One Daw that I failed to mention in my last two posts is PreSonus Studio One 2 Pro, which I used on a project fairly recently. I started using this program when it was Studio One Artist, and was included with a Fire Studio interface I purchased from PreSonus. I later Upgraded to the Pro version when it was offered at half price and because it supports video playback which I frequently use. It has a relatively uncluttered graphic interface but still manages to keep most of the features available on the main screen. Thus far this has been a very stable program and I am looking forward to using it in upcoming projects. A screenshot is shown below. Till next time. :-) BC

    

More on DAW's...

     This is a continuation, or update, to the post I made over a year ago, regarding various DAW's I use as a composer/sound designer.
     I ended my previous post with a brief mention of Cakewalk SONAR X2 Producer as one of the tools I use. At that time Cakewalk was primarily owned by Roland Corp, who was very good about updating Sonar based on feedback from it's user base. Just prior to my post, and unknown to me, Greg Hendershott, the CEO and founding developer of Cakewalk had announced he was resigning. More recently, Gibson Brands had acquired Cakewalk from Roland. I'm saddened on several levels because of this acquisition, first because Gibson Brands seemed to abandon certain products they acquired, namely Opcode Vision software, the Oberheim Synthesizer product line, and Music Quest software products, to name a few. They have also taken over much of Tascam products and plan to market SONAR as part of the Tascam Professional product line. Tascam, as many may recall, had already abandoned the GigaSampler/GigaStudio line and sold it off to Garritan, who likewise seems to have abandoned what was once considered by many to be the de facto standard in Software Sampler libraries(I see no mention of the Giga product on their web site). To add to my frustration, I recently received an email from Cakewalk asking that qualified people send in applications for the position of Lead Software Developer (what happened to the previous one?). I had just upgraded from Sonar X2 Producer to Sonar X3 Producer, which I now believe might be the last upgrade from the original software team. I hope I'm wrong on this because it seemed Cakewalk was headed in a good direction with their development of Sonar.
     Enough ranting, I truly hope the Cakewalk product line continues to grow, and that whoever owns it will treat it as a beloved member of their family. Now onto more pleasant things.
     As I had mentioned in my previous post, the DAW I use the most is Reaper, primarily because it is very intuitive for me, very stable, very powerful, very frequently updated, by the development team, and has a very knowledgeable user base. I know, that's a lot of very's. In addition to it’s very high sound quality, the included plugins are among the best I’ve used on any platform.
     Another well developed DAW platform I'm using is Samplitude from Magix. I'm using version 11.5 of Samplitude Producer, which is not their flagship product, but extremely powerful and has a visually elegant interface that I find appealing and is nearly as intuitive to me as Reaper. Samplitude feels uncluttered and visually accessible.

Samplitude Producer 11,5

     A couple of popular products I have not mentioned are Ableton and Reason, which are very powerful and have a well established user base. Virtually all of my work is based on linear tracking rather than clips or loops. The aforementioned products tend to excel at pattern based recording and sequencing rather than tape recorder style tracking. Included in that category is Acid Pro from Sony, which I do own but rarely use.
     Well that’s a glimpse at some of the products I use, my next post will probably deal with a particular project, the tools I’m using, and the process that’s involved. Thanks for reading, see you soon.  BC

DAW's

     On the subject of DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations) I’ve been pondering the best way to discuss them and to describe why I use, what I use. This will not be a detailed review, but rather an observation. So here it goes. Reaper is my go-to recording and sequencing choice followed by Cubase 5, Logic Pro 8, and Sonar Producer_X2. For strictly audio editing purposes I use Adobe Audition 3 followed by Audacity.  I then save all tracks in .wav and .aif formats so they can be transferred to Pro Tools for compatibility with most studios and post production facilites. I also have Samplitude Producer as well as PreSonus Studio One Producer which I keep for cross compatibility with other musicians and producers. I must say at the outset that I own licenses for all the software in my studio and firmly believe that if we use it, we should buy it and support those who worked hard to provide it.  Now on to the reasons why I use certain software.

      First in the line-up is Reaper, a complete digital recording/sequencing solution available at http://www.reaper.fm/ for a very reasonable cost. The interface in Reaper is very accessible and easy to wrap my head around, while the program itself is easily the equal in power of other major work stations. One of the main considerations for choosing a DAW for me is in it’s ability to display video synced to audio/midi, either on the primary screen or on a separate monitor. Reaper does this quite smoothly and is compatible with most video formats. Most of what I do is soundtrack work and being able to view the on-screen video with a “window burn” of SMPTE time-code is essential. Beyond this the DAW must be quick, easy to use, and have deep editing capabilities while being very stable. Again Reaper lives up to these criteria with the added bonus of having a extremely customizable graphic user interface or “theme”.

