New house, new studio, new projects...

[Fred Sanford]

Been doing a little bit of unpack & inventory since the move earlier this month, and one way to help make room and get inspired at the same time is to un-box some gear and lay out how the equipment racks are going to be assigned & employed. Seeing the instant results (of course they're not wired yet) is a good feeling, and helps to picture how well the layout will end up working when in use. There's only one JBL/Urei piece in these first pics, but there will be lots of Lansing hooked up to these components by the end of this thread.

je

[Fred Sanford]

Chandler Tube Driver- guitar preamp

John Nau tube preamp- custom made tube preamp for guitar

Patch Bay- enabling patching all pres & powers into any effects or speaker choices (JBL E140/JBL 2135/JBL E120s/Roland 2 x 10/Celestion 1 x 10/Altec 2 x 15/Celestion 65 12" open back/Marshall 4 x 12 with Celestion 65s closed back/Fane 1 x 12" open back/you get the picture...)

Pearce G1- very modded prototype made for me, my main guitar head for 20 years or so

Alesis Quadraverb- it's what I've got for now. Run parallel in a custom loop in the Pearce so it just layers on top, doesn't muck with the original sound.

Pearce G1- very modded for CC DeVille (and someone else before that, can't remember, might have been Ronnie Montrose), slowly becoming un-modded/re-modded to be a matched backup for mine.

Alesis Quad- for the CC amp

Hartke 3500- had lots of bass heads, GK, SWR, all good but I keep coming back to this one for some reason.

je

[Fred Sanford]

Urei 6260- to power two JBL TR225s as vocal monitors. Overkill, for sure.

Audio Arts EQ- parametric for Urei/TR225s

Yamaha P2100- to power L100 Centurys as playback monitors. Might be putting a surround system & plasma in this room as well, so the L100s might get crowded out & be relocated.

Audio Arts EQ- parametric for smaller monitors, powered by:

Yamaha P2100- to power floor monitors- some assortment of the following: Ramsa WS-A80 for drums, wedge monitor with EV SRO & horn, two monitors with JBL E-120s & horns. Have I mentioned that this is a small room?

je

[Fred Sanford]

Audio Request F4- music server with 4 independent output streams. Usually loaded with pop & rock.

Audio Request Fusion Pro- music server with single output stream. Usually loaded with jazz, classical & instrumental music.

ARQ Fusion Pro- music server with single output stream. Usually loaded with music recorded in my studio.

ARQ Fusion Zone- music server with single output stream. Used for automated backups (mirrors whatever other ARQ it's been told to), also hosts IRadio station when I want. Might move to our house in PA to have a dupe of our pop/rock library there.

Crestron Pro- control system processor: controls AV, lights, HVAC, security, lots of automation (via touchpanels or keypads- think ATM screen interfaces) throughout the house.

Crestron CP2- another control system processor, linked together with processor above for more ports & firepower.

Vaux Lattis- 8 in 8 out analog audio matrix (soon to be upgraded). Controls source, volume, tone for 8 music sources (ARQs listed above, distributed TiVo, studio audio feed, etc.) output to 8 zones (tentatively: LR theater/DR & Kitchen/Office/Gym/MBR/MBath/Garage & deck & porch/Studio)

Audio Control Architect- power amp for 6 stereo rooms with 6 bands of EQ per room, 50W per channel x 12 channels. LR theater and Studio have their own power amps.

je

[Fred Sanford]

The Studio surround system will be the AV dubbing system to make LD/DVD/VHS/8mm/CD/Cassette/DAT/TiVo/DSS recordable to PC/DVD/CD/MP3 or whatever, and viewable on NEC plasma with 5.1 surround (Canton speakers and Velodyne sub). This output will also be an audio source on the house system.

LR theater will have a Sony HD rear-pro, Yamaha surround with JBL L46s & an NHT sub, JBL 4333As with Adcom 2535s power for music listening.

The Control Room has something like 54RU of rack space to be filled, maybe more. JBL L110s with an M&K sub there.

...and lots more. Stay tuned. Gonna need more patch bays.

je

[Fred Sanford]

This is bound to change, but here's where I started:

Power switch/conditioner

Patch bay

Symetrix 501 compressor/limiter

Alesis 3630 dual comp/lims with noise gates

Alesis Micro Gate & Micro Limiter (might re-locate to a small, portable PA rig)

Alesis Microverb & Microverb II (same as above)

DeltaLab DDL

Digitech DDL

BBE Unimax processor

DOD 31 band graphic EQ

Rane 30 band graphic EQ

Teac 10 band stereo graphic EQ (might move to the AV dubbing rack)

je

[Titanium Dome]

Looking good, but can you give us a "big picture" view?

[kingjames]

Geez. you need a degree in Rocket Science just to figure out that setup

[Fred Sanford]

Looking good, but can you give us a "big picture" view?

