Show Us Your Studio - 2012

[MickeyMassacre]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

We're just finishing up an extensive update, but here's some quick iphone shots... will have more complete/better ones soon...

One interesting thing to note; almost the entire floor in the control room is a turntable... the entire gear layout spins around, so either the console or the writing rig can be rotated into the sweet spot.

7?!? 7 computers?!?!

[Resonance5]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

We're just finishing up an extensive update, but here's some quick iphone shots... will have more complete/better ones soon...

One interesting thing to note; almost the entire floor in the control room is a turntable... the entire gear layout spins around, so either the console or the writing rig can be rotated into the sweet spot.

wow

[erikdrink]

Sweet!

[Granny Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Lights

1. The waveguides on the tweeters are designed to direct the high frequency sounds horizontally for a wider sweetspot and also to avoid bouncing high frequencies off the desk/console. Putting speakers on the side, especially with tweeters on the outside obliterates the sweet spot altogether and also causes more comb filtering than you'd otherwise get because it's directing the high frequency sound down at the desk and up at the ceiling instead of in a side-to-side spread.

The first statement you make is not universally true. On some models maybe, but waveguides are also sometimes symmetrical and their only purpose is to time align the drivers - in such cases orientation will not be a problem (for the waveguide, but may be for other reasons).

Originally Posted by Lights

2. When the woofers and tweeters are not vertically in alignment, you get phase shift between the two since the sound from whichever driver is closer gets to you before the other. This is extra problematic in the crossover range because most crossovers are "soft" so that some of the same frequencies are coming out both woofer and tweeter and comb filtering each other right out of the box.

This is a problem with any multiway speaker no matter the orientation (whether the tweet is further left or further up than the woofer makes little difference to this issue). I suppose if the drivers have been physically time/phase aligned (vs doing it electronically) the orientation may be important for this issue, but I can't think of an example where this is true (can't be fixed by playing with toe-in/out) offhand.


Pics of my new room coming soon. Having a grand opening next month.

[Clonkified]

Some really nice places on this thread! Very inspiring. Wish I had the money / space to do some of that stuff. Still stuck in my living room right now - can just barely think about getting a small lockout room somewhere let alone building something like what you guys have. Clearly need to start making money doing this music thing...

[boon]

Originally Posted by MickeyMassacre

7?!? 7 computers?!?!

i counted 8. there's another mac mini in there hiding

[Star Hill]

Originally Posted by memphisindie

Looks like the setup in my son's school. If I took a pic of that rig and then he rig in the house, you'd cry for the old man, but, where I am, most people don't use all hat gear they have, it's mostly samples and rap music. Room BLING I wish I had. I'd use it, but, I do fine without it.
AMAZING set up, I love the turntable idea. Awesome.
Lovin that old silvertone head! I used to have one of those, excellent sound.

Wow, your son most go to one hell of a school!

You know, that resonates with us here more than you might think. Here, I think if we were not doing so many different styles of music, and often simultaneously, we would probably only need a fraction of the stuff we have. On "Futurama," Chris is creating orchestral scores which used to be all live, but are now handled [due to FOX taking away the budget] by racks of computer samplers. On "Suits," the music he's writing jumps between 50's-60's soul and full-blown electronica. The timetables to accomplish all of this are frighteningly short. And then when we're producing songs it's another whole set of tools. At the heart of the studio is a very large [96 i/o] Logic rig, a separate 96 i/o Pro Tools rig, a 32ch stem recorder Pro Tools Rig, and a high-res 2TR Pro Tools rig, with a rather deep routing matrix that can quickly interface entire outboard processing chains on the fly - so he can, say, insert an entire "vintage vibe" hardware "console" of stem processors and vintage FX, or hit tape on the Studers, or swap it all out for something completely more modern, all without re-patching or having to recall/reset hardware. Think of it as a giant uh, non-virtual plug-in menu.

Certainly it's fun and very powerful to have all the different colors/options at one's fingertips, but more gear = more maintenance, more things to break, and more chaos theory. And it feels a little bit like we're launching a space shuttle when we get into the TV season music production cycle; once we cross "go" there's little time for rethinking, repairs, or reset...

Actually, one of the favorite rigs we had here [it needs an update] was a bunch of mac minis that were stuffed into a rolling Stanley toolbox, that Chris used to take with him to work remotely and when on vacation. It was super small, super simple, and totally effective. And no amount of gear ever eclipses the emotional power a great song recorded live in one take, and even to the most modest of mediums.