Reaper Arrange Screen

Reaper Mixer Screen

     Next in line is Cubase 5 from Steinberg/Yamaha (I haven’t upgraded to 6.5 yet) and Logic Pro 8 from Apple. I have a long history with Cubase and began using it on the Atari platform when it first became available. At that time it was strictly a midi-sequencer with the added capability of printing simple music scores. It has since grown to be a most robust program and one by which many others are measured. I truly like this program, but it has become so feature-laden and complex as to be less user friendly for me to use as primary software, although it looks like Steinberg is trying to address those issues in Cubase 7. Aside from that it is a great program and has all of the video and editing capabilities that Reaper has. I likewise have a long history with Logic on the Atari platform and eventually on the Mac. Though different in the early days it is now very similar to Cubase in usage and capabilities but only available on the Mac platform. Cubase is available for both the PC and Mac. Logic’s included plug-ins are very good and have delivered excellent sonic results on projects I’ve used them on.

Cubase 5 Arrange Screen

Logic Pro 8 Arrange Screen

     Finally for this installment there is Sonar from Cakewalk/Roland. I’m using the newest version, Sonar Producer X2a. Sonar has come a long way from earlier days when it was called Cakewalk Pro Audio and had a more cumbersome interface and less accessible editing capabilities than it now has. The new interface introduced with Sonar X1 is more elegant to me and has a wonderful “Pro Channel” available for every track giving you quick access to EQ, FX, and Dynamics processing. All of the FX and Soft Instruments included with the program are extremely good and very usable. Like with Reaper and Cubase, it has the ability to display video while recording or editing.

SONAR X2 Producer

    Well that’s it for now. I’ll cover other programs and plug-ins I use in a future post. Also bear in mind that these are just my opinions and not to be considered particular endorsements or detailed critiques of the above mentioned products.

Music Examples

Above is a fairly recent picture of my studio setup. This is physically scaled down from previous years, but more versatile since software instruments and plug-ins do not take up the same amount of real estate as hardware components. I am blessed to have a good selection of hardware and I am very fond of it, however, physical limitations of the small space I inhabit prohibit having it all locally available. A complete listing of my studio tools are posted below. I will go into more detail of hardware and software preferences at a later time. :-)

