Studio + Tools
D4Disgruntled creates his music from his home office. It is not a traditional recording studio nor a padded up room like many of the professionals have. It is a cozy and inspirational space. His wall of soundtracks stand prominent before him as he faces his computer monitors and to his side and behind him are many of the movies that inspire him, both good and bad movies. What is presented below is what he has to work with currently. Also provided for review (after the photo gallery) is a list of the hardware, DAWS and software used to create and mix the music.
NOTE:
New upgrades are coming at the end of May, 2021 regarding better speakers, a new desk, an area rug and sound proof foam panels to place in windows during mixes to block the noise pollution from outside.
How The Magic Happens
Where The Magic Happens
Wow! So much stuff
My Mini Command Station
My View is a Wall of CDs
My good antiquity keyboard.
My Workstation
My Main Monitor
My Secondary Monitor
My Shipping Department
Wall of CDs
Top of the Wall of CDs
Various other composers
Part of my complete Goldsmith collection
Various other composers
More various other composers
My sadly stacked movies
More Movies
I have a little music theory background
Closer look at my music books
Closer look at my music books
Closer look at my music books
Closer look at my music books
My first notation piece from High school - A side
My first notation piece from High school - B side
Books about movies, storyboarding and music
Books about Concept Art and Digital Painting
Books about Concept artists
Aliens vs. Die Hard
Aliens vs. Die Hard 2
Klingon Bird of Prey
Klingon Bird of Prey
I just really love this ship
One last look in my studio
Time to go, see you next time
Hardware & System Specs
Desktop Workstation
I have a PC desktop workstation for all MIDI related stuff in addition to graphic design, image editing, video editing, audio editing and administrative (data entry, docs and reports).
- Tower
- 2 Monitors - a 32" and a 24"
- Keyboard
- Mouse & Stylus Pen
- DVD/CD Drive + Burner
- Blu-Ray Drive (portable)
- Media Card Slots
- Small Speakers with Sub-Woofer
- Graphics Card suitable for 3D rendering and gaming
- Audio Driver is Asio and the generic Intel drivers
- Several 5 TB External HDs with at least 2-3 TB of space.
- USB 3.0 Hub (can get another if needed)
- Yamaha 61-key consumer synth as ,y controller for MIDI
System Specs
- Windows 10 64-bit
- 32GB RAM
- Intel i7 CPU 3.4GHz
Software (Music, Video & Audio)
DAW
- DP 10
- Cakewalk Music Creator 6 (now discontinued and defunct - but still usable)
VSTs
- East West Hollywood (Subscription)
- Kontakt 6 (full version)
- Albion 4 (IV) strings (atonal and harmonics for strings, brass and woodwinds)
- Christopher Young's "Soul Series: The Collection" from 8dio
- Omnisphere 2
- Soundiron (10 sound sets of mostly scary, horror and metal clanging sounds)
- Steinberg's Halion "Dark Planet"
- Spitfire Audio "Labs"
- Cakewalk's instruments, synths and other sounds
Audio Recording & Editing
- Blue YETI Microphone
- Adobe Audition
- ProTools First (currently in training 2021)
Video Ripping, Video and Image Editing & Encoding
- MakeMKV (makes video files from DVDs & Blu-Rays)
- HandBrake (converts MKV files into various video file formats and resolution quality)
- Adobe Premiere
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Media Encoder
- Adobe Photoshop
Video & Music Players
- Quicktime
- VCL
- iTunes
- Windows Media Player
- Cyberlink Blu-Ray / DVD Player
File Transfer Services
- WeTransfer (free to use for files up to 2GB)
- Google Drive
- DropBox
PC Laptop
For remote (and NON-MIDI) use. Primarily for Video & Audio Editing, Graphic Design, and Photo Retouching.
- Windows 10 64-bit
- 16GB RAM
- Intel i7 CPU 3.4GHz
- DVD / CD Drive