Yet another "What would you do?" thread

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ditnoj

New member
Alright, here's the deal,

I have about $400(tax refund) to spend on gear.

I have:

Korg Triton with Studio Essentials exp. card
Akai DPS 16
Senn. Evolution 835
Plextor external SCSI burner
an OK JVC dual tape deck
Event PS6 monitors
2 sets of Audio technica ATH-M40 fs headphones

A computer that I would not THINK of trying to do anything audio on (PIII 450 with an "integrated" sound card (chip) and video card on the motherboard) so programs are just about out until I get something better.

I do:

LOTS of soundtracks for my choir of varying styles from funky gospel (similar but not just like John P Kee, Fred Hammond, LA Mass, kirk whoever, etcetera) to jazz influenced, to contemporary choir/orchestral settings (if you were in choir in college you know what I mean... the hard to categorize kind of stuff)
Soundtracks for singers of varying styles
School musicals
Soundtracks for various other stuff from traditional hymns to arabic/jewish to house and hip hop.
Occasional recordings with voice (which will probably become more and more often)

The things I have thought about along with some pros and cons from my point of view:

SCSI CARD FOR THE TRITON (but then it's like, "which GOOD sample CD's fit in the budget after that?")
A NICE MIC (Rode NT1, AKG C1000 or the like but the other side of that is I don't do a WHOLE lot of vocals nor acoustic recording)
AN ENTRY LEVEL OUTBOARD DSP (however inexpensive usually means CHEAP sounds. I am about to start experimenting using the Triton as an outboard effects unit and see how that goes)
A PERCUSSION PAD w/ MIDI like a Roland SDP 6 (might have the # wrong). so I can enter in drum fills and drum stuff in general with sticks so it will sound a lot more natural...since I'm a drummer.

Used stuff is just about out of the question 'cause I live in Mexico and if somebody is getting rid of something down here, you can almost bet that there is some kind of problem with the gear.

ANybody got any other suggestions?

D out ITNOJ
 
just a thought...

EBAY!!!! You can buy cheep there from anywere. even in mexico just ask first if they are willing to ship to mexico
 
Thanks for the thought!

However the problem with shipping to Mexico isn't what the "perceived" shipping costs are rather the very random taxes that the government charges you!

My sister was honest in her shipping invoice on the new clothes she sent me once (about $350 US worth). The gov't wanted to charge me an additional $135 US in taxes...New textiles, you know.

When someone sent me 1 (one, uno) CD that contained my upgrade for my DPS 16, the gov't charged me $10.50 US in taxes.

These two examples were via FEDEX and DHL, respectively

If you don't specify contents on the invoice, or even if they "suspect" that there is something that doesn't check, they can open and/or confiscate whatever it is. They also charge you whatever taxes that they (the official the package goes through) feel like and there is NO available code or guideline. No appeal, no one with whom you can argue, just a delivery guy at your door with the taxes as stated by customs.

I have NEVER received a regular USPS package from the states that wasn't opened before it got to me.

There are companies that will ship to Peru, China, South Africa, and Australia but NOT to Mexico!

I hope I don't sound to miffed with this situation...

D out ITNOJ
 
Man if the government chages are more than a plane ticket, then I say buy a plane ticket. A mic would easily fit in a suitcase. I don't if thy would charge duties on it, but ti has to be worth a shot. Just wait until you have a bit more money and come get what you need in the states. Or maybe get it shipped to a friends house and fly them out and have them wrap them as presents for you. Just some ideas.

Beezoboy
 
Actually I'm about 4 hours from Mexico City where the prices are cheaper than getting stuff shipped and or the price of going to the states (13 hours away in a car) and getting the stuff in. the selection isn't as great, but the average "normal" stuff they have. Which returns me to the point of the thread...

Any other suggestions for the "next" piece of gear??

D out ITNOJ
 
Thats a tough one man. I mean know one else but you actually knows what you need. What would make your life easier right now??? I bet a computer would. 400 bucks could get you a pretty phat computer by my standards, but that is by prices here in the states. Well actually it would get you:

A midtower case
256mb ddr ram
Athlon XP 1800
Biostar KT266A Motherboard
40 gig 7200 rpm hard drive

Thats a great start to a nice system. That only leaves you a vid card, sound card, and fan for that sucker. You can probably pull the cd-rom and floppy out of the old system. Or better yet, sell the old system to get more money and buy the rest too. I'll bet you can get 250 bucks for your old system. And I'll bet if you talk nice to some people around here they would be willing to "trade" some software with you so that you could get a couple good programs.

Otherwise I know this great charity that you could send the money to. It is the "give 400 bucks to me fund" so that I can upgrade my computer!! Sorry I am not into all this midi stuff too much so I really can't tell you what to get outside of a new computer. I don't really see what you would use a mic for at this point.

Beezoboy
 
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