Wolf Den Recording is on hiatus at the moment as I’ve moved into my first house and not all of my gear has followed quite yet. It does put me into a unique position though where I get to redesign the studio, building on what I learned the first time around.

When I started trying to figure out what I liked and what I didn’t about my ‘old’ studio one idea kept bubbling to the surface: I want to do a better job integrating the digital side with the analog side.

The old location was basically an efficient setup to get audio recorded digitally. When I was setting up the control room I did a lot of research into how other similarly sized studios were setup and followed that general template. The configuration works quite well and I was never at a loss making something happen but it’s just not the way I like to work.

With the new space I’m going to focus on building a studio that suits the way I think and work. I’m going to take a big facility approach on a small facility budget.

When you work in a large facility they are often focused around a large mixing console that becomes the heart of the system. I don’t have the millions of dollars needed to afford a really large board but after doing some research I’ve turned up some consoles that work in the same way, at a price point more in line with the final plan of the studio.

I found a guy in New York that was selling a Tascam M-3500 in a 32 channel configuration. Beautiful console that, in very basic terms, functions the same way as the really large format recording consoles from companies like SSL and Neve. Each of the 32 channels is actually two separate channels, one for the Microphone/instrument and a second channel for the signal coming back form the recorder. This allows me huge flexibility both during tracks and  when it comes time to mix the song. At mix down, because of the boards configuration, I have access to 64 channels of audio plus 4 effects returns. The flexibility of the board is truly amazing.

With the console on hand I can now figure out the final design of the studio and where the console will fit in. The goal now will be to build a setup that allows me to work purely in digital, purely in analog, or a hybrid of both. Thanks to this new board, that should be a breeze.

The board is about 20 years old though and it needs a little TLC before it’s 100% again. I’ve been pouring over every light, switch, knob and fader and will have this board looking and sounding as good as new well before the construction on the studio is complete.

I’ll be using this space to update on the progress the studio is making as well as any side projects I take on, like restoring this wonderful console back to tip top shape. Stay tuned!

Robert