Tone. At Home.
The things we can use to bottle up our tone and put it on display for all to marvel at!
This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
A couple of very interesting bits of new gear announced today.
I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.
My studio rack is here.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #5: The Rack Has Arrived”I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.
The studio rack is on its way. Now I need to choose a couple of patchbays to go in it.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #4: Picking The Patchbays”I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.
The guts of my studio is going to be the rack that most of my gear lives in.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #3: Picking The Rack”I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.
It’s far too tempting – and far too easy! – to go browsing Thomann and Andertons, and put together a wish-list of gear to turn into a fab home studio.
I’m going to sound like a heretic here. I don’t think that the gear alone makes the studio. Not a home studio at any rate. I think what matters most for a home studio is what it’s like to use.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #2: What Should The Studio Be Like?”I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.
The Hermit’s Cave – my home studio – is little more than a corner of same room that doubles up as my home office for work. In September last year, I bought new furniture for the room … and since then, most of my gear has been sat in a pile completely unplugged.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #1: The State Of Things”Earlier today, I popped round my local guitar shop to try Blackstar’s new Studio 10 combo amps. I came away with the 6L6 version firmly on my list of amps to buy.
Continue reading “On My Wishlist: Blackstar’s Studio 10 6L6”
The turning of the year can be a great time to hunt for new (to you) guitar gear. The second hand market is normally flooded with folks who are moving on gear they no longer want – or sadly can no longer afford to keep. And there’s Winter NAMM, where brands large and small drop announce new products.
I’ve been lucky enough to pick up some stuff that I’m interested in, and I thought I’d share it with you. Some of it is new to me, and some of it is me taking a second look at things I’ve had before but didn’t gel with. And there’s a few very special items too.
I’m going to do full articles on each of them, once I’ve had a bit of time with them. For now, here’s the very first impressions for you.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For January”Slate Digital has launched the VRS8, their 8×8 recording interface for Thunderbolt-equipped Macs.
https://youtu.be/mP3IhLrnDW4
For home studio enthusiasts who want pro-level gear, there’s really only three ways to do it: Universal Audio Apollo, Slate Digital VRS and the Everything Bundle … or buy a standalone interface and collect your own plugins from lots of different vendors.
The UAD system relies on DSP chips in the Apollo hardware to run emulations of analog outboard gear. You have to buy these plugins separately, and they cost hundreds of pounds each. The results are fantastic, and not only well worth the money, but also far cheaper than buying (and maintaining!) the real outboard gear.
There’s just one problem, and it’s the reason why I haven’t bought any UAD plugins this year. The Apollo hardware is simply underpowered. It doesn’t take many plugins to max out the available hardware. And if you’re a home studio enthusiast, it’s a lot of money to move from the Apollo Twin up to the Apollo 8.
Enough money to consider looking at switching to something else.
Now Slate Digital has its own serious problem to take into account. It’s secured by an iLok key. Look at a modern Mac. Where the hell do you find a free port to plug the iLok into these days?!? One port is taken up by power, one by the external storage that the session is on, one by your audio interface, and one by your external monitor.
Yes, I know there’s a virtual iLok now. I live in the UK, where our broadband is about as reliable as a Trump tweet or a Brexit promise. I don’t want a (rare!) creative day ruined because of a broadband outage.
That said, the Slate Digital VRS looks really interesting. For pretty much the same price as the Apollo 8 Quad, you get 8 preamps and a year’s access to the Everything Bundle. (The equivalent UAD Ultimate Bundle is currently over £2,300 and doesn’t include all of the plugins). And your Mac will be able to run far more plugins at once than the quad-DSPs of the Apollo 8.
Thing is, if I’m going to use all 8 preamps, I’d want the Apollo 8p, not the Apollo 8. The difference? The extra Unison preamps, which model the electrical behaviour of whatever outboard gear you’re simulating. I’m a big fan, and a big believer that part of the organicness of a recorded tone comes from the interaction of the electrical circuit.
Question is, though: is it a difference that is noticeable in a final mix? And is it a difference that’s worth the extra money?
Henning Pauly has posted a behind-the-scenes look at the setup for his recent live band live streams, showing us the in-ear monitoring he’s been using for the live bands.
You probably won’t ever need an in-ear monitoring system for home playing or home recording. But if you’ve got a band that rehearses or plays live, you need something that’ll protect your hearing and let you hear everything that’s happening.
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