A new small setup.

[Tony Carpenter]

Hi folks,

We moved house, no more rental!!, yeah. I was going to splash out and build a soundproof studio. Then I began thinking more about the state of things. This is my compromise, I went with a big old Zaor 88XL desk so I could have my rd2000 handy. Brought my acoustic drums back into play and I have my eleven rack sitting there in a floor rack with some other stuff. Huge savings and the room is actually not a problem. Neighbours tell me they can hardly hear me, Bonus.

 

[Tony Carpenter]

And the desk. Due to file size restrictions..

 

 

[Cookie Jarvis]

Nice setup! Enjoy the new place

Bill

[Grem]

That looks good. 

I have my place setup in one of my upstair bedrooms. Very similar in dimensions to yours. I like those bass traps in the corners. Ummm?

 

[Tony Carpenter]

16 hours ago, Grem said:

That looks good. 

I have my place setup in one of my upstair bedrooms. Very similar in dimensions to yours. I like those bass traps in the corners. Ummm?

 

Most of what I’ve done is to lower neighbour issues, however, the drums sound tight. I wanted to play live and I can. Real bass traps are larger and heavier. But those (Auralex I think) do disperse some and absorb some. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Tony Carpenter

[Grem]

39 minutes ago, Tony Carpenter said:

Real bass traps are larger

Yeah, but those looks like they are working.  

I also noticed the "feaux pictures". Is that burlap on them? Not a bad idea at all.

[Tony Carpenter]

45 minutes ago, Grem said:

Yeah, but those looks like they are working.  

I also noticed the "feaux pictures". Is that burlap on them? Not a bad idea at all.

Yes Grem, burlap. I made those myself. Wooden frame filled with rock wool. They really do work very well. 

Cheers,

Tony

[Amicus717]

Nice setup! I'm a stickler for being organized, and that looks like a nice, productive workspace with no distractions.

I cound't survive using only one monitor, though. That's old school  

 

[Tony Carpenter]

A little update, note clap stack and triggers. Taken wide angle so a little out of scale :).

 

 

[craigb]

Still looks incomplete to me! ?

 

 

[Tony Carpenter]

1 hour ago, craigb said:

Still looks incomplete to me! ?

 

 

LOL... no! just no to the lava lamp.

[scook]

8 minutes ago, Tony Carpenter said:

LOL... no! just no to the lava lamp.

reported

[PhonoBrainer]

Looks awesome! Congrats!

But where are the tangle of untidy line cords, old coffee cups, thumbtack-posted article cut-outs from Electronic Musician,  snippets of old lyrics written on the back of electric bill envelopes, old cardboard packing boxes you haven't thrown away yet in case you need to send those things back . . .

 

. . . and your ceiling looks very reflective, would you get some foam or equivalent up there? At least at mirror points as you sit at your mixing position?

It's awesome, really, I'd play in there with great contentment. Well done!

[Bapu]

I did mine above like this:

My overhead is a AEA R88 Stereo Ribbon mic.

 

From the drummer's perspective (how I mix)

Infront of the foam directly ahead is my Townsend Labs Sphere (set to stereo position) as my  room mics. All cymbals are spot mic'd with Sennheiser e614, toms are Sennheiser e604. Snare top is Earthworks DM20, snare bottom is Shure SM57.

 

And finally a right side audience perspective.

I have a Shure SM81A shock mounted inside the kick (with a towel underneath it) and I (uh-oh) mounted an external XLR connector to the kick shell. That's a Solomon sub and a Shure Beta 52A.

 

All drum mics go into my (3) Apollo x8p interfaces. I record with the Unison API mic pre's.

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Bapu

[Shane_B.]

@Bapu

I read that the green painters tape sounds better. Might want to retape everything and see. Make some 384/64 samples and do some A/B comparisons? Maybe some null tests perhaps?

[paulo]

2 hours ago, Bapu said:

From the drummer's perspective (how I mix)

[Grem]

8 hours ago, Bapu said:

All drum mics go into my (3) Apollo x8p interfaces. I record with the Unison API mic pre's

How has that worked for you? Been meaning to ask you. You use just the mic pres? Not the Vision Strip?

[Tony Carpenter]

11 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

Looks awesome! Congrats!

But where are the tangle of untidy line cords, old coffee cups, thumbtack-posted article cut-outs from Electronic Musician,  snippets of old lyrics written on the back of electric bill envelopes, old cardboard packing boxes you haven't thrown away yet in case you need to send those things back . . .

 

. . . and your ceiling looks very reflective, would you get some foam or equivalent up there? At least at mirror points as you sit at your mixing position?

It's awesome, really, I'd play in there with great contentment. Well done!

Sadly, it's still my dining room for the future, the build studio is simply on hold for now. I have a cloud I usually sit above me, couldn't do it. The x/y mics actually handle the sound really well.  And, frankly, not recorded anything in a long time. I usually practice and play live on Jamulus/Sonobus in an afternoon these days.

[Bapu]

10 hours ago, Grem said:

How has that worked for you? Been meaning to ask you. You use just the mic pres? Not the Vision Strip?

Yup, so far just the mic pre's. Maybe one day the Vision Strip too. Still learning the dark art of recording live drums.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Bapu

[Byron Dickens]

Recording live drums is not nearly as difficult and mysterious as it is made out to be.