Don't know if it's true, but I remember hearing someone say once that "a lot of gear won't make someone creative more talented, but it might make someone talented more creative..."

p.s. To the post above about "7! computers!!!"... actually before the huge processing advancements in the last year and the real stability of 64-bit systems came around, I think there was almost thirty computers in the machine room... I'd have to count now, but I think there's still about fifteen Macs/PCs currently in use.

p.p.s. That Silvertone head does totally R O C K!!!

[krakatau]

Originally Posted by petermiles

Here's me, pics are pretty old, quite a few things have changed, especially in the outboard rack.

Nice! I like the open space and the wood, definitly feels like a musicians den...

[Unclenny]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

the entire floor in the control room is a turntable... the entire gear layout spins around

Wait!

Isn't that against the law?

Well, it certainly should be!!

[YOHAMI]

So cool.

[awagner08]

The ceiling is new. Also, you can't see it, but we blacked-out all the piping & wiring on the ceiling. We also took some incredibly unsightly reflective foil off an exposed heating duct & spray painted that black too. Got mighty light headed that Saturday afternoon!

[memphisindie]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

Wow, your son most go to one hell of a school!

You know, that resonates with us here more than you might think. Here, I think if we were not doing so many different styles of music, and often simultaneously, we would probably only need a fraction of the stuff we have. On "Futurama," Chris is creating orchestral scores which used to be all live, but are now handled [due to FOX taking away the budget] by racks of computer samplers. On "Suits," the music he's writing jumps between 50's-60's soul and full-blown electronica. The timetables to accomplish all of this are frighteningly short. And then when we're producing songs it's another whole set of tools. At the heart of the studio is a very large [96 i/o] Logic rig, a separate 96 i/o Pro Tools rig, a 32ch stem recorder Pro Tools Rig, and a high-res 2TR Pro Tools rig, with a rather deep routing matrix that can quickly interface entire outboard processing chains on the fly - so he can, say, insert an entire "vintage vibe" hardware "console" of stem processors and vintage FX, or hit tape on the Studers, or swap it all out for something completely more modern, all without re-patching or having to recall/reset hardware. Think of it as a giant uh, non-virtual plug-in menu.

Certainly it's fun and very powerful to have all the different colors/options at one's fingertips, but more gear = more maintenance, more things to break, and more chaos theory. And it feels a little bit like we're launching a space shuttle when we get into the TV season music production cycle; once we cross "go" there's little time for rethinking, repairs, or reset...

Actually, one of the favorite rigs we had here [it needs an update] was a bunch of mac minis that were stuffed into a rolling Stanley toolbox, that Chris used to take with him to work remotely and when on vacation. It was super small, super simple, and totally effective. And no amount of gear ever eclipses the emotional power a great song recorded live in one take, and even to the most modest of mediums.

Don't know if it's true, but I remember hearing someone say once that "a lot of gear won't make someone creative more talented, but it might make someone talented more creative..."

p.s. To the post above about "7! computers!!!"... actually before the huge processing advancements in the last year and the real stability of 64-bit systems came around, I think there was almost thirty computers in the machine room... I'd have to count now, but I think there's still about fifteen Macs/PCs currently in use.

p.p.s. That Silvertone head does totally R O C K!!!

He does go to a really good school for that, it's Memphis, and this facility he goes to is their crown jewel vo-tech.

Still resonating... I love the mini-box idea, brilliant! I'm totally lovin the the whole vibe, ethos, and physical makeup of your studio.
I do a little scoring, I do use a mini and Logic, and other film stuff like dialog prep, foley, efx, and sound design, (probably not as fast as you guys can do it with what you have) but in that same vein, still resonating, I keep my live room set up and ready to record and my location recorder ready to go get sounds for whatever calls out at me for any job that comes in, so I can hit it and finish the job.
Man, and on a turntable, I am just floored by that one, I LOVE that. I would build something exactly like that if I had those resources. You are living in my heaven, haha! Just beautiful! I could seriously cry a tear of joy over that place. I am not joking at all. The work that could be done there, it's just amazing. I vote your studio #1.
Adopt me, Haha! Park me in a corner, I would love to just watch how your place works, not just the spinning around either. Inspiring, and I'm old and have worked in cool rooms. I'll get the paperwork ready for the adoption.

[memphisindie]

My son and I just sat down looking at the high rez pics, and we picked out gear together, it was a moment, sniff, tear. His first comment was "we have a lot of that stuff at my school", it was a cool moment. As the pics went on he saw a lot more things they don't have. I saw a lot more things this time, AWE.
And mountain dulcimers and a cigar box, ha! Love it.

