Hey Aldy, a worthy dream and goal! Build your equipment up slowly and save (save, save!) and plan for your studio build out one day. You must be patient, but if you really want it, you can do it. Best of luck!
Chuck Juice thank you! Haha yes. A sweaty drummer or two has certainly agreed. Pre-Covid the whole lounge space made for a good overnight crash pad for a visiting solo artist or engineer as well.
I watched part of this Tour and then watched your updated "Genesys Tour". You seem like a great guy. Very detailed and interesting. I can see that you put a huge amount of thought into all of your equipment appointments, instruments, and room designs. You are like a really big studio in a compact package! A Mini-Record Plant! I've worked Big Rooms since 1972 - NYC to California and a lot of places in between. Neves, Harrisons, MCI Consoles, Studer, Ampex, MCI Tape machines, Radar, ProTools, Digital Performer, Symphony Orchestras (many, many concerts), Rok N Roll, Jazz, Country, Big Band, Gospel Choirs, Classical Choirs, Spoken Word, Forensics for the FBI (Really). And I really dig what you have going on there. Thoughtful. If I need a place to record in SD, I'll look you up! Congratulations and the best to you!
Rafael Carmany thank you so much. That means a lot coming from someone that has been around the block. I would certainly welcome you here as a guest engineer once all this virus stuff blows over. Take care and thanks for watching! Roy
Wow, you have a great studio, but even more impressive is the fabulous collection of instruments and other equipment. You for shure know what's it's all about! Greetings from The Netherlands!
Thank you! Yeah, I think as a studio it really makes sense to have some cool instruments that most people don't have. It inspires creativity. Thanks again!
I've been building my own studio for the past 2 years. Your setup is basically what I am working towards.. So thanks for the tour, and giving me some renewed inspiration and energy to keep at it! Loving the Toft desk btw
Kevin De Cuyper thanks and good luck! Mine was a 3 year process. Only one of those years was construction, but yeah it takes awhile! If you like the Toft desk did you see the updated version of the tour with the Neve Genesys? I had a custom desk made for it as well.
You got a huge collection of smart investments. I worked on the ATB at school; we learned the basics on it before we got to touch the 5088. Beautiful sounding EQ, and it made for a really great experience. Nice video, thanks for the in depth tour!
Well thanks! I did carefully consider every purchase. The ATB is definitely a great mixer to start on. I agree, the EQ is excellent. I have some very exciting news coming next year in the mixing board department. I can't wait to share it with you all!
Cool! Have fun! An important tip: Follow the guidelines in the Toft manual about only connecting the grounds at the mixing board side. Meaning, anything you will have connected to the Toft, needs to have its ground connection floating. Otherwise you get a hum as soon as you connect the gear to the Toft. I don't know why this is, but it's definitely true for most gear. Some things seem to be ok without lifting the ground.
WOW !!! Still looking but full blessings for a hell of a great tour and explaination of the gear. Thank you for going through every musicians ...what is that? moment. Fantastic. BEST WISHES. 👍👍👍🎙🎙🎙👍👍👍
I’m from Minnesota and when I bought my Great River preamp I was able to visit their lab. Just a small front office space and in the back was three rooms. One where a few people were hand wiring and soldering, another where they package and ship completed units, and the coolest one that was a very pristine lab with equipment that I couldn’t begin to guess what they did other than for testing and where the creation that amazing sound is engineered. Very warm and friendly people.
Supxhier that’s really cool. They make great products. I’ve since sold my NV2, but only because I now have a Neve console and it was too redundant to have that pre. See the updated studio tour for a look. I do however have their Harrison eq on loan from another engineer for now. Thanks for watching!
I get that, makes sense. And congrats on your new board! I’m in the studio in Colombia working on a project. Mauricio (oi recording) has nice outboard gear but dreams of a neve board. I was in SD last fall and loved it. Stayed in North Park. Maybe I’ll have a project at Rarefied someday. I can’t imagine needing anything you don’t have. Love the ability too for having some sunlight in the studio 🌞
Supxhier you’re welcome here! I’m right in North Park! Yeah I got pretty much everything you need. There’s actually some new stuff I need to do a video for. I’ll get to it at some point!
Michael Dollar it was nice while I had it! Check the updated video. Ended up selling it and getting a Neve Genesys. The Toft is amazing for the money and I did some good work on it. The Genesys is a whole other level, though, of course. Not really fair to compare. Thanks for watching!
Thanks, Frank! I have to give a lot of credit to my studio designer, Wes Lachot. When you hire Wes, you get way more than an architect. He has so much experience with studios (he operates one himself, even) that he brings a ton to the table with respect to equipment, workflow, etc. You have to put your trust in someone when you venture down this path, and Wes has never let me down.
Great set up and awesome room, that tape machine sounds like it needs and alignment you can hear the metal flange hitting the tape on cycle. If this studio was close I could calibrate and set it up to run like butter.
Steve Antoniazzi thanks! I had a local tech help me align that better so all is good. The machine is working fairly well, but there’s always something that could be improved...
Thanks for the tour. You have a wonderful working space and facilities, i love the way you've utilised the hard and not so hard panels in the live room. I love the way that the control room has been laid out, clean lines with no clutter, a place for everything and everything in its place. You must have your new board in by now, have you done a video yet to show it off? Thanks again for taking the time to give us all the guided tour.
Thanks, Steve! Yeah, I definitely adhere to the "a place for everything and everything in its place" idea! I do have the new board and I filmed an update to the tour as well as a more detailed video about the board itself, but it's being edited. Hopefully I'll have something to share in the next couple weeks.
David Unruh yes they did! Not anymore, but for a time they made some really interesting mics. I know Steve Albini is a fan of them. I think now they are more of a camera company?
I am lost of words, i believe that one day my bedroom studio will become big like yours...encouraged by your advice to slide85 and that's what i heeded. i will make it to your level one day
Thank you! For the money, the Toft cannot be beat. It's in a custom desk at Rarefied, so it might look a little different than most. I'm actually planning to upgrade to something else, mainly because the Toft is hard to maintain since you can't easily just take a channel out. For a non-commercial studio that isn't so concerned about down time, I would definitely recommend the Toft, though.
Man, you are living my dream. Thanks for the tour, the place looks amazing! Naturally, I have some questions. How long did it take to put together? And how big is your team? You're clearly doing amazing work, thank you! :)
Hi Eric, Thanks for watching and for the kind words. The studio was a 3 year process. 2 years were spent in the design, permitting, planning stage. 1 year was spent in the construction phase. So as you can tell, quite a process. The "team" is really just me. I'm the sole owner and I take care of everything from cleaning toilets, gear maintenance, promotions, accounting, scheduling, you name it! This is one of the ways that I keep the overhead low and the hourly rate affordable for the average musician. Now, what makes the business work so well is that I am a big supporter of the freelance engineering community. So there are well over a dozen different engineers that book time at the studio. They are completely independent, bringing in projects they find on their own (mostly) and charging whatever they want for their fee. I have a very affordable "freelance" rate for renting to these engineers. Sometimes, when I'm not available or don't feel like I could do a project justice, I will hook up an engineer with a project that initially came to me (the studio). Otherwise, I'm the house engineer and take on clients who approach the studio directly. Always happy to answer other questions if you have them. Keep the dream alive! Roy
Definitely a great place with great audio gears. Tho, being a drummer, I was a little left with my thirst regarding the studio's drum gears. Ok, there's one kit in the mic closet and... ....that's it Not even a little Ludwig Supraphonic snare hidden somewhere ? Oh I got it, the drum topic was mistakenly removed during the video editing phase. All good then, show us what you've got in another video !
