My 2021 Studio Tour (Before I make some changes...)

this is exciting it's studio tour time [Music] hey what's going on there chris here from mixdown online hope you are gonna enjoy this video because it's a studio tour 2021. a lot of people have asked me to do a studio tour video because the last one i did was like maybe three four years ago so i was overdue to make an updated video on my studio setup and this is what i'm gonna do today now there's a bunch of stuff okay that are gonna be updated or that i'm gonna change in the near future but i still wanted to to make this video anyways even if i'm gonna change a few stuff but i'm gonna keep you updated in the near future once i you know i made the changes but first before i start this tour the essential there you go i just love this stuff okay to the studio tour okay let's start by this side where i have a tape machine it's a tascam 85 16b that is not mine and that is not working it needs like a major cleanup and it's actually a friend of mine that asked me um to store uh this uh this tascam this tape machine for him he was looking for his place to store uh his gear and i told him you know what you know just store it at my studio and you know we'll see what's gonna happen my plan was to initially to work with this uh the state machine to experiment with it to clean it up and to you know work with it a bit but that never happened uh just a lack of time you know i just too busy to to start experimenting with new gear like this type of gear um so that's why i just never did it and um i also have the attack 1682 which is made by amek it's a it's a console and same for this uh this mixer i told my friend i was able to uh to store it here at the studio i mainly use it for the preamps okay this is what i use it for and the cool thing is that on each channels there's a semi-parametric eq that i use also when tracking drums so i mainly use uh use the console for the preamps when tracking drums that's it you know now it's again it's a big it's a big board big mixer same for the tape machine it looks good you know you see that in the background of my videos uh but um it's just a bit too big for the space so this like these two units are gonna leave the studio very soon okay so this is one uh this is actually part of what i'm going to be improving or changing in the near future as far as my control room goes so i'm going to end up rearranging this part of my studio and then you know it's just just a bit too big just for the use of eight preamps now on this side i have my rack mount which starts with the patch bait that i have on top and this is new i've been you know i worked for years without a patch bay and now that i have one um i don't know how um i was able to work without a patchbay especially with the setup that i have right now so um i actually plugged in you know most of everything that i have that i work with on a regular basis straight into the patchbay and it makes my workflow like easier you know so everything is faster to work with especially when working with with my preamps or external gear when mixing and stuff so it's very easy to patch things around so i can make a video on that if you want me to just leave a comment down below next i have my main interface which is the axr4 from steinberg i made a video on this one a year ago and i'm going to link like a bunch of videos that i uh of the gear that i have in my studio that i made a video on i'm going to leave all the links in the description down below so check them out so the axr4 from steinberg is one of them amazing interface i love working with this one i've been uh working with this as my main audio interface for the past year and so far so good i really love it um just below this interface i have my old uh interface that i worked with for years the links over 16 which are 16 converters basically and now i hook i actually hook this one to my axr4 vi digital connection aes abu connections so i have eight of the um the converters that are going straight into the exr4 and on these converters i have the eight preamps out of the mixer that are plugged in to these converters that are going into my main interface then i have the cam which is a stereo bus compressor sounds amazing uh from a company called tagler from germany amazing sounded unit i really love this this compressor i used a lot on my mixbus it has on top a kind of a paultec type eq and then the compressor at the bottom so it's a vca compressor sounds very good then i have the stam audio s8 eq p1a i did not made a video on this one yet if you want me to leave me a comment down below and i will review or just show you how i use this uh this eq in my workflow very good sounded eq it's a pultec type eq which is very nice then i have this little guy the drummer 1960. it's a stereo compressor and a preamp which sound very good now this is not a recent unit it's been out for like decades actually uh i put my hands on this one back in 2006 uh when i first moved here maybe i think maybe a year prior to that anyways i don't remember but it's been a while since i purchased this this one i actually bought it used on ebay it served me well for years and i still use it it needs a cleanup but you know it's you know it's a very good unit again a preamp and the compressors you can use as a dual mono unit or a stereo unit also and there's also a very very nice instrument input that has a tube dedicated to which sounds very good especially when recording bass so i really like this one and at the bottom i have the 473 from vintec audio four preamps that sound very good they're neat type preamps they have like a uh like a high and low shelf and you know they just sound amazing again i've been working with these four years and i purchased those uh i think back in 2007 or so and at the bottom i have the space echo re101 a mono delay which sounds very very good it's a vintage type unit i don't work with it a lot but i'm actually planning on using it even more now that i have the patchbay set up now that is a gift that i received from one of my good friend jean-pie who just out of the blue decided to give me the space echo thank you jump yeah so this is basically what i have here as far as my preamps and audio interface and and so on you know i'm going to change that entire um like furniture type unit that i have here so far i'm just going to change it and buy like a like a