An Attic Studio History
Compiled posts Jan 21 2021 to present, and ongoing.
What Is This Madness?
Nov 12 2024
Compiling all of this to share, today, I feel like I’m sitting in the basement of a church surrounded by coffee drinkers and opening with “My name is Lloyd…”
Until I was in my mid 40’s I didn’t really know what OCD was and I certainly didn’t have it. Well, in the 1960’s and 1970’s they didn’t test you for that type thing…
Clearly, I have issues with compulsive behaviour. And this history of my studio is by no means over. As I write I’m waiting for the delivery of two utility modules to make the modular drum machine I’ve been assembling the last year or two closer to ideal (more on that later).
I’ve had a studio, or one sort or another, since 1992. And since then I’ve obsessed and obsessed to make it as close to ideal as my budget allows. I’ve spent thousands of hours on this. Not making music, but making the environment for making music. Some people like a shack in the woods. Not me.
I’ve decided to complile with the most recent posts at the top. There will be times when this is infuriating and I recommend, if you’re interested by a post, to check out a few before it, as they may provide valuable context.
There’s bound to be a lot of redundancy, here, double entries galore, I’m sure. Some of the post titles are less than helpful, in this format. But I’m not going to edit, right now. I will, when I make updates, soonish. Oh, yes, there are updates.
Sampling The LinnDrum With Isla
July 22 2024
William's LinnDrum, that is. The one he bought during his heavy Prince phase. I've only recorded with it once - it's the big drums at the end of The Over Under.
Anyhow, I have a sampling project. Collecting samples in my new Isla S2400 (the white thing with pads and faders). I've already sampled some Pulsar 23 sounds and I thought it would be fun to sample some sounds which are already samples, and see if the Isla gives the Linn a slight personality change? We'll see. It also gave me a chance to mess with the kick and snare tunings - to create some Prince-y detuned sounds to start from.
I need to sample a few more toms, now, then I can adjourn for the night.
Vocoder!
June 13 2024
Second day of Vocoder (V22) experimentation.
Can I run it though another synth to apply a filter? Yes.
The Sequential Pro 3 (in photo - top middle with all the red lights but no yellow cables)) has an external input which can accept audio from whatever source you like - a guitar, a vocal, or in this case a vocoder. I think the input expects an instrument level signal, rather than line level which the vocoder puts out, but with some tweaking I was able to get it sounding pretty clean.
I didn't think this was worth its own video (it does sound lovely, but only slightly different to the last video), but it is a significant step. It's fortuitous that the Pro 3 was the synth I already owned that could do this, because it has a choice of 3 filter types - Prophet, Moog or Oberheim (my favourite).
Progress.
What Difference Does It Make?
Feb 22, 2023
"In the blue light, blue light, ah, ah"
You may be appalled to know that OCD me has spent 2 days, almost, moving gear around again so I can have a better working environment.
The modular synth was all the way in the dark corner and I had to reach to play it and so I stopped reaching. It's about the only instrument that I consider myself a decent player of... so I moved it out of the dark.
Inevitably some cables were then too short, so it took a while, and I had to buy a few new ones. It's almost done, now.
There was one thing I'd been putting off that I managed to do during this transition - I needed to rewire the patch bay under the computer (not pictured here - later...) to set up a latency free recording system for the new input channels (I'll go into them in detail later). That's done now and I am VERY NEARLY ready to start recording the next thing.
To test the various channels I was practicing my bass and setting up compression and EQ on it (it sounds really good), and I thought it might be fun to make a 'recording bass' video, so I did. However, the iPhone cannot handle bass guitar, so I'll need to do it again soon once the replacement tripod arrives and I can make 'hi-fi' videos again.
Where I Work 2023
Jan 21, 2023
The attic is getting closer to the ideal.
The ideal is not static, though.
Closer.
The Establishment Version Six Point One
Oct 18, 2022
Updated post today Oct 21. Added more photos, links to all gear, and got started on modular table. More soon.
Getting there. A week or so more work and it should be fully functional.
Left to right, top to bottom -
Keyboard and tabletop synths
Korg OP Six FM Synth
Modor NF-1 Digital 'Noise-Formant' Synth
Music stand with iPad on it
Rack with Kurzweil PC2R (synth/sampler), Patch Bay & Synth Line Mixer
Oberheim (by Dave Smith) OB-6 Polyphonic Analogue Synth
(missing - arriving next week - Conductive Labs Midi Routing Control Centre)
Sequential Take 5 Polyphonic Analogue Synth
Majella Implexus Mono Synth with Buchla Style FM and Wavefolding
Moog Matriarch (plus AJH Gemini SIM stereo filter) Paraphonic 4 Oscillator Synth
Recording equipment
API Lunchbox (Mic Pre, EQ, Compression)
2@ Daking Mic Pre / Eq (based on Trident design)
2@ Empirical Labs Distressor Compressors
Sans Amp PSA-1 Guitar Pre-amp
Apogee Ensemble Audio Interface
Modor DR-2 Drum Machine / Module
Samson Patch Bay & Modular Synth Line Mixer
Cranbourne Audio 500 ADAT containing
Lindell Audio 7X-500 Compressor
Lindell Audio PEX-500 500 Passive Equalizer
Solid State Logic VHD+ Pre 500 Series Microphone Preamp
Solid State Logic UltraViolet EQ 500 Series Equalizer
TK Audio BC501 stereo bus compressor
Modular Synthesis
CME Bluetooth Midi Keyboard
iPad (with various USB and MIDI connections)
Modular Synthesizer (details to follow)
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Second photo is the workstation. The monitor speakers are self powered by Genelec. These actually belong to my son. I have a larger pair, currently in storage, too big for this set up. Up until this latest revamp, I was actually using my Pro-Ac speakers and a Quad power amp. I'm thinking of moving them to the living room, if I ever get a working turntable...
