Getting Started - Part 2. Hardware Solutions (Part 1).
So the second part of the Beginning of the Way series arrived! Unfortunately, due to problems at work, this article had to be divided into two parts, because time is categorically not enough.
So, we learn about:
PS By the way, in this article I tried to take into account all your wishes, so I want to warn you that everything written below is my personal opinion.
PPS Prices are taken from the website muztorg.ru .
So, we already have a bunch of software on our PC and were about to write another masterpiece. In principle, it is possible, I did it in my time, and, as practice has shown, in vain. The fact is that the human ear (like all other senses) very quickly gets used to the good, but if the first thing (hearing) he hears is the vile sound of the built-in sound card carried from cheap speakers ala Genius, you will feel that it is necessary because This sound you have not heard. Then of course they will tell you that you are “noob” and do not understand anything in mastering, and you will be offended, because you think that everything is perfect. So it seemed to me in due time, until I heard my music on ESI Juli @ through studio headphones from AKG (the model, alas, I don’t know). I was just amazed! I never would have thought that there would be such a difference. Therefore, I propose to avoid my mistakes and start making music normally only when we have a good sound card and headphones.
By the way! This is VERY IMPORTANT - if you play a musical instrument, set it up before use, otherwise you risk losing the musical ear, and this is where your “career” of the musician is likely to end (tested on the experience of a friend).
')
This is taken from wikipedia .
Embedded cards, we naturally do not consider. Working with sound on them is very difficult. Here you have a big delay (latency) and poor audio recording and, most likely, the lack of necessary interfaces, as well as poor-quality sound. A lot of cons. Plus only one - a small price, or rather its complete absence. If you, after reading these lines, rushed to the store for a sound card, you most likely will have to return. The fact is that the EXTERNAL sound card does not mean GOOD. Rather, it may be good, but most likely not suitable for our plans. After all, sound cards are normal, gaming and music (listed in the price as "professional", as a rule). And the musical ones (we really need them) are “amateur” and “professional”. If you have just started your way into the world of music, I advise you to choose only by one criterion - price. Are there extra 100 thousand rubles? Take the DIGIDESIGN 003 Factory Bundle . Nope Well then ESI Juli @ . As you can see the price range is very large, you can choose the perfect option that suits you. Over time, you will become better at understanding the musical "hardware", begin to understand the difference between different devices and be able to buy exactly what you need, but for now here’s a list of maps from which to start:
There are many more zvukovuh in the same price range, but I prefer these four. By the way, if you have a FireWire connector, I advise you to stop at ECHO AudioFire 2.
Headphones in the arsenal of the musician play a very important role, especially at the beginning, when your experiments with sound will not give others any pleasure;) To begin with, I suggest finding out which headphones we need? They are divided into open, half-open and closed.
For monitoring when working with a microphone, it is better to use closed headphones so that there is no accompaniment penetration into the microphone. However, it is sometimes necessary to use open headphones, since Some musicians find it difficult to navigate in the unusual acoustic conditions for listening with headphones. As a result, vocalists begin to understate, sing non-rhythmically, etc. In such cases, open headphones that provide some level of sound penetration from the outside can help put things right. About half open I will not speak, because almost did not use them.
In addition to the quality and “honesty” of the sound, headphones have one more parameter (probably the most important one) - convenience. I once had closed headphones Nady QH-660 , they sounded good for their price, but they were terribly uncomfortable! As a result, instead of doing music, I constantly had to straighten the right “ear”, which later had to be stuck to the rim with adhesive tape, because it began to fall off constantly. So that!
Now that we know what kind of headphones are and for what purposes they are needed, we can safely go to the store and choose the following models:
Closed:
Open:
I myself use closed BEYERDYNAMIC DT231.
This is taken from wikipedia .
So we got to the first and most important governing body of our "studio". Once, when the trees were large, and the processors were single-core, I threw notes right in the sequencer and did not understand why people need midi-keyboards and controllers. Soon, when I got the keyboard, everything fell into place. It has become much easier to invent tunes, it has become much faster to record the already invented one and the pleasure of working has become much more. You too can get all this and more! But provided that your chosen keyboard will meet the following requirements:
But the most important thing is latency! If the keyboard has too much delay, it will simply not be possible to work with it.
So, a list of keyboards that newcomers should pay attention to:
And this is the first part of the Beginning of the Way series.
UPDATE 02/21 23:30
I made a small edit and added a link to the first part.
UPDATE 22.02 00:37
Added a small description of AKG 66 from Calg0n'a . For which way he thanks a lot!
So, we learn about:
- Sound cards.
- Headphones.
- MIDI Keyboards.
PS By the way, in this article I tried to take into account all your wishes, so I want to warn you that everything written below is my personal opinion.
PPS Prices are taken from the website muztorg.ru .
So, we already have a bunch of software on our PC and were about to write another masterpiece. In principle, it is possible, I did it in my time, and, as practice has shown, in vain. The fact is that the human ear (like all other senses) very quickly gets used to the good, but if the first thing (hearing) he hears is the vile sound of the built-in sound card carried from cheap speakers ala Genius, you will feel that it is necessary because This sound you have not heard. Then of course they will tell you that you are “noob” and do not understand anything in mastering, and you will be offended, because you think that everything is perfect. So it seemed to me in due time, until I heard my music on ESI Juli @ through studio headphones from AKG (the model, alas, I don’t know). I was just amazed! I never would have thought that there would be such a difference. Therefore, I propose to avoid my mistakes and start making music normally only when we have a good sound card and headphones.