bigger or a more convenient furniture to hold all of my my units in case this is going to come in the near future so i'm going to get rid of that entire setup okay now if we take a quick look at what i have on my desk on the right side i have the micro freak by arturia this is a digital synth that has an analog filter sounds very good very cheap actually you know i think you can put your hands on the micro freak for less than 400 us and it produces amazing sounds okay so i really like uh working with this one especially um to the fact that i'm actually getting more and more into synthesis and uh on top of being a very cool and good sounded instrument it's also a very good learning tool as far as i'm concerned anyways um then i have the the heritage audio this is a it's the ram system 2000 it's a monitor controller i made a video on this one a year ago i really love this big knob here you know which has that vintage look to it so very nice a controller this is where i connect all of my studio monitors which are the ones that you see right here on front so i'm gonna talk about those right away um so let's look at the the first pair of monitors that i have on the right and uh we're looking at the kelly audio in8 which are a three-way monitor system sounds very good um i also made a video on these um and as far as my main i would say main monitors uh i have the focals um the um the solo 6be classic you know a lot of people uh mixed with these very good sounded uh monitors and also those little you know they look like aura tones but they're not oratones but the same type of thing i don't even know the brand of these you know someone gave them to me years ago very good when mixing to focus on the mid-range only because you know with these you're not gonna get any low end and you know no top end whatsoever so you know very good tool to focus on the mid-range i'm going to get back on the desk and look at the fader port 16 which is my control to control cubase that works also for most daws it's pretty well integrated with cubase you know not perfect it has a very good integration with studio one which is normal because it's the same company that produces both but it does the job well with cubase also even if it uses the mcu protocol which my good friend dumpsie galas is in love with i'm sarcastic um then i have the microphone that i actually used on my last three four youtube videos and this one is the roswell pro audio mini k87 very good mic you know it's a high quality microphone professional mic for a cheap price you know for this type of microphone i think you can get one for 400 bucks us or 450 i'm not sure um very good sounded mic then the id14 which is my portable interface the one that i bring with me at the cottage but i keep it on my desk just to have access to the uh this knob you know the knob that i have on the on this interface because when i activate the id of this uh the interface that big knob uh will do the same job as my scroll wheel that i have on my mouse so whatever i'm going to point with my mouse is going to be controlled by this uh this little knob which is quite cool when mixing you want to just uh tweak some plugins manually you know by touching like a knob that works very well so that's why i keep it on my desk then i have this guy right here you know this little dude i don't have a name for him i'm you know then it was made by my daughter years ago when she was i think in grade five or six this dude has been on my desk for quite a while you probably saw him on some of my videos and with the look that it has it kind of pumps me up a bit you know when i procrastinate a bit too much or when i'm a bit too discouraged or whatever you know i i see that look and i just want to get back to work and you know produce music and then on the left side of my desk i have the arturia keylab 61 essential which is my main controller to you know to play with my vst instruments when i produce music one last thing here the desk that i have the actual desk it's a cheap one you know it's a cheap desk from ikea that i've been working on for years and recently i just kept the top of the desk and i bought myself a stand-up desk base you know only the legs and i just put the top of the the ikea desk right on top and that's it now i have a stand-up desk which is actually pretty cool and i kind of like this type of uh of desk you know just to be able to stand up while working now of course i do not mix uh standing up because you know as you can see the desk is blocking my my studio monitor so this is not the um the perfect the perfect setup to mix however if i mix it with headphones i'm gonna stand up and just you know so i can avoid be sitting down every day five days a week you know so this way i can i can just you know stay up once in a while when replying to youtube comments work on my website you know working on some uh some course preps or video preparation stuff uh this is the perfect setup and i bring it back down when it's time to produce music and mix this is also something that is going to change very soon at the top of the desk i'm going to redesign it and put something else so i can add a replace actually this display by a 32 inch 4k display instead of a 27 like it is right now and i want that display to be a bit more uh like further back you know because right now it's like it's not blocking my my monitors but it's it's a bit too close uh in my opinion so that bugs me a bit so i'm just gonna redesign the new desktop you know in the near future so more on that later i guess now you probably ask yourself the question about these monitors that i have here in the back which are actually inside my wall those are dynaudio's m2s you know they're discontinued and they are three-way studio monitors um i got these when i moved to this to this house back in 2006 and i you know i mixed with uh on these uh these monitors for years you know before i just updated my uh my new monitoring system with what i have right now um so anyways there's a story behind these but i'm gonna have to put them on cells since i don't use them anymore i prefer the setup that i have right now to these monitors even if they're good you know just for my taste and for the space that i have i think they're a bit too overkill now if you look at the back of the studio i have the the place where i store all of my camera equipment and also my mixing books and