Studio Tools

Synthesizers/Samplers

     ROLAND

          1. D-70 (Linear Arithmetic Synth (76 key controller keyboard)

          2. D-550 (Linear Arithmetic Synth)

          3. JV-1080  w / orchestral & vocal expanders

          4. JV-880   w / orchestral expander

          5. S-330 (sampler)

          6. S-550 (sampler)

          7. S-760 (sampler)

          8. S-700 (sample player)

          9. R8M  w / jazz & percussion expanders (drum module)

        10. RD-700 (keyboard)
        11. MK-80

      
     YAMAHA

          1. TG-77 (FM & Advanced Waveform Memory Synth)

          2. TX-16W (2) (sampler)

          3. RM50  w / sample memory expansion (drum module)

     KORG

          1. M1R/ex

          2. 01W/R

          3. EX-8000  w / memory expander

          4. WS/SR Wave Station

          5. S3 w/jazz card (drum module)

          6. Oasis PCI

     AKAI

          1. S900 (sampler)

          2. S950 (sampler)

          3. S2000 (sampler)

          4. MX73 (controller keyboard)

     EMU

          1. Esi-32 (sampler)

          2. Proteus-1  w / orchestral expander

    OBERHEIM

        1.  Strummer

     CASIO

          1. VZ-10M (rackmount phase distortion synth)

     SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS

          1. PRO-ONE (vintage analog synth)

     STUDIO LOGIC

          1. SL-1100 (controller keyboard)

     M-AUDIO

          1. Oxygen 49 (controller keyboard)     

MIXERS

     1. Mackie LM-32

     2. Mackie 1604 VLZ

     3. Rane SM 82  Stereo Line Mixer

     4. Behringer 32 x 8 analogue mixer

     5. TASCAM TM-D1000 (digital mixer)

     6. Behringer X-32 (digital mixer)
     7. Behringer X-32 Compact (digital mixer)
     8. (2) Behringer X1222 USB

RECORDERS

     1. Fostex D160 V2.0 (16-track digital HD recorder)

     2. Fostex R8 (8-track Reel to Reel)

     3. Fostex 280 (4-track cassette)

     4. EMU Darwin (8-track digital HD recorder)

     5. TASCAM 3440 w / 4 channels of DBX noise reduction (4-track Reel to Reel)

     6. TASCAM DA-88 16-Track System [(2) 8-track MDR’s]

     7. TASCAM DA-40 (DAT)

     8. TASCAM MD301 MKII (mini-disc)

     9. TASCAM DR-07 (portable 2-track digital recorder)

   10. DENON D720R (cassette tape)

   11. Revox A77 (1/4-track Reel to Reel)

   12. SONY MD37 (portable mini-disc recorder)

   13. SONY PCM60 (digital 2-track PCM w/super-VHS recorder)

   14. AKAI DR-4D (4-track digital HD recorder)

   15. Alesis 24-Track ADAT system w/BRC

STUDIO MONITORS

     1. Tannoy PBM-8 (pr)

     2. YAMAHA NS-A638 (4)

     3. Kenwood 10” Powered Subs (2)

     4. Sony SS-MB100H passive Studio Monitors (pr)
     5. Klipsch 8" Powered Sub

COMPUTER SYSTEMS

     1. (2) Mac Pro quad-core 2.67 Xeon w/8 gigs ram  1.5 terabytes hd (Snow  Leopard 10.6.8)

     2. (2) Power Mac G5 2.5 ghz dual processor w/2 gigabytes ram (Leopard 10.4)

     3. (2) Rackmount AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4ghz quad-core w/4 gb ram 1 tb hd (Win 7)

     4. Toshiba A505-6965S laptop 2ghz Intel dual-core w/4 gigs ram 500 gig hd (Win 7)

     5. HP Envy dv7 laptop 2.3 ghz A10 quad-core w/8 gigs ram 1 terabyte hd (Win 8.1)
     6. Samsung Galaxy Tablet

RECORDING SOFTWARE

     1. Logic Pro 8 (Apple)

     2. Cubase Pro 9.5, 6.5, 5.53, SX3 (Steinberg)

     3. SONAR Platinum  (Cakewalk)

     4. Samplitude Producer 11.5, MS2017 (Magix)

     5. Reaper 5+ (Cockos)

     6. Audition 3 (Adobe)

     7. Sound Forge 9 - Acid Pro 6- Vegas 7.0 DVD+ VEGAS Pro Studio  (Sony/Magix)

     8. Studio One Ver.3+ Producer (PreSonus)

     9. Waves Tracks Live
   10. Audacity

AUDIO / MIDI INTERFACES

     1. FireStudio Project (PreSonus) Firewire

     2. GINA 24 (Echo) Pci

     3. GINA 20 (Echo) Pci

     4. M-Audio Delta 24/96 (3 units) Pci

     5. Lexicon Alpha Usb

     6. Lexicon Core-2 Pci

     7. Alesis iO2 (2)Usb

     8. Emu 1212 Pci

     9. Emu 0404 (2) Pci

   10. Steinberg VSL-2020 Pci

   11. Steinberg Midex-8 (2)    Usb Midi Interface

   12. MOTU Midi Express 128 Usb Midi Interface

   13. MOTU Micro Express Parallel Port Midi Interface

   14. Midiman Midi Sport 2X2 Usb Midi Interface

   15. KMX-Midi Central midi patchbay

   16. Akai ME-80P midi patchbay

   17. Kawai MAV-8 midi patchbay

   18. Digital Music Corp. MX-8 midi patchbay
   19. Tascam US-1800 16-ch usb interface 
   20. PreSonus AudioBox  usb interfce
   21. (2) Behringer X-32 USB 32x32 channels (total 64 channels)