Thank you! Glad to hear it was educational. Business was quite good until the pandemic, of course. It looks like I'll be opening back up sometime in June 2020. Hopefully things will bounce back!
Jackson Taylor thank you! Thanks for watching. I’m making plans for some update videos and a deeper dive on my new mixing console. Peep the updated tour that already exists, though.
Rarefied Recording will do. I just got the Tree Audio Roots Console and am trying to set up some old tape delay. I’ll be watching for cues on gear and how to use it.
I have room for 4 500 series modules. I’m trying to get as much from the board as I can. It has tube eq and compression on each channel. I’m very new to the engineering side so I’m not sure what to get. Thinking about a couple of eq’s and compressors because the the ones in then channel strips are very limited. Think they are good neigh for pic pre’s and basic eq and compression, but ya can’t dial it in much.
Props on all the gear but there was a long time in music where none of that was around and great recordings were made. Sometimes letting people “play” and not tweak everything is the way to go
Certainly! Just because the gear is there doesn't mean it has to be used. I'm not tweaking just to tweak on stuff. If I'm using a piece of gear it's to achieve a desired result or effect. But some projects are just better to be kept straight-ahead and simple. Thanks for watching!
Carson Hoy ok let me explain then! So before I built Rarefied and worked full time as a recording engineer I worked at a company called Qualcomm that designed chips primarily for cellphones. I was part of a team responsible for designing audio chips. So in that capacity I became very involved with cellphone speakers which are these little tiny things with limited bass and power handling. We used to build up little speaker boxes with popular speakers like this to test our amplifiers. They have a very specific sealed back volume of 1cc which at the time was a common requirement. Things may have changed now. To be honest, I decided to abandon these cellphone speakers in my studio setup and if you watch the updated video you’ll notice they aren’t mentioned. Why? It’s complicated but I’ll try to explain. Basically it came down to not having the ability to drive these speakers with enough volume. Just like with a real cellphone I was using some tiny Class-D amplifiers to drive these speakers. These are 5 volt devices and it’s important to limit the input signal to them to 5V max . This meant I had to pad down the output of the mixing board considerably before it hit the amps. The result of this was usually to make the level out of the speakers very low. In a real cellphone it’s normal to use compression and limiting to keep the signal relatively loud at all times. It also became common practice to employ algorithms that made sure the speakers were not damaged from over excursion of the diaphragm (due to too much low end) or from overheating of the voice coil (due to too much power driven for long periods). My setup was not sophisticated enough to incorporate these compressor /limiters and fancy algorithms that keep the speaker loud but safe. So in the end, although it was a good idea, in practice the speakers always played too quietly to be useful. Thanks again for watching!
@@RarefiedRecording It's been 30 years since I've been in a studio. In retirement, I'm just getting back into music Feel like I'm 15 and clueless, so I'm taking advantage of UA-cam and channels like yours. It's slowly coming back. The digital equip. is amazing, but I think old ways is best ways maybe... or a bit of both. Thanks again... loved that older equip..
Dr. John Paladin Show things have changed a bit haven’t they?! Making use of both new and old is the way to go in my view. Good luck finding your way through!
Such a cool setup. What are those tiny tiny mobile speakers you had in what looked like glass squares? Those are pretty cool. And would really make mixing and translation a breeze.
Hey there. Thank you! I got those when I used to work on cell phone audio. I was an "audio systems engineer" and helped develop the audio portions of mobile phone chipsets used by many of the major players in the industry. They are custom speaker boxes with some typical speakers you would find in cell phones. The boxes are actually a lot bigger than the real back volume that the speaker sees. Most of it is filled in plastic. There's actually only 1cc of back volume per speaker, which is a typical amount used in cell phones. I drive the speakers with a little Class-D amplifier that would also be used in cell phones. The only problem is that I have to pad down the output of the mixing board a lot because the amp runs off of 5V and will actually break if I present a voltage to its input much above that. So I'm not able to get them very loud, unfortunately, but they are still pretty cool for checking how things translate down to that level. All this to say... you can't buy them in stores. Someone should really make some, though!
Thanks, man. The speakers themselves are fine. The issue is that I wanted to use one of these little Class-D amps like they use in the cell phone world and they can't take an input much greater than 5V peak voltage without breaking. Since Pro Audio stuff can go to like 30 something volts I played it safe and padded down the output of my mixer output to make sure the amp never see's more than 5V. Unless you're playing out a slamming mix, it tends to be pretty quiet because of that. To protect the speaker itself, I also put in a fixed high pass filter around 800Hz. Little speakers like these can break if driven with too much bass. That's not actually a "state of the art" way to deal with that issue. The new way to do it is to use an algorithm that selectively removes low frequency content that would potentially break the speaker. When I worked in the industry that was the latest thing and took a lot of research and time to implement correctly. Each speaker requires particular tuning of the algorithm because each has its own characteristics. The industry was also moving to higher voltage speaker amps when I left. It was topping out around 10V. It may be even higher now... who knows. So a better solution, if I could get my hands on it, would be an amplifier that runs off a higher voltage and includes one of these "speaker protection" algorithms inside. There are eval boards for something like this, but last time I looked into it using one would require a USB port to program the chip. So it was just too complicated to implement in a studio environment like mine. Anyhow, probably too much information, but if given a chance it's fun for me to get all enginerdy. :-)
Thanks, Atta! Do it! If this is a commercial endeavor for you I recommend researching your local market to figure out what you can realistically charge and how you can create something different that will get people in the door. I will work on that shirt!!!
weltfremd you know you’re on to something there. I don’t put verb on kick drum very often, but I have a strong memory of one song in particular that I did and I used the R880 and it was glorious! Thanks for watching!
No, I live in London. UK. I have a passion for music production, especially creating new content. am addicted to the idea of producing quality music but I know it takes time and dedication to get to your level of experience and having the knowledge to execute such a structurally sound recording and production complex like which you have built. It is very commendable. well done man, guys like me really appreciate the diversity and dynamics of what you are doing to help musicianship.
Well, hi over there! Thanks for the kind words, my friend. I do truly see Rarefied as an asset for the local music community of San Diego, but I am also thrilled when people come from afar, whether it be LA, Tijuana, or even Costa Rica! We've had bands from all three, as well as Boise, Idaho; Scranton, New Jersey; and elsewhere. No one has made the trek from the UK yet, but maybe one day! And yeah, I'm proud that the studio has recorded hip-hop, rap, jazz, R&B, reggae, folk, all manners of rock, and other genres. A good studio should be able to handle any type of music. Anyhow, keep doing your thing over there. Passion + planning + determination = success.
Rarefied Recording Thanks for coming back to me again, I appreciated it. I have a couple of question and am pretty confident you guys at Rare Field will be able to help me with. My questions are, dante protocol, how is it used, what can it be used for (over the internet) and what are it's strengths & weaknesses.
Hi Robert, No prob. Honestly, I know very little about Dante. I guess it uses Ethernet cables to transfer data, but I don't necessarily think that means you can use it to send audio over the internet. Don't quote me, though! One of the engineers that works out of my place sometimes is buying a Burl Mothership for his home studio and he was looking into getting it with Dante. He was saying that you could connect the Mothership to your computer's Ethernet port and transfer audio that way, but that you have to use in that case a software driver which limits the channel count and probably the latency. He said if you really want the full throughput and minimal latency you have to buy a Dante card for your computer. That's about all I know! Roy p.s. you're not the first person to call the studio Rare Field, but it's actually Rarefied!