[The Spark]

This thread just reinforces my frustration with my long battle with poverty.

*sigh*

[berkleystudios]

Originally Posted by The Spark

This thread just reinforces my frustration with my long battle with poverty.

*sigh*

+1

even though business is boomin right now, im still broke as a joke ha

[exel]

Originally Posted by Lights

Maybe Alesis doesn't have a waveguide on the tweeter, which might reduce some of the sweet spot issues. However having the tweeters on the outside, you would have to ensure that you're not losing the phantom center. And it does not solve the phase issues at the crossover frequencies. Try these two options instead and see if you get a clearer sound:

1. Turn them upside down in the vertical position. That way the woofer and tweeter are in phase and the tweeter is at ear height.

2. Put them vertical but angle them down at your ears.

Tweeters on the inside is also recommended by the manual. I did try that the other way around but, indeed, got a better stereo image the way they are now. Upside down is ingenious, though, I am going to try that just to see what happens

[greatgreatriver]

This is my 2012 upstairs studio - Here I do most of my sketches. HP laptop and Steinberg MR816x.

I have this space together with my son - so we share our stuff. Sometimes I borrow his red megaphone and shakers etc...

Life is good!

[petermiles]

Originally Posted by berkleystudios

i would love to track here, great vibe!

Give me a shout, I rent the place out in downtime. I am in South Devon, England though.

[petermiles]

Originally Posted by krakatau

Nice! I like the open space and the wood, definitly feels like a musicians den...

I used to be a musician who dabbled in production, it's definitely the other way round now!

[memphisindie]

Originally Posted by The Spark

This thread just reinforces my frustration with my long battle with poverty.

*sigh*

I'll post a pic of my studio and you can see poverty. My son's school studio may be great but we live in the district and it's a big ghetto with plenty of problems.
At least all my actual work stuff sounds great, If I can't afford something expensive, I mod something cheap or build it, and sometimes out of something else. I also figured out pretty quick that the difference from he ITB and OTB sound has a lot to do with the console and how to work with hat to get the sound ITB when needed, it's about your style.
Clients that make it through my door may see something weird but, when they hear it they always say "WOW! That's the best sound we ever got!"
So keep the faith and buggar on.
Rarely I come into a decent amount of money and it all goes away in two weeks regardless of my plans for a better life. Keeps it interesting. I've learned more by being poor than I did by being rich, I just had a lot of fun when I was rich. It was a brief blip. Time to re-blip it.
Buggaring on...

[muziekschuur]

Originally Posted by haryy

This is my band's studio, Timeless Recording.
Doing our records there and help other people. For rehearsals we do have 3 tall absorptive panels to reduce RT and it's still a bit difficult, but come record time and it sounds fantastic









What it sounds like?
Dipsa (Thirst) by Emmono Grizo (ITB. Toft is out long time ago)

This is the most fabulous studios I have seen so far. Not because of the equipment but because of the vibe of the room and the colours used. It looks incredibly metal. But it allso has this elegance wich gives me peace of mind... The ahhhhh...... I'm focused..... let's plugin kind of feel...

Congrats.... I'm quite sure you all worked hard to achieve this..

[e-are]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

We're just finishing up an extensive update, but here's some quick iphone shots... will have more complete/better ones soon...

One interesting thing to note; almost the entire floor in the control room is a turntable... the entire gear layout spins around, so either the console or the writing rig can be rotated into the sweet spot.

Looks crazy. I think you need 1 more mac tho. You mind explaining the tasks each computer is doing? Great selection of outboard also.
Good look man!!!!

Sent from my PC36100 using Gearslutz.com

[haryy]

Originally Posted by muziekschuur

This is the most fabulous studios I have seen so far. Not because of the equipment but because of the vibe of the room and the colours used. It looks incredibly metal. But it allso has this elegance wich gives me peace of mind... The ahhhhh...... I'm focused..... let's plugin kind of feel...

Congrats.... I'm quite sure you all worked hard to achieve this..

Thanks for the compliments, we do love hanging out there playing and recording. We never want to leave and never feel anxious or nervous. When we get exhausted from playing we use to rest in the control room on cozy leather sofas (next best thing since lava lamps) and youtube like crazy.
We built the studio based on pure instinct and the fact that we wouldn't want to get bored in a year or 2 and start spending more money all over again.
It's true that some ispiration came from similar threads here so i hope this inspires someone else.

