Who are you, and what do you do?
I am Henry Monteiro, and I am the writer of henrysmusicblog.com. I've been regularly writing it for slightly over two years now, beginning in December 2011, and I try to update every Wednesday and Sunday, though it's not a perfect schedule. I also write music, which you can find at https://soundcloud.com/henry-mo, and I'm a twit.
What hardware do you use?
My main writing computer is an iMac, though I also use a laptop for when I'm writing from outside of my dad's house, which isn't sad because I'm 16. For music recording, I have an M-Audio keyboard, a Maschine Mikro drum machine, and a Yeti microphone, though that one's not used as much as I wish. On the analog side of things, I also have an acoustic guitar and banjo, a Stratocaster, and a Squier Fender P-Bass.
For music storage, all of it is located on a separate hard drive. None of my equipment is portable besides the laptop, since I don't tend to travel much. The only thing I ever really need when I travel is my fully-loaded iPhone, since I can never be far away from music. Music is always playing at my computer while I'm working, since I need backing noise so I don't drift off. At the time of writing this interview, I am listening to Either/Or by Elliott Smith.
And what software?
I usually try to keep my software setup simple, so that nothing ever gets lost or misplaced. For my writing, I usually write everything on TextEdit and transfer it over to Tumblr to post. For the first month or two, I tried to write directly into the text function on Tumblr, but I stopped after a power outage deleted an article, forcing me to rewrite it.
For my music, it's produced on Garageband, even though I know there are better services for computer-based music. Sometimes I use the cheaper sounds as part of the music, so I think it works out in the end. I also have Mainstage 3 for higher quality electronic music.
All my music is digitized and stored in iTunes for easy access. I currently have 2062 albums in my catalog, but I hope to expand it further in the coming future. I am currently in the process of listening to all of them and rating them on rateyourmusic.com, where I am currently up to the L section. This started around late July, and I don't expect to be finished until late 2014-late 2015.
What would be your dream setup?
I'm doing pretty good with what I have right now. Maybe some better equipment to record music, and eventually a bigger music hard drive if I need it.