Thanks, Fer! I got the recording bug when I was about 16 or 17 years old. That was 20 years ago! So I started collecting stuff then. I still have a few pieces from back at the beginning, like my Fender Strat and my Fender Bandmaster.
Holy shit, I recently just saw that circuit board table (the one in the lounge) in a furniture/thrift store in Asheville, NC. Wonder if it was made by the same guy?
What strikes everyone about it (me as well), is how you can visualize the boards as a large city from the air. That idea had first been made to me in the film Koyaanisqatsi which has an awesome score by Philip Glass. That and many other interesting connections between man, nature, and technology are made in that film which has zero dialogue, just imagery and music. Check it out if you haven't. Definitely worth it.
what is the purpose of having multiple preamps and compressors? Does it ultra-compress the tone to make it extra buttery? Or does each have its own purpose? And if so, are they being used simultaneously or just in post? Great vid btw! Very jealous of your legendary gear and just studio overall!
Good question. Each pre-amp and compressor has its own tone. Any of them can be used on any source, but some seem to excel at certain things. They also can have certain characteristics that you may want (like smooth or aggressive). Some people do like to chain compressors together. They may use a "slow" compressor like the Skibbe Red Stripe (LA-2A copy) first and then a fast compressor like the Distressor second. That way you get something that really keeps the overall level consistent and doesn't let any stray transients by. It's also not uncommon to use a little compression while recording and then some more during mixing. A lot of times when you're recording you don't want to back yourself into a corner by using really heavy compression. Compression is hard to undo. Of course, there are times when you know you want to crush something so that's ok too. You just have to remember that you are committing to that sound. Going lighter on the compression on the way in gets things in the ball park of where you probably want them and lets you make the final call come mix time. Of course, there are some signals that really don't need any compression or maybe you just really want to hear the full dynamic range the instrument has to offer. It's really up the engineer. Pre-amps aren't usually chained together. You usually just pick one and go with it, but there are no rules and if you wanted to use one for a bit of gain and another for some more, I say go for it! Of course, the other reason to have multiple preamps and compressors is so you can record many things at once! But that goes without saying... Glad you liked the video!
True, but none have taken it to the extremes that Steve Jackson has. From the pulsetechniques.com website, "In early 2000, when first considering a recreation of the Pultec design, Ph.D. Electrical Engineer and Materials Scientist Steve Jackson committed to faithfully recreate Eugene Shenk’s original Pultec with no compromise or “enhancement” of the original design. When it was impossible to source an original component, Steve painstakingly and meticulously conducted electrical, mechanical and chemical characterizations to precisely determine the original component’s specifications to build custom replacements." The Ampex pre-amp is definitely very cool. Also nothing new, though! People have been converting the 350/351's and 600/601's into mic-pre's for awhile. Thanks for watching! Roy
Haha... yeah, the Toft was one of those calculations at the time where it was like, "where do I put my money right now? Into the studio build out or a console?" I figured the studio build out only happens once and you want it to be as good as it can be, while you can always upgrade your console later. So I got the Toft and it's been good. I actually had a 16 channel version in my bedroom studio I used to work out of, so I was very familiar with it. All this said, I'm nearing the point where an upgrade is needed. I like the Toft quite a bit, but for a commercial studio it has one major drawback- ease of maintenance. It's not really built for easy maintenance so it's a real pain when I have to get in there and clean some pots or swap in a new card or something. It amounts to a lot of downtime and lot of my time and energy just to do something simple. Anyhow... stay tuned to the UA-cam channel for an eventual announcement of the new console. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, so I'm not spilling any beans yet... Thanks again!
Could you send me a list of the equipment that you have? The new stuff is nice but the old analog equipment is a good add to my studio. I have not built a studio before but I have played with some of the equipment before. I have some friends that have worked with other studios before and we decided to work together.
first of all congratz for having such a wonderful studio. can u suggest one thing..i hav a RME fireface 802 which have 4 mic pre. but i need more 4 pre to record vocals and drums..which brand and model will be better ? thank you
Thank you, Rajiv! My recommendation for you would be the API 3124+, but get the new version that has the output attenuators on it. You really can't go wrong with the sound of API mic pre's. They sound modern and classic at the same time and they are definitely great on vocals and drums. Best of luck!
I'm a good musician and I have a good ear for mixing but I have almost no experience. I recorded and mixed two albums of 14 songs with a friend and I was able to make them sound pretty good, but I only really utilized equalizing and reverb, hardly any compression or limitation or anything. And anything I used was purely digital, through Cubase 9.5. The combination of the art and the technicality of mixing really intrigues me and I'm not familiar with some of the things and concepts he mentioned in this video. Any advice on how to learn more and dive deeper into mixing?
Jonah Nelson , thanks for watching! Mixing is a complicated subject and the best thing to do is practice. There should be some stems out there that you can download and practice with. Reading books like Mixerman’s Zen and the Art of Mixing or Bobby Owsinksi’s Mixing Engineer’s Handbook may give you some ideas to try out. Good luck!
Cool studio, great gear! Only thing i'm not feeling is the console. Mic pre's are really crappy on that board. Also ribbon cable hell if you ever have to work on it. Put an API or something in there and your the man!!
Hi John. They are custom, yes. I wouldn't be able to make another pair for you. I also have them driven by a little 5V Class-D amplifier similar to what is found inside a cell phone. I used to work in that industry so I know quite a bit about it.
What part of SD is this located in? I lived there for 8 years while working in a well known, yet smaller studio. I will be coming back to do some tracking at that studio, but am looking for one in SD to do my mixing due to the acoustics of the other studio is not suitable for optimum mixing; great studio nonetheless. Thanks for the video!
Hi Julian, You're most welcome! The studio is located in the North Park area. Hit me up via e-mail at info@rarefiedrecording.com for the full address. Rarefied would be an excellent place to mix! Thanks, Roy
get born can you be more specific please? Are you wanting to know more about how to make your own cables? Or how patchbays work and how you might go about setting one up? Or something else?
hi, i was just curious about basic inputs such as guitars etc . are they going into a big interface ?? or is the interface part of the mixer ?? and then all these effects are post or pre mixer ?? im a bit of a noob in this area
get born ok a lot to explain here. My interface is separate from the mixer. I have two Apogee AD16-X’s and two DA16-X’s hooked up to my computer via their Symphony system. So that’s that. Signal flow is generally like this: the mic is connected to what’s called a mic tie line which is simply a bank of xlr ports in the live room to connect up to. Those mic tie lines appear at the patchbay and are full normalled to the mic pre amp inputs of the console which are also wired to the patchbays. You can always patch to an external pre if you want. But if using the board pre’s it goes through there and then optionally you can patch rack gear in via an insert. Each channel has two inserts and both are on the patchbays. This is usually configured in a way that it’s pre conversion, meaning the outboard effects are applied to the recording. You can reconfigure so that it’s post recording, though. After the optional inserts (and board eq!) the signal comes out of the direct out of the mixing board, goes to the patchbay and is half normalled to the converter input which has also been brought to the patchbays. So it goes into the DAW and then to hear it back you assign it to some converter output which goes to the patchbay and is half normalled to the DAW return inputs of the mixing board which have also been brought to the patchbays. That signal, by default, goes to a fader on the board so you just raise up the fader and you can hear the signal that’s been recorded. You can also then send that signal to the headphone system via an aux send which have been brought to the patchbays and half normalled to the inputs of the headphone unit. So it’s pretty slick cause if you’re using the board pre and no outboard gear you don’t even have to make a single patch and you can get signal into the DAW, out of the DAW, and to the headphone system. Guitars, if recorded direct, can be plugged into a DI and then to a mic tie line and then treated just like a mic. Or you can go into any external pre that has a 1/4” input and then patch that to a line in on the board or just directly to the converters. Same for bass or keys direct. Where do you learn this stuff? I don’t have a specific reference, but I’m always willing to do 1 on 1 instruction via Skype or in person if you’re interested (for a fee, of course). Me and another engineer also put on a 3 day workshop from time to time so let me know if you’re interested in that. Thanks!
