I don’t know if I have ever laid out the gear that is the base of my home studio. The guts of it is a MacBook Pro laptop fully tricked out running Logic Express from Apple. That in itself was a massive decision point for me. Should I get something like a desktop or the iMac which would have a little more storage at the expense of portability, knowing I would be doing a bunch of remote recording. Obviously I chose the ability to move around. Getting Logic Express was also a hard decision because I have had lots of exposure and some experience with ProTools. In the end, it came down to the fact Logic Express had many desireable add-ons for the pre-production process that I would have to buy to add on to ProTools.
I had wanted to buy a high end pre-amp, but this time around it was not to happen. I still may rent one for the finish vocals.
The interface I bought was an M-Audio Project Mix I/O. Eight channels, eight pre-amps which allowed me to record the drums well, my most challenging tracking for this project.
Lastly I bought a Rode NTK microphone. A very nice moderately priced mic strongest in acoustic recording (vocal, piano, acoustic guitar). There I was looking for an emphasis on vocals with the ability to record a grand and acoustic guitar.
Apple, of course, has just released a new version of of Logic called Logic Studio.
It seems like a great deal for the money. It includes the Pro version of logic plus a bunch of other powerful software. Of course there is also a break because I own Express. There is also a Express upgrade available, but the real deal seems to be in Studio. Bottom line is I have a CD to release. Perhaps I should reward myself after the release.
