Hi there,

I’m Alexis and this is my first review for Geardos, to which Scott kindly introduced me to, and I’ll be reviewing what I consider to be the must-have first stepping stone in a budget quality setup, a good basic audio I/O, the M-Audio Firewire Solo. Read the rest of this entry »

The M-Audio Audiophile is one of M-Audio’s most affordable professional PCI sound cards, costing little more than a consumer card with similar capabilities (It currently sells for about 149$ CAD at most retailers). Is it a good card to satisfy your audiophilia? Read more to find out. Read the rest of this entry »

The first ever Geardos video review!

The Radium 49 seemed like an affordable midi controller solution for my needs. I originally paid about 230 $ CAD for it after tax. This product features a USB bus powered midi interface, 8 sliders, 8 knobs, pitch and mod wheel, sustain peddle input, 4 octaves, 2 midi-outs (one from the keyboard itself and another independent out to control other gear from a sequencer program) and a very lightweight design. Read the rest of this entry »

Your sound is only as good as your sound card. I decided I needed a card that provided more than the cheaper alternatives I had used before. Since I have a varied arsenal of gear with different connections, I needed a variety of ins and outs. I like my studio to be mobile too, just in case things get a little crazy and I have to pack up and leave town. The FA-66 from Edirol (a subsidiary of Roland focused mainly on sound gear) met my paranoid yet demanding niche. The price came up to about 550$ CAD after tax (considered expensive for the penny pinching geardo crowd) but none the less it stacked up to being a worthy investment. Read the rest of this entry »

The DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic came about in the late 70’s and early 80’s as a response against the prevalent corporate music culture. It was especially popular in more underground genres of music such as punk and industrial music. The advent of affordable cassette recording and duplicating equipment enabled any band with a 4-track recorder to record and distribute their work outside the traditional means of distribution. This enabled artists to have the utmost creative control over their work, at the cost of sometimes questionable sound quality. Generally budgets were low and cassette tape has never been a medium known for its fidelity, with the problem of noise and a limited frequency range (lacking in the high end) being the main issues. Equipment would generally not be up to professional standards, and the recording “studio” might be nothing more than someones basement, garage, or bedroom. The goal was to break the reliance on others to produce work, and for artists to learn to become their own producers and engineers so they would have complete control over their work at every level. To advertise their work, compilations tapes containing the work of numerous artists were distributed. Artists involved in cassette culture worked together with independent magazines (zines), to create a fully independent means of communicating to their audience. The nature of cassette culture was generally anti-capitalist, with the emphasis being on bringing the music to the audience as opposed to earning profits or attaining the best sound quality possible. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first purchased my laptop computer, I immediately needed an external sound module to handle my audio recording needs. In an attempt to save money, I decided to go for a cheaper USB based unit instead of a more expensive firewire sound module. The Mobilepre seemed like a good deal at the time, for 200$ CAD it provided basic audio needs as well as 2 preamps. Read the rest of this entry »

As my budget studio grew, I required a cheap but robust condenser microphone to record spoken word, vocals, various instruments, and other sound sources. After reading many positive online reviews I chose to purchase the Studio Projects B1 microphone, which cost about 119$ CAD at the time (which included a shock absorbing mount, leather zip up holder, and foam pop filter). I picked up a cheap stand and XLR cable and I was ready to begin recording. Read the rest of this entry »