TWISTED HELICES studio

Below is a list of equipment I use to create music under the pseudonym TWISTED HELICES. Retired/obsolete equipment is given as a separate list at the end. I've included this information because for posterity's sake, and also so you can see the evolution of my home recording setup.

A lot of this applies to what I was doing when I was a true DiYer I suppose: recording with 4 tracks, bouncing, reducing noise, and all that. I now record with (hopefully better!) Pro gear which is a different situation altogether. Nonetheless I feel this rite of passage (which I encourage in my scientific research also) is useful, and perhaps even essential, to learn to make music/art that is of high equality, not just in terms of composition and basic sound recording, but also production and engineering principles. By this I don't mean that hi-fi production is the best way. I'm a big believer in noise in a Cageish sense (check out some of my music and views in my Proteomusic project if you'd like). I just mean that music should be a form of true self expression and not done to please others. This is a hard problem I admit, and does not meant that I don't extremely value music as entertainment, but that is not my goal in creation.

The above couple of images of my "studio" as it looks from the computer I work from, and also today was a beautiful view of snow covered Olympics. More pictures that indicates the progression of my studio evolution that still has a component downstairs filled with exotic instruments I like to sample has now gradually moved upstairs which has been fantastic as can be courtesy of Google. (Yes, my living room is now my office and studio, and why not? My kids will leave eventually anyway!)

Recording and mixing devices

• Yamaha Clavinova CVP 305 digital piano/sequencer. 2007-.
• Yamaha DTX900 drum machine/sequencer with RS40 rack and DTLK9 pad set. 2011-.
• Korg R3 Synthesiser/Vocoder. 2013-.
• Any computer with a good sequencer and audio recording software. 1993-. Curently and historically it has been:
  • iMac 27" 4 x 2.93 Intel Core i7 with 16 GB RAM and 2 TB HD. 2011-.
  • Dell Studio 15" with builtin soundcard running Ubuntu Linux 9.10. 2009-.
  • PC with 1 GHz Pentium III x 2 with 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard disk, Soundblaster Live! Platinum soundcard running Red Hat Linux 7.3. 2001-2009.
  • 400 MHz Celeron with 256 MB RAM, 32 GB hard disk with Soundblaster Live! soundcard running Windows 98. 1997-2001.
  • 486 DX2 80 processor with 8 MB RAM, 840 MB hard disk, and Gravis Ultrasound MAX soundcard running Windows 3.1. 1993-1997.

• Tascam US-1800 USB 2.0 audio/MIDI interface. 2011-.
• M-Audio Studiophile BX5a Delux 70-watt biamplified monitor. 2011-.
• Sony TCD-DC7 DAT player and recorder. 1993-.
• Tascam 464 Portastudio four track recorder/12x2 mixer. 1993-.
• Signal Flex Mike Mixer MM40. 1993-.
• Radio Shack Karaoke Mate. 1993-.
• Sennheiser HD 650 audiophile reference class headphones. 2015-.
• Sennheiser RS120 wireless headphones. 2011-.
• Sennheiser HD 280 pro headphones. 2010-.
• Harmon Kardon CE headphones. 2011-.

Guitars, keyboards, drum machines, microphones, and other (sometimes exotic) instruments

• Steinberger Spirit electric guitar. 1995-.
• Ovation Collector's Series 2000 (#30) acoustic/electric guitar. 1994-.
• Ephiphone Explorer EXP1 electric guitar. 1993-.
• Fender Stratocaster. 1999-.
• Reynolds acoustic guitar from India. 2000-2013.
• Star Sun acoustic guitar from Tibet. 2000-.

• Yamaha Clavinova CVP 305 digital piano/sequencer. 2007-.
• Korg R3 Synthesiser/Vocoder. 2013-.

• Yamaha DTX900 drum machine/sequencer with RS40 rack and DTLK9 pad set. 2011-.

• Electrovoice C214 condensor microphone. 2011-.
• Electrovoice ND767a dynamic microphone. 2011-.
• Electrovoice ND357 dynamic microphone. 1993-.
• V-Tech VT1030 dynamic microphone. 1993-.

• Soodh Sarang from Nepal - 2000-.
• Handmade Damnye from Tibet - 2000-.
• Harmonium from India - 2000-.
• Tablas (2) from India - 2000-.

Effects processors

• Korg R3 Synthesiser/Vocoder. 2013-.
• Digitech GNX4 Guitar Workstation. 2007-.
• DOD VGS 50 valve guitar sysstem. 1998-.
• Digitech Studio S100 Dual Engine Multieffects Processor. 1994-.
• Digitech RP10 Guitar Signal Processor/Foot Controller and Preamp with S-DISC processing. 1993-.

Software

• Rosegarden (sequencer + multitrack recorder).
• Audacity (multitrack recorder).
• Digital Orchestrator Pro (sequencer + multitrack recorder). 1994-2002.
• Powerchords Pro (object oriented sequencer). 1994-2002.
• Cubase (sequencer + multitrack recorder).
• SonicFoundry ACID (loop based multitrack record).
• Sound eXchange - sox (music conversion).
• Adobe Premier (video creation).
• JVC Multimedia Navigator (video creation).
• MainActor (video creation).

Miscellaneous

• Vox DA5 amplifier. 2007-.
• Park G10 amplifier. 1993-.
• Furman PL-8 C power conditioner. 2011-.
• Korg GT3 guitar tuner. 1993-.
• ??? guitar tuner. 2007-.
• Ernie Ball strings. 1972-.
• Fender medium picks. 1972-.
• Hewlett Packard DDS tapes. 1972-.
• Maxell XL II high bias 60 minute tapes. 1972-2000.
• Microphone (x3) and guitar stands (x3). 1972-.
• and lots of plugs, sockets, adapters, and cables!