OUTBOARD PROCESSORS

     1. KORG A3 multi-effects

     2. Roland SRV-2000 reverb

     3. Roland RSP-550 multi-effects

     4. Boss SE-70 multi-effects

     5. Boss NS-50 expander/gate

     6. Digitech RP-1 multi-effects

     7. Digitech DSP-256XL multi-effects

     8. Alesis Midiverb II & III

     9. Alesis Quadraverb multi-effects

   10. (2) DBX 166 compressor

   11. (2)  JBL Quad Noise Gate

   12. Behringer Composer 2-channel compressor

   13. Behringer Vintage Tube 2-channel mic preamp

   14. Behringer Pro Voice preamp/vocal processor

   15. Behringer Virtualizer Pro multi-effects

   16. Behringer Pro EQ-31 band stereo equalizer

   17. Behringer 4-channel headphone amp

   18. Behringer SHARC preamp/digital feedback supressor

   19. PreSonus BlueTube 2-channel mic preamp

   20. Aphex Tubessence 2-channel mic preamp

   21. Joe Meek VC3 Classic mic preamp w/optical compressor

   22. Phonic 31-band Dual Graphic EQ

   23. Lexicon Alex reverb

   24. Yamaha SPX-90

   25. Yamaha SPX-90II

   26. Yamaha SPX-900
   21. (2) Behringer ADA 8200 8-Channel Mic Pre's W/adat

SOFTWARE INSTRUMENTS

     1. GigaStudio 3 / Ensemble (Tascam)

     2. GigaStudio 2 / 96 (Tascam)

     3. GigaSampler 1.64 (Nemesys)

     4. Halion 1, 2, 3 (Steinberg)

     5. NI Komplete 11+ including Kontakt 5 and bonus instruments (Native Instruments) *

     6. Kontakt 1 (Native Instruments)

     7. Kontakt 4 (Native Instruments)

     8. Roland Cloud (D-50, JV-1080, Juno-106, Jupiter-8, etc.)

     9. ReBirth (PropellerHeads / Steinberg)

   10. Emulator-X (Emu)

   11. Emulator-X3 (Emu)

   12. Proteus-X and Proteus VX (Emu)

   13. EWQL-Symphonic Orchestra Gold Complete (Play version)

   14. EWQL-Symphonic Orchestra Gold Complete (Native Instruments version)

   15. EWQL-Symphonic Orchestra Silver (Native Instruments version)

   16. EWQL-Symphonic Choirs w/VOA

   17. Battery-1 (Native Instruments).

   18. Pro-52/53 (Native Instruments)

   19. FM7 (Native Instruments)

   20. Dimension Pro (Cakewalk)

   21. Rapture (Cakewalk)

   22. Z3TA+ (Cakewalk)

   23. Z3TA+2.1 (Cakewalk)

   24. Pentagon 1 (Cakewalk)

   25. Session Drummer 2 (Cakewalk)

   26. Korg Digital Legacy (M1, Wave Station, Mono-Poly, MDE-X)

   27. Korg Oasis PCI

         * see below list of Komplete 8 instruments and plugins

Komplete 8, 9, 10, 11 Ultimate  (Native Instruments)

 Instruments

     1. Kontakt 5

     2. Reaktor 5

     3. Absynth 5

     4. FM8

     5. Battery 3 and 4

     6. Massive

     7. Studio Drummer

     8. Reaktor Spark

     9. Prizm

   10. Razor

   11. Abbey Road 60’s, 70's, 80's, and Modern Drums

   12. West Africa

   13. Retro Machines Mk2

   14. Vintage Organs

   15. New York Concert Grand

   16. Berlin Concert Grand

   17. Vienna Concert Grand

   18. Upright Piano

   19. Session Strings

   20. Scarbee A-200

   21. Scarbee Mark-1

   22. Scarbee MM-Bass

   23. Scarbee Clavinet/Pianet
   24. Session Horns
Plugins / FX

   24. Guitar Rig 5

   25. Ramfire

   26. Transient Master

   27. Traktors 12

   28. Reflektor

   29. The Finger

   30. The Mouth

Freeware Softsynths

     1. MicroTera (VirSyn)

     2. Triangle II & Square 1 (rgc/Cakewalk)

     3. Plex II (Wolfgang Palm)

     4. String Theory (Ugo)

     5. Protoplasm (HG Fortune)

     6. UltraSonic (EVM)

     7. Chimera (Majken Hoglund)

     8. SQ8L (Siegfried Kullmann)

     9. INTRO (Boris Kovalev)

   10. NoiseMaker (TAL)

   11. Uno-62 (TAL)

   12. Rivitar (Cutter Music)

   13. Independence Free (Yellow Tools / Magix)

   14. Proteus VX (Emu / Digital Sound Factory)

   15. FM4 (GTS)

                                                                                                                                                                    

