I am disgusted...

I just visited a friend's "home studio". Mind you, he's working in the major leagues w/ some fairly big names out there, so he can justify the expenses.  

I had seen the room he wanted to use after we all moved to Vegas last fall but this was our first visit since he started working on the studio.

A huge argosy desk, a giant screen up on the wall for scoring, 2 big displays, a pair of NS-10 used as "sh!tboxes", a pair of big Adams, a couple of Dynaudio, Apogee converters, a little Command 8 control surface and on and on...

I'd seen his setup in NY last summer, where he lived in a suite exactly like ours in the same building and I was already impressed. I knew he had gear back home, but, man...

I got back to my little home set up and brand new monitor seemed small. In fact, my whole set up looks almost like a little something that he could put in a corner of his studio, for guests... lol

But then again, there's something about using as little gear as I can... You know, just my laptop, Logic, a midi controller and a pair of monitors. 

Anyway, I think what struck me the most was the sound quality. Actually, I dare say it was better than quite a few commercial studios I've been in. The room, the treatment and the Adams all working together delivered something that was just out of this world... Pure. More than any gear, that's what I envied, what I wanted to work on getting closer to...

The good news is that he has plenty of leftovers for room treatment which he offered to give me for my own studio - which will accelerate things on my end quite a bit. I had budgeted the bass traps, but was expecting a downtime after that. Now I may be able to add a couple of traps on top of what I planned PLUS deflection.

The other good news is that my wife asked what I needed next and I'm getting the new audio interface next week. :))

I've pretty much settled for a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 - I never record more than one track at a time so 2 ins are fine and I wanted an extra pair of outputs for secondary monitors. I also get midi connectivity - should I need it... As an extra bonus, it seems it comes w/ Novation Bass Station Soft Synth. :P

For a while, I was seriously considering TC Desktop Konnect, but w/ FireWire being a thing of the past on my platform, most of the other options either exceed my needs by far in terms of I/O or are just silly expensive for what I do.

And now I can't wait to say goodbye to my old M-Audio Fast Track and it's RCA outputs. Down to the training room, where it'll finish it's life serving a noble cause.

A well tuned room (acoustic treatment) and good monitors positioned right makes all the difference. And it's good to have more than one set of monitors. 

If you want your studio to look bigger? Get a bigger desk  

Actually, I found a good size (solid, sturdy) desk, 5ft wide x 2.5ft depth and perfect sitting height of 2.5 for about $120.  The height is very nice and prevents strain (arms and wrists.)  The desk easily fits a 'slim' 88,note keyboard (full-size keys) controller with enough room to spare for monitors, racks, i/o interface, qwerty and mouse. 

I have a LCD monitor sitting behind the keyboard. The monitor is raised up a little (4 to 5 inches) so I'm looking straight ahead and not up and not obstructed by the keyboard. 

My computer tower is so incredible quite, it sits on a slide-out tray on top of a cabinet next to the desk, nice and close to me so I can see if the lights are on?... that's it actually ON? LOL!! 

Overall, a very comfortable setup, easy to reach things without the butt leaving the chair.  Leaving just enough space in the room for video and photography work. 

.

craigb


Is his name CJ?

Now that's funny!  ^ ^ ^     


I'm lucky to have a wife also who supports my hobby but I've never heard her say," What piece of gear do you want next".  
  
It's funny when people come into my home studio how many people flip out over the desk.  A very important part of the studio is to have a comfortable work area IMHO.  Just be careful I have fallen into the trap of buying things to make the studio look cool rather then buying what I really need.  The studio can become a drug. 
 
Sounds like you've got your act together knowing what you need.  Looking forward to seeing more pics of your studio progress.




Later
Kev

That's a nice workspace you have there, Starise. Looks warm and intimate, which is great for creativity imho - it helps focus.

My DAW is in my lap. My studio is scattered between the dining room and an upstairs room. One daughter has the attic space I need crammed full of her stuff. I know, I know... excuses, not reasons but it is what it is. At least I have a room, but I have to box up a lot of books, find a place for some rather large combo amps (2x15, I have two of them, old 60s Jordan stage amps).

It does get frustrating but Rain, you are as far ahead of me as he is ahead of you so... it figures that there is someone as far ahead of him as he is ahead of you.

I have a friend in Brentwood, TN (Mike Gay, we were HS classmates) who has a home studio in his basement. It is called Beech Creek Studios. You can see some of the people who record there on his FB page. He really is a great guy.
http://www.nashvillemusicpros.com/profile/BeechCreekStudios 
https://www.facebook.com/beechcreekstudios

It is all relative,

J

Sorry the the single paragraph - I'm on FF again, as the forum seems to prevent me from posting w/ Safari one day out of two.

Wow Julien!  That's one impressive list.  I'm not talking about whatever was on it (I couldn't be arsed to read all of it), but that the forum software allowed you to put all those linefeeds in!

Tim,

I have that same guitar (in Jonbouy's fav color) and I have that same printer.

Pretty cool! Even if it isn't my palette, I think the colors create a great ambience.

That's one of the things for which I'm trying to evaluate my options right now - creating the ambience in the room. I'm used to red - lots of it, but I don't know how it'd work here. And black. I'm still not sure how it'll go. 

I know what they say about clutter and I understand, but it just doesn't work for me.  Heck, I'll tell you - my studio has always been the cleanest most well kept room anywhere where I lived. Even when I lived there 24/7, ate there, got drunk in there and slept there... It was kept impeccable.

What I use on a regular basis needs its dedicated place. What I rarely use needs to be stored somewhere where I can easily find it. What I don't use... Well, I most likely got rid of that ages ago. I've always traveled lightly.

And the goal is to streamline even more. For example, the new audio interface - while it won't take much more space than the one I'm using now, it will allow me to get rid of my little hardware mixer AND most probably my preamp.

  
 Wow Rain, that's a very clean looking setup.I plan to eventually dust but I'm afraid it might change my acoustics ;)

Simulated Wood Paneling on the side?  Tons of rust everywhere else?  A hood that doesn't match (in both size and color)?  A front end held together entirely with Bondo and duct tape?  Optional floorboards?  Gas tank held on with bailing wire, three toothpicks, and a pack of chewing gum?

On second thought, I may have been thinking of a different choice.

If I was doing this on a professional level, and had my music on major artist CD's and in films and TV, I'd probably drop a larger cash wad on some more gear and into setting up a dedicated and treated room. 

It's pretty frustrating to see the studio's of some of the folks who are able to justify the expense and then return home to my own small dinky studio and my simple setup in the corner of a shared space. But, that is the reality of it for now. 

Having said that..... the quality of the music that can be produced in my small inexpensive corner of the room space is better than what many bands were producing just a few years ago. So I really don't worry about the investment and try not to compare it to what others may have. Trying to "keep up with the Jones" would drive me batty and broke. 

AT


We all indulge - to the limit of our bank account.  

If only it stopped there!