Thanks for watching. It takes time to learn how one piece of gear sounds compared to another. But if you do this enough you start to get a sense of what each one excels at or which sound "hard" or "soft" or "punchy" or "warm" or "neutral" or "colored". It's hard to put words to these things. You can research each piece of gear and see what people have to say about it, but ultimately you just have to use it and experience it for yourself. And do that over and over and over. It's a never ending education of the ear.
Hey man, Not to be a pest or anything but I've been trying to find the motor monitor stands for the longest time ever since I seen Bob Horn use his. Would you be kind enough to tell me where you got them so I can head over there to pick up a pair? Thanks in advance. Amazing studio by the way!
Danny Cuevas haha good question. Over time as you learn the sound of each piece and experience what unit is good for what instrument or type of sound you’re after it becomes easier to narrow down the choices. But it can be fun to try something you’ve never done before just to see and keep it interesting. Another tip when you’re tracking is to use a “track sheet” which is basically a single piece of paper where you write down the source (instrument), mic or DI used, mic tie line you’ve plugged into, mic pre used, any outboard gear used, converter channel, and headphone send. This makes it much easier to keep track of things during the session.
just curious what made you choose theToft ATB Console other than the EQ? Also how often do you find yourself using the mic pre's in the Toft, or are you just mainly using it for its routing and EQ's?
James Cassidy so the Toft at this point has been sold. See my updated Studio Tour on UA-cam. But at the time with the Toft I liked the routing, I liked the overall vibe with the Trident thing, and the price point was great. The mic pre’s didn’t get used much. They’re ok, but I felt I had better outboard ones.
Hey All, I've finally updated this video tour with a new version that includes the new console at Rarefied, a Neve Genesys! Check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/pfkLmApm1jU/v-deo.html
One of the best studio tours I've ever seen. Detailed, simple and to the point. Thanks!
MixedByScience thank you for watching! Make sure you check the updated video tour.
when im grown up im going to build my own studio...my dream is to be a Composer!
Hey Aldy, a worthy dream and goal! Build your equipment up slowly and save (save, save!) and plan for your studio build out one day. You must be patient, but if you really want it, you can do it. Best of luck!
Same here! Though, it probably won't be as big as this one hehe
I don't want to divulge a specific number, but it's less than that.
Hey is there anyway to check if youve got a lost recording of something that was not released to the public?
Well, I'm getting a new board soon. After that it will probably be in that range! Stay tuned...
Money money money !!!!
That's a dream studio thanks for sharing!!!!
mbukade magezi thanks, man. Dreams sometimes do come true!
Love love love your studio, the full bath is nice touch.
Chuck Juice thank you! Haha yes. A sweaty drummer or two has certainly agreed. Pre-Covid the whole lounge space made for a good overnight crash pad for a visiting solo artist or engineer as well.
Great tour; thank you. Really nice studio and gear. Congratulations : -)
Thanks, Arthur!
Dream Studio! Thank you for sharing all this. I love the mid speakers that move up and down... brilliant solution!
Aquashii Beatz thank you! It is a dream come true for me. Yeah those Sound Anchor motorized speakers are a trip and very handy.
this guy knows his stuff. Very detailed tour and one of the best studio tour in youtube. good job
Thank you, sir!
I watched part of this Tour and then watched your updated "Genesys Tour". You seem like a great guy. Very detailed and interesting. I can see that you put a huge amount of thought into all of your equipment appointments, instruments, and room designs. You are like a really big studio in a compact package! A Mini-Record Plant! I've worked Big Rooms since 1972 - NYC to California and a lot of places in between. Neves, Harrisons, MCI Consoles, Studer, Ampex, MCI Tape machines, Radar, ProTools, Digital Performer, Symphony Orchestras (many, many concerts), Rok N Roll, Jazz, Country, Big Band, Gospel Choirs, Classical Choirs, Spoken Word, Forensics for the FBI (Really). And I really dig what you have going on there. Thoughtful. If I need a place to record in SD, I'll look you up! Congratulations and the best to you!
Rafael Carmany thank you so much. That means a lot coming from someone that has been around the block. I would certainly welcome you here as a guest engineer once all this virus stuff blows over. Take care and thanks for watching! Roy
Wow, you have a great studio, but even more impressive is the fabulous collection of instruments and other equipment. You for shure know what's it's all about! Greetings from The Netherlands!
Thank you! Yeah, I think as a studio it really makes sense to have some cool instruments that most people don't have. It inspires creativity. Thanks again!
I've been building my own studio for the past 2 years. Your setup is basically what I am working towards..
So thanks for the tour, and giving me some renewed inspiration and energy to keep at it! Loving the Toft desk btw
Kevin De Cuyper thanks and good luck! Mine was a 3 year process. Only one of those years was construction, but yeah it takes awhile! If you like the Toft desk did you see the updated version of the tour with the Neve Genesys? I had a custom desk made for it as well.
Nice. Thanks for the awesome tour.
Sixth Sanctum Media thank you and thanks for watching!
Beautiful studio. Thanks for the tour
Thank you very much!
You got a huge collection of smart investments. I worked on the ATB at school; we learned the basics on it before we got to touch the 5088. Beautiful sounding EQ, and it made for a really great experience. Nice video, thanks for the in depth tour!
my school is getting the atb 32 in two weeks, and i get to set it up :D
Well thanks! I did carefully consider every purchase. The ATB is definitely a great mixer to start on. I agree, the EQ is excellent.
I have some very exciting news coming next year in the mixing board department. I can't wait to share it with you all!
Cool! Have fun! An important tip:
Follow the guidelines in the Toft manual about only connecting the grounds at the mixing board side. Meaning, anything you will have connected to the Toft, needs to have its ground connection floating. Otherwise you get a hum as soon as you connect the gear to the Toft. I don't know why this is, but it's definitely true for most gear. Some things seem to be ok without lifting the ground.
Impressive.
Thanks! Glad you like what you see.
WOW !!! Still looking but full blessings for a hell of a great tour and explaination of the gear. Thank you for going through every musicians ...what is that? moment. Fantastic. BEST WISHES. 👍👍👍🎙🎙🎙👍👍👍
Thanks! Glad I could provide some insight.
I’m from Minnesota and when I bought my Great River preamp I was able to visit their lab. Just a small front office space and in the back was three rooms. One where a few people were hand wiring and soldering, another where they package and ship completed units, and the coolest one that was a very pristine lab with equipment that I couldn’t begin to guess what they did other than for testing and where the creation that amazing sound is engineered. Very warm and friendly people.
