A Left Bank Update

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Sayers
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John Sayers

John Sayers

Solar Power!!
You will remember that Left Bank was completed last year. The owner was a home recordist with deep pockets. He had originally used Creamware TripleDAT but on the completion of the studio he bought a PIII 866 and a Ramsa desk. He never intended to hire the studio out and it was at the beginning of this year that he decided to hire the studio out to special friends.

The demand has been so great that he is now being told by the pro engineers that the studio is tooo good and he is wasting it by using a PC and they are demanding that he put in a full ProTools system as they do all their work in that format and it is the pro standard.

it seems they love the drum sounds created in the drum booth and the general acoustics of the rooms but most importantly their mixes come out acurate and true.

Moral of the story??

good gear can be bought - good studios are hard to find. :D:D

cheers
john
 
John,

Speaking of drum booths,......I have a thread in the mic forum on ceiling height and o/head mic selection, just begging for answers (hint, hint):)

If you get the opportunity to have a look there, any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
ChrisO :cool:
 
Hey John, this story sounds very similar except I have long pockets and little money.

With the quality of the studios your designing there is no other option than going pro tools ( I told you so )

People who have been through Guruland wan't to know what version of pro tools I'II be using.( I don't mention the fact that you don't like it ) It is the industry standard

As for quality sounding rooms they don't come any better than yours. I think thats why so many home recordings lack the quality in sound.

With all the recordings and production you have done over the years how many were hits done in bedrooms?

Mic placement,room reverbaration,room sounds etc are the main key to any successful recording then the producers,engineers managers record companies can all have a play on pro tools and impress each other - If that's what they want and their paying for it I'm going to give it to them.

All the best
Kev
 
Thought you might rise to this thread Kev. :):)

BTW - I've been playing with a version of Cubase SX that somehow got out of Steinberg and got to OZ. This will give ProFools a run for their money ;)

cheers
john
 
About Cubase SX - yah, it looks like a hot program. Many of the folks who use Nuendo are upset about just how many Nuendo features and core code has become Cubase.

One small limitation - it doesn't accept OMF import or export - this would really help ProFools compatibility... But ... Steinberg has promised that that will be coming in an update. :>)


-lee-
 
it doesn't accept OMF import or export
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it also doesn't load Nuendo created .npr files!! I saw it at a friend's who runs Cubase VST - he says SX or Essex to give it its full name sounds better.

BTW - I find the "you must have profools" is like saying you must have an SSL console....doesn't leave much room for Neve, API, Amek, etc etc.

cheers
john
 
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BTW - I find the "you must have profools" is like saying you must have an SSL console....doesn't leave much room for Neve, API, Amek, etc etc.
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Profools. I love it :)

I have a friend that insists his ProFools is better than anything on the market.

Then I remind him that to a fairly significant degree, Mutt Lang with a tascam four-track would do a better job than a chimp using protools :)

He usually grunts and gets the next round. So far I got him on that twice. Three's the charm!
 
I must say I'm having a great time mixing a whole album in Nuendo. I've played with the program many times before but mainly with small quick jobs, nothing really serious. But this week I've been mixing a 13 song country album with multi multi tracks, like 30+.

I'll never use a console with faders again!!

Things I like about this experience.

1. No Patchbay to setup and get lost in.
2. EVERYTHING is automated with instant recall.
3. Drawing volume/pan/effects sends envelopes is excellent, especially for vocals.
4. Unlimited group tracks
5. Unlimited number of effects available.
6 The L1 Maximizer and all the waves plugins:):)
7. Instant recall of any of the mixes and the ability to have various different mix setups (just save the alternatives.)
8 NO NOISE OR TAPE HISS.
9. No rewind!!!

I could keep going, perhaps you may have some likes/dislikes of your own??

BTW I'm on a PIII 866 with 512 Ram. ($1500 at your local PC computer store :D )

cheers
john
 
I bought Nuendo about 3 or 4 months ago and Ive never looked back. Its an awesome tool. It's starting to get recognised aswell now which is nice.very powerfull features, and i already had the waves plugins. they're very usefull with Nuendo.

it's mastering capabilities are very good too.

John, get a Kenton Control Freak (they're £249 here), and you can control Nuendo's faders using a set of hardware faders. cuts down a lot of mouse clicking, especially where automation is concerned.

im considering getting the Apogee Nuendo convertors for it. have you heard them or got anything to say about them?
 
I actually don't mind the clicking involved in drawing, :D I know the Tascam USB card controler will operate the faders remotely. I haven't heard of the Kenton unit but it sounds interesting.

Well they looked into getting Profools and had a representative visit. Turns out that to get what seems like a reasonable system you have to outlay $70,000 + so we are now looking at a dual processor P4 system with Raid drives and LCD screen etc and still nowhere near that kind of outlay - so Nuendo it is. We already have a Nuendo RME card and a Ramsa console. We'll be updating the console though as we need more than 16 inputs and the Ramsa only does 48K not 96K.

I've been mixing at a studio up the coast which is basically a box lined with carpet!! YuK! I've found it almost impossible to mix in but I've got all the tracks sorted out so we are now going to transfer it all to another HD and take it down to Left Bank. (easier than creating OMF files for all the tracks.)

We've hired it for two days to remix. Yesterday I played the mixes in Left Bank's control room and I could hear all the mistakes blatently so I'm sort of remastering/mixing. Is this what future mastering will mean??

But guess what :eek: - yesterday I was asked to go and look at another block of land where Amirel intends to build a new house and studio!! He likes the views :) also he wants a bigger studio.

So Left Bank will probably be up for sale - you could probably pick it up with the house and land package for around US$300K :):)

cheers
John
 
John Sayers said:
So Left Bank will probably be up for sale - you could probably pick
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Since I live in NJ, USA, how much would it cost to fly it from OZ to NJ via cargo choppers?

:)
 
Maybe we could slip it into the rear of the hold of one of those huge warships that cruise around our coast on the way back to the states :):)

cheers
john
 
John Sayers said:
So Left Bank will probably be up for sale - you could probably pick it up with the house and land package for around US$300K :):)
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Damn, maybe I should consider moving to OZ? In the San Francisco Bay Area $300K will buy me just about enough real estate to park a Porto Potty on.

barefoot
 
barefoot said:
Damn, maybe I should consider moving to OZ? In the San Francisco Bay Area $300K will buy me just about enough real estate to park a Porto Potty on.

barefoot
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Its not much better here in NYC either.

My home studio is a garage loft, and I have a 8-car driveway, however being an "estate section" I can't officially run a business out of it. Which is okay, most of my clients mail me adat tapes, I mix/master, then send back the adat tape and a CD.

I have a lead on a commercial building about 10 minutes away which I'm looking at seriously - a friend needs commercial space to move his machine shop into because his current place is busting at the seams. If we are successful in obtaining this building, we'll split it 50/50 (its under mortgage foreclosure - i.e cheap!), build a double layer cement wall between the two halves, and I'll have a 45wx65lx32h cement building to build a studio in.

My wife-to-be is pleased, as she was a good sport in allowing me my current garage loft studio, but unhappy that like an octopus, the "studio tenticles" as she calls them has reached into other parts of the house :)

I still say there is no such thing as too much gear :)
 
barefoot said:
Damn, maybe I should consider moving to OZ? In the San Francisco Bay Area $300K will buy me just about enough real estate to park a Porto Potty on.

barefoot
Click to expand...

HAHA!
 
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