I bet you never thought you would see this . . .

[sjames]

Many of you know me as a long-time member of this (and a previous) Fusion forum and those that do may remember various talk from me over the last few years of when I might finally be able to show off my own home studio . . .

. . . that day has finally come my friends!

;D ;D ;D

Sorry if I am making too much of a big deal about this but I have been planning, purchasing and dreaming of a time when this would become reality for a long time. I bet some of you may have even been wondering whether I really had any gear!

I have been trying to pull this together since Spring of 2006 and I did in fact spend quite a while setting up studio "mark one" in the New Year of 2007. It was quite badly planned though and some of the gear just wasn't right for me.

By Summer 2007 I was having some serious trouble with a leaking roof (the room has a flat roof and dormer window) and the local company working on the repairs had put on a temporary coating. They promised me (in the New Year) that it would be safe to set everything up . . . but they got it very wrong!

They took eight months to come back and install the proper fibreglass roof and meanwhile the gulls (we live right on the coast) had pulled off bits of the coating and when it rained . . . you can guess the rest!

Luckily nothing was actually damaged but I had to dismantle a fair bit and, the short version of events is, I never did put it back together that way again!

Over the next couple of years I re-planned, bought some more gear (and sold the stuff I wasn't happy with) and waited until the time was right to set up studio "mark two" . . . one that was planned to be right for me for years to come!

So here it is . . .





Yes there is a Fusion in here . . .



This is the area where I do my day-job . . .



Here are my guitars . . .



Sadly there isn't space for this in the studio so it lives in the main bedroom (it helps to have an understanding partner) . . .



And of course . . . here are some shots with the lights out . . .













For anyone who is interested there is a full list of hardware and software below :


Synths / Workstations :

Roland Fantom X8 + World Collection, Ultimate Keys, Platinum Trax & Complete Orchestra (SRX) Expansions

Alesis Fusion 6HD

Roland SH-201

Korg R3


Guitars / FX :

Line 6 Variax 600

Line 6 POD XT Live

Ibanez GAXB150 Bass

Jim Deacon Electro-Acoustic

Epiphone Triggerman 100H DSP Head

Epiphone Triggerman 4X12 Cabinet


Recording / Outboard :

Tascam 2488 Digital Multitrack

M-Audio BX5a Active Monitors

Behringer ADA8000 Ultragain Pro 8

Behringer DSP2024 Virtualizer Pro

Behringer EX3200 Ultrafex Pro

Behringer MDX2600 Composer Pro XL

Behringer REV2496 V-Verb Pro

Behringer RX1602 Eurorack Pro

M-Audio Luna Pro Microphone

AKG D3700 Microphone

Zoom H2 Handy Recorder


Computers :

System 1 (Office PC) = HP Pavillion Elite M9451 / Quad Core / 4GB RAM / 2 x 500GB HD + 500GB External HD

System 2 (Studio PC) = Custom-Built System / Dual Core / 2GB RAM / 2 x 200GB HD / E-MU 1212M Audio Card

System 3 (Laptop PC) = Sony Vaio NR11ZS / Dual Core / 2GB RAM / 200GB HD


Music Software :

Ableton Suite 8

Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer Edition

Propellerhead Reason 4

Arturia Analog Factory 2

Cakewalk Dimension Pro

Cakewalk Rapture

Cakewalk Z3TA+

Celemony Melodyne Uno

East West Vapor Synth

E-MU Emulator X3 + XTreme Lead X, Vintage X Volume 1/2/3, Techno Synth Construction Yard, Beat Garden, Old World Instruments, Planet Earth X, Virtuoso X, Mo Phatt X, Street Kits & Protean Drums (ESC) Expansions

Korg Legacy Analog Edition

Korg Legacy Digital Edition

Line 6 Pod Farm Platinum

Line 6 GearBox Plugin Gold

Line 6 Variax Workbench

Novation V-Station

Novation Bass-Station

Sony Audio Studio 9

Toontrack EZ Drummer + Drumkit From Hell, Vintage Rock, Latin Percussion, Nashville, Twisted Kit, Claustrophobic, Funkmasters & Jazz (EZX) Expansions

Ultimate Sound Bank Plugsound Pro + Retro Organs, Synths Anthology, Xtreme FX, Mayhem Of Loops & Retro Keyboards (UVI) Expansions

The Waldorf Edition


Design Software :

Adobe Creative Suite 4

NewTek Lightwave 3D 9.6

Corel Painter X

E-Frontier Poser 7

E-on Software VUE 7 Esprit


Misc :

Arturia Analog Factory Experience Controller

Korg (KLC) MS-20 Controller

Korg Pad Kontrol

Korg NanoPad Controller

Korg NanoKey Controller

M-Audio MidiSport 4x4

E-MU XMidi 2x2

Dübreq Stylophone


. . . so there it is! I am (finally) a very happy man! All I have to do now is make some bloody music with the stuff!