Supxhier that’s really cool. They make great products. I’ve since sold my NV2, but only because I now have a Neve console and it was too redundant to have that pre. See the updated studio tour for a look. I do however have their Harrison eq on loan from another engineer for now. Thanks for watching!
I get that, makes sense. And congrats on your new board! I’m in the studio in Colombia working on a project. Mauricio (oi recording) has nice outboard gear but dreams of a neve board. I was in SD last fall and loved it. Stayed in North Park. Maybe I’ll have a project at Rarefied someday. I can’t imagine needing anything you don’t have. Love the ability too for having some sunlight in the studio 🌞
Supxhier you’re welcome here! I’m right in North Park! Yeah I got pretty much everything you need. There’s actually some new stuff I need to do a video for. I’ll get to it at some point!
Fantastic! And what a great neighborhood. You just may hear from me. Looking forward to to the video. Thanks for the convo!
Nice to see someone else using the Toft ATB mixer...I really like mine for hybrid mixing.
Michael Dollar it was nice while I had it! Check the updated video. Ended up selling it and getting a Neve Genesys. The Toft is amazing for the money and I did some good work on it. The Genesys is a whole other level, though, of course. Not really fair to compare. Thanks for watching!
What a pice of art you have there, It´s a super well designed studio, bravo!
Thanks, David! I appreciate it!
Wow. Very impressive stuff, and nicely presented. Good work chaps.
(:
Thank you so much!
All of that awesome gear.... and a set of 'cellphone speakers' (at 2:45) to monitor the mix on - oh my, what an age we live in.
Olaf Wagner haha I know. It’s sad...
Lovely studio and great tour! 👍
Sugarbird Recordings thank you!!!
@@RarefiedRecording My pleasure!
Ok, those motorised speakers are pretty awesome!
Haha yes indeed! Sound Anchors. Thanks for watching!
Rarefied Recording that's an outstanding facility you have there. I would love to record in that place!
@@officialWWM thank you! Maybe one day!
@@RarefiedRecording Lol, I can dream...
excellent excellent vid.. thx for ur time, energy, and effort ...
Distortion Club LA thank you for watching!
The outboard gear was enough to melt my face. Then you kept going and eventually got to the mics. Liquid face!
Haha... and that was just a small sampling of the mics. Thanks, Brian!
Thanks for the tour, great studio and gear. Thanks also for the tip on the Tonecraft DI !!
Thanks for watching, Malcolm! Yeah, no prob. Love that thing!
WOW! Just WOW! Brilliant tour.
THANKS!!!
Love the gear collection!
Thanks, Peter!
That's a very well thought through studio setup that you have there! Very nice!
Thanks, Frank! I have to give a lot of credit to my studio designer, Wes Lachot. When you hire Wes, you get way more than an architect. He has so much experience with studios (he operates one himself, even) that he brings a ton to the table with respect to equipment, workflow, etc. You have to put your trust in someone when you venture down this path, and Wes has never let me down.
amazing set up
Thanks, Devon! I hope to have an updated video for you all in a month's time.
Great set up and awesome room, that tape machine sounds like it needs and alignment you can hear the metal flange hitting the tape on cycle. If this studio was close I could calibrate and set it up to run like butter.
Steve Antoniazzi thanks! I had a local tech help me align that better so all is good. The machine is working fairly well, but there’s always something that could be improved...
Lovely place and great gear selection!
Thanks for watching Ollie!
YOU HAVE A DOPE SETUP. I hope I can create something half as dope. Thanks for the vid 🤘
Just watched the video in full, thats a great setup you have there dude. Greetings from the UK :-)
Thanks, Dave! High five from across the pond.
This is beautiful.
Why thanks!
Awesome place! Great selection of gear!
Thanks Steve. That's definitely one of the goals. I like collecting different flavors of mic pre, compressor, eq, etc.
I really love your motorized speaker stands
Thanks! They are Sound Anchors. soundanchors.com/
Unique setup. Awesome!
Many thanks!
Exactly what I was looking for
Thanks for the tour. You have a wonderful working space and facilities, i love the way you've utilised the hard and not so hard panels in the live room. I love the way that the control room has been laid out, clean lines with no clutter, a place for everything and everything in its place. You must have your new board in by now, have you done a video yet to show it off? Thanks again for taking the time to give us all the guided tour.
Thanks, Steve! Yeah, I definitely adhere to the "a place for everything and everything in its place" idea! I do have the new board and I filmed an update to the tour as well as a more detailed video about the board itself, but it's being edited. Hopefully I'll have something to share in the next couple weeks.
Hey Steve, check this link for an update video: ua-cam.com/video/pfkLmApm1jU/v-deo.html
Nice studio, love it.
Thanks!!!
Thanks for a great tour.
You're most welcome!
Very nice studio and gear, impressive !
Thank you!!!
You welcome, good luck with future recordings.
Very nice synth collection
Thanks! I want more!
Nice studio man ! good work
Many thanks!
Thanks! let hear what something sounds like from the studio.
Evy thanks for watching. On my UA-cam page there is a playlist of music videos that were recorded at Rarefied. Check them out!
this is such an inspiration.....
Thanks, Sam! That makes me happy to hear.
I've got a Lomo product but had no idea they made mic's!
David Unruh yes they did! Not anymore, but for a time they made some really interesting mics. I know Steve Albini is a fan of them. I think now they are more of a camera company?
I am lost of words, i believe that one day my bedroom studio will become big like yours...encouraged by your advice to slide85 and that's what i heeded. i will make it to your level one day
If there's a will, there's a way.
What is this slide85 you mention, though?
Best of luck!
You guys should make shirts "if you need a banjo we got that too"
haha... I really should just make some Rarefied Recording t-shirts period.
I so agree! How bout t-shirts with your incredible bays and respective gear! I'd buy!
I'm thinking to start with the logo, but yeah... maybe!!!
wahahahaha
Very Nice Studio indeed. I've actually been considering the Toft. It was the most noticeable piece in the studio to me. :0
Thank you! For the money, the Toft cannot be beat. It's in a custom desk at Rarefied, so it might look a little different than most. I'm actually planning to upgrade to something else, mainly because the Toft is hard to maintain since you can't easily just take a channel out. For a non-commercial studio that isn't so concerned about down time, I would definitely recommend the Toft, though.
Check out the updated video for a look at the new console! ua-cam.com/video/pfkLmApm1jU/v-deo.html
Nice tour!
Thank you!. Glad you liked it.
Amazing studio mannn
Thank you!!!
Man, you are living my dream. Thanks for the tour, the place looks amazing! Naturally, I have some questions. How long did it take to put together? And how big is your team? You're clearly doing amazing work, thank you! :)
Hi Eric,
Thanks for watching and for the kind words.
The studio was a 3 year process. 2 years were spent in the design, permitting, planning stage. 1 year was spent in the construction phase. So as you can tell, quite a process.
The "team" is really just me. I'm the sole owner and I take care of everything from cleaning toilets, gear maintenance, promotions, accounting, scheduling, you name it! This is one of the ways that I keep the overhead low and the hourly rate affordable for the average musician. Now, what makes the business work so well is that I am a big supporter of the freelance engineering community. So there are well over a dozen different engineers that book time at the studio. They are completely independent, bringing in projects they find on their own (mostly) and charging whatever they want for their fee. I have a very affordable "freelance" rate for renting to these engineers. Sometimes, when I'm not available or don't feel like I could do a project justice, I will hook up an engineer with a project that initially came to me (the studio). Otherwise, I'm the house engineer and take on clients who approach the studio directly.
