The Valves recording studio

Phase 9

Lights, Camera, Action... well, not so much camera...

A momentous Milestone was passed this week, as for the first time, music was heard in the control room. it took a couple of hours to get the mixer, computer, monitors and a few odds an ends to talk to each other and agree on what to do with a CD when played, but eventually all conflicts were settled and the sweet sounds of the Beatles "Dear Prudence" was hear pouring forth in all it's Lennony goodness, and there were some very happy valves there to hear it.

One of the more obvious changes from last week are the lights, gone are the old fashioned boring ceiling fixtures and in their place, some spiffy and stylish track lighting. The wall on the right is the last bit of construction remaining. It had to wait until Rosie and the still were moved. Were they moved? Of course they were dummy, how do you think I took the picture from where they used to be if they were still there. Use your head from crying out loud. Sheesh!

Steve and Greg basking in the light of the new overhead track lighting fixtures. So moody, So atmospheric, So dim... ummm, well Steve is adding a few more lights to this room... Oh look through the control room window, is that a computer monitor I see lit up? Could be...

Before heading into the control room however, let us gaze into the corner formerly occupied by Rosie and the Still. No longer will intoxicated musician's stumble, trip and mumble curses under their breath aimed at no one in particular. This opens up quite a bit of space, and the Tornado Alley horns can now spread out and enjoy some well earned elbow room.

The first thing you may notice when walking into the control room, assuming you are very snobby and walk with your nose in the air because you think you're better than everyone else, would be the lovely multi color patterns cast by the track lighting within. And for god's sake, get over yourself, you really think you're better than me? Do you? Just because you learned to eat with a fork before high school, you think you're so great!

We finally began actually connecting things, plugging things, and listening to things. Not everything you see here is in it's final position, but we felt it was important to finally fire up some of these things and make sure they worked. The monitor on the far left is not staying in that spot, though the two in the middle probably are.As you can see, the mixer is on, and little lights are going blinkety blink.

The mix position once again. Something to take note of if you're into these things, look at the fader positions on the mixer, and then look at them on the left monitor... they are the SAME... Ooooooooh! The mixer is connected directly to the monitor and they can control each other. What you can't see is that the faders are motorized and move by themselves. It's something you really have to see to appreciate.

As you can see, we were still in the middle of connecting things, and probably will be for the next few weeks. One keyboard and mouse is present, there will be two eventually. The mixer monitor will probably be going in this corner on the desk

The little box in front of the right side monitor is a wired remote for the HD deck, which hasn't been installed yet. That remote may go in the main studio so that we can start and stop the deck without actually going into the control room. The flashlight in the foreground is about where the mixer monitor will most like end up. The red velcro strap is probably where the donut and pizza boxes will go.

A close up of the mixer monitor. It duplicates all the controls on the mixer itself, but it also gives better control over effects plug ins and automation. What is a plug in you ask? Plug ins can range from simple effects like reverbs to more complex things like harmonizers and amp simulators. We have a pretty large collection of plug ins, but they will be in the computer and used at mixdown, not so much in the mixer.

And these are both computer monitors. When mixing, one side will show the mixer and the other side will show plug ins and that sort of thing. Or if we're recording something that we don't like, we may watch DVDs in here and just pretend we're listening.

And this is the computer. Unassuming looking little thing, but it's got a lot of horsepower. Most actually mixing will probably be done on this. Steve was particularly proud of the little blue light on the front. The computer will not be staying here by the way, but it will be someplace under the desk.

The mixer again. It will not be hanging off the front of the desk like this. There is going to be a mahogany armrest going on the front edge of the desk and the mixer will be up against that.

The armrest will match the mahogany trim that Steve installed since last week. Talk about stylish and sleek. As mentioned before, the faders move by themselves. What is the point of this you ask? So you can play really nasty jokes on very young children involving ghosts out to eat them when it gets dark mostly, but it's also because the mixer is automated. Automation lets you take a mix a channel at a time, tweaking each instrument or vocal part individually over the course of the mixdown, rather than trying to screw with 24 faders and effects sends and everything else in real time during playback. I've done it, it sucks believe me.

And for the first time, the deck made it's appearance. It's been in this portable rack for safe keeping since it was originally purchased a few months back. 24 track all digital hard disk recorder. It records directly to hard drives like the ones in a computer (although formatted differently) instead of tape. This means, among other things, that there is no lag time when trying to find part of a song. If any of you have ever used tape based ADATs before, you probably know what a bitch it was to keep 3 decks in sync and then try to find a particular point in a song. No more of that crap baby, enter where you want to go and you're there.

Finally, these were delivered the same night, this is one of the Polk Audio SDA 1-As that will eventually be our large studio monitors. They are really big, about 4 feet high, 100 lbs a piece. They will be mounted just to the outside of the Mackie monitors on special super heavy duty stands.The purpose of big speakers like this when recording sometimes confuses people. Whenever you see a picture of a studio control room, you always see some kind of big giant speakers, often they are mounted right in the wall, and yet, if you are ever there when the recording is being mixed, you'll find that these big speakers aren't being used. Why is that? Well, it's simple really, the average person buying a CD doesn't own $30,000. speakers or even $2000.00 ones. The average person owns some form of small bookshelf speakers, or listen in their car. When mixing, you are trying to create a mix that will sound good on the average stereo, not some showpiece system that only Bill Gates can afford. So then, why the big expensive speakers? More often than not, they are used when tracking (when the actual instruments are being recorded) so that whatever you're recording can be heard in the most accurate way possible. If your snare drum has some weird rattle in it, it's good to be able to hear that stuff. With big speakers, you can hear the entire frequency range, you can hear if the bass is too boomy or the vocals have too much sibilance. So, I've just gone much further into this than I'm sure you care about, and if you're still reading this far down, I congratulate you. The average person would have given up long ago, but not you. You're better than them, you're curious, you like to know how the world works, you're a mover and a shaker. You don't just go to a website and skim it and move on, hell no! You know full well that there is plenty of time for porn later, but for now, you want to know what makes things tick! Women adore you, even if you're a woman! They watch you enter the room and lunge for the lipstick, knowing they may never have a chance again with such a virile and attractive potential mate or materess. The world is your oyster, but not the smelly kind, oh no! The pearl kind, the kind that opens up and says "Take me, you vicious brute and steal my pearl, I'm unworthy to create it in your magnificent presence". At this point of course, if you're still reading this, it only proves what a total megalomaniac you are, so full of yourself that you choose to continue to stand there and have praise heaped upon you as if you're quetzelchoatle awaiting a virgin sacrifice. Well you're not getting it here bub, just take your pretentious snobbery elsewhere, I have no use for that kind of stuck up snootliness. And if you're STILL reading this, it only goes to show that you're really the forgiving kind, the kind soul who can take criticism even from a total stranger and turn the other cheek without being offended. Who may even take it to heart and ask themselves, "Perhaps this fat lout is correct in his observations of me" and are willing to look within yourself to ferret out your faults and change. Change is good, it is what has allowed mankind to grow beyond our tree dwelling roots to become the dominant force upon out little world. And so, it is because of you that humanity moves forward and our species advances to it's ignominious end. You are a hero, a philosopher, a king. Good job, damn good job. congratulations. No really, here have a cookie.