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My Guitar Oriented Studio
PC Wintel
by Fart Blossom
Feb 2004

Want to set up a home studio ?  Have no idea what to do, buy or look for?  
Here is a list of stuff I use now that might help someone new to DAW 
(Digital Audio Workstations) get started.  My system is very stable, clean
and sounds great.  

Here is what I currently use and its approximate cost:
(I may have paid too much or too little, just my approx estimated costs)
Items with a star are the ones I deem crucial to operation, ie can't live
without.

-----------
M-Audio Delta 1010LT Soundcard (used on ebay-)            $200.00*
Mackie 1604 VLZ Mixer (used)                              $700.00
P4 2.0 and 512 MB PC 133 and MOBO                         $279.00*
80 GB HDD with 8mb cache                                  $120.00*
Cakewalk Pro Audio 8 (used from friend)                   $ 50.00* 
Cakewalk Guitar Tracks 2.0                                $ 50.00
DVD Writer 4x (WalMart)                                   $ 79.00
Cool Edit Pro (got on trade from friend)                  $280.00
Fostex Model 80 8 track (I like tape)(ebay used)          $240.00
100 Watt Sansui tuner with small nearfields and sub       $100.00
Fancy computer desk  (Office Max)                         $120.00
Les Paul Copy                                             $600.00
Peavey Millenium Bass                                     $240.00
MXL Powered Condenser Microphone (blem Musicians' Friend) $ 70.00
5 used 8 x snakes  RCA to phone                           $ 55.00
Peavey DeltaFex (ebay used)                               $ 40.00
Line 6 PodXT (new)                                        $400.00*


This is not everything, but is the core of what I consider to be
my studio equipment that gets used often.  

Before I had this equipment
here is a basic el-cheapo setup DAW I might have used, had I
not been able to acquire all the current equipment:
----------- 
I didn't provide links...do a Google search for each
All prices estimated at created time of this file.

Modest P3 700+ PC with 256MB RAM and 40GB HDD         price depending  $250.00         
Audacity Sound Editor                                      (freeware)
ProTools Free (Win9x only)                                 (freeware)
Kristal Audio Multitracker                (freeware with VST support)
Freeware web downloaded drum tracks        (free from samples on web)
M-Audio Delta 410 (2 digital in/2 analog in)                           $120.00
 OR SBLIVE (any version)                                               $ 40.00
Radio Shack RCA to miniature phone     sound card adaptor/cables)      $ 30.00
Cheap LO Z microphone                                                  $ 12.95
Stomper Drum Machine                             (freeware drum synth)
RRAMM Drum                                       (freeware drum synth)
Numerous free VST plugins from web               (free to use in Kristal)
Buzz  (a weird audio tracker)                    (free)
Cakewalk Guitar tracks PRO (32 stereo tracks, excellent software)      $100.00
Cakewalk Guitar tracks 2.0 (16 Stereo tracks, excellent software)      $ 50.00
Behringer Mixer, ie 8 channel cheapo                                   $ 50.00
CD-RW with software                                                    $ 59.00
Headphones (cheap walkman style or better)                             $ 15.00
-----------

(Guitar tracks 2.0 has a downloadable 30 day fully working trial from
 www.cakewalk.com.  You can do a whole project while evaluating the software.
 I used to use 2.0 a lot because it looks just like a standard desktop 4 track
 and the interface works almost exactly the same way)

Hope this helps someone out a little.  It wasn't intended to be all-inclusive,
just what I have done in the past.  There are hundreds of other ways you could
go.  When I first started, I used a Peavey ProfexII, a SBLIVE Value and Pentium
2 400, 10 GB HDD, CD writer, and two chopped up earphone jacks hooked with 
tape to my processor output cables (phone plugs taped in series).  I had a cheeseball
drum machine and Cakewalk Pro Audio 6.  That was it.  I still have some of
the recordings I made and they are quite clean considering the cabling hack job
I did on them.

Fart Blossom

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