Facilities and Equipment

As with all good things……..this setup has now undergone a major change, with the Soundcraft Sapphyre moving on to a new studio. When Tim decided to retire, seeking tranquility and inner-peace in his camper van, he left a legion of loyal customers (and friends) in tears! It’s an impossible vacuum to fill.

The studio now has a live desk with a digital interface and various other new pieces of gear.

This is a small private studio comprising two rooms, one for recording, overdubbing and sequencing, the other acting as a control room. It’s not large enough for a full band setup, though with creative drum-programming and sampling a band can comfortably produce material for mastering.

There is a dual-frame 24 channel desk, a Soundcraft Sapphyre, of vintage analogue pedigree. It even has Gates on every channel, which is a very unusual feature, and excellent EQ. There are six auxiliaries and six stereo inputs, allowing for plenty of flexibility. A 24 track Fostex digital machine handles recording, with monitoring by Tannoy. Stereo mixes go to DAT & computer, simultaneously if needed. There are several FX units providing an arsenal of sounds.

Sampling can be done on computer or by dedicated units. There is an Akai CD3000XL, fully-loaded with FX & filter boards. Similarly, there is an EMU 4000 and a Yamaha A3000, both of which can handle complete compositions on their own! A number of keyboards are available for midi setups.

The studio is ideal for a singer-songwriter or a ‘dance’ composer, using a mix of hardware & software.
Audio tuition is available for anyone interested in the mysteries of sound technology and recording. Feel free to contact by email.

A view of the main room from near the entrance. There’s the desk and main rack on the right.

The rack has a number of FX units and a couple of bog-standard compressors. The compressors are patched over some group inserts for light vocal compression on recording. They’re handy for bass & acoustic guitars, too.

The Zoom FX unit is unbelievable. Recommend to anyone. The Lexicon is serviceable but is not the same Lexicon you find in mainstream pro studios. I have an Alex lying around somewhere, too. One of the best units is the Digitech Studio Quad. Fabulous sounds.

The large speakers are Tannoy Reveals. The small white speaker on the meter bridge is a Pico, used for alternative monitoring. Very nice. The speakers are driven by Samson and Omniphonics (Footprint) amps.

The right photo shows my ‘functional’ rack. The main recording beasts are kept here. I still master to DAT tape. The Tascam is brilliant. The sound is immaculate. I also send mixes to a computer (G3 Mac), but the difference in playback is incredible. Tape has something special.

The multitrack is a very reliable Fostex digital machine. It has 24 tracks at various sample rates. There are two drives, one 30 Gb on board & a spare back-up 160 Gb drive. The second on-board drive is for DVD-RAM cartridges in order to back-up all recordings in their multitrack format. Invaluable. You can even play back from the cartridges!

Also pictured is a MOTU midi interface which allows for a large number of midi-compatible units to be linked to the multitrack machine and sequencer on the G3 computer. Very neat.

There’s an old Roland sound module in there, which I never use. Was all over the 80s sounds that one….

2nd photo: A Yamaha A3000 sampler, with a decent CD writer underneath. The sampler is a bit quirky, but has three banks of very good effects. I often stick my Westone Thunder guitar through its Marshall stacks!

3rd photo: Here’s the main compressor fired up. It has a ridiculous quality for its price. It’s an ART compressor. You’ll find them in huge studios with other compressors ten-times the cost. I find it produces nice results with a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio. It can handle very aggressive ratios, but can also destroy mixes. Awesome.

4th photo: It’s worth splashing a large amount of your budget on a decent microphone. It pays dividends. It doesn’t matter which make. Just invest. There are some impressive condenser microphones about, as well as vintage types. A variety is sensible.

Pictured above is the EMU 4000 sampler, loaded with the additional FX board. It’s connected to an EMU X25 for performance and recording. The X25 can be hooked up to a laptop too for performance with a sequencer.

Here’s the back room, used for sequencing with the trusty old G3 Mac. The Mac has a massive (meant to be tongue-in-cheek) 4Gb drive, partitioned into two 2Gb drive areas, one for Programs & the other for audio. There are some fantastic programs on it, such as Bias Peak, on which Toy Story was made. The keyboard in the image is a Korg X5, which is connected permanently to the computer to interface with Cubase, a sequencer and audio program.

The room doubles as the recording booth, too, for overdubbing. It’s a vocal booth (dead), a space for recording acoustic & semi-acoustic instruments (through DI units and compressors) and a neat place for adding electric guitar parts. There are many options for guitar overdubbing. Some of the FX facilities on the samplers are exceptional. Monitoring in there is good, too, with headphone & speaker foldback.

Always useful to have a variety of guitars. Nothing worse than sending a guitarist into a guitar shop!

Pictured above are a Les Paul Standard Gibson from Nashville & an odd, but nifty, Vantage Resonator guitar, which is great for unusual tunings or a bit of slide (though you’d probably want to change the action for true slide playing).

I’ve had this semi-acoustic Burns guitar for many years. I picked it up as a bargain in Birmingham in 1974. Baldwin-Burns were quite popular in the mid60s & you occasionally see them for sale. Looks nice and plays great. This was the ‘tobacco’ model, complete with James Burns pick-ups.

A very nice blue semi-acoustic, from Freshman’s Apollo range. Has gold tuning gears. Sounds good when DI’d into the desk. There are other guitars, both acoustic and electric.