Saturday 29 December 2012

Studio revamp

Feeling a lot better after the festive trotts, it did knock me sideways for a day or 2 but 100% back to normal now.

Next week, even though I'm still on holiday, I plan to do some work related stuff to keep myself on top of shit in the new year so I only really have this weekend for some music fun and games, and I'm probably not going to get much of those since its clear the studio needs a bit of a revamp.

New equipment and recording software has been purchased and I need to jig things around to make it a bit more effective and usable.

I'm sure there are a few people out there with really cool professional music production systems, mine is 100% amateur ebay bought crap but I still want to get the best out if it for the little money I spend on it.

A few big purchases though, the Voice Live units and a new(used..ebay bargain) Mackie Unversal control surface to control my logic pro 9software will take pride of place so must be set up to deliver the best results..The VoiceLive2 will be my "studio" unit on the fixed board (which also needs re-jigging as my Zoom unit has been untouched since getting my adrenalinn III) and the VoiceLive Touch will be used for band practice and performance stuff when I do some backing singing.
I will put the old Digitech Vocal Live 4 unit on ebay.nl or a dutch site in a few weeks

I've finally solved some of my wiring issues with a proper wireless mic I got a few months ago but couldnt' quite get in the right place, and a XLR switch to allow me to switch it between the normal mixer desk and the RC300 looper, much better than having 2 mics with different signal chains.

It does mean the super duper (but of course budger) condenser mic I have can't be used generally, since the XLR switch is not a big fan of 48v Phantom power but as anyone who has heard my recordings can testify its good that I don't try too hard to sing :D But if I do find I need to add some singing to a project it I can plug it in to one of the VL units easy enough.

We are also going to be doing a bit more band rehearsal stuff upstairs with both bands, which I love doing, though it does need wires for various intruments and  mics...fortunately my Jamhub takes care of that and I can keep the wiring mostly hidden for that ...yipeee


The ultimate aim is to keep everything contained, not have wires everywhere but sitll have a nice carpet rug sized area that will be my recording area and still have the playroom aspect with movies and emergency guest room (not that anyone ever visits me now....Mum..Danni....take note!!)


Logic pro 9 is a mega bit of software though, it is supposed to be an easy upgrade from Garage Band but the learning curve is actually pretty steep, especially trying to work though online manuals. So many options its quite painful and my now getting old, Mac Mini, is struggling just wee bit to run it, though so far only the 64track demo's have caused it to have panic fits, my few track experiments are all fine, I doubt I'll get to 64 tracks worth of anything so nothing to worry about for now.

A small Mac may be needed later in the year for some IOS conversion projects in which case I can justify the purchase of a new mac, otherwise the mini does for me just fine.


I'll post pics of the new setup when its all up and running......knowing me, sometime in 2015




Ahthankyew

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm making plans to visit you. Saving up like mad! x

Boring old Fart said...

oh I'll pay for your flights mum, no need to save that hard.

Anonymous said...

That sounds very good to me. Wasn't sure about that but I'll still save up cos I need spends and there is the taxi fare there and back to the airport. Does jet2 fly from Manchester Airport, do you know? That would be a lot easier for me.

Boring old Fart said...

oh thats not a problem, just let me know when you want to come over and I'll sort out the transport.

dunno who flies from Manchester but if you give them enough time most of the airlines are the same basic price. so just get the plans sorted out and let me know.