Always happy to answer other questions if you have them.
Keep the dream alive!
Roy
Definitely a great place with great audio gears.
Tho, being a drummer, I was a little left with my thirst regarding the studio's drum gears. Ok, there's one kit in the mic closet and... ....that's it
Not even a little Ludwig Supraphonic snare hidden somewhere ?
Oh I got it, the drum topic was mistakenly removed during the video editing phase. All good then, show us what you've got in another video !
Sorry man... we just don't have a lot of room for drum stuff. I would love one or two more snares, if I can figure out where to stash them.
Very nice hook up! I also own a Toft ATB 32. I am looking to upgrade my current studio setup to something similar to yours.
Cool. Yeah, great board for the money. I've since replaced it. Updated video coming soon. Good luck with your studio upgrade.
Good on you for spending all that time to put this video together. I have learnt alot. Thankyou. How is business going?
Thank you! Glad to hear it was educational. Business was quite good until the pandemic, of course. It looks like I'll be opening back up sometime in June 2020. Hopefully things will bounce back!
Great video.
Jackson Taylor thank you! Thanks for watching. I’m making plans for some update videos and a deeper dive on my new mixing console. Peep the updated tour that already exists, though.
Rarefied Recording will do. I just got the Tree Audio Roots Console and am trying to set up some old tape delay. I’ll be watching for cues on gear and how to use it.
Jackson Taylor nice! Enjoy that console! It looks amazing.
I have room for 4 500 series modules. I’m trying to get as much from the board as I can. It has tube eq and compression on each channel. I’m very new to the engineering side so I’m not sure what to get. Thinking about a couple of eq’s and compressors because the the ones in then channel strips are very limited. Think they are good neigh for pic pre’s and basic eq and compression, but ya can’t dial it in much.
Great tour.. 14:25 King Tubby is my mentor! 🤘
JamrockVybz TV nice! Thanks and thanks for watching!
Props on all the gear but there was a long time in music where none of that was around and great recordings were made. Sometimes letting people “play” and not tweak everything is the way to go
Certainly! Just because the gear is there doesn't mean it has to be used. I'm not tweaking just to tweak on stuff. If I'm using a piece of gear it's to achieve a desired result or effect. But some projects are just better to be kept straight-ahead and simple. Thanks for watching!
Enjoyed the Vid! Respect.
C Wallace thanks! Make sure to check out the updated version of the control room tour!
Explain the cellphone speaker setup!!! I’m obsessed!!
Carson Hoy ok let me explain then! So before I built Rarefied and worked full time as a recording engineer I worked at a company called Qualcomm that designed chips primarily for cellphones. I was part of a team responsible for designing audio chips. So in that capacity I became very involved with cellphone speakers which are these little tiny things with limited bass and power handling. We used to build up little speaker boxes with popular speakers like this to test our amplifiers. They have a very specific sealed back volume of 1cc which at the time was a common requirement. Things may have changed now. To be honest, I decided to abandon these cellphone speakers in my studio setup and if you watch the updated video you’ll notice they aren’t mentioned. Why? It’s complicated but I’ll try to explain. Basically it came down to not having the ability to drive these speakers with enough volume. Just like with a real cellphone I was using some tiny Class-D amplifiers to drive these speakers. These are 5 volt devices and it’s important to limit the input signal to them to 5V max . This meant I had to pad down the output of the mixing board considerably before it hit the amps. The result of this was usually to make the level out of the speakers very low. In a real cellphone it’s normal to use compression and limiting to keep the signal relatively loud at all times. It also became common practice to employ algorithms that made sure the speakers were not damaged from over excursion of the diaphragm (due to too much low end) or from overheating of the voice coil (due to too much power driven for long periods). My setup was not sophisticated enough to incorporate these compressor
/limiters and fancy algorithms that keep the speaker loud but safe. So in the end, although it was a good idea, in practice the speakers always played too quietly to be useful. Thanks again for watching!
Wow. Impressive!
Thank you, sir!
super cool
Thanks, Chris!
Great studio~
Daniel M Connolly thank you!!!
AMAZING 😲
Thank you!!!
Nice... very nice.
Dr. John Paladin Show thanks doc!
@@RarefiedRecording It's been 30 years since I've been in a studio. In retirement, I'm just getting back into music Feel like I'm 15 and clueless, so I'm taking advantage of UA-cam and channels like yours. It's slowly coming back. The digital equip. is amazing, but I think old ways is best ways maybe... or a bit of both. Thanks again... loved that older equip..
Dr. John Paladin Show things have changed a bit haven’t they?! Making use of both new and old is the way to go in my view. Good luck finding your way through!
Such a cool setup. What are those tiny tiny mobile speakers you had in what looked like glass squares? Those are pretty cool. And would really make mixing and translation a breeze.
Hey there. Thank you!
I got those when I used to work on cell phone audio. I was an "audio systems engineer" and helped develop the audio portions of mobile phone chipsets used by many of the major players in the industry.
They are custom speaker boxes with some typical speakers you would find in cell phones.
The boxes are actually a lot bigger than the real back volume that the speaker sees. Most of it is filled in plastic. There's actually only 1cc of back volume per speaker, which is a typical amount used in cell phones. I drive the speakers with a little Class-D amplifier that would also be used in cell phones. The only problem is that I have to pad down the output of the mixing board a lot because the amp runs off of 5V and will actually break if I present a voltage to its input much above that. So I'm not able to get them very loud, unfortunately, but they are still pretty cool for checking how things translate down to that level.
All this to say... you can't buy them in stores. Someone should really make some, though!
Very cool. If I manage to manufacture them. I'll send you a new pair to use :)))) Got a few geeky electronics friends.
Thanks, man. The speakers themselves are fine. The issue is that I wanted to use one of these little Class-D amps like they use in the cell phone world and they can't take an input much greater than 5V peak voltage without breaking. Since Pro Audio stuff can go to like 30 something volts I played it safe and padded down the output of my mixer output to make sure the amp never see's more than 5V. Unless you're playing out a slamming mix, it tends to be pretty quiet because of that.
To protect the speaker itself, I also put in a fixed high pass filter around 800Hz. Little speakers like these can break if driven with too much bass. That's not actually a "state of the art" way to deal with that issue. The new way to do it is to use an algorithm that selectively removes low frequency content that would potentially break the speaker. When I worked in the industry that was the latest thing and took a lot of research and time to implement correctly. Each speaker requires particular tuning of the algorithm because each has its own characteristics. The industry was also moving to higher voltage speaker amps when I left. It was topping out around 10V. It may be even higher now... who knows.
So a better solution, if I could get my hands on it, would be an amplifier that runs off a higher voltage and includes one of these "speaker protection" algorithms inside. There are eval boards for something like this, but last time I looked into it using one would require a USB port to program the chip. So it was just too complicated to implement in a studio environment like mine.
Anyhow, probably too much information, but if given a chance it's fun for me to get all enginerdy. :-)
I like that...I'm planning to get my own studio,,,,let ur shirt come out
Thanks, Atta! Do it! If this is a commercial endeavor for you I recommend researching your local market to figure out what you can realistically charge and how you can create something different that will get people in the door. I will work on that shirt!!!