[Star Hill]

Originally Posted by memphisindie

Man, and on a turntable, I am just floored by that one, I LOVE that. I would build something exactly like that if I had those resources. You are living in my heaven, haha! Just beautiful! I could seriously cry a tear of joy over that place. I am not joking at all. The work that could be done there, it's just amazing. I vote your studio #1.

Thanks! I forwarded this post to Chris; here's his response:

"Thank you VERY much for the kind words. This room was definitely a labor of love in every way, and all-in-all has been about twenty years in the making! I've had a bunch of bedroom studios in the past, including being back in one for a couple of years while this one was being built. Even then, that was a great lesson; I was pushed to commit to a very small selection of gear, and had to dive in to get all I could out of it. I think my first studio was a Tascam 388 1/4" 8-track, an Atari running Notator [the forefather to Logic], a Korg DSS-1 sampler and a Korg M3r... oh and a Microverb for reverb... I wrote a lot of music, and I think even a few film scores, with that gear. I'm a very lucky guy to get to play with the tools I have now, but I'm absolutely sure there are people who are creating amazing music with [or, because of!] a more limited toolset. Sometimes it's the limits that inspire truly creative work. A bunch of gear doesn't guarantee great art!

The turntable was a bit of a crazy idea, but has worked out maybe even better than expected. In a "writing" studio you normally have the problem of wanting both your writing rig and the mixing console in the sweet spot, and of course the writing station always loses... it's either off to the side, or behind you, or somehow all jumbled together, or somewhere else where you constantly need to wheel back over to the console area to check panning, balances etc. Now I spin the room constantly while working, so no matter what equipment I'm working on it's still ergonomic and I'm still in the same place in the room. When I proposed this idea I think it almost gave my studio designer Chris Pelonis a heart attack... suddenly he had to worry about a giant round, and likely resonant, cylindrical hole in the control room floor. I then found a very cool company in LA that fabricates steel staging for concerts and films [and uh, turntables for auto dealer showrooms]. The tolerances that they can hit are amazing; it was all installed with a laser balance etc. Most people don't even realize the room spins around because there's less than a 1/4" gap around the edge - and the entire thing is perfectly center-balanced, such that it takes very little effort to spin even fully loaded - it's not even motorized - we just haul it around with what looks like a big capstan rope from a ship. Seeing it happen usually makes people burst out laughing the first time; such a "lo-fi" part of a rather high-tech looking room. It's built sort of like a giant steel bicycle wheel; there are conduits like spokes that feed all of the wiring from the rest of the studio out from the center through a big central bearing ring, so the cabling actually doesn't even move that much. And Pelonis made sure it was completely stuffed with various layers of absorbtion, so it's dead as doornails!"

[Star Hill]

Originally Posted by e-are

Looks crazy. I think you need 1 more mac tho. You mind explaining the tasks each computer is doing? Great selection of outboard also.
Good look man!!!!

Well, let's see if I can get this all straight:

- (1) 12-core Mac runs Logic
- (2) 8-core Macs are Vienna Ensemble Pro slaves
- (1) Mac mini is an additional VEP slave
- (1) Mac runs the main 96i/o tracking Pro Tools HD rig [with additional Mytek and Lavry converters]
- (1) Mac runs the 32ch Pro Tools stem recorder and video/dialog playback
- (1) Mac mini runs the 2TR hi-res Pro Tools [running Apogees always at 88.2]
- (1) Mac mini runs Ableton Live as a remixing/loop trigger environment locked to Logic [which is also always locked to the tracking PT rig]
- (1) Mac runs an Ableton Live rig as a dedicated entire studio "looper" and quick scratchpad recorder - Every room has access, and Chris can quickly grab a guitar idea, or a drum or perc loop, or whatever, without mucking about in the main Ableton template. This can then be quickly sync'd up to the main rig to transfer the best bits. This computer also hosts Chris' Kyma X/Capybara system.
- (1) PC quad-core runs Ableton as an additional stem recorder in tandem with the Pro Tools rig. That way complete stems are quickly available for remixing.
- (1) PC runs as a dedicated FX host for Altiverb reverbs. This may go away now that Altiverb is finally 64bit.
- (1) Mac as a dedicated FX host for 4 UA EMT140 plate emulations.
- (10) PCs that host the original VSL Orchestral sample library.
- (4) PCs that host the QLSO orchestral sample library.
- (1) Mac that's a dedicated music library server and backup platform for the entire studio.
- (2) PCs that are dedicated CD duplicators and printers.

I think that's it for computers in the machine room...

[RightOnRome]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

We're just finishing up an extensive update, but here's some quick iphone shots... will have more complete/better ones soon...

