Show us your studio

  • Necroing this thread.


    Just finished a move to a new home and just finished setting up my studio.


    This is a much better room than my last one, higher ceiling and the room is curved at the back. Also bigger, with a nice little pocket for my drums to sit. Trying to figure out how to hook up my robot drums to the acoustic kit at the back for my electronic music project. Need a bit more studio furniture as well.


    Anyhoo, here is the room. It's a bit of a mess, I need a nice shelf to put all my little odds and ends and need to tie up some of those wires.


    Apols for the size of the photos.





    It's absolutely amazing how different profiles sound through my speakers now. I can make out all kinds of issues when I run them through my room correction software. Can't wait to get down to some serious mixing in the weeks ahead.

  • Looks great AJ, I find new spaces can bring out some pretty sweet new material in us! :D


    It's true! I played through some of my favourite profiles that I created yesterday, both with room treatment on and off. It's amazing how a profile that you think sounds good can actually turn out to be pretty flimsy when you hear them in a better acoustic environment.


    I'll now redo them, should be fun, but it'll have to wait while I get the rest of the house in order.

  • Sorry, busy week. I'm using an EV ZLX12P just to the left of the camera, we also use a Bose L1 with a B2 sub for vocals. We try and keep the volumes low down there, but I'm closer to the Bose unit and those vocals can be loud sometimes . I'll wear ear plugs if things get out of control. That Marshall 2550 can get a bit over the top too.


    I need to get some profiles of that Marshall one of these days.

  • Just did a major update of my studio.


    I have grown increasingly frustrated with the routing options available with the Universal Audio Apollo 8p.


    There's so much that's going right with the UAD approach. The fact that you're locked into their ecosystem aside, their plugins are something else. I put it down to the way they have modelled analog equipment. It really shines through without hyping things in a way that might mislead you. Add to the fact that the mic inputs can change impedance to match classic gear like Neve 1073, Universal Audio 610s, etc, and it's a very competent interface.


    However, as I mentioned, the routing really sucks. For example, if I route an input within their Console application to one of the outputs on the device, I am thereafter barred from routing any other input to that output! When I learnt that for the first time, I was wondering what the hell they were thinking. It's also resulted in a lot of head scratching moments where I have routed audio from my DAW to one of the outputs and then got no signal, leaving me puzzled for ages until I realise that I assigned it within their application.


    To boot, the lack of a coaxial SPDIF input and output made it necessary to waste a lot of money on coax-optical SPDIF boxes. On top of that, I had to have the unit repaired *twice* because the SPDIF jacks on the Apollo are such cheap plastic that they disintegrated. Not once, twice. And no, it's not user error, I am using good quality cables and inserting them the correct way. As a test, if you have an Apollo, just try getting a cable to sit properly in the optical jacks, yuck :cursing:


    I recently got my RME Fireface 800 repaired. Great interface, I really loved it. The routing capabilities are unbeatable. For a simple example, think about routing a DAW track to an external output. Then, within the TotalMix software that comes with the interface, route that audio back to a virtual input that could then be sent back into the DAW.


    To boot, the Fireface has coaxial SPDIF jacks.


    Had to send it to Bangkok and they took their own sweet time repairing it. When I got it back, I was thinking I would sell it, as I didn't think I'd have much use for it.


    But I recently had a brainwave: what if I could have the RME routing and the Apollo plugins and hardware. It's not like I would get any windfall gain from selling the Fireface, it's a discontinued device.


    Thankfully, the two interfaces both play nice over ADAT.


    I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the RME drivers are. How do I know they're better? We could just take the example of the loading times for a Cubase project. The Apollo takes ages to load, relatively speaking. The Fireface makes mince meat of the task.


    Having two high end interfaces also reaffirms my belief that converters do make a difference. I can hear an audible difference when I play the same track over my monitors using the two interfaces. Which is better, though, I don't know.


    In other news, I jacked up the RAM in my Mac to 32GB.


    I really feel I'm getting much better results of late. The studio investments are paying off and the nitty gritty details of the mixes are now coming out much better.


    This is my latest mix. I am very happy how it sounds, can't wait to lay down vocals and solos.


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    Note to self: I need to store some Kemper pics on my computer

  • Convertors do make a difference...


    For years I was in the 'it is negligible and there are better things to spend your money on' mindset.


    That is absolutely true!


    But when you get all the mics, pre's, comps blah blah blah...and you FINALLY upgrade your AD/DA...you really do notice it, the same way that earlier on in your journey to sonic nirvana you notice that the fewer times you go through your convertors (or whatever quality) the better!

    PRS Custom 22's - Fender Strats - Diezel VH4 - Carol Ann OD2 - Toneking Imperial MK2 - Colin the Kemper - CLR Neo ii.

  • There was a giant thread on Gearslutz once that tested the converters of interfaces as they were released. The UAD interfaces were surprisingly very average. RME were in the top end of the semi-pro gear above UAD, though at the very top you’ll find your Prisms and other stupid money gear.

  • You know how they say you should invest as much money in acoustic treatment as your monitors. Well, I haven't gotten to that stage yet, but I think I made a giant leap in making my studio better by finally investing some money in acoustic panels.




    Still need to get some bass traps in there, but these Kryna Azteca panels are pretty nifty. It's a Japanese company. I only got 28 panels, so placing them to cover a room that size was kind of fun.


    Of course, there are obvious problems, such as the fact that my mixing desk is in a corner of the room and I am located next to a glass-fronted cupboard. I usually also have the curtains drawn, so that will no doubt help some more when it comes to reducing bass and other reflections.


    Think the room also looks better with those panels! A cool design!