Rethinking da Studio

[analag]

Just like a song the studio (well to me it does) gets played out and dull, boring whatever. So when one of my machines a dual processor dinosaur started acting up from old age. I decided to streamline and retreat further into da box, thus taking less legacy items with me. I have analog stuff I haven't fired up in years which is an indicator to where I need to take things. Instead of creating long recording processes in the futile search for greater than God creatable sound quality, when musical high is only momentary for I'm already thinking of the next song.

 

[radiance]

I hear you...
However, I think a clever hybrid set up is the way, and does not compromise recording/ writing speed.
OTOH, it all depends on what analog stuff you're actually talking about.
I can imagine a tape recording taking some time to set up, but an analog synth still wins in terms of speed compared to a plug in...that is, if you know how to jam your way through a song thus avoiding automation.

 

[abechap024]

yea digital is sounding better and better, analog gear seems to me more about inspiring myself or the artists than anything else. There is something undeniably cool knowing that these little electrons that were captured by the microphone are being physically manipulated in space. But sound wise its always a toss up between digital and analog.

 

[tmuikku]

Hey, convenience always wins ( think Apple products ) unless you know better and need something else.
Either way, its nice if you dont need it, just sell it. Like always when moving your house you should throw out (garbage/fleemarket) the stuff from you closet. The good stuff you actually need and use is on you bedroomfloor anyways

 

[sodderboy]

Be careful of looking for "greater than God".  I don't even go for "greater than Moses" just to keep my ego in check. 

Studio today is as individual as the person/people flying it.  It can be locked 24 tracks, sploffed DAWs, or direct to 2trk.  Quality outboard and monitor systems are the necessary glue for me.

Mike
PS: on the subject of monitor systems, I heard a PMC mains system yesterday and it is like an intriguing mystery.  You can hear Kate Bush's tonsils and Sinatra's stomaco.  Hope to get some time on them again. . . 

 

[okgb]

If you want the flow that a large pipe can give you , there maybe times when it is only half full
configure for your current working method , try it on for size , store stuff if you have room ,
you neither want to limit yourself or waste time with too many options , but as the maxim goes
sometimes a change is as good as a rest [ the rest  ] good luck and keep it enjoyable & light

 

[alexc]

For sure I recently found  that reconfiguring my music room has given me a new lease on recording.

I felt that my big desk was keeping me from doing stuff - I only would fire it all up for *serious* stuff, which ended up being not too often.

So I packed up the desk and off to the shed, went ITB for a while.

Well, I found I started to do stuff much more, even though it was less conveniently hands on, being more 'virtual'.

So then I put a diy sum bus in for monitoring my diy instrument channels and fab! Even more time spent music-ing.

Now I'm doing more actual music stuff than ever and am working on a daw sum bus to finish the process.

Strange case where my console seemed to be holding me back, with all those knobs and faders and power consumption 

 

[analag]

Looking at putting together an AMD X6 with at least 16Gig of ram possibly 32. Two 750Gig hard drives should hold me over nicely. I made a summing box some years ago that I took a very audio retentive approach in the design and build...time to bust it out. Mix buss insert is important to me so that stays along with my many custom units for tracking. Automation in the box is better.
A very low fat muscular project studio is what's up.

 

[riggler]

I agree. I built a nice PT template for my setup so that I am instantly good to go with drum bus and mix bus insert points and a bunch of hardware inserts for other processing if needed. Decided that for what I do, I now compress as I track. Just using less plugs and getting better sounds going in, took a while to make that philosophy really stick. The only thing for me is getting the IO delay set right in Pro Tools to keep everything lined up. Now I can work on stuff so much faster, and focus on the music.