Like, floor layout, or you want pictures of the rooms while they're full of boxes?

Or, did you mean, "how's it all connect to each other?" That would take some explaining...but I could boil it down.

je

[Fred Sanford]

Geez. you need a degree in Rocket Science just to figure out that setup

Or, just years of loving this stuff and a feeling of satisfaction when it's all laid out & accessible for use. A lot of what drives me is the fun of having guests come over empty-handed, and having them walk right into the studio and have really nice toys to choose from, ready to go. Except lefties, I guess.

Programming the Crestron stuff takes a bunch of logical thinking, especially linking two processors (the smaller one has a faster/better processor, the bigger one is older/slower but many more connection ports).

Kicker is, I'm a drummer. All I'd really need is some sticks & some things to hit. All the other stuff's tangent hobbies to that.

Thanks for the ! And, really, ask any questions or make any suggestions, let's hear 'em.

je

[Titanium Dome]

Like, floor layout, or you want pictures of the rooms while they're full of boxes?

Or, did you mean, "how's it all connect to each other?" That would take some explaining...but I could boil it down.

je

I'd like to see the whole room and the layout of the equipment.

[Fred Sanford]

Nothing's physically laid out yet, unless you consider that one wall has the boxes & cabs with big magnets in them and the opposite side of the room has the boxes of computers and recording media and CRT monitors, etc. I have a crude sketch of the basement, I'll mark that up with some notes to give you an idea. This is all (hopefully) temporary, as I'm looking to build a 3-car garage with the studio over it within a few years. This temp setup will be to give me the ability to archive (and maybe overdub onto) old recordings and have some informal jams to get to know local musicians. Some of the dusty drums are set up, again more as therapy & inspiration than any final installation, see pic at bottom of post.

Roughly, there's a 13' x 22' x 8' room that will be the studio with drums & amps & monitors set up (my old one was 11' x 26' with 9' ceilings), and a 15' x 13' control room with media & instrument storage. It'll be tight, no room for an audience, but like my old houses you'll be able to see & hear the studio from any TV in the place. There's also a 15' x 15' utility room that will have the house audio racks, maybe the dubbing rack, and house communication wiring distribution (rapidly becoming part of high-end audio/video systems):

[Fred Sanford]

Here's the quickie layout, as it exists only in my head and on this sheet of paper right now. Lots of compromises to cram it all in a comfortable way, but should be usable & fun. Still looking to see how many musical things can become part of the decor upstairs, I might have a chance at two nice custom oak guitar racks (6 on one, 4 on the other) making it to the upper stair hall or something.

My general feeling after you MADE me draw this out: "Density is my destiny"

Scale is ~one square = one foot.

Utility Room-

Blue is 2 large & 2 smaller bread racks, holding spare gear/repairs/projects/maybe some guitars or cases.

Pink is work/test bench.

Green is AV dubbing & studio AV components on shelving (I figure this will have the most constant swapping of cables & gear, doesn't need to be neat). Wish this could be in the Control Room, but a huge built-in cabinet in the CR prevents that for now, unless I take a sledge hammer to it- could happen.

Orange is two 20 RU racks for house audio, with multimedia patch panel above.

Recording Studio-

Green is drums.

Blue is guitar & PA racks, shown in previous posts.

Red is a cheezy propane fireplace, if it goes so does this entire layout. Could happen. Above the fireplace is the plasma & center channel.

Orange is guitar speakers low, PA speakers elevated somewhat, L&R AV speakers at ceiling level. Most interesting of the elevation drawings, I'll see if I have the time to sketch that to scale.

Keyboards will be the toughest fit in this room, we'll see how often that comes into play & how that affects traffic patterns.

No, I haven't figured out where the L100s can fit into this scheme, may have to recess them into the Master Bedroom walls under the dormers .

Control Room-

Orange is recording desk, with L110s on the wall above.

Blue is computer desk.

Pink is the storage of instruments (guitars/effects/keys) & media (magazines/cassettes/DATs/LPs/VHS/CDs/hard drives/DVDs/LDs/sheet music/tracking notes/manuals).

Thanks for the interest and for any advice...

je

P.S. Yes, the security system in this house would make your head spin, and it was in & working before the gear got here.

[Titanium Dome]

Brother, you are jammin' in more ways than one.

[Fred Sanford]

This will be the fifth house I've built some semblance of a studio into, and I've done similar with less room (but sure enjoyed it when there was more room). Also had 3 or 4 other off-site studios at different times, all tiny boxes. This house is just gorgeous in so many other ways that as long as I can have the entire bottom floor I can deal, and I'll be working towards building the outbuilding both for more room and better isolation (less strain on wife & puppies). We'll see when that can happen. More $$$ to run, with its own HVAC & all, too.

I like stuff, and I like having access to it. There'll be some pruning, hopefully some e-bay sales can finance other upgrades.

je