Pics of my imitation studio

[DDev]

I promised updated photos of my studio (affectionately named Bobby Llama Studio) to Longsoughtfor a while back, so here they is.

First photo is as you look in the door at the mixing spot (acutally, the whole room is the mixing spot since it is so small!!). The console is a Mackie 32x8 sitting on a custom built table. The monitors are Event 20/20's. Behind the desk is a corner acoustical kludge which has Auralex wedgies attached to pegboard (the diffusors are really only for looks; I don't think they really add anything to my acoustic treatment but I had them and thought I'd do something ridiculous). Behind the front panel is a hidden sealed corner bass trap which is based on Ethan Winer's membrane trap design.



Darryl.....

[DDev]

This second pic is of my main recorder, a Mackie MDR 24/96. I have it in a rack bag to carry around for the remote recording I do mostly. The name for my studio came from a couple of phrases my teenage daughter used to throw around. One of her friends decided to give her a "real" llama pillow cover (made from real llama fur) so I snatched it for my mascot.

[DDev]

The other side of the mixer houses the PC and a small rack with more gear.

[DDev]

And a closeup of the small rack. On top is the firewire dock I use to download the removable hard drives from the MDR into the PC for whatever (editing, soon to be some DAW mixing possibly), and an el-cheapo Fostex DE-1 effects processor.

In the rack are a patchbay, TC Electronics M300 effects processor (love the reverbs!), and ART TPS preamp, and a Proteus FS synth module (which I need to learn how to use).

A lot of people rag on the sound quality of the ART preamps, but for the money I have been very pleased with the flavors I get on vocals (with my AT3035 mic) and acoustic guitar.

[DDev]

Next is my larger rack which is beneath the MDR. Right now it is mostly storage space. The CD recorder only gets used for CD playback now that I have a PC installed. The patchbays are used only for the CD and cassatte inputs and to patch in the compressor. The cassette deck only gets used for tape to CD transfers. The compressor is an old Yamaha unit that came out of a local radio station and it has some intermittent noise problems, so my use of it is hit and miss. And lastly is the power supply for the mixer.

[DDev]

Now for the picture I think Longsoughtfor wanted. My main rack is installed on a couple of medium duty slide rails. This allows the rack to be pulled out for access to the wiring. Sure makes the wiring a lot easier.

[DDev]

Now for some behind the scenes details. The desk for the console is constructed from cheap materials. I found these brackets at Home Depot along with a booklet which showed all kinds of tables and shelves you could make from them. They are designed for use with 2x4's but I went for smaller/cheaper with 2x2's for the legs and 2x3's for the cross pieces.

The top is a piece of 3/4" plywood. The legs by themselves seemed kind of flimsy, but once the top was attached it was rock solid.

[DDev]

And the final detail shows how the desk surface is recessed below the surfaces of the surrounding cabinets. I trimmed in between with some 1x4 and it came out halfway decent.

Note the conglomeration of power strips. I had installed 2 outlets during construction of the room. Then, while building the bass trap I wound up covering one of the outlets up so I wound up with only one useable outlet for the whole studio. Bad planning!!

Also, not shown is my power amp for the monitors. It is an old Dynaco 120 amp which, I believe, were kit-built amps back in the 70's (kind of like the Heathkit stuff). It works great and was free!!

[Michael Jones]

That looks pretty cool!
But, ummm.... your mouse pad is wet!





Oh yeah, and, the first 2 photos look like they've been.... squashed in, sideways?

[DDev]

Wet mousepad....good catch. I must have been wiping the sweat off my brow in anticipation of any flaming I might get for posting!!

As far as the first couple of pics being squashed, I guess I don't see it. I had rotated the camera to get a taller picture, so maybe that's it?

Darryl.....

[Michael Jones]

It just looks like the 20'20's are too... short?

[Leeking]

nice funtional studio...

How do you do your vocals in the room? any issues with room sound and noise?

[casenpoint]

You have woodworking skills that would have Bob Vila jealous.

It looks nice!

Ever think of puting the diffusers on the ceiling?

Unless, maybe you didn't have three more foam pieces.

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Looks great Darryl. Wish mine were that far along. I'd be recording instead of wishing I was Dynaco amp huh? Cool. I use an old harmon kardon stereo tube amp for guitar. I run a stereo processor to it, and the kardon drives 2 Jensen auto "wedges" with 6x9 speakers. Ha! Sounds great for guitar. I have guitar amps, but this set up is tied into the console for quickie stuff and reamping. Anyway, how do you like the MDR 24/96 Darryl? I've thought about getting a dedicated digital recorder, but I still don't know. Haven't even got my dual MXR analog gear setup yet. Ha! Theres another month just to plug all the cables in , Remember the days of just a cassette and a couple of mics......hahahahah! Just plug and play! Man that was fun. Now its decisions, decisions, decisions. And with digital......its ENDLESS In fact, with all the options of digital, its a wonder anything gets fininshed! Anyway, nice setup there Darryl, and thanks for the pics. Oh, keep up the woodwork!(as if we have time for recording, let alone woodwork huh? )

fitZ

PS, I REALLY like the pullout bay. I'm gonna steal that idea. Ha!

