My Home Studio Setup

Thomas Henry · Last edited by Thomas Henry on Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:14 am; edited 1 time in total

Hello all,

Attached is a block diagram of my home studio setup. You'll recognize many of the components as things I've presented here on EM or have had published in Nuts & Volts. Perhaps looking it over will give you some ideas for your own home recording arrangement.

The MIDI paths are traced in big block arrows. My homebrew projects (like The MIDIGator, ADV-MIDI, MTS-100, and the GM-Voice codesigned with Antman) always include at least one MIDI THRU jack, so you'll notice that things are daisy-chained.

The recent Trigger to Switch Project shows up, too.

With this arrangement I can now do 24 simultaneous voices on the GM-Voice, another 24 simultaneous voices via software on the Gateway laptop, another 24 on the SB-16 on the old 486 machine, eight analog drums and anything else I can patch on the analog synth. In short, I can have some 70 or 80 polyphonic and independent and polyphonic things going on.

Most of it is homebrew, but obviously the two computers and keyboard aren't.

All in all, I can really concentrate on the music now; there's hardly an idea I can't implement when I think of it.

Let me know if there's anything in the patch that doesn't make sense and I'll try to help.

Thomas Henry

Setup.pdf

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Updated and corrected .pdf (2/9/08).
My studio setup.

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StephenGiles · Joined: Apr 17, 2006 Posts: 507 Location: England

But Thomas, where do you plug in your guitar? Smile

Thomas Henry · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:12 pm Post subject:

Just for you, Stephen, I've posted a song under the GM-Voice thread which includes a guitar part.

I have to tell you, though, at one time I was a reasonably good guitar player but not now. But that was when I use to play four hours a day, every day. After all these years of neglect, I find I can barely keep up on "Louie, Louie."

Anyway, I do use guitar in the home studio from time to time, and basically I just run it straight to the Boss BR-600 recorder, which includes all sorts of wonderful effects for guitar.

Thomas Henry

v-un-v · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:17 pm Post subject:

This is all very well Studs, but lets have a photo of yer studio instead? Wink

Thomas Henry · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:23 am Post subject:

I've just posted a corrected and expanded version of the block diagram of my studio setup in the link at the top of this page.

The CV/Gate/Trigger signals to the analog synth were fixed, there's an improved description of how I'm using the SB-16 for FM voices and external MIDI, and I've included my new sustain pedal. There are also several other smaller corrections to the grammar and formatting.

Let me emphasize again, I'm getting by with loads of cheap and ancient equipment to do some pretty neat things. Don't throw away your old computers!

Thomas Henry

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:15 am Post subject:

It looks like your SB16 has three MIDI outs. That's one pretty tricked out SB16! Very Happy

Thomas Henry · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:09 pm Post subject:

Yup, and it's cheap and easy to build. I called it the "SB-16 to MIDI Interface", and it appeared in Nuts & Volts about ten years ago.

Thomas Henry

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject:

Thomas Henry · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject:

Okay gang, in the block diagram I posted earlier I mainly showed the MIDI routing and only the basic audio signals available.

So, here's an additional block diagram that shows exactly how I've patched all of the audio signals to my two mixers, the recorder and the amplifier. It's pretty detailed.

The main advantage to this arrangement is I don't have to patch and unpatch things. I can set it up once and leave it, using the switches and faders on the various machines to reroute things as required. In particular, note how convenient it is to switch from Record mode to Playback mode. The way I was doing it before was simply a hassle---now it's a snap.

A couple things to note. The Behringer mixers have all sorts of neat ins/outs, routing switches, buses, etc. I've used some here, but still have some left over for auxiliary tasks. In particular I have 5 balanced mic inputs, two stereo line level channels, one additional monitor bus, control room input/output, and two headphone amps left over for further expansion (not all shown).

I use Fader 11/12 on the Xenyx mixer for the effects return. Notice that this channel also has an effects send fader, so I can easily do regeneration.

All in all, this was a very inexpensive recording/mixing setup to put together and yet is blowing me away with how versatile and quiet it is. In a nutshell, I have access to all my instruments now as well as the eight channels of the recorder (it has its own mixer, not shown here) without having to plug and unplug things.

Perhaps this block diagram will give you some ideas to try in your setup.

And by the way, the recorder also has two additional inputs. That's where I usually send the guitar, which is why you don't see that instrument here.

Thomas Henry

Mixer Setup.pdf

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Block diagram of my mixer/instrument/recorder/amplifier arrangement.

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Thomas Henry · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:23 pm Post subject:

One more thing. The faders for 7/8 (submix volume) and 11/12 (effects return) on the Xenyx are next to each other and conveniently located at the bottom of the panel of that unit. That's I used them and left 5/6 and 9/10 as the free channels (which are a little more obscured). In other words, if I need to rapidly reduce the volume or cut feeback in the effects loop, my hand can find the correct controls at once.

Thomas Henry