Dark Lab / Studio Thread

[Lost to the Void]

as far as using "hifi" speakers for monitoring, it seems silly to me to use a nearly flat monitor to mix down tracks that are going to be played on sound systems that are extremely exaggerated in just about every frequency.
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Ermmmmmm
The reason you use flat monitors is to get an accurate representation of the sound so that the music translates on average to the most amount of different "hyped" systems.
It is the reason mastering engineers use flat response monitors and not hyped monitors that will steer the sound in a direction appropriate only for those speakers.
So rather than silly, using flat monitors is exactly what you should be doing.
Although learning your monitors is just as important as the monitors themselves.

[Undernithe]

BTW Jon, and i suppose everyone else, here is the final product of my "Journey" thread and my treatment

[Críoch]

That looks great man!

I'm going to buy some stuff tomorrow as it happens..

Q. To what Freq. is the bass being absorbed? Did you make any of those tuned bass traps?

[Undernithe]

Q. To what Freq. is the bass being absorbed? Did you make any of those tuned bass traps?

Red Panels = 6 inch thick Owens Corning 703 - 20Hz – 20kHz

White Panels = 2 inch thick OC 703 - 250Hz – 20kHz

Im not not sexy enough for tuned traps, but i found out my speakers are liars,lol.

[Críoch]

Wicked! haha - Well, I wish you the best of luck in there. Looks perfect

I'd say theres some difference in there now. What dimensions were the room to begin with?

Have you anything left to do, or is that it?

How long did it take to make a trap?

[Undernithe]

Room is 12x12x8ft. Of course there is always some left, like building a separate structure off of my house and floating the floor etc..lol. In all seriousness i wish i could do something with the floor besides separate the sub, but you gotta work with what you got, and i dont know alot of home/ project studios that have what im currently working with right now, so im grateful. It doesn't make me any better at producing, but it makes the room sound even from every angle, not boomy in one corner and all that. I did a full treatment, the best i could work with the room, but i can always add a bit or subtract alot depending on where i live in the future. The traps didn't take long to build, simple bag/frame/insulation construct, but floating those fucking bass traps in the corner was a pain in my ass. Dude, if i can get it done…so can you.

[Críoch]

The nice thing is that you can move them. Theres a chance I might be moving upstairs at some point - so it'll come in handy.

I am energised!

[Undernithe]

Then GO!!!! hehe. BTW please tell the website to stop signing me out every 5 minutes, thanks

[Críoch]

Website. Are you listening?

[Mslwte]

ha ha treating my room is just another can of worms i cant afford to open right now lol

it all looks great though Undernithe

[Undernithe]

Thanks Mslwte, Sounds great too, even mine are shite :p

[loopdon]

Looks fab, Undernithe.
Where do you live?

[arc]

Nice setup Undernithe. The only thing keeping me from having a studio like yours is money, which you appear to have plenty of (or good credit lol).

I got a new toy the other day, a Blue Spark mic. I have a mic in my recording booth but it's a pain in the ass to record anything when your not at the keyboard to press record and stop. So I bought this new one to keep on my desk so I can use it for talkback/recording/vocoder-type applications. I'll post pics later.

[Undernithe]

Looks fab, Undernithe.
Where do you live?

I just moved to Virginia Beach from San Diego. Thank you.

Nice setup Undernithe. The only thing keeping me from having a studio like yours is money, which you appear to have plenty of (or good credit lol)

There is this little trick i learned quite some time ago, save small amounts periodically over a long period of time,lol. I wish i had good credit, see those empty rack units, well yeah they wouldn't be empty anymore.

[Mslwte]

Looks fab, Undernithe.
Where do you live?

I just moved to Virginia Beach from San Diego. Thank you.

Nice setup Undernithe. The only thing keeping me from having a studio like yours is money, which you appear to have plenty of (or good credit lol)

There is this little trick i learned quite some time ago, save small amounts periodically over a long period of time,lol. I wish i had good credit, see those empty rack units, well yeah they wouldn't be empty anymore.

ha ha!

[arc]

There is this little trick i learned quite some time ago, save small amounts periodically over a long period of time,lol. I wish i had good credit, see those empty rack units, well yeah they wouldn't be empty anymore.

