Latest pics of my personal studio

[James Steele]

Well... I just wanted to share this. If anybody followed the saga from another thread, I bought a used Argosy desk out of craigslist for a great price and brought it home and it messed up the sound of my room. So I ended up buying some acoustic panels for www.gikacoustics.com and used some spare Auralex studio foam I had and it's much better. It sounds much better. I also de-cluttered my room and moved my office into a dining area of the home I don't use and I'm digging it so far. Only funny issue for me is with the room sounding better and more flat and less live, I'm tempted to turn up the volume more.

Here are the pics:

[Phil O]

Lookin' good James!!

Phil

[chrispick]

That looks great, man! That Argosy desk rocks!

Nice floors too!

Is that your dust eliminator serving as third monitor stand?

Do you do any tracking at home? Any vocal set-up?

[James Steele]

That looks great, man! That Argosy desk rocks!

Nice floors too!

Is that your dust eliminator serving as third monitor stand?

Do you do any tracking at home? Any vocal set-up?

Thanks, man. Yep... the third monitor stand is the Health Pro from IQAir. Flip side is that although it does amazingly well for fine dust and allergens, *heav* particles, due to their weight may not always get trapped.

I'm tracking all my guitars and vocals at my house. There's a snake that runs out a window to the former-garage where I track my guitars.

Guitar chain:
Dean V > Sennheiser Wirleless > '79 100-watt Marshall MKII Master Lead > Marshall 4x12 cab (Vintage 30s) > Groove Tubes GT-66 mic > Millennia HV-3C pream > HD192

For vocals I go out into the other room and run DP remotely with VnC. Vocal chain is a Red Type B micorphone > HV-3C > HD192

I have to say, the Red Type B blows me away. I borrowed one from my buddy Jim Watson, cut one pass with it, came back in and listened, and was on the net ordering it IMMEDIATELY. It blew the doors off my Audio Uprgrades modded 414. I need almost NO EQ with this mic... it's phenomenal. One of those mics that's just so great you *almost* don't want to tell anyone about it.

You can find out more about it here:

http://www.vintagemicrophone.com/JShop/ ... p?xProd=37

[Kind Of Loud]

Looks great James...!!! Nice job..!!!
But.....
Where's the fridge full of beer...???

[James Steele]

Looks great James...!!! Nice job..!!!
But.....
Where's the fridge full of beer...???

LOL... the fridge full of beers is located back "in my twenties"... so it's more of time period than a physical location. Nowadays, if I *LOOK* at a beer I gain 5 pounds... so beer and I have had to sadly ease back on what used to be a loving relationship.

[Kind Of Loud]

Looks great James...!!! Nice job..!!!
But.....
Where's the fridge full of beer...???

LOL... the fridge full of beers is located back "in my twenties"... so it's more of time period than a physical location. Nowadays, if I *LOOK* at a beer I gain 5 pounds... so beer and I have had to sadly ease back on what used to be a loving relationship.

Gotcha James....
That room is to nice to be used for knocking off beers, anyways.
Enjoy...!!!
And thanks for sharing those pictures..!!

[toofar]

Awesome space, James! Made me want to get back to my own (homely) space and get to work.

Have you tried this? Next time you're doing some critical listening, try an A/B test with and without some damping and/or refractive material on the upper horizontal levels left and right on your desk, just in front of the monitors. It's amazing how that particular spot affects what the mix sounds like. While it may be better or not, I'm betting you'll hear some difference.

Bill

[Tonio]

Looks killer James!!, Good hookup with Glen.
Man that Argosy desk is sweet.

T

[James Steele]

Have you tried this? Next time you're doing some critical listening, try an A/B test with and without some damping and/or refractive material on the upper horizontal levels left and right on your desk, just in front of the monitors. It's amazing how that particular spot affects what the mix sounds like. While it may be better or not, I'm betting you'll hear some difference.

Thanks for the suggestion, Bill. Yeah, that concerned the heck out of me too... those horizontal surfaces that you just KNOW are catching reflections. I still need to experiment and I've been trying to work within various things I've seen suggested here. For example I have been told:

1) Do not have the center of the woofers within 8" of the center point between the floor and ceiling.

2) Have the tweeters at ear level.

3) Have your listening position at 38% distance from the front wall.

4) Keep speakers from being too close to front wall.

