I keep saying I’m no expert, and what I’ve posted here is really about all I know.
For the curious, here’s what I use at Cloudy Labs:
PRO TOOLS INTERFACE:
M-Audio Firewire 410. 2 Mic/Line inputs, and two digital ins. It can be a little buggy, but nothing disasterous.
PRE AMP & CONVERTERS:
The Apogee Mini-Me. This is now discontinued, but I got mine on eBay. A really clean, pro-grade preamp (two channels) with switchable limiting and three different compression curves. All the different sample rates you’d need, and the legendary Apogee conversion. The limiter has a gentle curve to it, and I leave it on all the time - when you’re recording yourself, it’s easy to miss some overs, and this thing keeps ‘em in check. One of the best things I’ve ever purchased, it’s small and will even run off of location video-style battery power. That’s cool!
COMPUTER:
I actually own a PC, but I hate that thing - I’m a Mac guy. My main box is a Dual 2.0 G5 with 5 GB of RAM and a bunch of hard drives. A little long in the tooth by today’s standards, one of these days I’ll go intel.
I use a 20″ Dell LCD Widescreen and also a 17″ flat panel.
I am also a FREAK for Kensington trackballs. It takes a day or two to get used to them, but you will never go back to a mouse. They’re precise and your desk can get messy as hell but you won’t need a clear mousing area. You move your fingertips instead of your whole arm, and with one flick you can cross the real estate of two screens. If your response is “I hate trackballs”, chances are you’ve never use a big Kensington. Highly, highly recommended.
BACKUP:
Are you backing up? Jesus, get with it. Get a Terrabyte external drive for $130 or so. Get some free software (Carbon Copy Cloner for the Mac). Just set it up to run while you’re asleep. My main client hard drive failed just days ago -I lost a couple hours’ work vs. a couple years. Do it NOW.
FRONTIER DESIGNS TRANZPORT.
Awesome piece of gear - wireless remote control for Pro Tools. Priceless.
MIXER:
A tiny little Behringher Eurorack. I don’t record through it - it just routs the Mac’s audio ins and outs, the Pro Tools monitor outs, and a little Line 6 box for jamming. Handy, but not a stellar piece of recording gear. Useful when I’m recording and videotaping though, to get a reference track into the camera. One day I’ll get a Mackie Big Knob.
Acoustic Treatment:
Mainly home-made panels with rigid Owens-Corning, some of ‘em 6″ thick, like the corner piece you can see at the top of the post (handy place to hang guitars, too). I also got a few clearance panels from ATS Acoustics - they’re purple, but hey - clearance!
SPEAKERS:
I Use Event Tuned Reference 8’s. They’re self-powered and I’m pretty happy with them. I still have some Tannoy PBM 6.5 II’s and a Hafler amp - which sounded good, but mixing is way easier on the 8’s. Another eBay find.
VIDEO CAMERA:
A Panasonic DVX 100b - I include that because I sometimes make guitar videos, and I plug an amp microphone right into the XLR on the camera - sounds quite good.
HEADPHONES:
I’ve had the same pair of classic Sennheiser HD 450’s for something like 20 years. Luckily, Sennheiser supplies replacement ear pads and cables for ‘em. And luckily, I got mine after Sennheiser got over their “big yellow foam pads” stage.
PLUGINS:
I use the Massey stuff, RedLine Reverb, and Masterverb Pro. I use a Line 6 guitar amp emulator occasionally, though it rarely sounds as good as a real amp. I’ve also been using Waves GTR solo for amp emulation, as they were offering a “One Year Demo”. It sounds kind of cool, but again, I’m never thrilled with it in a mix. I use the emulators more for commercial music, when I get that sort of gig.
RACK GEAR:
I rarely run anything out of Pro Tools, and my rack gear is leftover from analog days; when I do, it’s either through the compressor in my Joe Meek VC6Q, or an Aphex C2 Exciter. I also have some ART stuff, and two Roland SDE 1000 delays, which kill in my guitar’s effects loop.
