Many of you ask me what all equipment I use for the work I do. I hope this will clear things out.
1. Laptop
When I started producing music in 8th grade, in 2009, I used this laptop.
It was pretty great. I’d custom ordered it with a FullHD screen, backlit keyboard, 500GB hard-disk, 4GB ram and a 2.4GHz Core2Duo processor. I used it for quite a while until 2013, when I took my sister’s Dell Inspiron 14, since the Studio 1555 was getting way too slow and sluggish for my use.
The Better Side EP and It’s The Time were both recorded on the Dell Studio 1555. It’s The Time was recorded half on the Studio 1555 and half on the Inspiron. Final mixing and mastering was done on the Inspiron.
When I joined college in August 2014, my college gave us all an HP ProBook 440 G2.
It was a pretty good laptop too and it still is, for a college laptop. I upgraded its RAM to 8GB from the stock 4GB and I was able to make a lot of videos with it. In fact, it was the laptop I started making videos properly with. The only thing lacking in the laptop was a decent screen and trackpad. It was alright, performance wise. I also installed Mac OS on it and used that for a month before I bought my MacBook Pro. Keep in mind, that all my videos are edited in 720p and the laptop was able to handle that okay-ish.
Recently, I purchased a base-model MacBook Pro 15″, mid-2014.
I’ve edited my Delhi Vlog and Darjeeling Vlog on it so far. It runs GREAT. It’s my first MacBook and I don’t think I can go back to using a Windows laptop now. I love the trackpad of it, specially, and I don’t even need a mouse any more to edit videos and make music. GarageBand serves my purpose for recording right now too.
Buy it here: MacBook Pro 15″ mid-2014
2. Accessories
External Display
A lot of times while editing videos, I found the laptop screen to be way too small. This was when I was using the college-given HP ProBook. The screen was lacklustre, and also very small. So I invested in an external display.
This monitor is really, REALLY great for its price. It has an IPS panel, with wide viewing angles and great color reproduction. It isn’t washed out like the screen on the college HP laptop. It’s really an indispensable tool for me, having extra space to place my windows on.
Buy it here: Dell S2240L
Headphones
Back home I have a pair of nice studio monitors but in college I don’t have anything to listen to good quality and flat audio on. So I went ahead and purchased a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50x studio headphones and it’s been the best decision I’ve made till now, as far as personal audio is concerned. I can’t really say anything else about them other than that they’re ABSOLUTELY worth the money you pay for them. If I lost them, I’d probably save up for another pair. I can’t go back now.
Buy them here: Audio Technica ATH-M50x
Speakers
The sides of my workspace are occupied by a pair of M-Audio BX5 D2 studio monitors for all of my mixing and mastering. And also a lot of listening. I’ve written a review of them here.
Buy them here: M-AUDIO BX5 D2 Studio Monitors
Storage
These are the hard-drives storing my data. A pair of Western Digital 1TB drives.
They’ve been fairly reliable so far.
Buy here: WD My Passport Ultra 1TB
3. Music Equipment
Guitar
My guitar is an Ibanez V72-ECE and it’s the only guitar I play. It’s 6 years old.
Interface
There was a time when I used to play the electric guitar. For that I had an effects processor, which I use now as a USB interface to connect my guitar to my computer, since it can act as one.
Buy here (updated model): Zoom G21Nu
Microphone
To record my vocals and other sounds, I have an M Audio Producer USB microphone. It’s one of the cheapest USB condenser mics available and it serves my purpose pretty well.
4. Camera Equipment
Camera
I shoot with a Nikon D5200 body. It’s a great body with really great value for money. Half the photographers I know own this camera. I also have an extra battery for it, since video recording takes a lot of juice and won’t let the camera last an entire day of travelling/shooting.
I also have a Sony HX9v point and shoot camera for when I don’t want to/can’t carry a huge DSLR with me. It was actually the first camera that I had.
Buy DSLR here: Nikon D5200
Updated Model: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX20V
Lenses
I have a 35mm f/1.8G and a 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens. They’re really great lenses with great value for money.
Buy here:
Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
Camera Bag
A Lowepro Photo Hatchback 22L AW backpack carries all my gear with me. It was gifted to me by my friends on my last birthday. Great bag! I love the orange colour.
It has its camera compartment on the backside of the bag, which really helps while travelling. Also it has a rain-cover for when it’s raining and you don’t want to wet your expensive equipment. That really saved my ass in Darjeeling and Kalimpong this year.
Buy here: Lowepro Photo Hatchback 22L AW
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So that’s pretty much it. This is all the equipment I use to make my work. However, remember that it’s not the equipment but what you do with your equipment that always matters.
Any other questions feel free to leave a comment below.
Also, if you plan on purchasing any of these things, PLEASE purchase them through the links on this post. It won’t make any difference for you, but it’ll help me out a lot. Thank you so much. 🙂
Reblogged this on archismandinda's Blog and commented:
He’s the genius.
Thank you for the reblog. Much appreciated!
Really inspiring how you create this kind of results with entry level gear!
That means a lot. It’s great you feel inspired by me! Thank you!
About the HDD reliability: how long have you been using them for, and roughly what % capacity is used up at any given time? (Oh, and this post was over two years ago so are these still fine?)
I’m still using the old ones for backups even though I’ve bought new ones as well. I’ve been using them for 3 years now almost and they’re still going good! Approx 50% used at any given time.