Putting Together the New Home Studio

[KuruPrionz]

Sounds like good stuff is happening!!!

[Greg Mein]

Sounds like good stuff is happening!!!

 

Yes, thanks Kuru, it's great to be getting this back together on a hopefully permanent basis. I enjoy sharing my progress and appreciate the suggestions and advice that comes in here.

 

Not only do I have a backlog of original ideas/reworks I want to do but I'll also need to be working on our live gig backing tracks. It's a testament to my wife's tenacity that we had a gig in our new town within two months, way faster than I would have expected, and has lead to being put on a monthly rotation as well as scoring the NYE gig at our local watering hole.

[KuruPrionz]

I have a studio that is a work in progress also so it's interesting to follow what others are doing.

 

Currently I am "de-pack-ratting", too much stuff!!!!

At the same time, I am looking at integrating a Roland V-Drum set I found at the thrift store into my drum/percussion set up. It may become a blend of digital and analog.

I know a couple of great drummers and I'l like a dedicated set that they can use without lugging gear.

 

As is often the case, it will be an evolutionary process. Try something, then improve it or start over.

[Anderton]

The "Open Slot Wiring Raceway Duct" is also another valuable "infrastructure" addition.

 

GREAT tip!! I really need that! Glad you're getting everything together

 

As to standing - I don't really think it's possible to sing at your best while sitting down, it scrunches up your chest cavity too much.

[Greg Mein]

The "Open Slot Wiring Raceway Duct" is also another valuable "infrastructure" addition.

 

GREAT tip!! I really need that! Glad you're getting everything together

 

As to standing - I don't really think it's possible to sing at your best while sitting down, it scrunches up your chest cavity too much.

 

Yes thanks Craig, the wire duct really helps make the wiring handy and is easy to install and use.

 

Sadly I've been at a stand still in there for a while, I knew the holidays would slow me down but I had no idea how annoyingly drawn out it was all going to be!

 

For reasons I'll never understand we drove all the way back to IA for Thanksgiving which had us out for over a week and then we turned around on 12/10 to fly back there for Christmas. We got to the outskirts of Vegas before finding out our flight was rescheduled so came back home only to get up and ready again at 2am. If you haven't been to an airport lately it's like a scene from a horror movie. We spent several days in our old town partying like idiots with friends and then some Xmas stuff with family before heading to Chicago for more Xmas visiting. From there we went to Bloomington/Normal for yet more Xmas stuff. Then, because my wife's folks got sick and couldn't attend, we drove to Ames, IA to see her dad in the hospital (he has since recovered and returned home thankfully). We finally returned home on the 20th where my wife's brother and his wife had already been staying for a few days. Fortunately we got out of staying with them and others at some rental in Las Vegas for a few days but still must go down and attend the Absinthe show Friday for some unknown reason (he took us to that five years ago when we got married). Somewhere along the line my wife caught a cold and is currently trying to recover from that while meanwhile we still have the NYE gig we must do. I'm regretting buying tickets to see Bruce Kulick at Count's Vamp'd on the 30th, didn't realize at the time how socially burned out I was going to be by then.

 

Now these are all great people and I love them all but it's just not my nature to be so overwhelmingly social for lengthy periods of time and it's sad how I've come to loathe Christmas time. I want it to be over so I can get back to things I want, and need, to do although I'll be interrupted again already in January when we must fly to Florida to stay with friends and then again in February when we fly to Jamaica to hang with yet another group of people.

 

It should be fun to have such an active social/travel life but I'm not accustomed to that and it tends to get on my nerves.

[KuruPrionz]

Yeah, that's madness!!! Mostly the traveling part, I don't care for that at all.

I took a trip to Santa Cruz CA in November and I was ready to go home when I got there. Then some friends came down from Lake Tahoe, picked me up and after one great evening in Tahoe we drove back to Bellingham.

That made me appreciate airplanes, they suck but it's over pretty quickly.

 

On the studio front, see my post about the Guitar Wall, something I should have done years ago but it's done and it turned out nicely.

I've been building microphones from Microphone-Kits.com and have one more in progress. Soon I will have 3 mics with different capsules and different degrees of second order harmonic content, all very high quality.

I have mixed feelings about building them, it isn't always fun and can be frustrating but patience and persistence win out. The mics will make me smile for as long as I own them, my angst is over quickly.

 

Next up after the last mic is done - putting together an electronic drum kit. I got a Roland V-Drum kick drum that plugs into my Handsonic and did a couple of small repairs on a nice kick pedal I found at Goodwill. Add the Korg Wavedrum in, run them all into a small mixer and there is a drum kit that can be played just about any time night or day without disturbing the folks who live next to me or upstairs (multi unit condo). I have a high hat stand and a cymbal stand and plan on using them during daylight hours. Electronic drums are pretty amazing but the cymbal sounds just don't compare to real cymbals.

 

I've got a real snare drum too. I've found that playing that with my fingers allows a huge range of tones that we don't normally hear on recordings. Easy enough to swap out the Wavedrium on the snare stand.