When all was said and done, unfortunately, I'm sitting about dead center of the room... perhaps just a little forward of it. I've thought about raising the speakers, but then suggestion #1 above is violated. However seems like making them higher and then angling them slightly downward with Auralex MoPad *might* minimize reflections off that horizontal surface.

In each corner I've stacked 2' x 4' x 4" acoustic panels from gikacoustics.com, then suspended two of the same for clouds overhead. Also in the back corner over my left shoulder I've also did the same bass trap thing with the stacked panels. Over might right shoulder there are two adjoining doorways in that corner, so nothing much I could do there, although I suppose I could put two panels on a rolling stand and move them in and out of place when mixing... dunno.

Either way it sounds much better.

[James Steele]

Looks killer James!!, Good hookup with Glen.

Thanks man! Yeah, my friend Jim Watson turned me on to Glen and www.gikacoustics.com. He researched it and said you just can't beat the deal. I ordered 8 panels... cost me about $700 with the shipping, but it made a huge difference and the construction and quality were great. My only minor quibble is that the stock colors they come in are very limited and not very appealing (i.e. bright red, bright blue, bright green). I ended up going with black, but would've loved a burgundy perhaps. Still can't complain!

Man that Argosy desk is sweet.

I lucked out. It's over $1700 brand new. I scored it for $800 out of the local craigslist. Bought it from a guy who was a sound designer for video games who had moved to the bay area and his wife was holding down the fort down here and selling off the last of the stuff they didn't want to move. It was still a stretch for me to spend the dough, but I knew if I didn't score a *used* one this was the sort of thing I would NEVER purchase for myself at $1700+!! Also, I will tell you it is a major pain hooking stuff up and my arm is sore from reaching behind the rack and feeling around to push connectors into my patchbay, etc. Once it's hooked up, it's sweet, but if you have any deep items of rack gear, making the connections is a hassle and you don't want to have to do it again any time soon!

[monkey man]

I love the way it looks now, James.

It appears that all your vertical rack space to the left is gone and you now have only 45 degrees to deal with.
Looks functional, neat (I'm a neat freak, but have never been able to get my studio to comply), ergonomic, inviting and warm.

Hmm... when am I moving in, bud? Looks like there'd be enough room for me under the desk if the Mac can be run upright...

[James Steele]

LOL... the Mac can't fit upright unfortunately... besides... there's a "no poo flinging zone" enforced in the studio... LOL.

As an aside, I'm stunned by the lack of understanding many have as to the difference between a monkey versus an *ape*. The local paper recently ran some story and there was a photo of a chimpanzee and the headline writer used the term "monkey" when a chimp is clearly an "ape."

Another interesting aside, chimpanzees, for all their "cute" qualities have been observed in the wild hunting, killing and eating monkeys. Some chimps herd them through the trees toward other chimps waiting to grab them. I saw a fascinating film about this behavior once. Chimps are omnivores like humans and do in fact eat meat... sometimes in the form of small monkeys!

[monkey man]

LOL... the Mac can't fit upright unfortunately... besides... there's a "no poo flinging zone" enforced in the studio... LOL.

I suspected as much on both counts. Doh!
Besides, it looks so clean in there I should've realised.

As an aside, I'm stunned by the lack of understanding many have as to the difference between a monkey versus an *ape*. The local paper recently ran some story and there was a photo of a chimpanzee and the headline writer used the term "monkey" when a chimp is clearly an "ape."

Yeah, humans are always making monkeys out of chimps.
Next they'll be making chimps out of monkeys.

Damn those chimps; they're the buffoons of our family, and somehow the mud always seems to stick... to we monkeys. Dang

Another interesting aside, chimpanzees, for all their "cute" qualities have been observed in the wild hunting, killing and eating monkeys. Some chimps herd them through the trees toward other chimps waiting to grab them. I saw a fascinating film about this behavior once. Chimps are omnivores like humans and do in fact eat meat... sometimes in the form of small monkeys!

Gulp.

[gearboy]

I have to say, the Red Type B blows me away. I borrowed one from my buddy Jim Watson, cut one pass with it, came back in and listened, and was on the net ordering it IMMEDIATELY. It blew the doors off my Audio Uprgrades modded 414. I need almost NO EQ with this mic... it's phenomenal. One of those mics that's just so great you *almost* don't want to tell anyone about it.

You can find out more about it here:

http://www.vintagemicrophone.com/JShop/ ... p?xProd=37

Which capsule did you use? These mics are all the rage with the TapeOp crowd. I'm hoping to pick one up late summer.

Jeff