Ahh yes, I'm not very good at saving unfortunately. I just need a better job, what I'm making right now isn't enough to sustain my obsession for gear and software.

How long has it taken you to get your studio like that? When did you buy your first piece of gear?

[Mslwte]

i keep saying to my fiancee that "i dont really need much more now just one more thing....." ha ha

[Undernithe]

Ahh yes, I'm not very good at saving unfortunately. I just need a better job, what I'm making right now isn't enough to sustain my obsession for gear and software.

How long has it taken you to get your studio like that? When did you buy your first piece of gear?

Ohh ummmm… Well ok so I got into electronic music like 12 years or so ago. I liked to listen to house and trance, and went to a few underground shows and some actual parties through the younger years. Some how I really got into DnB and i really wanted to learn how to mix. I bought my first turntable/mixer set up about 9 years ago. after a few years i started to like synth pop and industrial and after checking out rigs i couldn't keep my eyes off all those dirty circuits/knobs/switches. I really had no idea about use all the stuff until about 2009. I read endlessly about components to produce and bought pieces slowly over these past few years according to how my music tastes are changing. Granted there are still many things I intend on getting, but as i save im really just trying to know my current gear the best i can. I know for a fact i have plenty enough now to make good recordings. Little bit of a chat there, lol.

[Undernithe]

i keep saying to my fiancee that "i dont really need much more now just one more thing....." ha ha

I know ive said that to my wife way too many times, i know im full of shit, so i wonder what she thinks, hahaha.

[Hades]

There is this little trick i learned quite some time ago, save small amounts periodically over a long period of time,lol. I wish i had good credit, see those empty rack units, well yeah they wouldn't be empty anymore.

when I first started out, I never wanted to buy anything that I wouldn't be able to replace because it was too expensive.
Luckily enough back then I could get a Juno60 for 300€, a JX10 half broken for 200€, a matrix1000 for 200€,...
Unfortunately for everyone wanting to buy older analog gear those low prices are long gone...
(but hey in return you get all this great sounding software stuff that wasn't around back then)
Anyways, most of all that, I paid by having an old piggy bank where I used to put in all my coins.
Sometimes I'd even pay with a bill for small amounts, even if I had the coins in my pocket, just to have more coins to put in the piggy bank.
I dare say I paid for 80% of my studio like that back then. (and there's still about 50% of that gear still in my studio)
And you guys saw my studio... so never underestimate the money you can scrape together like that.

Sometimes people (usually customers) ask me where I find the money to pay for all that gear, but I honestly think it's 80% a matter of getting your priorities sorted out.
If I go out at all, it's only a few times a year.
I don't buy expensive clothes.
I have the cheapest cellphone possible, and have a monthly bill of hardly 15 to 20€ (I simply don't like being on the phone).
I never bought a TV in my life (in fact I've been living without cable TV for 17 years now) (I've been given 3 TV's over the years by people that bought a new one)
I never bought a car in my life (I drive around in old cars that were given to me by family because they bought new ones)
I don't go on expensive vacations.
I almost never eat out.
almost never any impulsive spendings.

I decided long ago nothing makes me happier than working with good quality audio, so I put my money into gear and buying music. All the rest is trivial.
The only thing with a higher priority than that is my family, obviously.

I'm in the 2nd lowest category paycheck-wise, if I have to believe the Belgian government, so it's not like I have huge amounts of money to start out with, but I guess I just manage it better than some of my friends.
Of course I like eating out, or going clubbing.
Of course I'd love to have a fancy car (preferably a nice oldtimer).
Of course I'd love to have a big TV (to watch DVD's on, NOT cable-shit)
Of course I'd love to make exotic vacations.
And of course I'd love to have a new iPhone.
But it's simply not possible with my paycheck, and since non of the above will make me as happy as spending time in my studio with proper gear, that's what I use my money for.
So don't underestimate what you can save up with just small amounts of money.
If I can do it with my small paycheck, anyone can do it.

It's only when I started having some more money from bigger tax returns and stuff (if you buy a house in Belgium, the government supports you a lot) that I started buying the expensive things like the big mixer.
And obviously, being given an old car or TV is pure luck, I admit.
But the rest was by saving up small amounts.

anyways, apologies for the rambling...