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

HEY Leeking, did you get your floor fixed That was you who needed a floor shimmed wasn't it? Man, I just realized your in Malaysia. Where the heck did I get the idea you were in San Francisco? Old fart syndrome I guess, ha!

fitZ

[jake-owa]

Looks damn nice even if it is a bit cozy.

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hey Jake-Owa, are you in Portland yet? I thought that was where you were moving? If so, hows the weather? Not quite the same as where you came from is it? Ha!
fitZ

[DDev]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Since there were a few questions I'll try to answer them (and add a few more photos to highlight things asked about).

First off, for Michael, here is a normal camera shot of the console. I think the sideways shots just may be doing something to squeeze the photo a bit (new camera, just learning how to use it).

Darryl.....

[DDev]

Now for Leeking. I don't record vocals in this room. It was designed and built to be just for mixing, and with 3 devices which have fans running (PC, MDR, and mixer power supply) it can get kind of noisy in there. Someday I'll address that but I've learned to work around it.

I did my first vocal recording gig at the house in December, and the solution I came up with was to hang a blanket as a curtain across a small area to provide a tiny bit of isolation from the rest of the house. It sounds pretty good as long as everything in the house is quiet (ie. no dog barking, nobody walking around upstairs, no dishwasher running, the furnace turned off, etc.). I've tried to convince my wife I need to build a permanent vocal booth, but she is not too keen on the idea (yet!!). One of these days it'll happen.

Anyway, the next few shots show my vocal area from different perspectives. The total floorspace is 5x8 ft, but there are bookshelves that take up a foot on each wall, so the vocalist only really has 4x6 ft to stand in behind the curtain.

Darryl.....

[DDev]

Inside the "booth". I also recorded acoustic guitar in here for this project and it sounded great.

[DDev]

And now, outside the 'booth" with the curtain partially closed. This project was my initiation with a condenser vocal mic (AT3035) and we learned a lot. These mics can really pick up everything amazingly well. I know I have a lot to learn yet, but the quality of the recordings I just completed let me know that all the stuff I've been learning here has been worth it.

[DDev]

Now for the rest of the questions.

Fitz - I love the MDR. It has been rock solid and the only problem I've ever had with it was while recording a lengthy worship service at church and the hard drive filled up and caused the unit to lock up. One of those lessons learned (make sure you have plenty of available disk space for the project at hand). When I purchased the MDR I was really looking at either the Alesis HD24 or the Fostex D2424LV, but I happened to walk into a Guitar Center while on a business trip and they had this MDR which was their demo unit tagged for $900, so I couldn't pass it up. One thing I really like is the removable hard drive. I can just pop out the drive, put it into my firewire caddy, and voila, I have another hard drive on my PC, ready to use.

As you can see, I'm the king of cheap, DIY stuff. The furniture for the studio was mostly resurrected computer desks, fitted out to mate with the console desk. The pop filter for my mic was an experiment just to see how cheap I could make one (I think it cost me a total of just under $4, most of which was a pair of black pantyhose). Someday, as money permits, I'll try to go back and get real solutions for some of these things so it won't look quite so low budget, but it all works and that is the key.

Casenpoint - I don't think Bob Vila would be jealous if he looked closely, but I do make it functional. Woodworking is one of my other hobbies, but right now all I use those skills for are stuff for the studio. My wife has filled up my shop space with junk so to do any serious work would require a week just to un-bury my shop.

Jake-owa - Cozy is right!! The overall box that contains my mixing room is 8x8 ft. Cut off one corner at 5 ft to install the door on a slant (and make it a non-square room), add a corner bass trap the extends 2 ft down each wall, stuff it with gear, shelves, and a bookcase, and there is just enough room to close the door and sit down. I have fine tuned the acoustical treatment over the last several months with the application of some rigid fiberglass panels in certain spots (covered by the burlap for which I learned that I don't have a clue how to install fabric!). I also have 3 fibergalss panels I have leaned against the walls in the vocal area to break up acoustical affects of the drywall. In the process I've learned a ton about mixing and am getting fairly confident that I can make a translatable mix here.

Well, thats enough of my diatribe.

Cheers,
Darryl.....

[jake-owa]

Originally posted by RICK FITZPATRICK
Hey Jake-Owa, are you in Portland yet? I thought that was where you were moving? If so, hows the weather? Not quite the same as where you came from is it? Ha!
fitZ

Yeah, I arrived in one peice. It's just a tad colder here than the tropical climate I am accustomed to...hehe.

[MikeA]

Very Nice D. That's no imitation, that's the real thing!

[formerlyfzfile]

If you are going to put the monitors on their sides, aren't you generally better off putting the tweaters to the outside??

Nice setup, though.
Real nice on the custom des and rack work.

-mike