My Future Studio in progress

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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bluezplaya
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My Future Studio in progress

Post by bluezplaya »

I just wanted to say what's up to everyone! I guess I'll post a topic about my upcoming studio and would like to hear what others are using as a studio to get a general idea. Let me start off by saying I am 29 (and holding) and haved played music professionally on the Gulf Coast for the last seven years. I play guitar and sing and front a band and i have three CD's I have written and recorded in the past. The first two were recorded 5 miles from my home at a couple of friends' studio, using Ensoniq Paris, assortment of nice rack gear, etc. The last album I did I purchased Pro Tools LE with a Digi001 on Ebay and took a shot at it. I have always had a great ear (so they say) for live stuff and figured why not. I set up the gear at my home and voila. It sounded decent, but it was mixed in the can.

Now, in the last year and a half I have been plugged into DIY and find it very addictive. I first saw the SCA pre's on their website and it got me interested. Then I found Prodigy Pro and got really plugged in. My first attempt was the SSL. To this day it is not working :oops: but it was at one time and something screwed up. I got so busy on other builds that I left it in the closet. Anyway, my second build was a 4 channel Green pre and it has worked since day one. And since then, I now have 8 JLM Baby Animals, 2 Neve Hot Rod channels, 2 Yamaha PM2000 channel strips racked, and 2 Fetboys to be finished. As far as compressors, I have modded (2) Alesis 3630's with the Black Lion mod, a stereo Pico (Pico Suave) :mrgreen: , an 1176 that is ready to rack and power up (any day now), and bought an FMR RNC.

Back to digital: I built another PC that was stronger and threw PT LE out the window and added Nuendo and now using the RME Multiface II with the PCI card. MUCH better quality as you might know. Converters smoke the DIGI001 without a doubt. I'm even embarrassed to talk about the 001. :oops: In fact, i am about to purchase another Multiface and lightpipe them for 16 ins and outs. I have most of the Waves plugs, including my new go-to plug, the SSL 4000. I also have the URS EQ plugins which are sweet.

I recently found a diamond in the rough when i was searching through mixers on Ebay and came across a Yamaha M1516. Before i go any further, let me say that after hearing the Yamaha PM2000 channel strips I have, I have been wanting the 32x8 board and came real close to snatching one up for about $1500. I couldn't pull through on the money. However, the M1516 board is almost identical and i have heard it referred to as the PM2000 little brother. It is a 16x4 board with the same input and almost identical EQ. So back to Ebay, I found the board and watched it for 2 days and studied on it. It was a local pickup in Knoxville TN; that's an 8 hour drive for me. I won the board for a whoppin' $87.00 and drove to pick it up a week later.

I recapped all the lytics with Panasonics and also modded the EQ's. They were very surgical so I widened the Q. It's a lot more subtle and smooth. The board is loaded with transformers. Every channel has an input transformer and the Yamaha 80200 opamp, which has the 990, 2520 pinout, etc. And of course output transformers everywhere. It measures 3' x 3' and weighs 133 lbs. :shock:

So anyway, back to the studio. I am moving my gear into a 2 story barn/building that was converted for living quarters. It is owned by my father who decided to let me have it to use if I can make some money (that shouldn't be a problem). The downstairs main recording room is 15x17, 8 feet tall, laminate oak flooring. Upstairs I will have a 12x14 control room and will be routing 16 channel snake cable through the walls to the downstairs room and to a wall plate for easy patching. The other end of course to tie into my patch bay. I also have a small used Panasonic color TV that i can mount in the control room somewhere and the other end will meet one of those small wall mounted security cameras so I can see the drummer :mrgreen:

So that is my set up for now. I'll try and post some pics later after I get everything moved in (hopefully in a few weeks). I'd like to hear what others are using in their studios.

Adam
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mediatechnology
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by mediatechnology »

$87? Wow. Deal of the century Adam.

Good luck with the barn. When I worked for SSL US they were headquartered in a converted barn in Milan, MI. It worked very nice for them with SSL Console HQ upstairs and the SSL Organ operation downstairs. Needless to say the downstairs, being part woodshop was quite dusty.

Please send us pics!

Wayne
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bluezplaya
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by bluezplaya »

Wow Roger! Lots of rack gear. BTW, I just scored 2 more Pico mono boards from Cannikin on the forum! I think I am going to build them as 2 mono's in one rack. That way I'll have a good pair for tracking. I'm going to start experimenting with compression at low ratios, 1.3:1, 2:1, etc. for drum tracking. The Pico's should work nicely. In fact, just today, I finished mixing a 7 song CD with my new board and using the Pico Suave on the 2 track mix. I know that mastering engineers hate getting a 2 track Wave file already compressed so I used a very subtle amount. But it seemed to glue everything together nicely.

I will definitely be posting some pics of the studio when I get it finished. I still have to build a desk that will house my board, have about a 28U space on the bottom right side, a cabinet for my PC on the bottom left side, about a 4U space on both sides of the top. And of course the KRK's and the 20" flat panel will sit on top of that. I've got to get moving because I already have my first client who will be ready in 4 weeks. Word of mouth travels fast.

Does anyone recommend any good sounding cheap mics? I already have a pair of SP C1's. And this latest project I worked on for a freinds studio used a pair of MXL V67i's that were really nice sounding.

Adam
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mediatechnology
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by mediatechnology »

Roger - I've been meaning to tell you how impressed I am with your studio pics.

I don't actually use this stuff - the last time I mixed was in college - I'm a toolmaker I suppose. My studio consists of CoolEdit, an E-Mu 0404 and my daughter's Yamaha keyboard. I recall hooking up it's Midi connection once. But I do understand what it is you guys do and as a studio tech would look over engineer's shoulders and come up with new tools. I thought I wanted to be an engineer when I was young - glad I didn't do it after seeing the marathons those guys run.

So no Mix Magazine covers from here...
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bluezplaya
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by bluezplaya »

Image

It's still a work in progress!!!! On the top left I have my 2 Neve channels and actually about to start building the other two that will joining them. My Green pre's, and my 8 channels of Baby Animals. If you look below that to the left side 16U rack you might see a familiar "Suave" looking piece, right above the SSL MixBus compressor and pair of PM2000 channel strips.
Image
Image


:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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mediatechnology
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by mediatechnology »

Nice Adam!

I'm almost as envious of your floors as I am the gear! We're on concrete here (mostly) while we debate acid-stained floors or Oak.

Does the lunch box rattle?

Thanks for posting the pics.
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bluezplaya
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by bluezplaya »

No. I just haven't taken pictures of the tracking room yet!!
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haima
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Re: My Future Studio in progress

Post by haima »

$87 for the yamaha - that's a steal! it looks like a handy size too.

have you thought about JLM audio's EQ mods? are they compatible? i'm planning on trying them out soon.

EDIT: ahhh i re-read your post... you did mod your eq's Q - did you just increase that series resistor? i've done that on some of my channels. still want to hear the fully "passive" mod though.

i paid $6500 for my PM-2000 32ch! oh well. i don't regret it....i think! although having just carried the darn thing up and down two flights of stairs i do wish it was a little lighter (170kgs) :shock:

my back is slowly returning from the pain zone... :x

Haima
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