My Humble Submittal

[blackscot]

Have played various guitars since I was a kid (whole 'nother story there). First started the home-recording thing with nothing more than a Tascam 4-track cassette "porta-stuido". Have since been reading and learning, saving and spending, etc. and gradually adding/upgrading over the past several years. Now have the following:

Dell 8300 series, 2.8GHz, 1024MB, dual hard drives (40GB and 80GB)
Digidesign Protools LE via MBox
Roland JV1010 hard synth
MAudio Keystation 49e MIDI keyboard controller
KRK Rokit 5 speaker monitors

Room is treated with 4-inch, 4x8-ft rigid-fiberglass bass traps in corners and 2-inch 2x4-ft broadband absorbers along primary wall.

Enjoy producing mostly MIDI-based re-makes of 70's rock classics, to serve as back-ups for my attempts at favorite lead-guitar parts. Projects so-far include tunes by Pink Floyd, Santana, Gordon Lightfoot, Jethro Tull, and Steely Dan.

Any suggestions for further upgrades, layout/configuration - or anything else for that matter - warmly welcomed. Thanks!


(CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL-SIZE)

[gummblefish]

Originally Posted by blackscot

Have played various guitars since I was a kid (whole 'nother story there). First started the home-recording thing with nothing more than a Tascam 4-track cassette "porta-stuido". Have since been reading and learning, saving and spending, etc. and gradually adding/upgrading over the past several years. Now have the following:

Dell 8300 series, 2.8GHz, 1024MB, dual hard drives (40GB and 80GB)
Digidesign Protools LE via MBox
Roland JV1010 hard synth
MAudio Keystation 49e MIDI keyboard controller
KRK Rokit 5 speaker monitors

Room is treated with 4-inch, 4x8-ft rigid-fiberglass bass traps in corners and 2-inch 2x4-ft broadband absorbers along primary wall.

Enjoy producing mostly MIDI-based re-makes of 70's rock classics, to serve as back-ups for my attempts at favorite lead-guitar parts. Projects so-far include tunes by Pink Floyd, Santana, Gordon Lightfoot, Jethro Tull, and Steely Dan.

Any suggestions for further upgrades, layout/configuration - or anything else for that matter - warmly welcomed. Thanks!


(CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL-SIZE)

How does The room sound? Maybe you could add an Absorber around the computer tower.

[blackscot]

Originally Posted by gummblefish

How does The room sound? Maybe you could add an Absorber around the computer tower.

Adding the bass traps made a profound difference to the room. The broadband absorbers got added once I read about how to get the speaker monitors properly positioned. Less difference from the broadbands in the overall room sound, but a lot in the near-field (I think I was getting early wall reflections from behind the speaker cabinets).

Biggest remaining problem is from the ceiling air vent, which during our hot central-VA summers blows nearly constantly. No real way to address that without shutting down the AC (which would be against my religeous beliefs - lol). The little purr from the CPU is minor compared to that, but wouldn't hurt to muffle with a panel or something.

[gummblefish]

Originally Posted by blackscot

Adding the bass traps made a profound difference to the room. The broadband absorbers got added once I read about how to get the speaker monitors properly positioned. Less difference from the broadbands in the overall room sound, but a lot in the near-field (I think I was getting early wall reflections from behind the speaker cabinets).

Biggest remaining problem is from the ceiling air vent, which during our hot central-VA summers blows nearly constantly. No real way to address that without shutting down the AC (which would be against my religeous beliefs - lol). The little purr from the CPU is minor compared to that, but wouldn't hurt to muffle with a panel or something.

How high off the ground is the vent? Is it in the ceiling or wall? I worked in a studio once that had a Fan Vent in the wall, We just put Huge gobos up around it and everything else. If you are working with microphones it would be a must.

[blackscot]

The vent's in the ceiling.

Biggest problem with the blowing is it interfering with mixing, which I spend a huge amount of time on. Most recording is MIDI, and most audio is lead guitar patched from my combo amp, so no problem with the vent for that. Sometimes I include short segments with acoustic guitar where I need to mike, but these are seldom enough that I've actually just shut off the AC to quite things down for a little while. Don't do any vocals, so no issue there.

Just wish it wasn't up there competing with my nice new speakers. Will probably just have to shut it off and sweat (literally) through making final mixes.