Gear

This is the gear I'm currently using for creating and recording music.

Instruments

Guitar: PRS SE Custom 24

I thought it will be just a pretty guitar but after a professional setup it became my primary guitar since it's very comfortable to play and the pickups give a pretty sound. I've yet to make friends with the whammy bar though.

Guitar: Variax James Tyler JTV 89

I wanted a 24 fret guitar to more easily play solos above the 12 fret. I wanted something affordable. I considered initially the PRS SE 24 (and Custom 24) and the Ibanez RGA42FM. I discarded the Ibanez because I got worried about the tuning complexities of a Floyd Rose bridge. Then I learned about the Chapman ML 1 Modern. I would have bought the Chapman but then slightly boosted my budget and found a used JTV 89 on GuitarCenter.com and went with it. You just can't beat the guitar modeling that a Variax provides, at least not for me.

Guitar: "The Santana"

Custom built PRS body with EMGX Blues pickups. I built this from an on-sale GuitarFetish body kit that was slightly cracked.

Bass: Ibanez SR500PB

Pretty, has a thing neck and it's very easy to play.

Acoustic: Yamaha APX600

It sounds great when unplugged but I'm not that happy with the piezzo pickups as they produce a thin sound. I'm usually compensating with an IR effect in Helix.

Classical: Ibanez GA5TCE-AM

Plays well and the pickups produce pretty decent sounds.

Guitar multi-effects: Line 6 Helix (mostly Native)

I went through the Line 6 Pocket POD, POD HD 300 and POD HD 500x. Then I used the Helix LT pedalboard until the Helix Native VST improved enough to be a full replacement. Nowadays I just use Helix Native and I record the dry signal, which gives me the option of adjusting the guitar and bass tones to my liking after the recording.

Drums: Roland TD-27kv

During the years I lived in condos and with my partner. I could not even hope to get an acoustic drum set. Instead mine started out as a basic Yamaha DTX 500 kit. As I got the hang of drumming and sustained an ongoing interest, I gradually upgraded all parts of it bringing it up to the top-of-the line DTX 900. The only original piece remaining is the rack and the cables - everything else was upgraded. Then Roland TD-27kv was launched and I found a very good deal on eBay. This is really an upgrade that I'm truly enjoying. I made a few changes to bring it closer to what a TD-50 would be but without breaking the bank.

I always record MIDI and either run Native Instruments or, more recently, Superior Drummer 3 to generate the sounds.

Piano/keyboard: Yamaha P125

The hardware is great. I wish I had something like this instead of an upright piano when I started learning the piano in my childhood. The stock piano sound isn't bad at all. However, I fully switched over to Native Instruments since the difference in sound quality is just breathtaking.

Listen to my advice: never ever buy a real piano to learn how to play it. That is a massively loud instrument and your playing will be inhibited by what others hear and think of it. Get a digital piano and put on some headphones. It'll make a ton of difference in confidence and privacy, it will most likely sound better and chances are you'll end up a lot cheaper too. I still have nightmares when I remember the logistics of transporting the upright piano to/from the 5th floor of my parent's flat on the stairs by a band of merry men. That and the looks I got from my neighbor after practicing on it. I recently got to try out another upright piano of a friend and it was just as loud and didn't sound that great anyway.

Audio

DAW: Reaper

The digital audio workstation I'm using to do all my recordings. It was inexpensive, gets frequent free updates and I am happy with its features. There are also many online resources in case of questions. It is also very snappy, can load multiple projects etc.

Sampled instruments over MIDI: Native Instruments

For the drums and piano this is an unbelievable upgrade in sound quality.

Guitar Pro

I can download .gp files from various places (Songsterr.com is my preferred source), I load them into Guitar Pro on my PC and practice along them. I can even convert Rocksmith songs to .gp files using the open-source Rocksmith Custom Song.

Video

Hardware: Canon EOS RP

I started with a Canon Vixia R800 and soon realized that a DSLR is the way to go to achieve good video quality. After a 60D and M500, I upgraded to an entry-level full frame mirrorless to get good low light quality and wide shooting angles at a reasonable budget for lenses.

Software: Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve

Started on Sony Vegas Studio, then Cyberlink PowerDirector but both were not able to make fully use of my pretty powerful GPUs (GeForce 980m and then a 1070). After I tried Resolve, the sheer speed of editing and rendering save me a lot of time.

Studio equipment

Mixer: Behringer XR18

I had a few other mixers but this one is software controlled and my cats can't mess with the controls! The ASIO drivers are very reliable as well so I don't need a separate audio interface.