Home Music Studio Gear List

As promised in my previous post, I’m posting a list of my home music studio gear along with connection diagrams.

MIXER

First up is the mixer, a Behringer XENYX 2222FX Stereo Mixer:

A solid mixer is the cornerstone to any decent studio, and I picked the Behringer based on numerous reviews and also my limited budget. This is a decent sized mixer with plenty of inputs and outputs with great sound quality. You should be able to pick one up for under $300.

Here are some basic specs for this mixer:

Also, the board provides an excellent effects processor, but sadly you cannot apply separate effects to individual channels. You can only apply the same single effect to whatever channels you like.

COMPUTER

My main desktop computer that I’m using with my music gear is getting really old. It’s an Alienware Area 51 3.4 Ghz single core PC. Yeah, like I said, pretty old, but it gets the job done for now. I am considering either building another desktop, as discussed in my post here, or getting a powerful, light-weight laptop. I’m really leaning towards a laptop because that way I can take it with me for live performance.

Anyway, my current setup is running Windows XP Professional, has 4 Gigs of RAM, 300 GB main SATA drive, and a 1 TB secondary SATA drive.

AUDIO INTERFACE

For my audio interface I’m using a PreSonus FireBox 6X10 Firewire Recording Interface:

Here are the features per the manufacturer:

• High-Speed FireWire Network Audio Interface
• Plug and play FireWire (IEEE 1394) audio interface
• 24-Bit / 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96K sample rate
• Record/playback 6 inputs/10 outputs at 24-bit/96K
• 2 PreSonus microphone/instrument preamplifiers
• 2 analog line inputs, 6 analog line outputs
• S/PDIF input/output
• MIDI input/output
• Low latency monitoring
• Headphone output
• Powered via FireWire bus or externally
• Software router/mixer
• Windows and Macintosh compatible
• Fits MAXRACK rack mounting system

I have absolutely no complaints about the FireBox. Here’s a list of what I love about this interface:

• Very low latency. Low latency is a must, especially when using soft synths, because you don’t want to hear the sound two seconds after you press a key. Even with very complex soft synths, I’ve never noticed any lag.
• MIDI Interface. Not only is it an audio interface, it also provides a convenient MIDI interface. You get one MIDI IN port and one MIDI OUT port (16 channels each).
• SPDIF input/output. The SPDIF interface is great if you want to record digitally direct from a CD player or from your favorite synth.
• FireWire powered. The FireBox comes with a wall wart power adapter, but you’ll never have to use it because it can be FireWire powered. I hate wall warts, so this is another great bonus feature.
• Extra Firewire port. The FireBox comes with two firewire ports so you can use the second one to daisy chain other FireWire devices. So in reality you don’t lose any FireWire ports when using the FireBox.
• Small footprint. The FireBox is light-weight and compact and only takes up a small corner of my desk.
• Great sound quality! This should’ve been listed first, because hey, that’s why you’re buying an audio interface, right? But yes, the audio quality is pristine from all inputs.

MUSIC WORKSTATION

My first and only music workstation is the Korg M3 61 Key Workstation Sampler Keyboard:

Sadly, I haven’t had enough time to mess with this keyboard so I can’t really write much of a review about its features, so I will just point you to some YouTube demo videos instead:

MIDI CONTROLLERS

I’m using two MIDI controllers, an M-Audio Keystation 61es and an M-Audio Oxygen 49 Keystation. I really prefer the feel of the Keystation 61es since the keys are semi-weighted, but the Oxygen 49 has a built-in control surface which comes in really handy with DAW software. Also, the Oxygen is smaller and lighter than the Keystation 61es so it works best on my computer desk.

MIDI CONTROL SURFACE

I’ve got an Evolution UC33e MIDI Control Surface that I use with DAW software. This little unit is highly programmable and also provides just enough faders and control knobs to handle most tasks. Also, it comes with overlay templates for some of the most popular DAW’s. But if I’m not mistaken, I believe this control surface is now out of production and only in stock at a few music retailers.

COMPUTER MONITORS

It’s hard to work on music projects using one monitor. A lot of times you are switching back and forth between programs and it’s nice to have some screen real estate. I’m using a pair of 15″ (I think) NEC MultiSync flat panel LCD monitors. Although they are really old monitors, what I love about them is that each come with a built-in 4-port USB hub! This comes in real handy because I’ve got all my MIDI controllers connected via USB to one monitor, freeing up my PC’s USB ports for other things.

AUDIO MONITORS

For my audio monitors, I’m using a pair of Alesis monitors.