I basically have nothing now. Both my laptops and living room computer have gone to PC heaven. I just have a couple of iPads and this small practice setup with my parents old laptop w/non-functioning display. Found an old display and use, basically my w/d/w guitar rack, as the preamp improves the overheads a lot. Generally use the PCM-60 room patch to get a bit of stage feeling.
This is basically the idea, though.
A small 8-10u rack with everything in it that does what I need and that I can just bring along w/the drums and put a display on top.
Daily tasks are just:
- practice setup
- recording myself with drumless tracks, loops etc...
- just getting the drums, or anything into the box for anything. Making tracks for students, Skype lessons, whatever....
but then offcourse:
- lay down serious drum tracks
- track and exchange files
- live band demos
- use live on stage to record, do my own sound, for Ableton etc...
I'm not getting 3 30" displays, not a Pro with gasillion cores and 5 billion GB RAM or the (insert flagship interface). When I'm back in regular employment I'll do that when appropriate.
I'll just upgrade mics and preamps bit by bit.
Very few musicians I know, unless they do work for a big artist, go to big professional studios anymore. They borrow or rent a cabin in the woods and bring their own gear. Then they offcourse get help with mixing and mastering afterwards in whichever way works best and keeps cost down.
Jazz and blues bands that just go in and track stuff they already know and have played to death live offcourse still go in and do a record in two days. In that case it's offcourse worth it if the studio understands the music and does the job well.