Rimskidog

Still more... here's one along the wall:



One of the aircon duct and emerging snakes:



And a top view of the aircon duct so far:

[quote name='99ster' post='496491' date='May 24 2009, 09:56 AM']Thanks for the great posting - looking forward to watching this as it progresses...

And could you please PM with contact details for Max Hodges as I'm looking to build my own studio at home later in the year? Thanks![/quote]

Thanks man. Best place to get him is to PM him on SOS forums. I'd have to speak to him before giving out his personal details (and he's like bloody Willo the Wisp!) I know he is very busy at the moment so make sure you book early. (though as you know he is also in Oxford so he may squeeze in a 'homer'!)

[quote name='51m0n' post='496361' date='May 23 2009, 10:10 PM']Nice job!

Is it all your own design??[/quote]

I wish (as that would have saved me a fortune! ) Max Hodges is the designer and project manager.

This will give you some idea of the airgap between the outer and inner shell. This, and the enormous mass off the inner walls, is designed to make sure that absolutely no external noise can make it onto a recording.

In essence the airgap is a minimum of 200mm at its narrowest point.Here's the view down the airgap when you walk into the main room from the kitchen and look right:



Here's one from the aircon chimney:



*If you look carefully you can see the snakes running into the makeshift control room

And here's one from the storeroom off the new control room:

Good to have you onboard!

Walls start to appear. Here's a view from where the new control room will be:



And one from the aircon chimney position:

And then, after a pain in the butt week, the first load of concrete blocks and a couple of tons of sand and cement arrived:

Then, long overdue but the concrete arrived. Here's how it went:

1. We hoped the mixer would be abe to back all the way in (it just made it) but with a chute just short of 3 metres that would be a lot of work to shift 14 cubic metres of concrete so a chute of about another 2.5 metres was devised so we would at least get it dumped in the middle of the room:



2. From there on in it went pretty smoothly:



3. But sh*t there was a lot of it:



[this was the point I went to lunch and left the builders to it]

4. And this was how it looked when I got back...nice finish though:

Here, tloats are down, DPC in place and metalwork almost completed (a week over schedule already and no concrete yet):

Then, the formwork for floating floor in the main liveroom goes in:







(no prizes for spotting the 'deliberate' mistake)

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='494813' date='May 22 2009, 12:37 AM']Been following this on the otherside.

Go on, get the rest up.[/quote]

Go on then... you persuaded me...

First, the ripping out process begins:



And then ends:

Thought you guys might be interested in seeing my studio refurb in progress:

Here's the original layout of the studio:



Here's where it's headed:


But here's a couple of 'before' pictures:



This is a view from the back door (if you look on the concept drawing below this is facing from the store in the top corner of the control room).

And here's one with my son in it to give you a sense of scale (he's about 40 feet from me):



This next one isn't very clear but is one from the current control room (which will become the lounge) looking through live room 1 to the big room at the back (you can see the drum booth through the window to the left:

[quote name='tonyf' post='401531' date='Feb 5 2009, 09:36 PM']Howdy all!

My covers band is looking to record three to five songs over the next couple of months. We're reaching the stage where we're looking to poach more gigs (other than the usual handful of venues we usually do by word of mouth) and consequently need something convincingly punchy and "live" to drop onto a CD/DVD and also paste onto our website.

We're a four piece playing rock covers. Guitar/Vox, Guitar, Drums and me doing the Bassin! Having played the tunes extensively over the past four to five years, we're wanting something that sounds "live" and spontaneous (reflecting what we are as a live band) but also is quality recorded and consequently tonally rich and full on.

Any ideas of suitable (and cost effective) recording studios? We're Birmingham, Solihull and Rugeley based so areas in the region thereof?

Cheers me dears!
Tony[/quote]

Feel free to ping me a pm.

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='390675' date='Jan 24 2009, 09:30 PM']Not on a G5 but am on a Mac Pro with PTLE 8 and Leopard.

Fire away.

G[/quote]

Hiya Garry... fancy seeing you here ;-)

[quote name='sshorepunk' post='389133' date='Jan 22 2009, 11:18 PM']So I just ordered me a leopard, LE 8 next, any G5 users on here who can help me with a few questions, cos all this mac stuff is still a bit foreign!

T[/quote]

Likewise, am on a macpro with PTHD 7.4 but have been using PT since 5 on a G3. I also do a bit of consulting/teaching to keep a crust in my children's mouth. ;-)

[quote name='The Funk' post='384227' date='Jan 18 2009, 06:37 PM']I remember seeing plug-ins several years ago which would attempt to clone the characteristics of a reference piece and apply to your recording. Not sure if I overestimated the plug-in I saw in use. Can't remember the name of it either![/quote]

And there's the problem with audio recording today. Since TC introduced the finalizer everyone thinks it's just a matter of adding a plugin and pressing a button. You don't have to know what the mix sounds like and you can apply presets to everything...

[quote name='Andyalfa' post='370196' date='Jan 4 2009, 06:34 PM']I just did a search for Leicester in this forum, but it found no results.

I can't believe there aren't any decent studios in the area, so I thought I'd ask if you guys know of any that you could recommend? We're a 5 piece covers band looking to do a good quality 4 track demo for a planned move into functions/weddings, so it has to be look/sound professional.

Although we'd prefer Leicester, I think we'd be OK with travelling a reasonable distance for the right place. Nottingham, Derby, Coventry, Northampton etc.[/quote]

Not Leics but Birmingham: www.circlestudios.co.uk

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='364118' date='Dec 27 2008, 12:09 PM']Amen



8, 8 and 2 you do mean?

