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new home studio setup, workshop, and more
StoreTags: hotel2tango, home studio
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During pretty-much the whole summer, I was busy getting some new gear and trying new ways to do stuff. Laptop, better mixer, lots of pedals, KP2, looper, etc.. Being the disorganized person I am, I basically just piled all this new stuff on edges and things were wired very roughly. Cables everywhere, etc. Yesterday I decided that it needed an overhaul. I put the old 8-channel mixer away (probably to only be used in gigs to come) and decided the huge GEM DSK-8 keyboard was too big and unused! I still love it in a crummy way, but until I get a bigger place, it will need to be put away. My appartment is too small to dedicate a whole room (or even half a room) to music. Maybe when I move I'll be as lucky as adcbycicle. 
First pic: On the roller-thing, I stuck the new mixer and several effects on it! Send 1 goes to the monstrosity of a bent looper (brown thing), then to the MXR EQ (nice way to color its drones), to the KP2 and back to a channel-in (not return). Send 2 goes straight to the 2880 looper and back to two channel-ins as well. Having limited space and a lot of cables to wire around, I used a piece of wood to lift the mixer/eq/brownthing up two inches. It makes the cables a lot eater. The weight of the mixer keeps that plank very stable! Down bellow is a bent SK-1, already hooked up and ready to be pulled out, a bent kaysound keyboard (not visible) and a bending-in-progress TR-505 (also not visible). Bth the 2880 and the mixer are hooked up to the..
Second pic: ..laptop! .....yeah. Untill my desktop PC (not visible though very close) gets XP installed, the laptop will be used to record stuff from the mixer. Much to my surprise, in a test two days ago, it was able to record 16-channels in 16/44 without glitching out or dying! Once my desktop takes over the recording process, the laptop will mostly be used to supply extra tracks/percussion to the mixer! To the left is the novation x-station synth, plugged directly into the mixer. Also serves as a MIDI controller. Under all this is the ES-1 and lappy mouse.
Third pic: Oh glorious effects! Plugged into either the mixer or the small cheapisj amp. Currently the lineage is: instrument -> big muff -> zvex fuzz factory -> boss eq -> boss dd20 -> boss trem -> line 6 trem -> boss volume pedal -> boss reverb -> out. I'm the only person I know that uses two trems in series like this, but I love the effect it can produce with varying tempos! Also pictures is a recrd player, and just underneith a danelectro spring reverb (digital/real-spring hybrid) and a bending-in-progress dod chorus.
Fourth pic is just everything at once. It's all lined up against the wall to minimize space. Two weeks ago, I also got myself a new guitar! ( link ) An Epiphone Dot, cherry red! My other eletric was too much of a pain to play, and was pretty cheap to begin with.
In other news, August 15/16th, spent some time at the hotel2tango studio ( link ) learning how to operate analog recording equipement, identifying and placing different mics how and where for what instruments, how to best set up a recording space (sound traps), working with a very nice mixer, how compression and EQ works (even if I knew that already), comparing different brands of mics (and how certain companies buy from the same factory the exact same mic internally, but stick it in a different casing and slap their own label on it), and other stuff. Also discussed some things about the record industry and music gear shops, and sneaky little secrets around how they operate.
Two-day workshop, about ten people. Howard Bilerman was who taught and showed us all this stuff, since the two other operators of the studio (Efrim and Thierry) were away on tour. It was quite interesting! we also did some recording of our own. I found the stuff about this different kind of mics especially enthralling and useful! We also had some home-made lentil and spinache soup, mmmm...
....yeah. | |
Comments
09/04/06
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Bluermutt
nice one man, looks essential and inspiring. Mine is a mess most of the time..
09/04/06
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DrexonField
very cool setup. love the pics
09/04/06
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papergoose
thanks. I always enjoy these studio blogs.
09/04/06
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papergoose
I just recently got an ES-1. I paid $150 for it, and it came with an extra 64mb smartmedia card with some korg presets on it.
I haven't decided about it yet. It's fun, but it seems very very limited. I'm hoping to find inspiration in those limits.
How do you use yours?
09/04/06
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nagrom
so you sit cross-legged? i've long considered that and might have done it if I was flexible enough to do so.
09/04/06
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nagrom
ah, you live in Montreal. Do you know Phil Karneef?
edited: Sep 04 2006
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populus
very nice. I like the Godspeed poster. this makes me want to have my own apartment on the same continent as my gear again.
09/04/06
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adcBicycle
wow... very very nice.
Yeah, DO you sit crosslegged on the floor? If so, very cool.
Love the setup, the sk1, kaoss pad, lots of cool effects. Love the appartent efficiency of the whole thing. It's similar to mine in a very vague way, except you have an fantastic ability to minimize and simplify... teach me!
09/04/06
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adcBicycle
Be careful with that tr-505... I also have one "nearly bent" and somehow fried it in the final stages... so sad, I had some great bends going.
09/05/06
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pierlu001
nice studio! "this box eats baby puppies for food" ahah
Recent blogs: first blog!
09/05/06
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yghartsyrt
sparse and nice.
cool.
thanks for sharing
09/05/06
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cloudscapes
Bluermutt: thanks! well, to make you feel better, this one will be a mess in a few weeks, I guarantee :P
DrexonField: thank you
papergoose: yeah, me too. I kind of miss the old studio section. as for the ES-1, it's quite limited indeed. I can't see it being used as more than "support" rather than a primary source of sounds. like when you just need something extra to jam alongside a real set of drums or a better machine. lately I use mine just to play samples (on-demand, freeform) or for basic 16/64-step loops that are a small part of a larger solo jam.
nagrom: sometimes cross-legged, sometimes on my knees, sometimes using a little foot-high stool. it gets a bit uncomfortable after a while so I need to move around, and I still do most of my post-recording Ableton work at the more comfortable desktop. don't know Phil Karneef nope, what's he do?
populus: hehe there are two of them (the strip and the black photocopy right above it), thanks! too bad about the far-away-ness of your gear 
adcBicycle: see reply to nagrom for cross-leg-ness. and it's not by choice, but mostly because I lack the furnature/room for a real setup. hmmm.. your setup has so much more atmosphere (gear-comparison aside) though, it's a real sonic workshop! thanks for the warning about the tr-505. I don't know when I'm gonna pick it up again, but I've already got a ribbon cable soldered to that one really interesting chip (all 28 pins) plus various little vactrol circuits on the volume/tempo/other. want to be extra careful, especially since I bought it from a fellow EMer.
pierlu001: it does! it's quite cruel. actually I fear I may have fried part of it somehow, as it has a bigger tendancy to squeal as it did before. I'll need to experiment to confirm....
yghartsyrt: thank you!
09/05/06
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sohcahtoa
Very nice. Looks like a cozy little space you have there. I'm in the process of setting up a new music space as well as I just moved so I'm digging the recent studio posts. Thanks!
09/05/06
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zander
pierlu001 said: "nice studio! "this box eats baby puppies for food" ahah"
I was just looking at that and smiling to myself.
Nice setup and photos Cloudscapes!
It all looks very usable, by that I mean- everything looks as if it is there for a purpose and it gets used properly.
No rediculously expensive stuff that's just there to look good
09/05/06
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RogerRoger
I like the "shelf to the right" idea for stacking things, but for myself, I'd want to have enough height to put the laptop on a desk and sit in a rotating chair. Also, you may be amazed at how much productivity can increase with dual monitors. I certainly was.
Here's my studio photos: link which like populus's, are currently very far away from me.
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