What have I done... this is getting out of hand!

[lo.fi.love]

I thought I'd share this with the Analog Only forum, since a few of you may have been keeping tabs on my situation.

I am running out of space in my bedroom! And, with my recent acquisition of a Tascam 48-OB from sweetbeats and a SKB shockmount case to house it in, it's become blindingly apparent to me that I'll need to either do some SERIOUS reorganizing in my bedroom or move back into a live/work warehouse space (which I'm dreading).

The roster is:
2x Tascam 34b
Otari MX5050 MKIII-2
Tascam 48-OB
Akai something-or-other
Tascam 122MKIII cassette deck
Outboard gear (preamps, compressors, EQ, 6x dbx 150x NR, 2x Tascam DX-4D NR)
Tascam M-30 mixer
Yamaha HSM50 monitors
Other assorted odds and ends

I'm not sure if this is a good situation, a bad situation, or just a funny situation. I've included some pictures. I'm cleaning/organizing my room right now so it looks like even more of a mess than it usually does.

And, anyone here is welcome to give tips on how to organize all of this stuff. Most of the outboard gear (2x ART MPA Gold pres, 2x dbx 166xl, 1x Tascam dx-4d) is going into a road rack, since I'll be using it to record live shows. That will take some of my stuff off of my desk. I've still got a couple of Teac PB-64 patchbays to set up, and that will streamline everything a little.

Electrical power is also a concern. I've got this all plugged in to one jack, because I have only one pair of grounded outlets in my room (old flat). I turn on only what I'm using, so I don't think I'm going to overload the circuit, but for doing more complex projects (mixing), I might need more than what the circuit can bear (say, for example, I'm running the 48-OB and the MX-5050 at the same time, with the Akai providing tape effects).

OK, enough! Here are the pictures.

[A Reel Person]

afflicted!!!................

I'd see a doctor immediately!

[pianodano]

You have plenty of room. Just go vertical.

[lo.fi.love]

Originally Posted by pianodano

You have plenty of room. Just go vertical.

I've thought about that, but there's very little which can go on a shelf. Most of this stuff is pretty heavy, and needs to be on a desk.

I'll figure something out.

[jedblue]

We came to an arrangement with a great small ProTools indie studio in the next suburb and put in our key analog stuff in there. We do all our recording and weekly rehearsal there so he gets the revenue from that and he's now got 12 channels of Studer 089 pre's, some NS10's, a bunch of esoteric old mics and a Revox PR99 two track for use that he didn't have. With his own good collection of analog gear, there are now lots of options in there.

Already we've got some live to two track analog stuff with other bands by word of mouth and it all works really well. And I get to be the gofer on those sessions and run the tape machines. That's a lot of fun.

We've got a session booked like that for next weekend with a blues rock band going live to two track analog and another two track solo artist session the following week. We'll be back in ourselves in the next couple of weeks for another two day session as well.

This is what the first invasion looked like at our last live to two track session, but now the Studer desk & the Revox reel machine have gone into their own space to the right by the outboard rack, the NS10's have replaced the Bose's high up and we've tapped it all into his monitoring path. And the Studer's direct outs can be patched into his Digi rig so he can use their old school pre's if he wants.

We've taken another snake into the recording room so there are sixteen channels coming in via the Tascam M3500 and ten coming in to the Studer.

The other two Studer channels carry the spring reverb and tape echo back.

We find now that we don't need the dynamics in the outboard rack case on the left at tracking time, we just let the tape saturate and naturally compress and work on mic technique for the vocals.

We're currently humming and harring about a 1" eight track and that'd go in too if there's room and he doesn't object. That to me'd create the perfect indie rig - seven channels of sync'd 1/8" track width analog and all the Protools capability with a choice of Tascam, Soundcraft or Studer pre's - twenty five channels at once if you had too.

It's got a lot of advantages for us - two rooms, a main room big enough to hold a five piece rock band, seperate control room, a great and sympathetic engineer/studio owner and the ability to make a big noise without pissing off the neighbours.

.

I do all the analog mastering at home with my attic studio rig at quite low volumes.

It's been win win.

Jed

[A Reel Person]

..................

[ausrock]

I like the couple of '60's Matons hangin' there.....a Flamingo on the left and a Fyrebird on the right