Sample Libraries & Soundsets

     1. Peter Siedlaczek’s Advanced Orchestra Volumes 1-5   (Akai)

     2. Peter Siedlaczek’s Orchestral Colours   (Akai)

     3. Peter Siedlaczek’s Orchestra Plus   (Audio)

     4. Peter Siedlaczek’s Orchestra   (Akai)

     5. Akai Professional CD-3000 Sound Library   (Akai)

     6. Sampling Sound Systems Country   (Akai)

     7. Sampling Sound Systems Laidback Drum Tools   (Akai)

     8. Audio Adventures Symphonic Adventures   (Audio)

     9. ProSonus Electronic-1   (Audio)

   10. ProSonus Sampler Sampler   (Audio)

   11. Pro Samples Vol-13 Choirs   (Akai)

   12. Pro Samples Vol-16 Guitar & Bass   (Akai)

   13. Pro Samples Vol-20 Orchestral Brass   (Akai)

   14. Sampleheads New York City Drumworks   (Audio)

   15. Bigga Gigga Orchestral Brass French Horn   (Giga)

   16. Bigga Gigga Orchestral Brass Tuba   (Giga)

   17. X-Sample Sample Library Volumes 1-13   (Giga)

   18. Yellow Tools Pure Guitars   (Giga)

   19. Yellow Tools Pure Drums   (Giga)

   20. Quantum Leap Brass   (Emu)

   21. ToonTrak DFH   (Giga)

   22. Emu Esi-32 Production Soundset   (Emu)

   23. Dean Jaeger Master Violin Library   (Roland 700 Series)

   24. Native Instruments Sound Libraies Studio Drums   (NI-Battery/Kontakt)

   25. Digital Sound Factory Proteus Pack   (Kontakt)

   26. Digital Sound Factory Proteus Virtuoso 2000  (Dimension Pro)

   27. Digital Sound Factory Proteus 2000   (Dimension Pro)

   28. Digital Sound Factory Proteus 1-3, Orbit, MoPhatt   (Emulator-X, SF2)

   29. Digital Sound Factory Proteus PX-7 Drums   (Dimension Pro)

   30. Digital Sound Factory Filmscore   (Rapture)

   31. Digital Sound Factory Symphonic Strings HD   (Dimension Pro)

   32. Digital Sound Factory Ultraspheres   (Z3TA+2)

   33. Digital Sound Factory Vintage Keyboards   (SF2)

   34. Digital Sound Factory Emu Proteus 1   (SF2)

   35. Garritan Pocket Orchestra   (Dimension Pro)

SOFTWARE FX PLUGINS (purchased)

     1. MDE-X Digital Legacy Effects Plugin (Korg)

     2. Saturation Knob (Softube/Cakewalk)

     3. PC Leveler (Cakewalk)

     4. FreeFilter EQ (Steinberg)

     5. Dynasone Mastering Plugin (Steinberg)

     6. Loudness Maximizer (Steinberg)
     7. Valhalla (all Verbs, Echo, and Chorus)
     8. Sonitus (all) (Cakewalk)
  
iZotope RX-5 Standard and RX-6 essentials

     1. De-Click                          Click Removal                     

     2. De-Clip                            Clipping Reducer                     

     3. De Hum                           Hum Removal

     4. Dialogue De-Noiser         Hiss and Noise Removal

     5. Vinyl                                 Vinyl Record Simulation

WAVES Plugins:  (over 180 including all Signature Series and most Premium Bundles)