But seriously . . . I'm really excited to be up and running at last. I still have quite a bit to learn and there's always that day-job to think about! Someone has to pay for all this stuff!

Oh crap . . .whose bright idea was it to work in the same room as all of this wonderful gear . . .

;D ;D ;D

[Hollow Sun]

Very nice and very impressive!

Very neat and tidy and clean too!!!

I used to have an impeccably clean and tidy 'lab' once .... it's a complete shithole now. I really must give it a tidy up!

Nice place you have there.


Steve

[Shreddie]

Nice!

[mickydireland]

That is one sweet set-up!

Now, you can relax (or stress) in comfort! :-)

[rainbow]

Now, that's a real neat studio!! I bet there was a lot of time spent designing that layout ... very nicely balanced and it looks like a great place to work. I've been thinking about a re-shuffle for my own corner now for a while ... you've inspired me to get on and do something. :-)

[lildave]

Clean and very nice. Makes me think I need more space or more toys to put in my space or both.

[sjames]

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments.

Yes I did plan it quite a bit . . . there were wiring diagrams and all sorts of other stuff!

I do have a bit of an OCD problem (seriously) and one major concern for me was having the many metres of cabling as hidden as possible! The best thing for this was the boards which I attached underneath the desks which hide them all.

I also modified the desks (using parts from a spare) so that they have compartments for the PC towers. The racks and equipment shelf were built as well.

[Shreddie]

Feb 26, 2009 11:49:40 GMT sjames said:

Yes I did plan it quite a bit . . . there were wiring diagrams and all sorts of other stuff!

Once you have more than a handful of bits of gear (like you do) it's the Best way of doing it. I have all of my plans for my set-up written and sketched out in a notebook for when I finally get around to doing it.

I do have a bit of an OCD problem (seriously) and one major concern for me was having the many metres of cabling as hidden as possible! The best thing for this was the boards which I attached underneath the desks which hide them all.

There's nothing worse in a studio than a pile of spaghettified audio cables in full view... I find it drains me for some reason when I can see them all hangin' out!

[comradec]

Nice set-up, sjames.

But I'm puzzled about one thing.

I can see the computer keyboard in your 'day job' workspace but where is the one you use for your studio system? I can see the mouse there, with a Tascam 2488 alongside and a Roland Fantom-X8 below it, but no computer keyboard.

Not asking to catch you out or anything like that, but finding a good place for the computer keyboard amidst a set-up with lots of synths and other gear is one of those ergonomic nightmares experienced by many of us. Mine's on a pull-out shelf below the main computer desk but it always feels too low. Move the main desk surface up a notch on my adjustable Ikea desk, though, and it seems too high, no matter where I set the chair height.

[sjames]

Thanks for your comments comradec . . .

With regards to the computer keyboard . . . I actually (big reverb effect here) USE THE POWER OF MY MIND to type or use shortcut keys etc. Naturally wired up to a USB slot in the back of my head of course!

;D ;D ;D

But seriously . . . look at the first photo and you will see a keyboard sitting on top of the PC tower! This is a very slimline wireless device (actually taken from the new HP system on the office side) and I either just have it sit on my lap or place it on the keyboard (a keyboard on a keyboard) of the Fantom X8 where it fits perfectly!

It was always going to need some thought about that one but in the end I found the solution in practice rather than planning . . .

[suilebhain]

That studio is very sweet and neat!

Makes me think of a film I recently saw, The Shout, where a shrink is describing to a visitor who has just come to an asylum to play in a cricket match, how one can tell the mentally ill from the sane.

He indicates a tree, very neat and symmetrical, probably a maple, and says, "See that tree over there? That is a sane tree." Then he turns and indicates a sprawling old thing that looks much like the live oaks in the South of the US and says, "See that one?"

Shrink indicates sjames' studio and says, "See that studio over there? That is a sane studio."

Then he turns and indicates mine. Heheh.

[sjames]

. . . I think I was doomed to have OCD from the start!

Both of my parents are raving mad perfectionists in their own ways!

[suilebhain]

Both of my parents are/were clutterbug slobs.