Some Studio Pictures

[Scot Solida]

I gave a brief description of some of things in my studio in my introductory thread, but figured any pictures of the studio itself ought to be put here instead. These pictures are of my main control room as it stands now, with a few omissions. There are a number of instruments not shown here, including a Hammond M-103, ARP Omni II, Oberheim OBXa and Chroma Polaris (the latter two are on the repair bench in the other room). My "live" room (erm... the unfinished side of the basement!) has drums, percussion, guitars and loads of instruments from Tibet and India, among other places. There are also plenty of old drum machines in the studio, including Roland CR-78, Wersimatic, Univox (a re-badged Korg Minipops) Boss DR-55 and DR-110. Oh, and a baby grand piano upstairs in the dining room (with XLR and 1/4" panels installed in the dining room floor and cables running into the studio, so that i can record the thing). I built the control room shown in the pictures myself (with the help of a more knowledgeable friend). There are no parallel walls. All of the walls are dual-floating walls, with the interior wall being isolated from the exterior wall, and built with different thickness of dry-wall and different stud placement, to avoid any resonance. They work surprisingly well... at least well enough that I can't hear the laundry machines in the room next to the studio!


The above shows the mixer (a so-so Tascam M-2500 series) the computers, a Kawai K5000s synth, Teac 4-track. In the rack: Chandler Limited/EMI Abbey Road TG2 mic pre, Eventide DSP4000, Lexicon MPX-1, TC Intonator, Effectron II, dbx compressor, three Neutrik patchbays, MOTU 828MkII, Furman line conditioner.


That's my big modular. The rack below it contains three Furman line conditioners, Ensoniq Mirage, Akai Z-4 sampler, Tascam CD player, Aphex compressor and Aural Exciter, Eventide Clockworks H-910, Urei LA3a, Kyma Capybara 320, A&H mixwizard mixer, KMX MIDI patchbay, Korg Wavestation A/D, Muse Receptor, Kawai K3m, Casio VZ10m, Yamaha TX-802.


This picture shows the Tascam 58 deck, Maestro Echoplex, EMS VCS3, Roland MC500 sequencer, ARP Odyssey, Korg DW8000, PPG Wave 2.2, Oberheim Strummer, Roland MIDI-to-CV converter, Oberheim DX drum machine.


Here, you can see my Minimoog and Prophet-5. These were both restored by Analogics and housed in those curly maple cabinets. There's a DIY PAIA Theremax in the corner, sitting in front of a DIY bass trap (the panels behind the synths are DIY high/mid absorbers). There is a volume pedal and a Cry Baby on the floor below the Mini. There's a telescoping ten feet long Tibetan temple horn next to the Theremax.

As you can see, I have a neat room in which to work. It took me over a year to do the construction (and I am not finished yet). I can't fit all of my gear in here, but the most important stuff is at hand. The photo quality kinda sucks, but I am no photographer!

[Jan]

I can't fit all of my gear in here, but the most important stuff is at hand.

You have even more gear? But I can relate, I have trouble squashing my guitars in the same room.

Very cool studio! I am a guitar player, so most of my keyboard sounds come from soundfonts and Zynaddsubfx. But I envy you. I always had a weekness for instruments with keys, but was never good at playing them.

[Scot Solida]

Thanks... yes, there is even more stuff all over my basement. Still, most of the stuff not in the studio is in various states of disrepair (like the OBXa and Polaris). I have another 8-track (Teac 80-8) that needs a new belt. I have a neat old Altec Lansing mixer that I haul in for its pre-amps on occasion. Plus, a couple of cheap drumkits, congas, cheap-o guitars and bass... lots of odds and ends. Plus, some things aren't visible in those pictures (I forgot to take one of the shelves by the door, which has old drum machines, test oscillator, a few stomp-boxes).

I'm always threatening to pare the stuff down, and have done so, sometimes to my immediate regret. Since I design all of my own sounds and sample all of my own samples, I don't use many sample-based synths, so I sold most of them off (with the exception of the Wavestation A/D, which I have always loved). I recently made the stupid decision to sell my old ARP 2600 (because I was short on space, and it had appreciated to something like 8 times what I paid for it). Wish I hadn't done that!

These days, I keep new things coming in via DIY. I keep adding DIY modules on to that modular. It grew an entire row this past year. I have some more DIY to build, but have yet to get around to it (couple of analog sequencers, and a ribbon controller thing).

[maghoxfr]

Amazing studio, it looks lie Bristol/Brighton but for real!!! I love analog gear, it does occupy way more room but I guess it must be great to BE in that room. Do you have an ondes martenot? That thing sure sounds great.

Just a question I've always wondered, does all that gear recquires a lot of maintenance?

Now I go back to my virtual studio LOL I play on Phasex, Yoshimi, Qsynth, Arpage and Bristol with an Oxygen 61.

[Capoeira]

wow, that modular moog is giant

what is that all worth? like 500.000$?

[Scot Solida]

Capoeira: That's not actually a Moog modular system, but a system built primarily from Synthesizers.com modules, along with a number of STG Soundlabs modules and a bunch of DIY modules from YuSynth, Blacet and various home-brew designs. It's changing even now, with the sequencer in the top-left corner being replaced by a DIY Klee Sequencer, designed by Scott Stites. I have no idea what all of it is worth. I've been building it up over many many years.

maghoxfr: I don't have a Martenot, though Dana Countryman has designed one that I might build (Dana is Jean-Jacques Perrey's collaborator... and actually, he's the fellow from whom I got the Echoplex seen in those photos).

The maintenance is often overwhelming. I am pretty handy with an oscilloscope and a soldering iron, so I can affect many repairs, modifications and maintenance myself. I modified the VCS3, in fact, to accept standard CV and trigger inputs. However, for some stuff, I have to enlist the aid of a service tech (and finding one that can work on this old stuff isn't easy). I had the Minimoog and Prophet-5 restored by Analogics, and the Tascam 58 deck restored by a local tech here in Kansas. I have in fact been struggling to repair my Oberheim OBXa (not shown in those pictures) that has been giving me a lot of trouble. I may have to send that one out for repair too.

However, when it's all running along smoothly, it is a mighty thing to behold. There is still nothing quite like the sight and sound of "all this machinery making modern music" (to quote another OBXa/Minimoog/PPG owner).