     1. Chris Lord-Alge Signature Series (all)    

     2. Manny Marroquin Signature Series (all)

     3. Maserati Signature Series (all)           

     4. Jack Joseph Puig Signature Series (all)

     5. Abby Road Signature Series (all)

     6. Eddie Kramer Signature Series (all)

     7. API Signature Series (all)

     8. Scheps Signature Series (all)

     9. Greg Wells Signature Series (all)

   10. Dorrough Series Meters       precision VU/Broadcast meters

   11. C1                                         Compressor

   12. L1+ Ultra Maximizer           Ultra Maximizer              

   13. IR-L                                      Convolution Reverb

   14. True Verb                              Algorithmic Reverb                            

   15. S1                                         Stereo Imager                          

   16. Q10                                       Multi-Band EQ

   17. Doubler                                 Doubler

   18. DeEsser                                DeEsser

   19. Super-Tap                             Multi-tap Delay              

   20. L3 Multi-Maximizer             Multi-Maximizer

   21. L3 Ultra Maximizer              Ultra Maximizer

   22. MV2                                      Dynamics Processor              

   23. H-Delay                                Hybrid Delay

   24. C6                                         MultiBand Compressor

   25. Trans-X                                 Transient Processor

   26. Element 2.0                           Modeled AnalogSynth                                           

   27. Renaissance Reverb             Vintage Reverb              

   28. Renaissance Series (all)

   29. Da Breath                             Breath removal and Speech Processor

   30. 360 Surround Tools

   31. Forensic Bundle

   32. Diamond Bundle

   33. Puig Compressors                  Vintage Compressor

   34. Puig EQ's                               Vintage Pultec Type EQ's

   35. Wave-Tune LT                        Basic Tune Correction

   36. Waves Tune                           Advanced Pitch Processor

   37. H-Delay                                  Hybrid Delay

   38. H-Reverb                                Hybrid Reverb

   39. H-Comp                                  Hybrid Compressor                                           

   40. H-EQ                                      Hybrid Equalizer

   41. IR1                                          Convolution Reverb

   42. L1-Limiter                                Limiter

   43. NS1                                         Noise Supression

   44. Ultra Pitch                               Pitch Shifter/Harmonizer

   45. Linear Phase EQ                     Linear Phase Multi-Band EQ

   46. Linear Phase Multi-Comp        Linear Phase Multi-Band Comp

   47. Kramer HLS-Channel              Vintage Console Channel

   48. LoAir                                        Lo Frequency Enhancer

   49. In-Phase                                  Phase Compensation Processor

   50. Center                                     Center-Side M/S Processor

   51. V-Comp                                  Vintage Series Compressor

   52. V-EQ4                                     Vintage Series EQ

   53. GEQ                                        Classic & Modern Graphic EQ

   54. UM225/UM226                       Stereo to 5.1 Surround Up-Converter

   55. Sound Shifter                           Pitch Shifter/Modulator

   56. PS22                                        Stereo/Mono Field Enhancer

   57. Doppler                                   doppler pitch effect

   58. Morphodor                             Vocorder effect

   59. F6 Dynamic EQ                     Floating Dynamic EQ

   60. Audio Track                           Channel and Tracking Tool

Freeware FX Plugins

     1. Blockfish (digital fishphones) *outstanding compressor, superb on drums easy to use

     2. Classic Bundle (Kjaerhas) *good group of classic bread & butter effects

     3. Modern Plugins (Antress) *severable usable emulations of hardware processors

     4. Variety Of Sound Plugins (Boot/Nasty Series) *a great group of very usable plugins

     5. GlaceVerb (DaSample) nice reverb

     6. Electri-Q (AiXcoustic Creations-posihfopit edition)

     7. ReaPlugs Bundle (Cockos) *free group of plugins from the Reaper DAW, very good!

     8. HybridReverb 2 (Christian Borss)

     9. SupaPhaser (Smartelectronix)

   10. RoughRider (Audio Damage)

   11. Spinner LE (NuBi) *very good rotary speaker effect

   12. Elottronix XL (elogoxal) *simulated tape delay flanger effect

   13. X-cita (elogoxal)  harnonic exciter

   14. Canadian Metal Pack (AcmeBarGig-LePou) *very good guitar amp, fx, cabinet sims

   15. Brodcast Processor (Jeroen Breebaart)

   16. TLs 4032 Pocket Limiter (Tin Brooke Tales Sofware Project)

   17. BuzzRizerLite Spectral Compressor (Trifex) *very useful

   18. TAL Plugin Bundle *several very good and easy to use plugins

   19. Many many more

MICROPHONES

    Numerous condensor, dynamic, and ribbon mics from:

    Sennheiser, EV, Sony, Audio Technica, Shure/Stromberg, RCA, CAD, Sterling, 
    Marshall, Nady, Oktava, Blue, Digital Reference, GLS, Ramsa, Peavey, DR, and more.

GUITARS

     1. Charvel Jackson  w / Floyd Rose Tremolo

     2. Ibanez Blazer w / Kahler Tremolo

     3. Ernie Ball 5-String Electric Bass

     4. Takamine 6-String Acoustic

     5. Epiphone 12-String Acoustic

     6. Elektra 6-String Hollow Body Electric w/tremolo

     7. Cort  Flying-V type 6-String Electric w/ built-in FX

Various Percussion Thingies, Odds & Ends, and Stuff.