recording gear  
   
   
 

The rack contains: Mark of the Unicorn 828 mkii, Edirol UM-550, Roland XV-3080, TC Helicon VoicePrism. Also you can see Mackie HR624 monitors x2 and a secret black case containing a Rode NT-1 microphone. Not included in the photo is a pair of Palmer direct boxes. You may also notice that most of the books on the back shelves are Japanese: this is not because I have mastered the reading of squiggles; but rather because I now throw away all my books as soon as I have read them. It's very liberating and I suggest you give it a try.

 
 

Details

 
  Palmer PDI-09 The Junction  
  Palmer PDI-09 The Junction  
 

Mini Review

In an ideal world, a small fellow would come over to my place and mic up my lovely Bogner cabs. At the same time, his cousin, a slightly larger chap, would be busy installing sound insulation so that I can play loud and my neighbours can live in peace. Unfortunatly I live in Japan, so I use this direct box. Well, I use two actually. I have never recorded using a cab and mic, so I have no way of knowing how good this gadget is. All I can say is that it makes recording guitar very easy and I like the results. Check out the songs from Trapped in the Past and see what you think.

 
     
 

Mark of the Unicorn 828 mkii

 
  Mark of the Unicorn 828 mkii  
 

Mini Review

It works. The AD/DA converters are reportedly good, but I have never compared it with anything else.

My unit makes a loud crackle when I first turn it on. This scares my cat. Luckily I don't actually have a cat; but I still keep the monitors turned off until it powers-up.

The knobs are small and twiddly.

If you use a mac, then this, coming from Mark of the Unicorn, is probably the best audio interface to get. Which is why I got it.

 
     
 

Edirol UM-550

 
 
Edirol UM-550
 
 

Mini Review

This is a midi interface which allows routing when the computer is not on.

It came with a Japanese manual, so I paid 15 dollars for an English one! I should mention though that Roland has finally started putting their manuals on the web! In any case, when the manual finally arrived I couldn't understand any of it, so I kept on just doing the basic stuff I had already figured out.

Time to rant: am I the only person thinking that sticking in a ton of features is pretty pointless if no one can figure out how to use them?

I bought this thing because it was the cheapest I could find. This may partly expalin its ugliness. I think I should have stayed with Mark of the Unicorn!

 
     
  TC Helicon VoicePrism  
  TC Helicon VoicePrism  
 

Mini Review

I wanted something to make recording vocals easy. I am really not sure this was the best choice, particularly since I don't use the built in reverb, but it does have some interesting stuff.

The VoicePrism is a solo voice processor with a mic preamp, equalizer, effects, dynamics processing and an intelligent four-voice harmony processor. The VoicePrism lets you adjust gender settings, amongst other things. Even if you don't use harmony, you can double or triple a vocal line and the extra voices can sound quite different from your own. Take a listen to the "work all night" section of this song to get an idea. So there may be better vocal gadgets, but this is fun and I have no plans to change it.

The build quality is great and the user interface really fantastic. Japanese companies should study this and copy!

 
     
  Mackie HR624  
  Mackie HR624  
 

Mini Review

I originally used a pair of Yamaha MSP5 powered studio monitors. All I can say is, "Ha ha ha." These Mackie monitors make those Yamaha things sound like converted tin cans without the flavoursome baked beans. There is no doubt about it, these are really great sounding. They also have a bunch of switches on the back to customise the sound to your environment.

And I love attention to detail: The Mackie logo on the front craftily rotates, so that if you use them horizontally, the text still looks correct! Worth buying just for that!

 
     
  Rode NT-1 Microphone  
  Rode NT-1 Microphone  
 

Mini Review

It's a mic and it comes in a secret black plastic box. Most people seem to think it's pretty good, including the chap in the shop who sold it to me! I really have no idea about this since I have no way to compare it to any other mic. But I have it and I use it so that's about it.