Studio Redo

[jim1960]

I broke down my PC setup and, wisely, I labeled everything (none of that was labeled before). I put it back together and everything seems to be working right off the bat. Now I need to crawl back under the desk and do some cable management before one of my dogs gets strangled in that mess.

[jim1960]

I knew I'd run into this problem... one of my usb cables is too short so the redo is pretty much on hold until Friday when the cable arrives.

As I was hooking up various cables to my iMac, monitors, etc., and began tossing cable ends over the back of the desk, it started to look like the free buffet at a pasta restaurant. My first thought was to install eyelets to the underside of the desk but then another idea occurred to me... Command Strip hooks would do the job and there's no drilling required. I can attach those to the walls beneath the desk and use velcro cable ties (which I have a ton of) to bundle the cables and hang them from the hooks. The hooks are arriving Friday as well.

I spent some time today positioning my Neumann monitors as perfectly as possible. They are equidistant from the walls on back and side, and they're positioned to point at a spot just behind my head when I'm in my listening position. In my previous setup, I was unable to space them far enough apart.

When I'm done, this room should be good for tracking (something that was very problematic before) but it's not going to be great for mixing because I'm not going to be able to treat for first reflections. I have a window and my pc monitor on one side and the new gear racks will be on the other side (not much I can do about that, small rooms require compromise). That said, it should be better for mixing than it was because there's more symmetry for monitor placement and GIK Monster traps in the front corners. This new setup also lets me get the monitors about a foot off the wall where they were only a few inches before.

Along the back wall, I have a door in one corner which prevents me from installing a trap there but the other corner is very well treated with three bass traps (photo below). I use that corner in combination with my GIK Portable Isolation Booth for recording vocals. The isolation booth gives me some other options too. I can use it in a V-shape when tracking guitar and I can keep it folded and put it in the corner where the door is while mixing. Imperfect solutions but, like I said, better than before.

I'm hoping to be up and running sometime this weekend.

[Glennwillow]

The job tends to keep getting bigger, doesn't it...

You'll be glad you did this reorganization.

- Glenn

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

The job tends to keep getting bigger, doesn't it...

You'll be glad you did this reorganization.

It really does but it was necessary. I'm happy to be this far along and waiting on the cable gives my back a break and let me catch up on a few things, including finding a nice restaurant in San Diego with outdoor seating for my dad's birthday gift. He turns 85 next month. It took me a couple of hours of research before I found a place I thought he and his wife would like. It's not easy picking out a restaurant in San Diego while sitting in New York (thank you, internet).

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by jim1960

. Command Strip hooks would do the job and there's no drilling required. I can attach those to the walls beneath the desk and use velcro cable ties (which I have a ton of) to bundle the cables and hang them from the hooks. The hooks are arriving Friday as well.

It is always fun when we come up with little ideas to keep things more organized. I am sure your Command strip hooks will keep things organized and looking much nicer. Great Idea.

Love your set up in the corner.

Can you tell us a bit more about your hanging Acoustic Panels? Looks like the cloth goes all the way around your panels. Are you inserting you metal hanging pins into Wood underneath the cloth? Or are your panels frame - less.

And if they are frame - less...how are able to insert the metal eye loops?

I am building a couple of panels using frame- less panels. But it is not too late to change my design.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

Can you tell us a bit more about your hanging Acoustic Panels? Looks like the cloth goes all the way around your panels. Are you inserting you metal hanging pins into Wood underneath the cloth? Or are your panels frame - less.

The black panels are GIK bass traps that I purchased many years ago. They're framed with what feels like 1"x 1" strips that create a box so that the absorption material isn't blocked on the sides.

I'm not sure if GIK has since changed their construction method since then but the monster traps I bought more recently are framed with what feels like 1/8" plywood that goes around the perimeter. Whether that applies to their regular bass traps, I don't know. If I were building from scratch, however, I'd opt for the 1"x 1" strips to make a box with open sides.

Anyway... I screwed L-brackets into the wood on the traps and into the ceiling and walls, then used S-hooks to attach the panels. For the cloud on the ceiling (photo below), I just used L-brackets. You do have to do some figuring to make sure you hit beams.