By the way! This is VERY IMPORTANT - if you play a musical instrument, set it up before use, otherwise you risk losing the musical ear, and this is where your “career” of the musician is likely to end (tested on the experience of a friend).
')
Sound card.
Sound card (also called as sound card, music card) (sound card) - allows you to work with sound on your computer. Currently, sound cards are either built into the motherboard, or as individual expansion cards or as external devices.
This is taken from wikipedia .
Embedded cards, we naturally do not consider. Working with sound on them is very difficult. Here you have a big delay (latency) and poor audio recording and, most likely, the lack of necessary interfaces, as well as poor-quality sound. A lot of cons. Plus only one - a small price, or rather its complete absence. If you, after reading these lines, rushed to the store for a sound card, you most likely will have to return. The fact is that the EXTERNAL sound card does not mean GOOD. Rather, it may be good, but most likely not suitable for our plans. After all, sound cards are normal, gaming and music (listed in the price as "professional", as a rule). And the musical ones (we really need them) are “amateur” and “professional”. If you have just started your way into the world of music, I advise you to choose only by one criterion - price. Are there extra 100 thousand rubles? Take the DIGIDESIGN 003 Factory Bundle . Nope Well then ESI Juli @ . As you can see the price range is very large, you can choose the perfect option that suits you. Over time, you will become better at understanding the musical "hardware", begin to understand the difference between different devices and be able to buy exactly what you need, but for now here’s a list of maps from which to start:
- M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (3 612 rub.)
- CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL E-Mu 0404 PCI (3,625 rubles)
- ESI Juli @ (4 900 rub.)
- ECHO AUDIOFIRE 2 (6,758 rub.)
There are many more zvukovuh in the same price range, but I prefer these four. By the way, if you have a FireWire connector, I advise you to stop at ECHO AudioFire 2.
Headphones.
Headphones in the arsenal of the musician play a very important role, especially at the beginning, when your experiments with sound will not give others any pleasure;) To begin with, I suggest finding out which headphones we need? They are divided into open, half-open and closed.
For monitoring when working with a microphone, it is better to use closed headphones so that there is no accompaniment penetration into the microphone. However, it is sometimes necessary to use open headphones, since Some musicians find it difficult to navigate in the unusual acoustic conditions for listening with headphones. As a result, vocalists begin to understate, sing non-rhythmically, etc. In such cases, open headphones that provide some level of sound penetration from the outside can help put things right. About half open I will not speak, because almost did not use them.
In addition to the quality and “honesty” of the sound, headphones have one more parameter (probably the most important one) - convenience. I once had closed headphones Nady QH-660 , they sounded good for their price, but they were terribly uncomfortable! As a result, instead of doing music, I constantly had to straighten the right “ear”, which later had to be stuck to the rim with adhesive tape, because it began to fall off constantly. So that!
Now that we know what kind of headphones are and for what purposes they are needed, we can safely go to the store and choose the following models:
Closed:
- AKG K44 (840 rubles)
- SENNHEISER HD 202 (980 rubles)
- BEYERDYNAMIC DT231 (RUB 1,036) (note, alas, there was no link on MuzTorg’s website)
Open:
I myself use closed BEYERDYNAMIC DT231.
Regarding the entry-level half-open headphones: AKG K66 is quite suitable. Of the advantages of these “ears”, we can note a good clear “top” (which, by the way, when listening to mp3 files with a bitrate below 256–320 Kbps, opens up all the “nastiness” of lossy coding), as well as a comfortable fit and of course the price: ) Of the minuses, “insufficient” bass can be noted, but this can be corrected with an equalizer.Thank you so much for the description of AKG K66 to Comrade Calg0n !
MIDI Keyboards.
MIDI keyboard is the most common type of MIDI controller. It is an electronic piano keyboard with optional additional controls - in particular buttons and faders, to which the user can assign, for example, various parameters of virtual synthesizers.
This is taken from wikipedia .
So we got to the first and most important governing body of our "studio". Once, when the trees were large, and the processors were single-core, I threw notes right in the sequencer and did not understand why people need midi-keyboards and controllers. Soon, when I got the keyboard, everything fell into place. It has become much easier to invent tunes, it has become much faster to record the already invented one and the pleasure of working has become much more. You too can get all this and more! But provided that your chosen keyboard will meet the following requirements:
- Key mechanism that provides feedback tactile communication and the ability to determine the power of pressing a key.
- Enough keys, my choice is 4 octaves.
- Required - the presence of wheels Pitch, Modulation and volume control.
- Output for sustain-pedals.
But the most important thing is latency! If the keyboard has too much delay, it will simply not be possible to work with it.
So, a list of keyboards that newcomers should pay attention to:
- M-Audio OXYGEN 8 USB Controller Keyboard (3,612 rubles)
- M-Audio KeyRig 49 (4 205 rub.) (I have a comment, by the way, that’s that)
- ESI KEYCONTROL 49 (4 536 rub.)
- E-MU XBOARD 49 (6 692 rub.)
- CME UF7 MIDI (10 248 rub.)
And this is the first part of the Beginning of the Way series.
UPDATE 02/21 23:30
I made a small edit and added a link to the first part.
UPDATE 22.02 00:37
Added a small description of AKG 66 from Calg0n'a . For which way he thanks a lot!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/52069/
All Articles