Have you recorded LPSD, back at ya with the realness?
gta master 9 I don’t know what/who that is... so... no?
i love the r880 the best reverb for kick
weltfremd you know you’re on to something there. I don’t put verb on kick drum very often, but I have a strong memory of one song in particular that I did and I used the R880 and it was glorious! Thanks for watching!
"voice of god" haha, some of these companies really have fun naming their products
haha, yep. I think there are stranger examples out there even.
You must be religious
Nice recording studio. I would love to be able to use it to produce. amazing stuff,
Thanks! Are you in San Diego or LA?
No, I live in London. UK. I have a passion for music production, especially creating new content. am addicted to the idea of producing quality music but I know it takes time and dedication to get to your level of experience and having the knowledge to execute such a structurally sound recording and production complex like which you have built. It is very commendable. well done man, guys like me really appreciate the diversity and dynamics of what you are doing to help musicianship.
Well, hi over there! Thanks for the kind words, my friend. I do truly see Rarefied as an asset for the local music community of San Diego, but I am also thrilled when people come from afar, whether it be LA, Tijuana, or even Costa Rica! We've had bands from all three, as well as Boise, Idaho; Scranton, New Jersey; and elsewhere. No one has made the trek from the UK yet, but maybe one day! And yeah, I'm proud that the studio has recorded hip-hop, rap, jazz, R&B, reggae, folk, all manners of rock, and other genres. A good studio should be able to handle any type of music. Anyhow, keep doing your thing over there. Passion + planning + determination = success.
Rarefied Recording
Thanks for coming back to me again, I appreciated it. I have a couple of question and am pretty confident you guys at Rare Field will be able to help me with.
My questions are, dante protocol, how is it used, what can it be used for (over the internet) and what are it's strengths & weaknesses.
Hi Robert,
No prob.
Honestly, I know very little about Dante. I guess it uses Ethernet cables to transfer data, but I don't necessarily think that means you can use it to send audio over the internet. Don't quote me, though!
One of the engineers that works out of my place sometimes is buying a Burl Mothership for his home studio and he was looking into getting it with Dante. He was saying that you could connect the Mothership to your computer's Ethernet port and transfer audio that way, but that you have to use in that case a software driver which limits the channel count and probably the latency. He said if you really want the full throughput and minimal latency you have to buy a Dante card for your computer.
That's about all I know!
Roy
p.s. you're not the first person to call the studio Rare Field, but it's actually Rarefied!
best place i´ve ever seen!. how long have you been collecting all that gear?
Thanks, Fer! I got the recording bug when I was about 16 or 17 years old. That was 20 years ago! So I started collecting stuff then. I still have a few pieces from back at the beginning, like my Fender Strat and my Fender Bandmaster.
Holy shit, I recently just saw that circuit board table (the one in the lounge) in a furniture/thrift store in Asheville, NC. Wonder if it was made by the same guy?
I actually saw one like mine in Chicago and then stole the idea and made one of my own much later. But it's the only one I ever made.
What strikes everyone about it (me as well), is how you can visualize the boards as a large city from the air. That idea had first been made to me in the film Koyaanisqatsi which has an awesome score by Philip Glass. That and many other interesting connections between man, nature, and technology are made in that film which has zero dialogue, just imagery and music. Check it out if you haven't. Definitely worth it.
what is the purpose of having multiple preamps and compressors? Does it ultra-compress the tone to make it extra buttery? Or does each have its own purpose? And if so, are they being used simultaneously or just in post? Great vid btw! Very jealous of your legendary gear and just studio overall!
Good question. Each pre-amp and compressor has its own tone. Any of them can be used on any source, but some seem to excel at certain things. They also can have certain characteristics that you may want (like smooth or aggressive).
Some people do like to chain compressors together. They may use a "slow" compressor like the Skibbe Red Stripe (LA-2A copy) first and then a fast compressor like the Distressor second. That way you get something that really keeps the overall level consistent and doesn't let any stray transients by.
It's also not uncommon to use a little compression while recording and then some more during mixing. A lot of times when you're recording you don't want to back yourself into a corner by using really heavy compression. Compression is hard to undo. Of course, there are times when you know you want to crush something so that's ok too. You just have to remember that you are committing to that sound. Going lighter on the compression on the way in gets things in the ball park of where you probably want them and lets you make the final call come mix time. Of course, there are some signals that really don't need any compression or maybe you just really want to hear the full dynamic range the instrument has to offer. It's really up the engineer.
Pre-amps aren't usually chained together. You usually just pick one and go with it, but there are no rules and if you wanted to use one for a bit of gain and another for some more, I say go for it!
Of course, the other reason to have multiple preamps and compressors is so you can record many things at once! But that goes without saying...
Glad you liked the video!
Rarefied Recording
Folks have been making pultec clones for over a decade! Nothing new!! That Ampex preamp is KRAY!
True, but none have taken it to the extremes that Steve Jackson has. From the pulsetechniques.com website, "In early 2000, when first considering a recreation of the Pultec design, Ph.D. Electrical Engineer and Materials Scientist Steve Jackson committed to faithfully recreate Eugene Shenk’s original Pultec with no compromise or “enhancement” of the original design. When it was impossible to source an original component, Steve painstakingly and meticulously conducted electrical, mechanical and chemical characterizations to precisely determine the original component’s specifications to build custom replacements."
The Ampex pre-amp is definitely very cool. Also nothing new, though! People have been converting the 350/351's and 600/601's into mic-pre's for awhile.
Thanks for watching!
Roy
Really surprised to see the Toft board and im not saying that in a negative way.
Haha... yeah, the Toft was one of those calculations at the time where it was like, "where do I put my money right now? Into the studio build out or a console?" I figured the studio build out only happens once and you want it to be as good as it can be, while you can always upgrade your console later. So I got the Toft and it's been good. I actually had a 16 channel version in my bedroom studio I used to work out of, so I was very familiar with it. All this said, I'm nearing the point where an upgrade is needed. I like the Toft quite a bit, but for a commercial studio it has one major drawback- ease of maintenance. It's not really built for easy maintenance so it's a real pain when I have to get in there and clean some pots or swap in a new card or something. It amounts to a lot of downtime and lot of my time and energy just to do something simple. Anyhow... stay tuned to the UA-cam channel for an eventual announcement of the new console. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, so I'm not spilling any beans yet... Thanks again!
Check the updated video for a look at the new console! ua-cam.com/video/pfkLmApm1jU/v-deo.html
what, no tascam portastudio?
That's what I started on! I actually do have one still , but I lent it out.
Could you send me a list of the equipment that you have? The new stuff is nice but the old analog equipment is a good add to my studio. I have not built a studio before but I have played with some of the equipment before. I have some friends that have worked with other studios before and we decided to work together.
Everything I currently have is at www.rarefiedrecording.com. Check the gear page.
first of all congratz for having such a wonderful studio. can u suggest one thing..i hav a RME fireface 802 which have 4 mic pre. but i need more 4 pre to record vocals and drums..which brand and model will be better ? thank you
Thank you, Rajiv! My recommendation for you would be the API 3124+, but get the new version that has the output attenuators on it. You really can't go wrong with the sound of API mic pre's. They sound modern and classic at the same time and they are definitely great on vocals and drums. Best of luck!
thank you so much for your suggestion
Have you ever heard of chaining an LA3a behind an 1176, or is it just LA2a they chain?
