Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Eedoryeong]

DAW owners! Where in Korea do you shop to put together your workstations? Is it very difficult to put this together here? Can one make a decent DAW from a laptop nowadays (and in Korea? - that's a question about the service I might expect) or do laptops still suck for this kind of thing?

I basically want one nice XLR mic input and several tracks for a home-recording hobbyist set-up. Anybody out there doing this sort of thing who can refer shops with good service? I wonder if I can put together the whole thing online and have it taekbae sent to my home?

[jammo]

looks like you want to head to nakwon sanga. its near jongono sam ga stn.

some of the first hand stuff is pretty pricey here. id recommend you also see what audio interfaces you can find on craiglist etc.


for a DAW i'd recommend looking at reaper. good luck

[discostu333]

Its expensive to buy computer music gear here. Best purchase it abroad and bring it here, or get folks back home to send it. Beware of customs duty though.

[crescent]

Without knowing your laptop specs, and what kind of music you're producing, it's hard to offer advice.

Laptops can handle a decent studio rig. For example, on my BookPro i run Logic Studio 9 with 8-10 instruments/mics, plugged in through a midi-interface.
All midi-interfaces are not created equal. Money buys quality in this case. MOTU not only makes great interfaces, but their DAW software is an industry leader.

Logic 9 is truly staggering, in the things it can do. I also liked using Native Instruments software.

[jammo]

a midi interface and an audio interface are completely different beasts

midi is just for triggering

but yeah you can get something decent out of most computers these days. i recommended reaper as it isnt as bloated as cubase, logic etc and very stable

[crescent]

[brento1138]

Currently my program of choice is Reason. Although, I also use the more powerful Logic if I want to throw in orchestral sounds, as I happen to own a very good orchestral samples DVD set by East West.

Check it out: http://www.eastwestsamples.com/details.php?cd_index=1128

I also have Pro Tools! The standard in audio production...

I'm a very busy guy these days, as I've only had little under one year to learn Pro Tools & Logic. So far, I've focused mainly on Logic and can tell you that this is all you really need. Personally... I feel more comfortable in Reason.. simply because I've used it since about 2003. I'm looking forward to getting the next version of Reason. I also have Ableton Live, but I rarely use it. Made some pretty funky tracks with it once, but I don't like the look of it... Oh, and by the way, I've bought all of these programs along with the iMac that runs it. After calculating the costs of all the programs, upgrades, sample packs, etc... I'm a poor man!

Anyhow, computers are your best bet for DAWs. Just think. You're in Korea. You could easily travel with it if you have one of those 'light' MIDI controllers.

[zeppelin]

Hi,

You can *probably* use any computer as your DAW, just get a decent audio interface. If it's just for your own stuf at home you can get away with 1 or 2 inputs. If you want to track bands and live stuff you'll need at least 8 inputs.

Korean prices are generally higher than you'd pay back home. However, some brands are a little cheaper or equally priced here. I've bought Zoom and Shure stuff in Korea before which worked out cheaper than back home.


I usually buy online. Some decent shops:

http://www.midiland.co.kr/shop/main/index.php

http://www.bkmic.com/

http://avgood.co.kr/

http://www.freebud.co.kr/

Sometimes some cheap stuff comes up on Craigslist and you can sometimes get a decent deal on Gmarket.

Hope this helps.

[crescent]

Interesting, the poster who likes Reason. I always thought it was limited to mainly electronic genres (House, Techno, DnB). I tried using it for a while but found the learning curve a bit steep. Also, the incompatibility of Refills with other Daws is a minus.
It's much better for me, just using Reason as a slave in Logic. All the synth power, but on a sequencer that I feel is more comfortable.

Ableton, for the price, I find over rated, and as said above, has very cheap looking controls.

The good news is you can torrent any of these Daws and test them out before deciding on whats best for you.

[djswayde]

I like to use Logic for audio recording but I have a Macbook so for VST work, I like to use FL Studio on my Windows partition using Boot Camp. I don't like Reason due to the fact that (last time I checked), it didn't have VST compatibility. I brought all my gear from home though, including my Fireface, my turntables, and mixer. All the wires as well. It's not easy to find that stuff here for a decent price. It's cheaper to just bring it even after paying all the customs fees.

Ableton is real nice for live work with the right controllers.

[Eedoryeong]

Is there a craigslist for expats in Korea? I didn't know that. I must be living under a rock.

Okay I'm checking it out as of now.

I'm interested in recording two voices, guitar accomp, small live drum set-up, slap acoustic bass - all one-at-a-time layering tracks technique, and then plugging in a keyboard and putting down some pads over it. I guess that suggests a 16 track capacity, but the recording technique suggests low tech demands. I wonder if I could even do it with a snowball mic and some free software downloaded to my home computer? It's mostly to record ideas for later production, like temp tracks and such.

Thanks so far for all the wonderful support

EDIT: Oh yeah, one more thing: I am interested in the easiest recording software as I owned Cubase/VST 32 and hated spending a year learning its 1024 page document handbook. I'm not psyched for anything like that again. Oh and to boot, the damn technology became outdated in a hurry. So yeah, I am making my first foray into the alternatives, like garageband and such. I'm looking for the easiest one that has a bit of muscle to it (i.e. some recording scenario flexibility/adaptibility)