Why project studios should buy heads and cabs

Like most project recording studio owners we have struggled with recording electric guitar, and especially with the problem of getting a good tone at reasonable volume.

The sound of many guitar tones is produced by a combination of guitar, amp, cabinet and effects or pedals. Apart from the guitar itself and the playing experience, all of these can be emulated in software. But there are problems ..

1) Using DAW hosted plug-ins whilst recording still doesn't give you the same emotional experience as a real amp, and latency is still an issue.

2) Re-amping works well, but again the performance/recording experience isn't great, especially if you're recording a DI signal to pass through amp, cab and pedal plug-ins later.

3) Using a power soak between amp and cab works quite well, but it still changes the way the rig performs and sounds.

4) Using outboard hardware, such as a Pod or Digidesign Eleven, works a lot better, but again doesn't quite feel right when you're recording. You just don't get the push/pull feedback of a real amp.

We think a great and possibly affordable solution to ensure you get a great sound is to build a sound proofed cupboard large enough to take a couple of cabs (for sound options), mic stands and mic's, with XLR tie lines to a switch, patch bay, mic-pre or audio interface.

It may be possible for many of us to build this cupboard in the corner of an adjoining room or garage. A layer of 18mm MDF, followed by a 2-3" air gap, a rock wall slab, another air gap and another MDF layer will provide a lot of sound isolation, and you can rest your cabs on some foam to isolate them from the floor a little. It doesn't have to be pretty, but if you get the MDF pre-cut you should find it simple. Hinge the top so you can adjust your mics.

There is a problem! You really need to be able to control the amps from your playing and recording position near your DAW. Therefore the logical suggestion is to buy separate amp heads and cabs. You can then arrange your heads conveniently in your control room, and switch between them with a simple patch bay. 

Looking around the project studio handbook studio, we have 3 combos, one head and a cab. It's simple enough to break the feed between head and speaker in the combos, in order to feed the signal to our cupboard, but we can't help thinking that we should consider selling our combos and replacing them with heads.

Oh, and if you're wondering why there are no pictures of our cupboard to accompany this post .. we haven't built it yet! What do you think?

Thanks for reading

FairFax

The long arm of the VESA mount

It's interesting how so many pieces of studio technology pass you by, until one day you discover, buy and install them, and thereafter wonder how you ever did without them.

May we introduce you to the VESA Desk Mount Arm Monitor Stand Bracket with Tilt & Swivel .. ! ?

You've probably heard of VESA mounts, your 50" TV may even be mounted to a wall with one, but have you thought how having your DAW monitor on an extendable arm that allows you to reposition it at will, may be the most liberating bit of tech you ever by?

We're going to break cover here and evangelise the incredibly affordable, robust and downright brilliant range of VESA mounts manufactured by Duronic (go search Amazon).

Now that a hi-def 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor can be had for under £350, you may find that your screen interferes with the optimum placing of your monitor speakers. But with a VESA arm you can simply push the screen out of the way for critical listening tasks such as mixing, and pull it forward when recording and editing. You can even turn it on it's side and use it in portrait mode.

We have this one .. Duronic DM351X3 ..  but if you have a multi-monitor setup check out the Duronic DM453.

Perhaps you have some recommendations too? Let us know.

Thanks for reading
FairFax

Why your studio needs a NAS

If you have used a DAW from when computer based audio multitrack became viable, you will remember when 16 bit 44.1kHz recording was the norm. File sizes, whilst large for the time, were not unmanageable, and the multitrack data from several sessions could easily be accommodated on a DVD-R disc, especially if hardware MIDI synths, samplers and sound modules were run live in the mix.

Today, we use 24 bit recording, higher sample rates, and it is considered good practice to print/bounce audio files of all our external MIDI and software instruments for easy recall. If you’re delivering finished work to a record company, chances are you will already be contractually required to do so.

24 track, for so long the norm, is no longer considered adequate for even the most modest of sessions, and now that hard drives and processors can handle hundreds of tracks, session data has grown to a point where optical media backups are no longer practical.

For some reason studios haven’t embraced the DAT tape backup technologies used in enterprise, and many studios have no backup strategy at all. If you have a backup strategy, the chances are you are copying data to an external hard drive at the end of a session. If you are smart, you will shift the responsibility for long term backup onto your clients and require them to bring their own portable backup hard drives.

But there is a better way now. It’s called Network Attached Storage (NAS), its been around for a while, but its got cheaper and better recently.

One use of a NAS drive is a file server, to allow multiple users to access and share files, but this is really only practical for more modest bit rates, and not those required by DAW software. You could store your sound libraries on a NAS but we have found it slows loading time unless you have a fast and expensive NAS.

No, what we’re talking about here is in-expensive (think slower) NAS systems to which your data can be backed up to during downtime (ie each night) and which therefore only needs large capacity, not fast transfer rates.

And here’s the real winner .. a NAS drive comprises a number of hard drives (we recommend at least 3 preferably 5) which function as one (RAID format) and which allow individual drives to fail, and to be replaced (often without a power down) without data loss! You simple create folders (shares) and point your backup software to sync data between source drives (DAW attached) and destination shares on your NAS.

This means you can incrementally replace drives, as they age, with bigger and faster models, over a period of years. Additionally, if you have some old external drives, you can connect them to your NAS to make back-ups of your NAS shares. You can have backups of your backups!

You can even do all this remotely so your NAS can live somewhere safe, and all the backup routines can be automated, synchronising audio data and files from your DAW audio drives to your NAS share!

So which NAS? Well Synology are very well thought of, but 5 drive arrays are expensive. Look at the Lacie 5Big, especially the Network 2. It’s very slow, but for downtime backup, who cares?

Thanks for reading
FairFax

Do bands need a digital designer as a permanent member?

Those of us who read the credits on CD inlays and record sleeves already know that the contributions of those who work in the background can be as important as the artists themselves.

Where would Chic and Nile Rodgers be without Bob Clearmountain, Joy Dividion without Martin Hannett, David Bowie without Tony Visconti, Dionne Warwick without Burt Bacharach, Yes without Roger Dean, or Frankie Goes To Hollywood without Paul Morley? OK perhaps not the last one but you get our point.

Today, success relies on more than just a great sounding recording and a great cover. Bands need a whole range of digital design skills to build and maintain their website, newsletters, email marketing campaigns, social media channels, YouTube presence and mobile apps.

The range and importance of digital marketing and engagement requires full time staff and when you’re just starting out you cannot hope to rely on favours. Some bands use fans to build their online presence and evangelise their music, but although incredibly valuable, this isn’t a long term solution. Bands need to be able to control the process.

So without the cash to pay someone, it seems like a logical step to make a digital designer a full-time band member who receives and equal share of income and royalties. Monty Python figured this out in the early 1970s when Terry Gillian was invited to join.

We think that as a minimum the designer should have the following skills ..

web design
video production
copywriting

And considering how much time musicians spend developing their skills, we don’t think its too much to ask.

The best place to start looking would be art colleges. Try collaborating with final year undergraduates who need a substantial project for their degree work. Or perhaps there is a local video making society or film club in your area.

Recruiting a digital designer might just be the best creative decision you make.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading
FairFax