The computer is a mac-mini. Amazingly quite powerful enough for what I do, musically. 20 years ago I needed the most powerful one they made. I still prefer to use a trackball rather than a pad.
The keyboard is an Alesis V49. Very light and compact. Cheap and recommended!
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Next is a close up of my new, simplified monitoring system. It's a small 12 channel Mackie mixer that has the outputs of the two line mixers (synths and modular) and the various recording devices - the Daking/Distressor channels, the API lunchbox, and the Cranbourne 500 rack. These are all also connected to the Apogee Ensemble (the computer audio interface). Using this system I can monitor what I'm recording completely free of latency. I still don't understand why everyone doesn't do this. You'd be amazed how many 'pro' systems monitor through their computers... and most modern DAWs assume that we all do.
The newest addition to this set up is the wireless headphones by AIAIAI developed by Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman. They have latency, but so little that I am able to play keyboards and guitar wearing them, which is a huge help and a bonus for my wife (not having to hear the same tune blasting from the speakers all day).
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Continuing clockwise around the room, my modular system is next.
It has evolved from being purely Eurorack modular to a hybrid, with multiple formats, using both CV (control voltage) and MIDI to play the various modules and instruments.
To the left of the iPad, top to bottm -
Modor DR-2 drum synthesizer and sequencer. I'm a big fan of Modor - a one man Belgian company who also make the NF-1 on the other side of the room. They are proudly all digital and consequently offer me a wider palette than have an all analogue set up. I only bought this halfway through the latest album project and I'm still learning it. I expect the sound of my next record to be a combination of this and the Pulsar 23 (will discuss that soon).
Samson patch-bay. Samson don't make 'sexy' gear, but they make really well thought out utilities. I've grown to like them more and more.
The gap below will be filled by my second Conductive Labs MRCC arriving next week. This one will connect to the iPad, the one on the other side of the room will connect to the MacMini, and the two will connect via Cat6a ethernet cable, meaning I will be able to play any of the instruments from the iPad, or the Mac, or both. My reasoning here is that I've had more ideas working with the iPad and I want to be able to integrate these ideas into album projects, and not just electronic/instrumental ones. On the latest album, the final track was built from a soundscape created using Audio Damage Enso looper. But it took a lot of work. Hopefully, during next album sessions, these types of cross platform projects will be simpler.
The other thing I like about the MRCC is that it can be used without any computers. When I started working with modular synths in 2010, it was to get away from computers, and I still think there is a benefit to this.
Below the gap is another Samson line mixer.
Next is the Cranbourne Audio 500 ADAT (contents listed above). This connects directly to the Ensemble audio interface (using ADAT technology) giving me an extra 8 inputs and outputs. It's also very cleverly thought out, each channel is also connected to a stereo mixer, so that's the output that is connected to my monitor mixer.
At the bottom is what I would admit is something of a luxury item - The Lexicon PCM-60 is a reverb unit. I owned one in the late 80s but idiotically sold it to 'upgrade' the the newer (I think it was the 70, or the 80...) model. This is simple and sounds great. And lots of folk wax lyrical about 'that 80's reverb'. This is it! I was lucky to find an almost mint unit on Reverb a few years ago.
I spent a ton of time and money experimenting with mini-systems to take with me on tour. Nothing was useful for more than a couple of weeks and almost nothing enabled me to create music I wanted to do something with. And then I finally tried the iPad for musical experiments on tour, and I found that there is amazing stuff being created for iOS which isn't being made for MacOS, and most of it is remarkably affordable. So I now have two formats that I work in. On MacOS I use Logic ProX, and on iOS I use AUM to host all sorts of apps - sequencers, samplers, granular processors. Here are a few of my favourites -
Patterning 2 Drum Machine
StepPolyArp Polyphonic Arpeggiator
Fugue Machine Multi-playhead piano roll sequencer. Really fun, and musical, you can almost make auto-Bach or auto Eno.
Xynthesizer Matrix Sequencer / Synth
Animoog Synth
Mononoke Synth (similar to Soma Lyra 8)
IVCS3 Synthi app made with Peter Zinovieff's blessing
In front of the iPad is Midi Fighter Twister. A hardware midi controller so I'm not constantly needing to touch the screen just to hit 'play', etc.
The Establishment Version Six
Oct 10, 2022
OK, that's a guess. Maybe it's 7.0.
The Establishment is the name of my faux studio - ie. my attic, or my room in Eastworks where Music IAFL and Antidepressant were made.
I'm always moving things around, hoping to create the ideal writing/recording environment. It's never perfect...
The thinking, this time around, is that as I'm doomed/damned to make at least half the next record up here, maybe I should have decent monitoring system... so I moved the speakers out of the corner, to the middle of the long wall. That should sound better, and allow me to audition mastering files using speakers rather than headphones. We will see.
This also brings the computer to the middle of the stage. Linking the modular side of things to the traditional synth and guitar side, rather than, as previously, sitting to the side of, and not really interacting with either.
Note, with apologies for cryptic BS. The reflection in the computer screen is the wall above my writing desk, with Post Its for all the album song ideas. I will post a close up of these at some point once the album is out.
More ASAP, as my back allows.
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