music production books now at the back you know behind these curtains what i have are bass straps um those are actually pretty cool they are actually suspended you know and they are not touching each other so they're kind of floating and i have like a total of eight or ten bass traps you know for this side of the uh the back studio and the same for the other side so a total of 20 i think total i have like 24 25 bass traps and that is counting the the ones that i have on top because i also have bass traps suspended right on top you know i also have a diffuser right here at the back of the studio which was uh handmade by a very good friend of mine and not to forget the red couch which is actually not comfortable whatsoever so i need to replace this as well so this is gonna is gonna be one of the uh the thing that's gonna be out of the studio in the near future so that whole part here uh with the mixer the uh um the tape machine and the couch is going to be redesigned in the next few weeks or a few months so there you go so now let's go and take a look at the microphones that i work with okay now for the microphones i have several mics that i love to record with let's start by i'm just gonna go through them briefly let's start with the austrian audio oc-818 very cool microphone i actually made a video on this one a year ago and also the lc t640 ts by lewitt microphones and those two mics um have some similar features and i'm actually working on the video where i'm going to compare both of these microphones honestly it's going to be a good one so stay tuned all right next the jz microphones i love jz microphones i have like a bunch of them um like v67 you know i have a pair of v67 they sound good on almost everything and i use a pair for drum overheads v47 a more darker tone to the 67 bb29 uh bh2 you know i made videos on these anyways except the v47 i didn't but this is gonna be actually part of a comparison video series that i'm working on so more on that later um and what else do i have here um yeah you know a bunch of dynamic mics better 58 sm 57 you know the classic mics a pair of ribbon microphone mxl super cheap and unexpensive mics you know they are ribbon mics you know always useful to have a pair in the studio and i don't use them often but you know but when i need this type of uh of microphone i have it you know i have a pair so at least i have something to work with a pair of 421s a classic tom microphone and also a guitar amp mics you know dynamic microphones you know they sound pretty good you know a classic also a bunch of roswell pro audio mics like the delphos um there you go very good microphone i love the tone of this mic um so you know i've been working with the delphos on vocals especially and you know it does sound very good and also a pair of mini k47 which are also very good microphones i like to use them on drum overheads guitar amps they sound good on vocals as well you know so those are pretty good mics and for roswell pro audio i also have the mini k87 that you saw earlier in this video that i used on my last youtube videos as my main vocal mic also a pair of akg 414s you know another classic microphone and a 451 also by akg very good mic for acoustic guitars if you're looking for something like a small diaphragm microphone this one sounds very good high hats you know acoustic guitar pretty good microphone so um i think that's pretty much it uh no there's a pair of rode um nt5s that i don't use much anymore but you know they are you know good microphone a small diaphragm also that i use to work with four drum overheads but i now prefer to work with large diaphragm microphones as far as marking drum overheads goes so now let's go take a look at my recording room so there you go this is my main recording room this is where i record my drums guitar amps acoustic guitars vocals anything you know except virtual instruments of course but everything else has been recorded here in my studio i really like this room it's not that big it's not like a huge room it's i consider that like a small room but it does sound pretty good and i like it very much now something that i love about this room is these panels now as you can see i have like those very cool panels uh which are two-sided panels okay let me explain on this side i have wood which basically is going to create a more live sound to the room you know because of all the reflections but if i turn them around this is what i get some acoustic treatment which is going to make the sound a bit more dead you know if i turn all the panels around to this side of the panel you know so which can create a room that sounds very dead or if i turn them around on the wood side is going to create a more live sound or i can blend you know i can blend the mix of both you know which is kind of cool so it gives me a lot of leverage and a lot of options as far as the sound of the room so which is quite cool so very cool design so this is basically what i have here for this room i also have a second room which is a booth which is on the other side right behind the curtain so you know so that is my old recording booth you know which i'm not going to show you because it's now my wife's office and she's working right now so yeah we decided to to use this room since i wasn't using it anymore you know like for the past a few years i've been recording everything in this main room and you know nothing much in the smaller room we decided to convert this room for now anyways um as an office for my wife so there you go so this is basically what i have here as far as my gear goes my my studio this is my 2021 studio tour and i'm gonna update you on the changes that are gonna come in the near future so i hope you enjoyed this video if so share like and subscribe to the channel if you're new here and don't forget to click that notification bell so you stay updated every time i release a new video until next time take care and see you

Channel: Chris Selim - Mixdown Online

Views: 13,262

Keywords: audio, audio engineering, audio mixing, chris selim, cubase, cubase 9, cubase pro, home recording, home studio, home studio mixing, home studios, mixdown, mixdown online, mixing, mixing audio, mixing tip, mixing tutorials, music, recording audio, steinberg, the recording revolution, tips, tutorial

Id: y1FZOkaw1DE

Length: 22min 21sec (1341 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021