Travis Dickerson Recording Studio Forum

So maybe I\'m a nerd, but I wasn\'t able to find a page on your site with a gear listing. I really like your work, and think you get some great sounds. I was just curious about some of your favorite studio gear, console, recorder(tape/digital), ect. I don\'t expect you to list everything, just curious. I will admit that I didn\'t search to see if this was already posted.

I don\'t list stuff about my studio on this site cause it\'s really not a site about the studio but rather about the artists and the work. I\'m always interested in talking about gear though. I use Neve mic pres and EQ\'s. La2a, Summit and David Royer tube compressors, A George Augsburger Monitor system. I have a Soundcraft 2400 console, record to a TDM ProTools rig. I have a selection of Nuemann, Sennheiser , Royer and AKG mic\'s among others. More importantly sound wise is I have a nice collection of vintage musical instrument I\'ve collected over the last 30 years and even more importantly sound wise is I\'m very fortunate to work with some incredible players and artists.

That\'s cool, so you mix in pro-tools? Just use the console on the in? That\'s all the good stuff, really nice front end. I\'m not familiar with that console(I am terrible, I mean terrible, at remembering model numbers and stuff like that, needless to say I did poorly in history), but I\'m sure it does the trick nicely. I\'m also not familiar with the David Royer stuff, I\'ll google. You can never have enough musical instruments, regardless of what your mom/wife/family/neighbors/friends/landlord says.

Quoteand even more importantly sound wise is I\'m very fortunate to work with some incredible players and artists

The fawnky fangerz

I partly mix in ProTools. I still like to mix drums through the console and back through the Neves, sometimes other tracks as well then I re-patch those track back into my Pro Tools mix. The Soundcraft is a great old British console with nice sounding EQ\'s. I was turned onto it by a friend of mine who cut the Traveling Wilburys records on one. Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Dave Stewart all have one in their studios here in L.A.

Nice. Pro-Tools is great, but it can use all the warmth it can get. That console sounds pretty cool. I love vintage gear, especially consoles. I knew this guy who had this old console, it was small, like eight channels. I have no clue what it was, because he was guarding it like a hawk, and I only got to see it once, but it had these huge dials the size of grama\'s biscuits, and that\'s like half a plate. They were big and black, like the size of half a baseball, it was so cool(asthetically at least). Anyway, it sounds like you have a killer setup over there. I would love to check it out. Do you have a site dedicated to your studio? I don\'t imagine you\'re trying to hock time slots, but it would be cool to see the propers and control room and stuff.

QuoteI was turned onto it by a friend of mine who cut the Traveling Wilburys records on one. Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Dave Stewart all have one in their studios here in L.A.

Oh My... Travis simlpy amazing, my guitar  playing friend adores two of those guys.. just when I ebb into something that totaly intrests me, you go and say something like that ( eyes pop out, gos to look for them )...

Chris

i\'ve finally worked out the Sony DMX-100 at college

http://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/global/press_images/dmx-r100.JPG

Next time im in the studio i\'ll make a list of what we use, and ill post it up here if anyone is intrested. which is probally tomorrow, as i\'ve agreed to help out some of the 2nd years, by playing hip-hop bass on one of there sessions..things just weirder and weirder

That\'s a nice console matey. It reminds me of the TM-D4000s we had at the conservatory back in the day, before they went to Pro-Control.

Which brings me to my next question. Travis, what do you think of Logic? Even though I have two certs in PT, I still prefer Logic(I\'m running it on PC even though they abandoned me). I like the PT hardware, I just prefer Logic for recording. I think if I had a full PT rig, I would still use Logic for recording, and just use the DAE engine to run the PT hardware. What do you think?  

I\'m a Pro Tools user. We have a couple of producers here who use Logic but 99.9 percent of the projects done here in L.A. are in  Pro Tools and the few times a Project comes in started in Logic it\'s a PITA to translate it back and forth. It\'s just a fact of life that Pro Tools is the standard so it\'s just practical to work in it. I have used Digidesign software since Sound Designer so PT is second nature to me. I\'m also a Mac guy, my PC tends to collect virus\'s and dust in that order.

hey, on protools, can you cut loops to your pleasing?  i\'m using this Acid software which is a ripoff of protools, and i can\'t really cut it so that the loop for like, a rhythm track sounds good.

man, i wish i had money.

I think in Acid there is a wave editor function(perhaps in the clip\'s properties?) that will allow you to adjust the starting and ending points of a loop, as well as how you want that loop to be sliced, Spencer. I would however suggest getting a program for recording and editing your loops. Wavelab, or Soundforge, in that order, are good choices. Then you can record your files, edit them to perfect loops, then save them as loop files(I just mean edited WAVs). That way, when you use Acid(the program ) you can just pull from your pre-edited loop database. That\'s what I do.

