My bank account hurts!!! But I’m pretty excited about some new toys for my studio.
I blame it all on end of financial year sales!!!
Here’s the culprits responsible for emptying my bank account…
Brand new DAW PC. i7 7700K with three Samsung 500 GB SSDs, 32 GB RAM, Asus Z270a Prime motherboard, high end PSU, Corsair silent case.
Native Instruments Komplete 8 standard to Komplete 11 Ultimate upgrade.
Spectrasonics Keyscape. I’ve been eyeing this off since I saw the demo video and read all the reviews. Can’t wait for this to arrive!!
I’m at the beginning of recording a new album so this is all going to be used for this album which is by far my biggest project to date. It will be a double length album all recorded in 3D third order Ambisonics.
I’ll be using Cantabile and REAPER on the new PC for all the recording, mixing and mastering.
So yes, my bank account hurts but my inspiration doesn’t care!!!
Congratulations! May I give you an advice? SSDs are slow these days. You should try to upgrade to M.2 standard. Those are stunning… while a standard SSD has a write speed of about 550MB/s and read speed of 520 MB/s the M.2 beats it down with 3500MB/s write and 2100MB/s read…
I just upgraded my Skull Canyon with the Samsung M.2 960 Pro… this is unbelievable!!
@David New toys are always exciting. I have some spare cash coming my way in a few weeks, and am already planning how to spend it on musical toys.
@FantomXR thnaks for the tip. I must be getting old, as I am just moving to SSDs and already there is something replacing them! Will need to check it out. I plan to go the Brik PC route for Cantabile on stage, and was looking at a system with SSD in, but looks like I need to do some homework now on drives!
I hear you and the 960 Pro is what I had initially spec’d for this build. However, it put me over budget so I opted for the SATA SSDs instead.
I can always add a 960 later on though. This mobo has slots for two of them.
@FantomXR you may be able to answer a question I’ve been pondering.
I use Halion Sonic 3 in my live rig and it’s the only software I use that needs a hardware key.
I’ve noticed that the Skull Canyon has internal USB headers and I was wondering if there is any room within the case to fix a USB dongle?
No, there is absolutely no space inside the case. Also there are no USB-“headers” where you can connect a USB device to. There are some extension headers so you could connect this cable to it: http://www.gorite.com/intel-nuc-products/skull-canyon-products
You won’t be disappointed with Diva. It’s one of my favourite VST synths. If you are into modular, check out Bazille too. If you want to hear a full song (Berlin School style) done with Bazille, have a listen to Run the Race on my website at www.synthesizers.audio
It is all Bazille and nothing else. Even the majority of the FX are straight out of Bazille and all the patches are my original creations. I made that recording during the Bazille beta period.
+10 for UH-E. Their VSTi synths sound amazing, and I will probably get them all. Currently have Diva, Zebra, ZebraHz, Hive and Repro-1. I’m currently doing an “In The Box” only experiment, where I have (you’ve guessed) constrained myself to VSTis only to see what I get. It uses all of the above and also throws in the XIL-LABS PolyKBIII for good measure. I love layering different synth sounds for movement and hit upon the sweet spot last night! Now I just need to turn it into a song.
@David That track sounds very good. Nice composition and sounds combined.
I’m playing without any hardware-instruments on stage for 2-3 years now… I never had a crash where nothing was working anymore and only hardware could rescue me. So… I hope the luck stays
I still have some nice hardware instruments, like the Korg Kronos, that are great on stage. I currently have the option to acquire another “hardware” instrument, as I wish to retire my trusty EX5 from gigging, but I am thinking long and hard about it…
It’s a pity we weren’t closer in location. I’d offer to repair that EX5 PSU for you. I had issues with my trusty SY77 a few years ago and it was the PSU. Turned out to be a pretty simple fix.
Thanks heaps for the feedback on my track too.
Quick update…
Keyscape arrived today via courier and my new DAW PC should be here either tomorrow or the next day.
Quite impressed by the packaging quality of Keyscape. Spectrasonics seem to ooze quality in all areas.
Sorry, I missed this first time around. I am currently covered for the PSU thanks. I obtained one from a donor A3000 (cheap as chips these days) as they used the same PSU (chance discovery!).
Good to see another SY fan. I started with an SY77 in 2006, and now have a TG77 and SY99, both modded to have the “Cool Blue” display upgrade, which has an LED backlight instead of the plasma one that fails (you also get rid of the annoying inverter whine). Also have an AN1x and FS1r in my classic Yamaha stash!
I am a fan of the Motif and Montage series by Yamaha. Not only for the great sounds, but as a controller, it is extremely versatile. I have a Motif XF8 that I replaced my Motif Classic with, but I am saving for the Montage 8. I want David’s set up, but I want the Montage, too. Tough decision, but I can’t get the Montage until 2019, when I have the funds. Thanks everyone for the input. My i7 gigging laptop is getting old (4th gen, 16gb ram, 240tgb ssd). However, Brad’s Glitch Free has changed my life. I have made the respective OS alterations in my Windows 7 and 10 computers and the power is amazing! Thanks again everyone for the tech input for hardware. Never heard of an M.2 until FantomXR mentioned it.
Wow thanks for the fast reply! I actually got it to work by doing a full-scan on plugin dir paths, but it did not even see HALion Sonic.dll until I did that. All is good now.
But the U-HE Diva is pretty high on the list too 
