My Cute Little Studio: BLAGGIN’

Is it cute? Is it little? I guess that’s for your to decide dear reader, but I love this little lab. Not that I ever actually make music in it… I’m more of a “build modules and set things up to see the lights blink” sort of musician. You know?

Let’s start with the Minibrute 2S/Rackbrute Combo.

Minibrute 2S and Rackbrute
So brute-ey.

Now before I even get to talking about it all, I know I have far too many sound sources, but I’m working on it, OK!? I’m looking at you reader, you filthy Euro Rack snob. I know you’re looking, and judging my lack of VCA and modulation sources. “Lol, he has a Maths, cute”. CUT IT OUT.

But anyways, the Minibrute 2S is getting clock from the NDLR (you’ll see it soon enough), and the rack up top is getting clocked through Pamela’s New Workout, which is in turned being clocked by mBrane (mini Yarns), which is being clocked by the Digitakt, which is being clocked by the DAW. WOO doggy, what a mouthful.

Pamela’s also gets a run signal from the mini Yarns. And it all locks in pretty tight, which is neat! I explain how I got that all setup in a past blog post, I even talk about how to control your Euro Rack gear with a guitar! Cool stuff. 

Monolith of Gear

Gear Monolith (It's a rack)
A wall of sound.

Right beside my Rackbrute/Minibrute 2S combo, I’ve got a big old block of gear. Top to bottom, it starts with the Deckard’s Dream that will one day exist at the top of my rack. Why not check out my progress while you’re at it?

Underneath that is two cute Tip Top Happy Ending kits, which are fantastic, stuffed to the brim with mostly my DIY nonsense. But we do have some classics in there, like the Make Noise Morphagene, which is one of my favourites. That thing practically makes music all on it’s own.

Another standout on the rack is the ES-8, which is another piece of gear I gush about constantly whenever I get a chance. It’s big brother the ES-9 is out now, but the ES-8 is nice and slim and gets the job done perfectly. In my setup it’s linked into my audio interface over ADAT. This way I don’t have to do an “aggregate audio device” in Mac OS, and the ES-8 acts as an extension of the Presonus interface I have sitting underneath it.

Underneath there, we have the Presonus 1824c, which seems to have mixed reviews out there on the internets. I love it personally, and the fact that it is DC coupled only makes it sweeter. (DC coupled means it can interface nice with my Euro gear, I can send/receive LFOs and other Euro-Rack-Like signals with it). Great feature set, and the price was right!

Last, I’ve got a cute little ART Mic Preamp. If I have one complaint about the Presonus 1824c, it is that phantom power isn’t “per channel”; it’s either on, or it’s off. This pre-amp serves a dual function there, it allows me to provide +48v phantom power, and get my signals juicy before they hit the interface.

Shred Central

Half Stack
So orange, so beautiful.

For all you shred lords out there, here’s my half stack. I’ve got a Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 18 plugged into this cute little Orange cab. Does it sound great? Oh yeah. Is it also cute and little, just like the rest of my studio? You best believe it bubs.

I’ve got a JDI passive direct box which sends my guitar signal directly to the DAW, but also to this little puppy. That way I can do something whacky with the dry signal straight into the DAW just in case I want to get away from the half-stack sound.

The Brains

Mac and Control Items
All the control you'd ever want.

And now we get to the silicon portions of the operation. Is that a cool way to say computers? Reader? AM I COOL?

Sorry. So from left to right, we’ve got the Digitakt spitting out hot beats and MIDI.

To bring us that sweet sweet noise, we’ve got a set of two Genelec 8010A’s. If I don’t feel like pumping the tunes out into the world, I go with my AKG K271 MKII’s.

After that we have everyone’s favourite MIDI keyboard, the Arturia Keystep. This guy is running through the NDLR currently, just in case I want to have the NDLR transposing my less than adequate keyboard skills.

On top of that little guy is my Macbook Pro. It’s the 2018 model everyone hates, but I love it. I don’t mind the little butterfly keys, and I think the touch bar is super useful. I’m more of a PC guy everywhere else in my life, but when it comes to serving up hot hot beats, I needs my Logic Pro X. Maybe one day I’ll be an Ableton boy, but for now I’m a Logic man.

The Keys

Keyboard
Ouuuu baby. So ready to be tickled.

This is more of the wifey’s territory. She’s the key-tickler in this house. Because we both think we’re hilarious, she named it “Peanu Keeyves”. Pretty good right? Not the caliber of JK I’m bringing with stevetravale.com , but she’s pretty good. 

Either way, I’m working on my peanu skills. One day I’ll be all over those ivory’s.

The End

And that’s it! There’s a little studio tour for you. Once we’re not living in a 1.5 bedroom apartment, there will be more room for all of my nonsense, and you better believe there’s going to be a whole bunch of nonsense.

Hope you enjoyed this little walk through. Christmas is coming up soon so the DIY is going to take a backseat to baking cookies and eating cookies, but I will do my best to keep you posted my furtive young reader.

Love yawl, go look at my other posts if you feel like it. That one is the Antumbra CARA build, cool right?

Until next time, have an absolutely beauty one, and keep it samesies!  

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