Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 17, 2023 23:27:33 GMT -6
Ok, first off this is not a buying spree. I'm thinking about trading out some stuff to simplify my life. I swear, I'm not suffering from GAS.
Anyway, does anyone know this unit? I was looking at some alternatives and this seems like a way to keep my board but still make life simple. Let me tell you what I have and what I want my end state to be and then we'll go from there.
I'll put headers in bold so you can feel free to skip around to parts of this post that you want to respond to or read the whole thing.
Purpose
This is a 12' x 19' room in a rehearsal complex in a warehouse in Austin. The ceilings appear to be 8' but in actuality the ceiling is a layer of acoustic tile with another 2' gap above it followed by insulation and then a second floor. Not bad!
And truth be told, the room is pretty predictable. I've picked up a crap-ton of well made / home made absorbers from a local studio that was downsizing and I can control frequencies nicely. So why am I not using this as my main room?
Simple. Depending on the hour of the day we may be battling with what seems to an unending supply of death metal bands. I'll say this for death metal bands, they sure seem to rehearse a lot!
So the room serves as my rehearsal space and also where I do drum recordings, all we gotta do is come in before 12pm or after 12am and we're fine for drums. We could also be fine for guitars if I wanted and obviously for keys. But I don't do that for the reasons I'm about to explain.
The Goal
I like recording my rehearsals. A lot. Even when I don't set things up properly I record on some sort of device. In a pinch I'll use my Apple Watch to record (not that bad actually). So I need a setup that is really, really easy to... set up.
For when I'm tracking drums or guitars I need to easily swap my "good mics" in and swap them out and store them. I just don't have a setup for this right now and the room is packed to the gills as you'll see in a minute. I leave my B Team mics set up (I rent the space to another band once per week) and only swap the A-Team in when I'm doing a real recording.
I also need to not have to change routing. See below.
The Setup And The Problem
The problem is that the room is too crowded to safely store recording stuff in an easily accessible way. The other problem is that my recording setup is a bit of a pain in the ass. It wouldn't be a problem if it was just me in the studio, but I have to change the routing so that my non-tech savvy renter can figure out how to get sound out of the mains when he rehearses. I have four dedicated channels for this dude but no matter what I do, settings get effed with.
Here's the setup.
A&H GS3000 24 channels. It's an inline setup. I'm using the inline functions and running it into a MOTU Ultralite AVB. For the rest of the I/O I'm using an the Clarett+ Octopre. It's all working fine I guess but, I don't know... somehow bringing my laptop in and setting it up and futzing with the I/O if I want to change instrumentation... it's fine for a "real" recording but it's a demotivator for spontaneous recordings or for rehearsal recordings.
Also in the room I have a full size upright, a drum kit of course, a very comfy but small loveseat (non negotiable! I sit in this A LOT), a mini fridge (also non negotiable) two sidecars that have some random rack gear and also serve to store cleaning supplies, a pegboard with cables, treatment on most walls that shaves off functionally 12" of space (6" for the treatment and also you can't push things right up against it).
And of course tons and tons of cases and things. And when we rehearse I use a keyboard and organ combo, I don't use the piano for anything other than fiddling around and writing. Plus it looks cool.
The Options
I hate getting rid of stuff so this is hard. No options are happy ones for me but I need to make choices.
1) At first I was thinking of selling the board, getting a Tascam 24, and putting the change in my pocket. That would suck cuz I really like the board but there's no other place to use it and I'm not storing a 24 channel board that I'm not using. I could bring in some outboard pres for critical tracks when I'm doing real recording (really just drums are critical in that case) and the rest would be ultra easy. But man... I love that G&H. But man again... it's huge compared to a modern board.
2) Get rid of the piano for space. That sucks cuz I do like the piano and I like the vibe it gives to an otherwise soulless space. But I have a great piano for my main recordings at another location and this thing is only used for vibe and for "funky" sounds on occasion. Plus songwriting.
2b) In this scenario I could keep the GS3000 and simplify my life by getting a hard disk recorder. Hence the subject line.
So if I went that route. Seems like the JoeCo could be perfect. I can continuously record for rehearsals. And for "serious" stuff all we're really doing is tracking drums, no punches. I've literally never punched anything in this space when tracking drums. I'd sell the Octopre and keep the MOTU for when I do want to punch things like guitars.
Also, since my setup is inline, I could easily playback and fiddle around with "rough mixes" for clients to give them a feel for the sounds. I could even use the bussing to bounce that down to 6 tracks and record it back to the MOTU for take home listening.