One interesting thing to note; almost the entire floor in the control room is a turntable... the entire gear layout spins around, so either the console or the writing rig can be rotated into the sweet spot.

WTF? REALLY? ... wow you buy double, triple, and quadruple of every thing AND your floor is a turntable...

im gona log out now ....

[Amber]

Originally Posted by petermiles

I used to be a musician who dabbled in production, it's definitely the other way round now!

Hey Pete, bought a Boogie Mk1 head and massive cab off you about 7 years ago. Wish I hadn't sold it, that thing sounded amazing. Just like Weezer's Blue album like you said without much effort.

Love the studio. Good to see you're doing okay!

[memphisindie]

Originally Posted by Star Hill

Thanks! I forwarded this post to Chris; here's his response:

"Thank you VERY much for the kind words. This room was definitely a labor of love in every way, and all-in-all has been about twenty years in the making! I've had a bunch of bedroom studios in the past, including being back in one for a couple of years while this one was being built. Even then, that was a great lesson; I was pushed to commit to a very small selection of gear, and had to dive in to get all I could out of it. I think my first studio was a Tascam 388 1/4" 8-track, an Atari running Notator [the forefather to Logic], a Korg DSS-1 sampler and a Korg M3r... oh and a Microverb for reverb... I wrote a lot of music, and I think even a few film scores, with that gear. I'm a very lucky guy to get to play with the tools I have now, but I'm absolutely sure there are people who are creating amazing music with [or, because of!] a more limited toolset. Sometimes it's the limits that inspire truly creative work. A bunch of gear doesn't guarantee great art!

The turntable was a bit of a crazy idea, but has worked out maybe even better than expected. In a "writing" studio you normally have the problem of wanting both your writing rig and the mixing console in the sweet spot, and of course the writing station always loses... it's either off to the side, or behind you, or somehow all jumbled together, or somewhere else where you constantly need to wheel back over to the console area to check panning, balances etc. Now I spin the room constantly while working, so no matter what equipment I'm working on it's still ergonomic and I'm still in the same place in the room. When I proposed this idea I think it almost gave my studio designer Chris Pelonis a heart attack... suddenly he had to worry about a giant round, and likely resonant, cylindrical hole in the control room floor. I then found a very cool company in LA that fabricates steel staging for concerts and films [and uh, turntables for auto dealer showrooms]. The tolerances that they can hit are amazing; it was all installed with a laser balance etc. Most people don't even realize the room spins around because there's less than a 1/4" gap around the edge - and the entire thing is perfectly center-balanced, such that it takes very little effort to spin even fully loaded - it's not even motorized - we just haul it around with what looks like a big capstan rope from a ship. Seeing it happen usually makes people burst out laughing the first time; such a "lo-fi" part of a rather high-tech looking room. It's built sort of like a giant steel bicycle wheel; there are conduits like spokes that feed all of the wiring from the rest of the studio out from the center through a big central bearing ring, so the cabling actually doesn't even move that much. And Pelonis made sure it was completely stuffed with various layers of absorbtion, so it's dead as doornails!"

Thanks for letting know. It's amazing.
I used to use the old DSS-1, I had a fostex four track cassette, did very little audio for video, mostly writing original songs together for a band. In fact, I just got a cassette deck to move those "oldies" over to the drive. I was using pedals for efx back then, hacked together consoles, manual noise reduction, bouncing between reels to get multiple tracks and grouping musicians to throw down more tracks live to prerecorded stuff. talk about commitment, whew! I've built about four garage studios, nothing too elaborate, but, definitely working. The good old days. definitely creative times. I have more "stuff" and less pedals now.
Still, that is the #1 studio. I love it, my son loves it!
I don't know when I'll be able to take a run to Santa Barbara, but, I'd LOVE to see it in person. WHAT a studio! The ability to punch in a hardware chain of outboard without repatching, that is a DREAM! You're working in my heaven.

Tell Chris I saw his Grow Music Project on his site, we did that here when I had a partner and could pull it off. One group got signed and I had to mix the tune that sealed it in 3 hours, it worked. He'll laugh when I say who, can't post it publicly, but, maybe a PM.
If he would like some help tracking or mixing..... It can get pretty hectic with as many bands as I would imagine taking him up on that.

[berkleystudios]

Originally Posted by petermiles

Give me a shout, I rent the place out in downtime. I am in South Devon, England though.

maybe when i go international haha. stuck in the states for now.

[Lipps]

Waaaaay to much chattyness for a "show me your...." thread.

Back to business fellas.