[jim1960]

The USB cable came and I have my iMac all wired up. Then I put my midi keyboard (which got a really good cleaning today) on the desk and realized I have no room for a mouse pad. So I had to reposition my corner traps in order to move the midi keyboard back a few more inches. Now I have enough room in front of it for the computer keyboard, a mouse, and the monitor controller.

Notice you can't see any of the cables that are under the desk. The Command Strip hooks were a good solution there. I was about to start re-cabling the outboard gear and realized I don't have a way to manage cables behind the rack. I really need some eyelets in the rack so I have something to use as anchor points with the velcro cable ties. That will wait until tomorrow. My back is telling me to take a break for the evening.

Here's my new layout. The photo was taken with a 20mm lens (only way to get it all in) so there's some size distortion. Facing the iMac, the vocal corner with the three bass traps is over my left shoulder and the corner with the door is over my right. I have a two shelf bookcase under the three bass traps to use for storage and I have a narrow shelf unit about as tall as the new gear racks that will go to the right of them and that will be my main mic storage.

And as you can see in the photo, there was a time when I fell for the foam myth. The only foam left in the room are those pieces you can see in the upper corners of the front and some foam squares on the back of the door. I put that stuff up close to 20 years back.

[jim1960]

I'm finally re-cabling up all my gear. All those orange labels certainly make the job go a lot quicker than if I had to think through every connection but it's still sizable task. About 3/4 of the way through I realized there was a more efficient way to go about this chore but I wasn't about to pull all the cables I'd already installed at that point.

Part of what slowed me down was trying to figure out how to cable the rack on the left in the photo and still be able to easily maneuver into it's final position. What I settled on was wiring everything I could on the other rack and then I'll turn them both around and make the left rack to right rack connections so all I have to do is push them towards the wall with no need for any turns. That's what the cables that are over the top of the rack are for... those are all the left rack to right rack connections I need to make.



I don't think that picture really shows the scope of how many connections had to be made in that 8u rack where the vast majority of connections are, so I took a closer picture from a better angle. Even this photo obscures a lot of the cabling but it gives a better sense of how much there is and why I invest in cables with superior shielding.

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by jim1960

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I see that you use a little Vocal Isolator booth in conjunction with all of your other sound panels.

How much improvement in sound do you hear when using this in combination? Besides better Isolation, is there any other sound changes?

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

I see that you use a little Vocal Isolator booth in conjunction with all of your other sound panels.

How much improvement in sound do you hear when using this in combination? Besides better Isolation, is there any other sound changes?

I only used that when I would record scratch vox sitting at my desk because the way my room was set up I'd get some echo and the shield helped tame that. I'm not sure if I'll still need it for that in this new setup. I never use it for the vox I intend to keep.

[jim1960]

I'm nearly done. I need a longer ethernet cable to run from the iMac to the Avid Carbon. The only way the original reaches is if I run it diagonally over the top of the desk and midi keyboard. I also forgot to hook the iMac up to my router. I have to crawl under the desk to run that cable and I've spent enough time under there today. I ordered the cables and they should be here on Wednesday. Hopefully, that will be my crawl on the floor day.

[Glennwillow]

The photos really tell a good story Jim. I have had my challenges with cabling behind my rack of stuff and I have maybe one half of the gear you have.

It's fascinating to see what you are doing!

- Glenn

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

The photos really tell a good story Jim. I have had my challenges with cabling behind my rack of stuff and I have maybe one half of the gear you have.

It's fascinating to see what you are doing!

Thanks Glenn. It's been quite the DUSTY adventure.

[KevWind]

Jim I take it the red and green cables are L&R monitor line outs from the Carbon But they go into the back of that top unit,,,, so how do the signals get to your monitor speakers ?

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Jim I take it the red and green cables are L&R monitor line outs from the Carbon But they go into the back of that top unit,,,, so how do the signals get to your monitor speakers ?

That patch bay at the top on the back of the 8u rack connects via db25-to-db25 cables to my Dangerous Monitor ST. I wanted a more elegant way to add another set or two of monitors at some point without using a DB25-to-XLRF breakout cable hanging off the back of the Monitor ST.

That same box was hanging off the back of my old rack but I added a couple of 4u rails to the back of the 8u rack so now it's racked on the back as I intended it would be. The box was made by Redco.