G[/quote]

Doh! Yes. Maths was never my strong point. ;-)

[quote name='bennifer' post='361244' date='Dec 22 2008, 05:50 PM']Not sure if I understand the price of fish thing?![/quote]

Like your earlier post, it makes little sense.

[quote name='bennifer' post='361244' date='Dec 22 2008, 05:50 PM']Only thing I can take from it is that you don't think the interface defines how many tracks you'd need in a sequencer[/quote]

That's right. I have 48 i/o. Does that mean I need hundreds of tracks? (for the avoidance of doubt, no.)

[quote name='bennifer' post='361244' date='Dec 22 2008, 05:50 PM']if you've invested lots of cash in an 003 then you can be tracking 24 ins at once,[/quote]

Two things here. If you have an 003 you haven't invested loads of cash. It's at the decent end of the consuer scale but it's no pro item.

Wrong again. the 003 has only 18 available ins. 8 analogue, 8 by adat and 8 by spdif.

[quote name='bennifer' post='361244' date='Dec 22 2008, 05:50 PM']48 suddenly gets very limited once you're recording drums, etc. Not trying to tell you what to like or anything, just was shocked at a lowly 48 audio track count on such expensive equipment! [snip] 24 at once? Tracking a band, then layering up overdubs of guitar, bass, vocals etc on top[/quote]

If you are making good decisions and committing to your vision when tracking 48 audio tracks is not [i]very[/i] limited (unless you are failing to make decisions). For the avoidance of doubt the 48 is only audio tracks, not midi, instrument or aux channels.

I have an HD3 rig in my mix room and an HD1 in my edit room and I rarely go over 60 audio tracks. Most will not exceed 48. Biggest I ever worked on was a bit over a hundred and that was tracked elsewhere (and most of them didnt make it to the mix as they were unnecessary/a failure by the tracking engineer to make a decision).

Bottom line, if you can't make it sound like a record with 48 tracks, it ain't the gear.

[quote name='bennifer' post='359260' date='Dec 19 2008, 11:05 PM']... I wouldn't find 48 particularly spacious! Especially if people use larger interfaces like the 003 with Protools LE![/quote]


What does the size of the interface have to do with the price of fish?

U87 is an unusual choice for bass. A u47 fet would more often get those duties at the high end (and I'd be more likely to use the d6 than a U87 at the other end of the spectrum. To be frank if I'm micing a bass (and I do so less and less nowadays) I would probably use a subkcik on 80% of occasions. There are a range of studio standard DI's for bass. The only one I've seen mentioned here is the gas cooker. Depending on what I'm shooting for I might use an A Designs Reddi, a creation audio MW1, )or a combination of the reddi for the lows and the mw1 for the highs) or even a simple BSS 133. They might go through either a Urei 1176 or a vari-mu (or nothing at all) and usually through either a neve 1073 preamp (though occasionally a chandler germanium or an API) for a particular iron/transfo sound. I may even put them through a/d of the cranesong heddd so I can add a bit of tape emulation on the way in. As ever, YMMV.

0dbfs = =18dbvu = way too hot!! Back off = problem solved.

[quote name='WalMan' post='288357' date='Sep 21 2008, 04:26 AM']Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer Not a clue just looking at what Wavelab says when I stuff tracks through it to normalise them and ask it to find peak level first.

Strange thing is when I put the DI signal recorded from the BOD back to reamp it I have to drop the send level by 12 dB or it just swamps the BOD.

As I seem to have found ways around each "problem I have rather given up on a solution and just use the workarounds I have established[/quote]

Nice one!

[quote name='RussFM' post='287966' date='Sep 20 2008, 01:20 PM']My band The Wait played four acoustic tracks live on BBC Radio Shropshire last night, you can listen back here (you'll need RealPlayer to play it):

[url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shropshire_aod.shtml?shropshire/friday_gerbil_shrop"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.s...ay_gerbil_shrop[/url]

There's an interview earlier in the show, but the first song starts at 1hr 18mins. No idea what the bass sounds like as I can't hear it through my laptop speakers, but sounded great in the studio - Deluxe Active Jazz DI'd post-EQ through my GK 1001 and probably plenty of studio EQing.[/quote]

[quote name='WalMan' post='281093' date='Sep 10 2008, 01:53 PM']The peak level in modelled track is 0dB. In the unprocessed track with the input gain boosted it is -3.7dB[/quote]

0dbvu or 0dbfs?

[quote name='charic' post='278949' date='Sep 7 2008, 08:09 AM']P.S. The RED gear is pretty good but honestly I never found it quite anywhere near as good as the AKG.[/quote]

The REDDI is nothing to do with RED microphones (which are actually the same make as BLUE)

D112 is a studio staple for a reason. I wouldnt go much cheaper but to be honest, you'd be better off to buy a decent DI. If you get a good one it will work great for gigs and for recording. The BSS AR133 is great bang for buck at the budge tend of the spectrum. An A Designs REDDI is awesome if you can afford to splash out more.

[quote name='jensenmann' post='275870' date='Sep 2 2008, 10:40 PM']My 9098 is probably not exactly what the racked 9098 pres are because there were differences between the rackversions and the deskversions. My DIYpres are derived from the desk schematics.
They are great allrounders with a very rich tone. Not colourful, more on the neutral side but they deliver a very detailed sound. Everything is there, nothing missing, nothing favoured. These are my goto-in-a-hurry pres, I can´t go wrong with them in any application.
Never tried the Buzz audio stuff. I´m trying to stay away from the 500 series hype. I remember people throwing API desk away because they sounded too coloured - well, long time ago. Same with the old german broadcast stuff. Today the hype goes the other direction. Everybody´s crazy for analog nastyness :-)[/quote]