Dude, we're SO GHETTO. As far as writing the actual songs, this is our practice room setup:
Peavey 6505+ with a Marshall 1960 cab, although that's MY setup. He has a small Peavey solid state practice amp he plugs into a Marshall cab and for some reason that fucker slays...it sounds better than my 6505. I'm using the 6505 and starting to find my sound when (if ever) we play live, but for everyday practicing and without having to lug my shit around, I just use his small amp plugged into a big cab. On the album, the guitars aren't even coming from an amplifier...it's all DST plugins...Amplitude. That's why it's got that condensed and cold sound to it...he did this thing on a serious budget.
I also use a Boss GT-8 multifx pedal, Jackson Rhoads V tuned to C standard tuning, and a 7-string Washburn with EMG-81s. The song Artificial is in B, so we use the 7 string.
Shure SM58 mic (standard)
He plays a Tama double bass kit that's pretty big, as he's all over the place usually. He recently bought an Axxis double bass pedal for a single kickdrum (similar to Nick Barker's old one), and he's using that right now to prepare for live shows so we don't have to carry around a fucking double bass kit with us.
Synths are all recorded using a laptop with Reason 4.0 and a midi keyboard, although with Artificial we had only Reason 3.0 and not even the keyboard! HE PROGRAMMED THOSE SYNTHS WITH A FUCKING MOUSE. The guy has patience.
We also have two monitors running to the mixer, which the laptop is also running to. We can hear the synths and the click and the voice through the monitors, as well as the kickdrum. It's really ghetto right now because we don't have the audio card, so we've just got the cable running from the headphone jack of the laptop to the mixing board which creates an annoying hum. We're poor and do the best we can. We're about to buy a new and more powerful laptop and external audio interface card...the M-Audio 410 I believe it is. 4 ins and 4 outs and we're set. Live we'll also have triggers for the drums.
If you want the synths like we have, get Reason 4. Go ahead and spend the money...you won't be sorry. I can tell you the exact programs and settings to get our sound if you want and you can fiddle with it to create your own from our template if you like. I also highly recommend a midi keyboard...they're not too expensive and the software is doing all the work anyway. So, in a nutshell, if I were you, I'd get the following:
Powerful laptop or PC, if you don't already have one. Something at least 2 GHz dual core and with at least 2 Gigs of RAM.
Reason 4.0
Midi Keyboard
M-Audio 410 audio interface or equivalent...I recommend this one because it's Firewire and has 4 ins and outs
Shure SM58 mic
Guitar and amp of your choice, with a really good Noise Suppressor and EQ...I recommend Boss
There weren't any drum programs on this album, aside from the obvious brief samples you hear in the effects. All the drums are live, but triggered, nonetheless.
You also might want to look into getting a vocoder, which he used as well on the album. You can do some pretty amazing things with your voice with those things, and in any case, if you do something professionally, they're going to run that shit through ProTools anyway and correct all your uneven tones and stuff. Might as well do it yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you.
I'll tell you what: I'll be going back up there (he lives an hour and a half away, on the Austrian border) in a few weeks and I'll bring my videocamera and film our shit for you. I'll put it on Youtube and send it to you so you can see exactly just how pitiful we are,
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like i said ill have the next few days off im sure i can send them sometime then.
