Studio Arrangement Suggestions

I am interested in finding out opinions on a couple setups to try out. For a while I was running a 1k with a Ultranova and Ableton 8. I used the Ultra as my audio interface and had one set of out and in resampling through 1k and fed back into ableton for tracking and arrangement. I sold all my gear sometime in Jan and copped a 4k (which I've discussed here with SSD install fun) and now a Virus TI. I tried same setup, but the TI is cunny about playing with Ableton 8. Access says to buy 9.... Sheesh. Since I'm tapped at the moment, I'm looking for ways to make these components work with what I've got. One thing is obtaining a standalone interface, but I must wait for now. In the meantime, suggestions of the gurus here would be greatly appreciated. I am working with:

1. Virus TI 61 key
2. MPC4k (no 8 out, but all other upgrades)
3. Built Win 7 PC with Ableton, Reason, Reaper, and Cubase installed.
4. Uses on board card (I know.. .. ASAP upgrade) Asio4All drivers
5. Event ps6 monitors
6. Behringer Euro 8 ch mixer

I've been doing project with just the 4k and TI, but I really miss the visual display of Ableton for arrangement. I can get work done, but I do feel a bit lost without seeing what parts are where in the song.

Any ideas welcome. I'll try anything suggested to see if the shoe fits....

I know I am going to sound like a broken record but I say you get a Roland VS2480CD and call it a day. Plug everything into it and ou still have the ability to mouse around and cut and paste on a screen. No worries about updates, or crashes or viruses. Press one button and you are ready to record in 20 seconds.

You get to take advantage of the great sound of the 4000 with a digital connection.

Just don't spend over $500. I use two VS machines but own two others as well.

my set up


Cheers,
Ian

FluxSage wrote:I've been doing project with just the 4k and TI, but I really miss the visual display of Ableton for arrangement. I can get work done, but I do feel a bit lost without seeing what parts are where in the song.

It's not a solution by any stretch, but you could generate tens or possibly hundreds of loops and ideas in the 4K ready for when your computer is back up and running.

50 of them might be crap, with another 30 sounding promising and 20 could be absolutely stellar. That's what I would do if I was in-between setups in order to stay productive.

Grid Edit

Ian, thanks for the suggestion. However, I can't spend anything on the studio due to needing my savings for backup on a house I just purchased. Later on, I will look into the Roland as my buddy has used one and seemed to dig it. Stand alone sound interface will be next purchase, though.

Coz, you know it bruva. I've been plugging away while waiting for sure. Can't go too long or my fingers start twitching. I do also sample TI into the loops on the 4k and dump into ableton, but my attention span gets loopy in between and it distracts my work flow. Plus I like to do more than 26 bars when playing the keys... Doable for now. Just really liked my previous work flow and figure opinions on other techniques may provide a work around until I can cop a sound interface worth buying.

Maze, I work in grid edit a good amount, but I'm talking more about seeing length of the wavs sampled from TI and where they are in the whole track and how long they are, etc.

Oh, and I like the setup, Ian.