Updated Studio Pics

[Drew]

Finally treated my room, so I figured now was as good a time as any to share some new pics!


Front:


Closeup of my rack:

Wall o' Guitars, to the right:

Back Wall o' Guitars


Right little half-wall


The left wall is three fairly ornate windows in a row, so obviosuly there are going to be some problems treating, and mixing, in this space. But I did what I could (this was a Primasonic London 8 kit, with an additional pair of 2x4 broadband traps) and while the ultimate test is going to be how mixes translate, I just completely reworked the low end of a mix I'd been toying with in about 3 minutes because I suddenly could hear the compressor absolutely annihilating the bass and making the kick drum feel kind of pokey because of it, so I THINK they seem to be helping.

Importantly, my girlfriend thinks it looks great.

[Valtteri]

Nice! Seems like we have the same desk, my racks are a lot emptier though. I've also gotten some treatment I need to get up on the wall; it's only Thomann's cheapest foam, so I doubt it's going to make much of a difference, but I guess it's better than nothing.

[zepp]

Looks great Especially the stack of Mesa

[Greg McCoy]

Did you do extensive measurements before deciding what to do or more or less just eyeball it? Obviously in smaller retrofitted rooms you can't really get that perfect due to there not being the space to get the monitors as far away from the wall as possible and all that stuff.

BTW, the Analog API theme fucking rules and would match your outboard stuff and is the bomb for eye fatigue. It hasn't even been updated since like 2012, but it still works perfectly with the newest versions of Reaper. My favorite Reaper theme by a longshot. I'm picky when it comes to those, the most popular 2-3 ones I'm not a huge fan of. The best themes are surprisingly somewhat obscure.

https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/1024/analog%20api%20v4%20R2%20part1

[Drew]

Just winged it - in an ideal world I'd have gone alll nuts with using laser pointers and mirrors to fnd and treat reflection points, but, well, these are the windows to my left:


...there's a closet and entry door in the back left and right corner respectively, and the right bass trap is mounted 3" off a corner that bisects that corner and is almost exactly the size of the trap over it, so there's only so much I was going to be able to do anyway. This is damage mitigation, not striving for perfection.

It DOES seem to have helped, but it'll take some trial and error and listening to mixes on other systems to be sure.

Valtteri - it's taken me a LONG time to get as far as I have with this rack, and even then I've still got four empty spaces n the 500-seres chassis.

[Budda]

Nice!

[Chris]

Dat clean desk tho

[Lozek]

Maybe take a look at Sonarworks to help with the room a bit more. I don't have enough space to do traps currently, but it definitely made a huge difference to what I am hearing.

[Astrocreep]

Looks amazing!

[Drew]

Thanks guys! Not really familiar with Sonarworks, Lozek, I'll do some googling and I may have questions after that, if you don't mind.

[Lee]

That is a pretty spiffingly well curated Ibanez collection, mate.

[Chris]

That is a pretty spiffingly well curated Ibanez collection, mate.

Did you miss the shit ass djent thing he has hanging up?

[Alan]

Drew, that looks awesome man! I really need to get on painting and doing what I can in my basement/music room area.

[Drew]

That is a pretty spiffingly well curated Ibanez collection, mate.

Coming from you, that's saying something.

The UV is mostly eye candy these days, but I could absolutely see still pulling it out for rhythm tracks or something - thing just growls, it's such a thick sounding guitar. The bridge pickup haas started to go, though, the treble side is ok, but the bass end is all phasey, so I have to replace it (and will probably just grab a blaze neck and middle when I do too, and return it to visually stock condition). The RG752 that chris hates is actually a very nice guitar, but I never play it because it's just a production version of my Suhr Modern 7 and that thing smokes. I probably should sell it to get it in the hands of someone who will play it more, but had that been a production guitar when I bought my Suhr, I probably wouldb't have felt the need to go custom to get the specs I was after. And the RFR is a '13 Genesis series, PAF Pro and Evo 2, and is just SO much fun. There's also a RG3120TW on the other wall, which also doresn't get a ton of playtime, but is just a very thick, rich, smooth sounding guitar, and probably deserves to be played more than I do. At a minimum it sounds very different than anything else I own, including my mahogany Suhr Modern 6.

[thrashinbatman]

Thanks guys! Not really familiar with Sonarworks, Lozek, I'll do some googling and I may have questions after that, if you don't mind.

i'm gonna second the rec for Sonarworks. my room is a big compromise since it has to double as a living room and is also in a rental so i've already put too many holes in the walls as is. even with some big absorption panels and bass traps there's still a lot of nonsense going on around 200-400Hz, and Sonarworks clamped down on it nice. my mixes immediately got better, and that + using MetricAB to reference meant things come together much sooner, and translate better.

[Lee]

Coming from you, that's saying something.

