For those of you out there who follow the blog, you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. First off I want to apologize for the absence, but allow me to explain briefly what’s been going on. I have recently been promoted to oversee all of the online departments for the entire company. It’s been a ton of work getting organized, and it’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be well worth the effort. In addition to offering my help for our customers with their sales needs and product questions, I now handle all of the emails and customer service calls for our online support department. I will also be handling our eBay department as well. This includes our online eBay store and all of the auctions that we run weekly. I’m very excited about this new opportunity to have a positive effect on our business. I will work hard to provide only the highest level of customer service, support, and attention to detail for our customers. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the good stuff. MORE GEAR!
The studio live is a 16 channel digital mixer. This mixer has 16 XLR inputs, 4 sub groups and is fully compatible via the fire-wire output with the majority of the DAW software that is currently on the market. One of the other really cool features of this mixer too, is that it has a host of digital effects built in. Remember a few posts ago where I was talking about how less cabling means less signal loss? This is one major advantage of having built in effects. This mixer has compression, limiting, gating, reverb, delay, and dual 31 band EQ’s. These are just a few samples of the features that you get with this mixer. To see it and all the gory details, Click Here.
Another nice feature of this mixer is that you can daisy chain, or add, an additional 8 mic pre’s by hooking up something like a Presonus Firestudio Tube to the other fire-wire input. You can also daisy chain a second Studio Live mixer so you can run a simultaneous 32 channels. This is the perfect product if you need a mixer that will double as a live or recording mixer with built in effects. I’ve got a customer of mine who lives on the west coast who is probably going to be picking one of these mixers up soon. He’s currently in the process of building a studio, and we’ve been talking a lot about a lot of different things. So starting with this post I’m going to be going over some of the other aspects of building a home recording studio to give you guys some insight on other things you might want to consider. We’ll be talking about sound-proofing, snakes and cabling, software, computers and a few other related topics. I’ll basically cover the majority of the items that myself and Dr. Franks are going to be putting to work in his newly built home recording studio. We’ve already talked about studio monitors and interfaces so we’ll skip those topics, but there will be plenty to talk about over the course of the next several posts. As always, give me a call or email if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you’d like to see me talk about here on the gear blog. 800-373-8393 X100 or email bfoley@daddys.com
Here’s the deal on this EQ. First of all it’s mono. So for those of you out there who aren’t familiar with the term you could also refer to mono as being a single channel. So to have EQ in stereo with a piece like this, you need two. The back has a single 1/4″ or XLR in and out. The difference between a parametric, and graphic EQ is this. A parametric basically has two knobs per frequency, (sometimes more) that effect the sound. One knob determines the frequency, or frequency range, the other boosts (increases) or cuts (decreases) the amount of that frequency in the signal. A graphic EQ lays everything out in a line so you can make a smiley face out of it. Really the only difference between a graphic and parametric EQ is the fact that the graphic EQ predetermines the frequency that will be cut or boosted. The parametric allows you to select it. Here’s a quick interesting fact for you. I bet most of you who have used an EQ have seen the old smiley face setting. Here’s the thing. Generally a graphic EQ has the lower frequencies on the left, mid-range frequencies in the middle and high frequencies on the right. The reason why most people do a smiley face on the EQ is because they like the sound of a boosted high and low frequency with a cut mid frequency. This is because human ears are most sensitive to mid-range frequencies. This is the range of frequency that most of the populations voice hovers around. People do the smiley face EQ because their ears pick up the mid-range frequency more than the lows and highs and so they do that so it sounds more pleasing to them. This unfortunately can be a bad thing. Especially when you are EQ’ing a signal with a lot of prominent low frequencies, like a bass guitar for example. So for all you bassists out there, if you have a graphic EQ on your bass amp, try experimenting with the mid-range frequencies. I think you’ll be surprised at the impact it will make on your sound for the better.
Say hello to the Allen & Heath ML3000. This is a very high quality 32 Channel 8 Sub mixer with a ton of routing options. This mixer has excellent quality pre-amps that make it a perfect mixer to use when recording. It still has some of the tape on it labeling the channels that the band used in the studio. Included with the auction is the giant Godsmack labeled road case underneath it. Every home studio needs a good mixer and this one certainly qualifies. One other unique feature of this mixer is that each individual channel strip, or every bank of 8 channels can be removed and repaired and replaced independently of the other modules. Very cool. Now when you have a elaborate studio set up where an entire band is recording it’s important to have a proper way to monitor what everyone is playing without being really loud. It’s hard on you to record for hours at full volume. It’s a good way to kill your ears and an even better way to get completely burnt out and tired after a long session. That’s where the next piece comes in.
This is the Furman HDS6 Headphone Distribution System. Long title, I know. Here’s what it does. That big rack mount piece in the picture is the brain of the unit. This is the piece that you plug your audio signals into. Each one of those little boxes is a personal headphone mixer that you put on a mic stand or tabletop near where you are playing. By having the controls on that mini mixer you can change the volume of the musicians relative to your volume. So let’s say for example the guitar is too loud. You can turn just the guitar down to get it to sit in the mix properly. Cool right? What’s even cooler is that you connect all these pieces together using standard CAT5 cable so you don’t have to spend a ton of money on long runs of audio cable to go to and from all the boxes. Lastly for this post the signal chain wouldn’t be complete without a pair of studio monitors.