 

And, I've got my new "more analog" signal paths figured out and hooked up but now I have to learn them, tweak them and possibly reconfigure them for best results. In the end that should reduce the number of plugins and fiddling about later.

[Greg Mein]

 

On the studio front, see my post about the Guitar Wall

 

putting together an electronic drum kit. I got a Roland V-Drum kick drum that plugs into my Handsonic and did a couple of small repairs on a nice kick pedal I found at Goodwill. Add the Korg Wavedrum in, run them all into a small mixer and there is a drum kit that can be played just about any time night or day without disturbing the folks who live next to me or upstairs (multi unit condo). I have a high hat stand and a cymbal stand and plan on using them during daylight hours. Electronic drums are pretty amazing but the cymbal sounds just don't compare to real cymbals.

 

The guitar wall is great! I only had the space for one hanger. Since I share the space with my wife the only other wall available is covered with her diplomas and degrees (she conducts geriatric psychiatry appointments in there).

 

I had a lot more space (huge basement) and a decent Alesis electronic drum kit the last time I thought I would be building my dream studio but a relationship breakup brought all that to an end. I sold the kit and there's certainly no room for that here. Our two other spare bedrooms are guest rooms and essentially off limits other than for some closet storage.

I'll make do with Superior drummer and other software as I must. At the end of the day, it's a home hobby studio and my drum playing sucks anyway.

[KuruPrionz]

 

On the studio front, see my post about the Guitar Wall

 

putting together an electronic drum kit. I got a Roland V-Drum kick drum that plugs into my Handsonic and did a couple of small repairs on a nice kick pedal I found at Goodwill. Add the Korg Wavedrum in, run them all into a small mixer and there is a drum kit that can be played just about any time night or day without disturbing the folks who live next to me or upstairs (multi unit condo). I have a high hat stand and a cymbal stand and plan on using them during daylight hours. Electronic drums are pretty amazing but the cymbal sounds just don't compare to real cymbals.

 

The guitar wall is great! I only had the space for one hanger. Since I share the space with my wife the only other wall available is covered with her diplomas and degrees (she conducts geriatric psychiatry appointments in there).

 

I had a lot more space (huge basement) and a decent Alesis electronic drum kit the last time I thought I would be building my dream studio but a relationship breakup brought all that to an end. I sold the kit and there's certainly no room for that here. Our two other spare bedrooms are guest rooms and essentially off limits other than for some closet storage.

I'll make do with Superior drummer and other software as I must. At the end of the day, it's a home hobby studio and my drum playing sucks anyway.

 

Thanks Greg, creating a small space is challenging and rewarding. Not so much stuff to distract you. You should be able to play Superior Drummer on a keyboard using MIDI. I've done something similar here many times, if you have a groove you want and can't find a loop that works sometimes that's the quickest way to get there. Typically I will play the thing for a couple of minutes and choose the best 2 or 3 times through, then make a loop of that. I haven't learned much about editing MIDI so I mostly edit audio tracks. I have that pretty well down. A little hand percussion won't hurt anything, doesn't take up much space or cost much. I have a set of Remo bongos that sound great for what cheap pieces of crap they are. I like bells, chimes, any ringing metal stuff. Thrift stores have all sorts of interesting things you can use on the cheap. A small drawer or box with miscellaneous sound makers can really enhance things.

 

Don't ask me about water bottle kick drums!!!!! Plastic bottles in general are worth a listen, if you put a mic near the mouth sometimes there are amazing tones in there (put the bottle up to your ear, tap and listen). Those are super cheap too and you won't feel bad using one for something and then re-donating it to Starvation Army. You probably have some interesting percussion in your own kitchen, right now.

[Greg Mein]

Thanks Greg, creating a small space is challenging and rewarding. Not so much stuff to distract you. You should be able to play Superior Drummer on a keyboard using MIDI. I've done something similar here many times, if you have a groove you want and can't find a loop that works sometimes that's the quickest way to get there. Typically I will play the thing for a couple of minutes and choose the best 2 or 3 times through, then make a loop of that. I haven't learned much about editing MIDI so I mostly edit audio tracks.

 

A very valid and useful technique indeed but with midi it's important to keep an eye on the velocity data. A lot of programs provide an option for some randomization to help reduce overall redundancy.

 

A little hand percussion won't hurt anything, doesn't take up much space or cost much. I have a set of Remo bongos that sound great for what cheap pieces of crap they are. I like bells, chimes, any ringing metal stuff. Thrift stores have all sorts of interesting things you can use on the cheap. A small drawer or box with miscellaneous sound makers can really enhance things.

 

Don't ask me about water bottle kick drums!!!!! Plastic bottles in general are worth a listen, if you put a mic near the mouth sometimes there are amazing tones in there (put the bottle up to your ear, tap and listen). Those are super cheap too and you won't feel bad using one for something and then re-donating it to Starvation Army. You probably have some interesting percussion in your own kitchen, right now.

 

Being open minded and experimental is where the fun is, great ideas!