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What in your opinions is the most essential attribute of a studio (obviously outside of DAW)

My current set up is a knackered 4 year old PC running FL10 with about 100gb's of self recorded/internet gathered/odds and ends of samples. a M-Audio Axiom49 Midi controller and some shitty smart price 5.1 speaker set up.

Personally I think the biggest part of what helps me produce is the midi controller. Although i know people that value a decent pair of monitors above the midi controller? I wouldn't know i've never really worked with monitors

IMO, monitors are super important if your self mixing, which I assume most of us tend to do.

I'd say monitors would be right up there, or some nice studio phones. Looking to get some myself (hopefully) soon. Pc speakers just dont cut it. Midi controller def helps for getting riffs and rythms down quicker.

Probably a computer....

Computer and creativity,2 vital tools.

a spacious clean work area is super important to me. I have a GIANT desk that houses two computer screens, RP8 Monitors, my keyboard, my APC, and still has space for whatever i may have on hand

Most important are computer/laptop, monitors and audio interface.
Luxuries to add on include nice environment, good work space and Midi Keyboard
It's how I see it anyway, can get the job done but those things are not as easily obtained.

cigs and red bull

Cheeky wrote:cigs and red bull

Yeah true that,thinking about it monitors are essential.Other forms of reference aswell like mp3 player,car stereo......Also decent studio cans,i use beye dt 770
closed cans and they are awesome.I will never use a different make,my only gripe would be they make your ears sweat and itchy after long sessions.I will get a set of open cans to,i Have heard they are much better for arranging then closed cans for mixing.
Acoustic treatment too is a must for any room where decent monitors are being used,i have bass traps and a cloud.You can deaden room to much so reading into it and getting decent advice is a must for anyone who wants to tackle it properly.A comfy chair for infront of your desk is vital,nothing like getting something on the boil then getting a sore arse after halfhour to the point your attention span starts to wonder.
A quiet room,my kids and mrs constantly argue hence why most of what i do is on closed cans.

lloydy wrote:Also decent studio cans,i use beyer dt 770

Beyer Dynamics headphones are so suhweet.

for me its my samples, i feel like alot of them are more irreplaceable than any actual gear i have. my samples create my sound more than whatever peice of gear im using, including synths/vstis.

Monitoring environment, so treated room, monitors, and headphones.

hmm everyones bang on the monitors! feel like i been in the dark for so long. Think the first step for me is getting a half decent PC sorted, then onto the monitors. A mate of mine said he listened to his tunes back on some Adam's and he had to re-work all his tunes coz they all sounded shit. Dunno if you heard his tunes. Dismantle? He got some Adam A6's i thoink? His productions are fucking ridiculously banging and clean now.

I was thinking about headphones. I got some decent ones a while back, some Audio Technica's, but i find producing on headphones really limiting in a strange way. I like the sound to fill the room i'm in rather than being trapped in my head.

Also @press samples definitely are such a big part of what gets the creative ball rolling for me. I'll dedicate a whole night every now and again for just a sample hunt. Recently got WireTap Pro installed on my mac, just open up netflix, leave it running, flick through and browse youtube oddities etc... The amount of drum hits i've made out of weird videos and stuff pitched up and down.

de-caf coffee only for me, anything stronger and i drink too much, worst thing u can do imo is fuck up ur sleeping patterns on a regular basis, it leads to all sorts of issues to do with the mind, trust me.

any type of midi controller will change ur world.

its a very wide question... if i were to answer generally and faithfully id say, anything that'll compensate for whatever major flaw u have in ur workflow.

Creativity, musical taste, stuff that dubstep producers all lack.

for me, using logic, a MIDI keyboard is essential. When I was toying around with Ableton, though, I found it less important.

Most of my essentials are software-based. My only hardware is an M-Audio Oxygen 25 and a Shure USB condenser mic.

I'd say a large and extensive sample library is pretty damn essential. The larger and more organized, the better (I find as it gets larger and larger I need to do more and more organization of my samples, sorting them into smaller and smaller categories). My sample library is super organized, and pretty big, so it's really easy to start off a song with some creativity and inspiration after exploring my sample library.

Besides that, my knowledge of musical theory from being a jazz guitarist helps out quite a bit.

and then, patience. I don't have a lot of that. I should get some. Anyone know any good stores?

monitors, MIDI keyboard and a NICE CHAIR.

Monitors, and MIDI keyboard i guess but other than that, a nice work environment is a must - i lived in a horrible box flat for a year and struggled to make any decent tracks and now that iv moved to a nice place my songs have improved like tenfold