I hear you Travis. I\'m not a Pro Tools hater or anything. It is a great program, I\'ve actually thought about trying to teach the cert classes. I guess I just like logic because I do alot of programing and electronic stuff, alone. Perhaps it has nothing to with that, maybe I\'m just more used to doing that stuff in Logic, and more audio only stuff with PT. As far as viruses, I don\'t use my music puter for the net, duh.


j/k btw

Yeah, i heard that music computers should be on their own to prevent effing everything up.  Also, it should be a mac with the Protools HD thingy.

My question to you guys is how does one afford this stuff?  correct me if i\'m wrong, but i would think that a mac and a lot of recording equipment would cost a lotta money!

QuoteAlso, it should be a mac with the Protools HD thingy.

;DLOL!

QuoteMy question to you guys is how does one afford this stuff?  correct me if i\'m wrong, but i would think that a mac and a lot of recording equipment would cost a lotta money!

I don\'t know either man, that\'s why I use PC. hehe Belive me when I say, a mac will get just as jacked as a PC will. The only thing mac has on PC is that it\'s 64 bit and PC is(was) 32 bit. I run my music puter(AMD Athalon 2.4GHz, 1G ram, 2 80Gig maxtor hds, one for the system and one for audio)  with no problems, I can do 64 tracks easy, and can still afford a bit of processing. My whole recording system cost less than a basic, entry level, PT HD system(that\'s not even including the mac to run it). $300 bux for a TC Electronic powercore, and I\'ll have more processing power, still under the cost of PT. That\'s not to mention the fact that once you buy into mac, you are officially a mac guy, because you aint got no other choice. No mixing and matching, no extensive modding, you are on the mac teet. That\'s why I don\'t go that way. I\'m just a rebel without a cause. (and a broke one too )

There is a huge difference between a Pro Tools TDM system and just about everything else out there. The difference is TDM hardware has the processing computer built into the hardware. All the computing for the TDM audio path is done in real time on the card leaving the computer to do just screen redraws and the like. So a TDM system can run on a lowly Mac 9600 ( about $50.00 on ebay). The biggest benefit to this is zero latency with TDM. The other benefit is stability, these things never crash. The other difference is price, a workable TDM system is about $10,000 and up. You have to figure that cost into your business model at that price pint or at the very least have a rich uncle. Most other systems, Logic, Cubebase, and Digidesigns Pro Tools LE systems run natively on the computer and use it\'s CPU to do all the work so you need a fairly powerful computer to do all that work ( Logic, the old Studio Vision and some others will run on TDM hardware otherwise they run natively). So it\'s important to differentiate between the two.  The reason TDM systems are the standard in recording studios is because they are a standard, they are bullet proof when running in an Digi approved system, they can maintain high track count and huge plugin loads without even touching the computers CPU. This can be very comforting when you have a client paying $100.00 plus an hour breathing over your shoulder hour after slamming hour.  
I know better than to get into this but I\'m a Mac guy and I can\'t help it.
I disagree about a Mac getting just as jacked as a PC.
I don\'t have to worry about my Mac\'s all being on a WAN and LAN while doing music because there may be thousands of viruses and Trojans for the PC there are almost none for the Mac and there is zero working Trojans for a Mac. I\'ve been mixing, matching and mod-ding Mac\'s for 20 years, and I would rather spend my hours of computing time working with the elegant beautiful OS that the Mac is then......oh oh I\'ve started haven\'t I.
O.K. enough about Mac vs PC, the bottom line is there is a ton of reasonably priced gear out there that allow you to do good work. None of this gear matters as much as what it is you are recording. So figure out what you can spend, buy what you can afford and get started.

hehehehe - ah Travis, i KNEW you\'d have a response to that Mac remark!  hehehehehe!

but seriously...

QuoteNone of this gear matters as much as what it is you are recording.

Spencer - that\'s the bottom line - right there = nothing is as important as the piece you\'re working on.  recording equipment can become an obsession with some people.  never let it overshadow what you are creating.  some day, you\'ll afford better gear - meanwhile, get the licks down and work to build up a bigger and better instrument - yourself.  develop that inner talent - and get the progress of that growth down however / whenever you can afford to.

listen to anyone\'s oldest stuff, and then their newest - the recording equipment probably underwent a huge change, but that\'s nothing compared to the development of the artist themselves.