are willing to spend some time on the net and find out which motherboards/OSs work with which soundcards without problems, a PC will in general take a little more time to set up correctly, but you'll get a faster system for a given price then going down the Mac route. From my personal experience with both platforms and Mac/PC users/friends of mine... Whatever people say, Macs DO CRASH!. Whatever people say, if you use a PC for audio purposes only (i.e. no interenet, no games, no installing and unistalling useless software all the time), you'll have no problems what so ever... besides maxing out the CPU (just like you would with a Mac) if you use loads of plug ins. If you have cash to waste on computers, go for a Mac. I know I would, just because they look cooler and the G5's interior reminds you you are using a serious system everytime you take a look inside... Either way you'll be able to make tunes regardless of what you choose and don't forget that Jobs is as much of a c*nt as Gates is. So simply get one and start producing! Tsiou.