Never Had A Setup Like This Before. So I'm asking you guys. Does this makes sense?
Anyway, does anyone know this unit? I was looking at some alternatives and this seems like a way to keep my board but still make life simple. Let me tell you what I have and what I want my end state to be and then we'll go from there.
I'll put headers in bold so you can feel free to skip around to parts of this post that you want to respond to or read the whole thing.
Purpose
This is a 12' x 19' room in a rehearsal complex in a warehouse in Austin. The ceilings appear to be 8' but in actuality the ceiling is a layer of acoustic tile with another 2' gap above it followed by insulation and then a second floor. Not bad!
And truth be told, the room is pretty predictable. I've picked up a crap-ton of well made / home made absorbers from a local studio that was downsizing and I can control frequencies nicely. So why am I not using this as my main room?
Simple. Depending on the hour of the day we may be battling with what seems to an unending supply of death metal bands. I'll say this for death metal bands, they sure seem to rehearse a lot!
So the room serves as my rehearsal space and also where I do drum recordings, all we gotta do is come in before 12pm or after 12am and we're fine for drums. We could also be fine for guitars if I wanted and obviously for keys. But I don't do that for the reasons I'm about to explain.
The Goal
I like recording my rehearsals. A lot. Even when I don't set things up properly I record on some sort of device. In a pinch I'll use my Apple Watch to record (not that bad actually). So I need a setup that is really, really easy to... set up.
For when I'm tracking drums or guitars I need to easily swap my "good mics" in and swap them out and store them. I just don't have a setup for this right now and the room is packed to the gills as you'll see in a minute. I leave my B Team mics set up (I rent the space to another band once per week) and only swap the A-Team in when I'm doing a real recording.
I also need to not have to change routing. See below.
The Setup And The Problem
The problem is that the room is too crowded to safely store recording stuff in an easily accessible way. The other problem is that my recording setup is a bit of a pain in the ass. It wouldn't be a problem if it was just me in the studio, but I have to change the routing so that my non-tech savvy renter can figure out how to get sound out of the mains when he rehearses. I have four dedicated channels for this dude but no matter what I do, settings get effed with.
Here's the setup.
A&H GS3000 24 channels. It's an inline setup. I'm using the inline functions and running it into a MOTU Ultralite AVB. For the rest of the I/O I'm using an the Clarett+ Octopre. It's all working fine I guess but, I don't know... somehow bringing my laptop in and setting it up and futzing with the I/O if I want to change instrumentation... it's fine for a "real" recording but it's a demotivator for spontaneous recordings or for rehearsal recordings.
Also in the room I have a full size upright, a drum kit of course, a very comfy but small loveseat (non negotiable! I sit in this A LOT), a mini fridge (also non negotiable) two sidecars that have some random rack gear and also serve to store cleaning supplies, a pegboard with cables, treatment on most walls that shaves off functionally 12" of space (6" for the treatment and also you can't push things right up against it).
And of course tons and tons of cases and things. And when we rehearse I use a keyboard and organ combo, I don't use the piano for anything other than fiddling around and writing. Plus it looks cool.
The Options
I hate getting rid of stuff so this is hard. No options are happy ones for me but I need to make choices.
1) At first I was thinking of selling the board, getting a Tascam 24, and putting the change in my pocket. That would suck cuz I really like the board but there's no other place to use it and I'm not storing a 24 channel board that I'm not using. I could bring in some outboard pres for critical tracks when I'm doing real recording (really just drums are critical in that case) and the rest would be ultra easy. But man... I love that G&H. But man again... it's huge compared to a modern board.
2) Get rid of the piano for space. That sucks cuz I do like the piano and I like the vibe it gives to an otherwise soulless space. But I have a great piano for my main recordings at another location and this thing is only used for vibe and for "funky" sounds on occasion. Plus songwriting.
2b) In this scenario I could keep the GS3000 and simplify my life by getting a hard disk recorder. Hence the subject line.
So if I went that route. Seems like the JoeCo could be perfect. I can continuously record for rehearsals. And for "serious" stuff all we're really doing is tracking drums, no punches. I've literally never punched anything in this space when tracking drums. I'd sell the Octopre and keep the MOTU for when I do want to punch things like guitars.
Also, since my setup is inline, I could easily playback and fiddle around with "rough mixes" for clients to give them a feel for the sounds. I could even use the bussing to bounce that down to 6 tracks and record it back to the MOTU for take home listening.
Never Had A Setup Like This Before. So I'm asking you guys. Does this makes sense?
