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Just recently did a major upgrade of my personal studio.

Background: Built dream house on 3 acres.  Wife supported a 16' X 23' standalone studio w 14' cathedral ceilings. Made of sand filled cinderblock w stucco.  I did all interior work, putting a mixture of Ethan Weiner style DIY bass traps and shrouded OC703 offset from the wall, all over, with special emphasis on corner bass trapping.

Just upgraded my computer from a Mac G5 PPC to a 15" MBP quad i7, which I tricked out w 16G RAM and SSD.

Replaced my MOTU 896HD w an Apogee Symphony I/O (I shouldn't say "replaced" since the I/O is just two channels at the moment, so I still use MOTU for recording more than two tracks, on drums, etc...)

Got my long-standing Neumann U-89 some friends in a pair of Peluso P12 mics.

Upgraded my DAW to Digital Performer 8.0 and snagged a copy of NI Komplete

These additions, on top of my DynAudio BM15 monitors and Seventh Circle Audio Neve and API clones gives me a really nice front end and monitoring situation.

Results?

First of all, the delta between the Apogee and MOTU was not as severe as I'd expected.  Comparing the MOTU to a Focusrite Saffire I got for live performance revealed the MOTU to be closer to the Apogee in sound quality. Still, the monitoring quality and A/D is pretty amazing.

The Pelusos are really fantastic.  They have the high end shimmer I'd hoped for (which is why I got them over ribbon mics) and have sounded great on everything I've thrown at them.  They sound really punchy with the SCA API clone preamps, the Neve clone can compensate a bit for the shimmer with its depth.  Love, love, love these mics, but the Neumann still gets some use. I ended up boosting highs a lot before I got the Pelusos. But now, they sit in tracks really well naked.

The MBP running in 64 bit mode is a beast.  It's got more than enough horsepower, especially given my CPU and RAM work habit parsimony I'd developed over the years with the old reliable G5.

Digital Performer 8.0 is a real winner.  MOTU has aggressively closed what few gaps they had with other DAWs (demo version, Windows support and great virtual processors), and kept their differentiators moving ahead as well.  With my Komplete VIs on top, this combo is stellar.

Challenges?

MBP runs loud fans when cranking on a big DAW project.  I've built a silencer box with uber quiet fans in the back  and nice air tight seals up front.  This quiets it considerably, although I may need to increase the air flow, as the MBP still runs hot.  I'll be doubling the number of fans (two inflow, two outflow) in the silencer box.

Coinciding with these upgrades, I had a bunch of equipment failures (Neumann got indigestion, DynAudio blew a tweeter, SCA developed a hum, guitar amp blew). So I had the ugly studio expenditures and hassle that prevented further fun expenditures. Moral: the more cool stuff you have, the more stuff you have to maintain.

I just do this for serious fun (although I produce projects for serious musician friends and for my own material).  And yes, I'm a spoiled little bitch.

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Todzilla wrote:

 

 

Just recently did a major upgrade of my personal studio.

 

Background: Built dream house on 3 acres.  Wife supported a 16' X 23' standalone studio w 14' cathedral ceilings. Made of sand filled cinderblock w stucco.  I did all interior work, putting a mixture of Ethan Weiner style DIY bass traps and shrouded OC703 offset from the wall, all over, with special emphasis on corner bass trapping.

 

Just upgraded my computer from a Mac G5 PPC to a 15" MBP quad i7, which I tricked out w 16G RAM and SSD.

 

Replaced my MOTU 896HD w an Apogee Symphony I/O (I shouldn't say "replaced" since the I/O is just two channels at the moment, so I still use MOTU for recording more than two tracks, on drums, etc...)

 

Got my long-standing Neumann U-89 some friends in a pair of Peluso P12 mics.

 

Upgraded my DAW to Digital Performer 8.0 and snagged a copy of NI Komplete

 

These additions, on top of my DynAudio BM15 monitors and Seventh Circle Audio Neve and API clones gives me a really nice front end and monitoring situation.

Results?

 

First of all, the delta between the Apogee and MOTU was not as severe as I'd expected.  Comparing the MOTU to a Focusrite Saffire I got for live performance revealed the MOTU to be closer to the Apogee in sound quality. Still, the monitoring quality and A/D is pretty amazing.

 

The Pelusos are really fantastic.  They have the high end shimmer I'd hoped for (which is why I got them over ribbon mics) and have sounded great on everything I've thrown at them.  They sound really punchy with the SCA API clone preamps, the Neve clone can compensate a bit for the shimmer with its depth.  Love, love, love these mics, but the Neumann still gets some use. I ended up boosting highs a lot before I got the Pelusos. But now, they sit in tracks really well naked.

 

The MBP running in 64 bit mode is a beast.  It's got more than enough horsepower, especially given my CPU and RAM work habit parsimony I'd developed over the years with the old reliable G5.

 

Digital Performer 8.0 is a real winner.  MOTU has aggressively closed what few gaps they had with other DAWs (demo version, Windows support and great virtual processors), and kept their differentiators moving ahead as well.  With my Komplete VIs on top, this combo is stellar.

Challenges?

 

MBP runs loud fans when cranking on a big DAW project.  I've built a silencer box with uber quiet fans in the back  and nice air tight seals up front.  This quiets it considerably, although I may need to increase the air flow, as the MBP still runs hot.  I'll be doubling the number of fans (two inflow, two outflow) in the silencer box.

 

Coinciding with these upgrades, I had a bunch of equipment failures (Neumann got indigestion, DynAudio blew a tweeter, SCA developed a hum, guitar amp blew). So I had the ugly studio expenditures and hassle that prevented further fun expenditures. Moral: the more cool stuff you have, the more stuff you have to maintain.

 

I just do this for serious fun (although I produce projects for serious musician friends and for my own material).  And yes, I'm a spoiled little bitch.

 

 

cool... you should post some pics

i have a peluso 2247LE that's been modded by a tech guru here in australia... great mic... i've heard good things about the p12s

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I've been working with a friend & collaborator that I've known for 20 + years. We used to do a lot of writing & recording together in the mid 90s - then he had some serious life changes (divorce, son's suicide, father's death...) and we drifted apart for a while. Recently he kind of "came back out of his shell" and brought me demos of about an album's worth of material. We started tracking with the help of my "Tuesday night musician's gathering" regulars. Nothing's really done, but there are a couple where all the tracking is complete. These aren't mixes, but kind of "faders-up to make sure everything works" references.

http://www.adigitalmus.net/music/D.Bonzi/TalkToMe.mp3

http://www.adigitalmus.net/music/D.Bonzi/CrazyWorld.aif

 

Scott

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