The UV is mostly eye candy these days, but I could absolutely see still pulling it out for rhythm tracks or something - thing just growls, it's such a thick sounding guitar. The bridge pickup haas started to go, though, the treble side is ok, but the bass end is all phasey, so I have to replace it (and will probably just grab a blaze neck and middle when I do too, and return it to visually stock condition). The RG752 that chris hates is actually a very nice guitar, but I never play it because it's just a production version of my Suhr Modern 7 and that thing smokes. I probably should sell it to get it in the hands of someone who will play it more, but had that been a production guitar when I bought my Suhr, I probably wouldb't have felt the need to go custom to get the specs I was after. And the RFR is a '13 Genesis series, PAF Pro and Evo 2, and is just SO much fun. There's also a RG3120TW on the other wall, which also doresn't get a ton of playtime, but is just a very thick, rich, smooth sounding guitar, and probably deserves to be played more than I do. At a minimum it sounds very different than anything else I own, including my mahogany Suhr Modern 6.

The 3120 was actually the one that made me go 'ooooh' the most. I've always loved those, especially in the TW finish you have.

The whole collection you have is cool, lot of variety and fun stuff. But within that, that selection of Ibby goodness is awesome.

[metalheadpunk]

Room looks awesome! Sonarworks is announcing a big update tomorrow FYI.

[Megametal7]

looks really nice, you have great gear but I see no V, everyone needs at least 1 V in their collection.

[Snoop Travvy Travv]

API preamps are my favorites. When I bought my Apollo I had to buy the API Vision strip. They're seriously way too good.

[Lozek]

Thanks guys! Not really familiar with Sonarworks, Lozek, I'll do some googling and I may have questions after that, if you don't mind.

Of course, good to see it's getting some love from other guys here too. It's a really effective system especially if your set-up allows you to apply it to monitoring applications only, it can be slightly annoying if you have to remember to turn it off everything time you export. It's global too, so you can use it for generally listening to music and videos.

[Drew]

Of course, good to see it's getting some love from other guys here too. It's a really effective system especially if your set-up allows you to apply it to monitoring applications only, it can be slightly annoying if you have to remember to turn it off everything time you export. It's global too, so you can use it for generally listening to music and videos.

Reaper does have a "Monitoring FX Bus" in, well, at least v6, possibly earlier, and I always wondered what that was good for. Cool. Honestly, for $300, it's not THAT expensive if it's any good, and it comes with a reference mic for the initial dialing in. I'm going to give it a few weeks with this just to get a feel for how the room is now, with noadded help, but I may check it out after that.

[Drew]

The 3120 was actually the one that made me go 'ooooh' the most. I've always loved those, especially in the TW finish you have.

The whole collection you have is cool, lot of variety and fun stuff. But within that, that selection of Ibby goodness is awesome.

I always regretted not buying one of those when they went heavily on sale when Ibanez introduced the Edge Pro, and it was kind of a white whale guitar for me for a while, not especially rare or anything but just a really classy Ibanez I wish I'd owned. I sort of planned on selling it after I bought my similar-spec Suhr Modern 6, but honestly it's a different enough sounding guitar that I'm no longer sure. Maybe a pickup swap, for creme pickups or zebra or something, just to give it a little more pizazz, and while I obviously lo e the PAF Pro in the neck, it might not be the worst idea to try something else in the bridge, maybe another AT1, or I guess a bridge PAF Pro could be cool. Something thick for chunky rhythm and leads.

looks really nice, you have great gear but I see no V, everyone needs at least 1 V in their collection.

I'm not that metal, I'm afraid. Never been a V lover.

API preamps are my favorites. When I bought my Apollo I had to buy the API Vision strip. They're seriously way too good.

If I had to pick just one it'd be the BAE, for me, or something Neve-flavored, but the CAPI has its own thing that really rules for some applications. I could see it being great on guitars for modern metal, too, but at the end of the day I'm probably more of a rock guy.

[Lozek]

Reaper does have a "Monitoring FX Bus" in, well, at least v6, possibly earlier, and I always wondered what that was good for. Cool. Honestly, for $300, it's not THAT expensive if it's any good, and it comes with a reference mic for the initial dialing in. I'm going to give it a few weeks with this just to get a feel for how the room is now, with noadded help, but I may check it out after that.

Yeah, you can't do anything without the mic, you register it with them via the serial number and they already have pre-stored image of what that individual mic sounds like. The software guides you through taking the image of your room and the monitor coloration (I have two sets of monitors, each has their own profile seperately applied on their output). With the full version you also get pre-defined profiles for most headphone models, certainly AKG, Sennheiser etc It's really well designed system and it also gets updates every month or so.

[thrashinbatman]

there are 3rd party mics you can use that'll bring the cost down. as long as the mic comes with it's own unique calibration info, it'll work perfectly fine for Sonarworks.

[Leon]

OK, who's got that old picture of Drew with the Emo Killer?

noodles ?