I know people who chain compressors like that together, yes. Over here I've seen a lot of the Skibbe (LA2A) going into the Distressor.
Nice
Thanks!
I'm a good musician and I have a good ear for mixing but I have almost no experience. I recorded and mixed two albums of 14 songs with a friend and I was able to make them sound pretty good, but I only really utilized equalizing and reverb, hardly any compression or limitation or anything. And anything I used was purely digital, through Cubase 9.5. The combination of the art and the technicality of mixing really intrigues me and I'm not familiar with some of the things and concepts he mentioned in this video. Any advice on how to learn more and dive deeper into mixing?
Jonah Nelson , thanks for watching! Mixing is a complicated subject and the best thing to do is practice. There should be some stems out there that you can download and practice with. Reading books like Mixerman’s Zen and the Art of Mixing or Bobby Owsinksi’s Mixing Engineer’s Handbook may give you some ideas to try out. Good luck!
Cool studio, great gear! Only thing i'm not feeling is the console. Mic pre's are really crappy on that board. Also ribbon cable hell if you ever have to work on it. Put an API or something in there and your the man!!
Thanks! Stay tuned for news on that!!!
Check out the updated video to see our new Neve Genesys console! ua-cam.com/video/pfkLmApm1jU/v-deo.html
Are those cellphone speakers custom?! If not, where can I get a pair!
Hi John. They are custom, yes. I wouldn't be able to make another pair for you. I also have them driven by a little 5V Class-D amplifier similar to what is found inside a cell phone. I used to work in that industry so I know quite a bit about it.
It's a hardware tour
What part of SD is this located in? I lived there for 8 years while working in a well known, yet smaller studio. I will be coming back to do some tracking at that studio, but am looking for one in SD to do my mixing due to the acoustics of the other studio is not suitable for optimum mixing; great studio nonetheless. Thanks for the video!
Hi Julian,
You're most welcome!
The studio is located in the North Park area. Hit me up via e-mail at info@rarefiedrecording.com for the full address.
Rarefied would be an excellent place to mix!
Thanks,
Roy
where can i learn about where the cables and leads get connected ?? thanks!
get born can you be more specific please? Are you wanting to know more about how to make your own cables? Or how patchbays work and how you might go about setting one up? Or something else?
hi, i was just curious about basic inputs such as guitars etc . are they going into a big interface ?? or is the interface part of the mixer ?? and then all these effects are post or pre mixer ?? im a bit of a noob in this area
get born ok a lot to explain here. My interface is separate from the mixer. I have two Apogee AD16-X’s and two DA16-X’s hooked up to my computer via their Symphony system. So that’s that. Signal flow is generally like this: the mic is connected to what’s called a mic tie line which is simply a bank of xlr ports in the live room to connect up to. Those mic tie lines appear at the patchbay and are full normalled to the mic pre amp inputs of the console which are also wired to the patchbays. You can always patch to an external pre if you want. But if using the board pre’s it goes through there and then optionally you can patch rack gear in via an insert. Each channel has two inserts and both are on the patchbays. This is usually configured in a way that it’s pre conversion, meaning the outboard effects are applied to the recording. You can reconfigure so that it’s post recording, though. After the optional inserts (and board eq!) the signal comes out of the direct out of the mixing board, goes to the patchbay and is half normalled to the converter input which has also been brought to the patchbays. So it goes into the DAW and then to hear it back you assign it to some converter output which goes to the patchbay and is half normalled to the DAW return inputs of the mixing board which have also been brought to the patchbays. That signal, by default, goes to a fader on the board so you just raise up the fader and you can hear the signal that’s been recorded. You can also then send that signal to the headphone system via an aux send which have been brought to the patchbays and half normalled to the inputs of the headphone unit. So it’s pretty slick cause if you’re using the board pre and no outboard gear you don’t even have to make a single patch and you can get signal into the DAW, out of the DAW, and to the headphone system.
Guitars, if recorded direct, can be plugged into a DI and then to a mic tie line and then treated just like a mic. Or you can go into any external pre that has a 1/4” input and then patch that to a line in on the board or just directly to the converters. Same for bass or keys direct.
Where do you learn this stuff? I don’t have a specific reference, but I’m always willing to do 1 on 1 instruction via Skype or in person if you’re interested (for a fee, of course). Me and another engineer also put on a 3 day workshop from time to time so let me know if you’re interested in that. Thanks!
So much gear , how yoou make decisions and what you choice decision is baded on whene you have many peices of gear for the same fonction
Thanks for watching. It takes time to learn how one piece of gear sounds compared to another. But if you do this enough you start to get a sense of what each one excels at or which sound "hard" or "soft" or "punchy" or "warm" or "neutral" or "colored". It's hard to put words to these things. You can research each piece of gear and see what people have to say about it, but ultimately you just have to use it and experience it for yourself. And do that over and over and over. It's a never ending education of the ear.
Hey man, Not to be a pest or anything but I've been trying to find the motor monitor stands for the longest time ever since I seen Bob Horn use his. Would you be kind enough to tell me where you got them so I can head over there to pick up a pair? Thanks in advance. Amazing studio by the way!
I thought I replied to this already, but maybe I didn't...
You're looking for this: soundanchors.com/
And thanks!
So is the recording business a profitable business in 2018?
Hired Goonage yes! But you have to be smart about it. A low overhead is necessary in my opinion.
great tour!
curious to what chair you're using?
Thanks Dean! It's a Zody chair by Haworth. Pretty nice.
I have a question? Totally how much costs for your equipment studio
Jason Johannesburg Let’s just say a lot! I’m not going to divulge an exact number...
My question is when your tayloring a sound for someone how do you keep from getting lost in all the choices?
Danny Cuevas haha good question. Over time as you learn the sound of each piece and experience what unit is good for what instrument or type of sound you’re after it becomes easier to narrow down the choices. But it can be fun to try something you’ve never done before just to see and keep it interesting. Another tip when you’re tracking is to use a “track sheet” which is basically a single piece of paper where you write down the source (instrument), mic or DI used, mic tie line you’ve plugged into, mic pre used, any outboard gear used, converter channel, and headphone send. This makes it much easier to keep track of things during the session.
Thanks!
just curious what made you choose theToft ATB Console other than the EQ? Also how often do you find yourself using the mic pre's in the Toft, or are you just mainly using it for its routing and EQ's?
James Cassidy so the Toft at this point has been sold. See my updated Studio Tour on UA-cam. But at the time with the Toft I liked the routing, I liked the overall vibe with the Trident thing, and the price point was great. The mic pre’s didn’t get used much. They’re ok, but I felt I had better outboard ones.
Right. Thats what I though! Ill check out the new one! Thanks for chattin!
haha This guy is so awesome! "So, if you wanna give it a go, we have it - big smile" :D
Haha! Thanks Frida!
Great video, man! I can't see Pro Tools interfaces, where did you hide them? Just curious)
There is an Apogee Symphony 64 PCIe card in the computer. That connects to the Apogee converters and serves as the interface.
And thank you!!!
wow.....
Thanks Lance!
just one of those speakers costs more than my whole bedroom studio lmao
Logan Newquist I know! It’s crazy. And those were actually a steal. The new version Dynaudio makes that replaced those are even more expensive!
Hey All, I've finally updated this video tour with a new version that includes the new console at Rarefied, a Neve Genesys! Check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/pfkLmApm1jU/v-deo.html