Adam WarRock
Nerdy hip hop artist
Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Eugene, I make nerdy hip hop online as Adam WarRock. I tour a lot. Sometimes I host podcasts or write for websites/webcomics or make videos for people or do online PR. I read a lot of comics, too.
What hardware do you use?
I have a 13" 2012 MacBook Pro, and basically use that coupled with a Audio Technica 2020 condenser microphone through an 8 channel Alesis preamp/mixer, and a generic, old external USB soundcard (I honestly have had it since 2004, and to this day it is the best sounding thing without latency issues I've found and am able to use). I also use a big, college-ruled spiral notebook and a gigantic whiteboard. I know that's insanely old school, but what can you do. I also have an extensive collection of boxes, envelopes, and packaging materials for merch shipment too - and I just order stuff from ULine for that.
And what software?
I use Garageband to track and mix audio; and then I master it in Izotope's Ozone 5 mastering suite. To write lyrics, I honestly use TextEdit, or whatever is the most bare bones Notebook-esque style text editor. I have an MP3 tag editor program and use Acorn for photo editing stuff. I use Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing. And I use Apple's iCal for keeping a digital calendar. Honestly, other than that, everything kinda takes place in Gmail or on paper. Or on my iPhone 5, I guess.
What would be your dream setup?
I would love to have a 15" MacBook Pro with a 27" Thunderbolt Display hooked up to it, to be able to edit on one screen while still working (or watching TV) on my other display.
As for sound, I would love to have an AT 4000 series microphone with a more fully featured preamp-mixer. But something tells me having a $700 microphone before I have the software and peripherals to support it would be a waste of money. So I guess in that vein, I'd love to learn how to use Logic/Pro-Tools or whatever else, but I've just found that my setup works for me pretty well.
Oh and I'd love to have a bigger TV. Because, uh, I guess that's work, right? Yeah. Of course it is. Definitely for only work-related reasons.