These are the Yamaha MSP5’s. They are a small but powerful pair of active monitors. An active monitor has all the proper amplification and crossovers built into the box. They even feature a convenient front panel volume control. These are magnetically shielded so you can place them next to a conventional CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor without messing with the picture. Flat panel monitors like LCD’s and Plasmas are not effected by magnets so if you have a flat panel monitor it doesn’t matter anyway. Do they even make CRT monitors anymore? Regardless, this is the last but certainly not the least important piece in the signal path. I’ll be back on Monday with some more information on some of these products. Remember, I’m always available for all your gear related questions by calling 800-373-8393 X100 or emailing bfoley@daddys.com.
This is a Line 6 Filter Pro. This is a one space rack mount filter effect with stereo inputs, outputs, and full midi control. The Filter Pro has a variety of effects and a built in Synth type effect. If any of you have ever used a bass or guitar synth, auto wah, or envelope filter then you already have a solid idea of what this unit does. It’s basically just more variations of these different types of effects and a ton more control options. They also sold us a handful of effect pedals. I’m not going to go into great detail on each individual pedal because most of you will know what they are already.
There are tons of other pieces that we got from them. I’m going to post again later today and go over some of the studio gear that they had. There’s a lot of good stuff on the eBay auction page. Scroll to the top of this blog and click where it says CLICK HERE and it will take you directly to the auction pages. If you have any questions about any of the topics covered in the gear blog or any gear related questions in general, just drop me a line at 800-373-8393 X100 or email bfoley@daddys.com.
The Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier has three independent foot switchable channels, with separate EQ and Gain controls on each channel. Each channel also features switchable modes. Channel one can be “clean” or “pushed”. Channel two and three has “raw”, “vintage high gain”, and “modern high gain” modes. This amplifier has a total of 150 watts of power, and you can select either 6l6 or EL34 operation to further customize your tone. I could go into tons more detail describing this amplifier and all the options that it has, but it would take more space than I should take up in the blog. Suffice it to say, this is a staple in modern heavy music and many, many bands, not just Godsmack have used Mesa Recitifier’s to record and tour. Starting bid on the Triple Rectifier is $999.99. Well worth it. In conjunction with the Mesa Triple Rectifier we got half a dozen Mesa 4fb cabs. These cabs have Celestion vintage 30 speakers, they are 280 watts, and offer 4, 8, or 16 ohm operation. They can be used as a mono or stereo cabinet. 
Now, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting much from these cabinets, especially when I had just finished ripping through the Mesa 4×12’s using the Triple Rectifier. I have to say though, after I got done blowing my head clean off my shoulders and my hearing came back, I was mighty impressed. To start with, these cabs are rugged. The metal edging not only gives them kind of a cool look, it’s a very smart design. No more broken corners and no more fraying of the tolex on the edge of the cabinets either. All in all a very good sounding cab and by comparison to some of the other heavy duty offerings out there in the world they are relatively inexpensive. Especially if you consider that if you’re one of our local customers, you can pick one of these bad boys up at a starting bid of $249.99. That’s a lot of cab for the money. If your a local Daddy’s customer, we offer in store pickup on our eBay auctions for $10. That way you can save on shipping costs because these things are extremely heavy. Stay tuned for the next few days to get some more of the details on all the equipment that we got from Sully and Godsmack. If anyone has any specific questions relating to the gear that we purchased from them, just give me a call at 800-373-8393 X100 or email bfoley@daddys.com for more information.
A7’s have a 7″ Kevlar woofer and a Ribbon Tweeter. Looks weird right? Some of you may have seen a ribbon tweeter, and some of you have not. Bottom line is this. It’s a better, more efficient and accurate design than most traditional style tweeters. A ribbon tweeter is supposed to have a higher frequency response which allows it to reproduce higher frequencies than on a conventional design. There’s just something that you get when you listen to an ADAM speaker that you just don’t hear when you’re listening to something else. There’s a quality of sound that you just have to experience to be able to understand it. I’d recommend anyone in the market for a quality Studio Monitor to take a look at the ADAM line of speakers. ADAM A7’s retail for $1000 for a pair. If you’re in and around that budget for a pair of monitors you’d be doing yourself an injustice by not listening to a pair of A7’s before you make your decision on which to buy. Currently I’m saving my pennies so I can buy a new pair of ADAM monitors for my home recording studio. They are the S3x-H. The S3 is a mid-field monitor which basically means you sit further away from it. The reason that I’m going with this type of monitor is because of where I sit in relation to the speakers, and I like a dual woofer and mid-range speaker design because I feel it has the best detail and presence when recording vocals.
Lastly, just because we all like to window shop I figured I would show you something utterly ridiculous and crazy that they make. I’ve never seen or heard a pair of these in person but to say that I’d love to is an understatement. These Main monitors which are used basically when you want to play back at high volume and get a huge full range reproduction of your recording are called the S7A’s. They have two 15″ woofers, two 9’s woofers, two mid-frequency ribbon tweeters and one high frequency ribbon tweeters. Each speaker pushes over 4,000 watts. The cabinets on them are so big I could probably crawl inside them and go to sleep. 
Now, 99.9% of the world’s population will never need anything like this. Certainly not in a home studio environment. The only reason that I’m showing them to you is just to give you and idea of just how deep the scope is of what’s available out there. I think it’s probably safe to say every one of us has gone to our favorite car manufacturer’s website and built our dream ride once or twice. I guess for me, it’s more interesting to dream about building a recording studio than buying a fancy car, but I suppose that if you bought a pair of S7A’s for $45,990 (no, that’s not a typo) you might expect them to have wheels that pop out of them so you could drive them to work. If you have any other questions about anything gear related, don’t hesitate to call 800-373-8393 X100 or email bfoley@daddys.com. I love to talk about gear and if myself or anyone else at Daddy’s Junky Music can help you realize your gear dreams, we’re all about it! Give us a call or stop by your local Daddy’s and check us out!