I thought that it would be a good idea to list the equipment and software that I will be using for my album in the album project, as it gives an insight into what I will be using and is also useful information for those of you who are starting the follow my Rhythm Creation album project. If you don't know what my album project is visit this page to find out or this page to see a list of current blog posts. Here is my modest equipment list that I will be using...

• Ableton Live 7
• Propellerhead Reason 4
• A Bunch of Free VST Intruments and Effects
• Audacity
• Music PC
• Yamaha MIDI Controller
• Shure SM57 Microphone
• Amp and Monitor Speakers

Some people will see this as a very basic setup, but it works for me. I am a big advocate of using what I already have rather than buying new stuff as anyone who has read some of the posts on Rhythm Creation will already know. Having lots of things which basically do the same thing doesn't appeal to me and if I can make use of freeware software such as Audacity and VST Instruments, I will gladly use it.

Reason will be rewired into Ableton. Ableton will be used to host the VST Instruments although sometimes I do record a sound from a VST Instrument and use it through a sampler. All of the VSTi's that I have are available for free and many of them are listed in this blog post.

In terms of effects, Reason and Ableton have most of the basic ones but I do have a few free ones which I may use. One of the free ones which I am thinking about making lots of use of is Glitch , which allows you to make some pretty cool glitch type effects.

There is a microphone on hand which is a basic instrument/vocal mic which is capable of recording samples. As my music is very electronic music based it doesn't matter that I don't have a huge number of microphones or top quality ones because I'm not going to be recording anything which would need a top quality mic.

The only thing I might invest in for my album project is some sort of mastering service or software, but that is a long way off. As you can see, it is a simple setup but I believe it is more than capable of producing a decent album.