Name the rack gear you cant live without!

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DAS19

New member
Hey guys I thought this would be both an informative and fun thread to post. I want to start a rack and I was wondering whats some stuff that everyone uses and needs thus avoiding buying useful gear that I dont need or use.

If you could only have three or four rack spaces what NEEDS to be in it?
 
Right now I use a nice reverb and a nice compressor on my downmixes (and for practicing). They help give my mixes some much needed punch and ambience. That's all I have besides my board and tape deck. (I could name a million rack units I would like to try but cannot afford) :)
 
I guess without my firewire interface I'd be dead in the water.

Motu 896HD w Black Lion pream and analog stage mod
 
The rack in my oven. It's hard to cook a pizza if it is not on the center rack.

I eat a lot of pizza while recording and mixing.
 
I haven't built my rack yet (need to save some dough first) but when I do, I am going to have a patch bay in it, and it's going to make the difference between me pulling my hair out and working smoothly.
 
Hmmm. If I had to winnow it down, I supppose I'd "need" the following out of my rack:

Converters - Aurora 8 (kind of essential if you are recording digitally)

Preamp/DI - Pendulum (I have others, but if I had to pick just one)

Comp - Drawmer 1968 (best all purpose comp I have)

EFX - Rumour (need some verbs and delays, anything else is icing)

EQ - API 550b (actually in a lunch box, but they're the best I have and they sound good)

Monitor/controller - Central Station (a new addition with the converters that I forgot)

I think I could pretty much get by with just this gear in a home studio setting - covers all the basic food groups -- but what would be the fun in that? :D
 
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I would absolutely need my art sla 1 to power my speakers. other than that...

well, you really don't "need" anything in rack form. that's the simple truth... with plugins and such... even when recording to tape, using the pres in a mixer and tape compression are all I really would need.

It depends on what your flavour of the day is... as it pertains to what you want to paint!
 
You guys need to get your priorities in order!

11-231_01.jpg
 
cheap shit

From a broke-ass home recordist:
FMR RNC
Digi 001
Sansamp RBI

I hve other, even cheaper shit, but I could get by with just this.
 
Barebones, I would need 2u for UPS, 4u for PC, 1u for converter, 1u for headphone amp, 2u for mic pre, 2u for power amp. That's 12. In addition to that, I run a 2u rack drawer, 1u power distribution, 2u for vents, 1u for organ PSU, 3u for CD/tape player, 2u for another preamp, 1u for patchbay; 24 total.

It would be impossible for me to run on only 4u, since everything I have is rackmount. That's enough room for the PC and nothing else. That would get me 2 channels of A/D/A on the soundcard, which is inadequate for my needs. Especially with no mic pre, headphone amp, or power amp!

Strictly speaking, I could use the Soundblaster and headphones, and run one of my mics straight to the SB . . . that's only 4u :o
 
I'm actually planning to build a small, half rack width panel to hold what I need. Don't really have much actual rack gear in the plan.

It will have what I'm using now that is kinda sprawled on the floor with long cables connecting it:

Audio interface
RNC
Stepped pot for monitors
Ganged pot for headphone amp
Headphone amp
A few patch bay modules from a modular patch bay.

Nearby will be the VU meters that I hang off the main sound card output and of course the Sound Devices MixPre, a two channel, battery powered preamp/field mixer. A ways off by the drum kit is the Altec mixer/amp.

Less is more, in my world, because it's less stuff to be in the way and cause reflections when I'm listening

Cheers,

Otto
 
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