Studio Update: Argosy studio furniture

In these days of “in the box” mixing and recording, it’s important that a studio still has a main focus point - something that at least looks like a recording console (if not for any practical reasons, then for the aesthetics!). There’s also an element of “hands on” control that’s missing with a keyboard and mouse.

We’ve had a Digidesign C24 Pro Tools control surface for a while now which meets most of these needs, but simply placing it on a desk doesn’t have the functionality and ergonomics of a large format console. We'd looked at getting custom furniture built, and had been stuck with a horrendous combination of Quiklok stand and office desk for a year. Eventually something had to be done about it....

The 90-NC24-RR model is designed with the C24 in mind, so suited our purposes nicely. It arrived in a variety of confusingly numbered boxes, but once we’d found the one with the instructions in, we were ready to get assembling.

Putting together an Argosy desk is a familiar experience to anyone who’s ever bought IKEA flat-packed furniture. The step-by-step instructions make perfect sense once you go through them carefully, but as typical men, we blundered ahead regardless (we had to redo a few stages, but no damage was done - I’d advise you spend a bit more time reading than we did!)

After the best part of a day, we’d cleared out the studio and the Argosy frame was finished. Days 2 and 3 were spent re-wiring and testing the studio (most installs wouldn’t take this long, but we have a dual console studio, which takes a surprising amount of time to wire up fully and neatly).

First impressions of the Agosy? It looks awesome! We went for the mahogany hardwood end panels, which along with the padded armrests give a classy finishing touch. Put the C24 into Vegas mode, and the studio is all set to impress.



The rack rails are direct screw in American style, and the Argosy comes with more than enough screws to fill the rack. Once you get over your fear of cross-threading (and let’s face it, when have you ever cross threaded a rack nut?), you’ll start to appreciate these over the European nut-and-bolt standard. I never want to have to force rack nuts into slightly too small rack slots ever again! There’s also a couple of logo’d blanking panels to be found somewhere among the boxes.
The C24 comes with a full set of D-sub multicores, each around 6 meters long. Given that the patchbay lives under a meter away, this tends to leave a lot of slack. Keeping this amount of cabling all tidy was always a difficulty before, but the Argosy has a large space underneath where you can coil any excess neatly out of the way. There was even enough room left to tuck in the C24 power supply.
Once the wiring’s all in place, you can still get to the back of the desk via three hinged lids and with a latched rear panel, so it’s simple enough to mod your setup (we added alt speaker connections and the listen mic patch point about a week after the initial install with no difficulties).
There’s more than enough space for a mousepad and keyboard on both sides of the mixer, but you’ll probably end up balancing the keyboard on the arm rest and leaving the mouse to one side. You could change to a trackpad or trackball, but I’ve never been a fan of either of these. I’ve yet to see an ideal solution to this on any desk furniture though.

My biggest gripe about the Argosy? I’m starting to despise slanted patchbays! It’s all too easy for the rear patches to fall out, and almost impossible to see where they came from. Admittedly, a permanent soldered patchbay would solve this, but we need a fair amount of versatility and adaptability to our setup. As it stands, I’ve spent so much time beneath the desk recently, that I’m starting to consider buying an under-car mechanic’s trolley!

If you’re looking for studio furniture, I’d rate Argosy over the AKA design and Quick-Lok desks I’ve put together. It’s solid and built to last, though (much like IKEA furniture) I’m not sure how easy it would be to take apart and re-assemble. It’s a lot of money to outlay (especially when you add shipping to the UK from the States), but it will give any studio that professional look that a laptop and audio interface just will never have.

"Studio Update: Argosy studio furniture" > read the full post

Terrible Music I Dig

Here is a list of my favourite songs which are officially terrible, as in you would not stick them on if you brought a date home but would hide the albums in your wash basket with your soiled grots rather than admit you owned them. My bete noire Ciaran would suggest that everything I listen to is terrible, but as his favourite band is Hayseed Dixie he can go whistle.

Godley & Creme - Cry

Famous for it's hideous shape shifting video and Kevin Godley's massive beard if this was recorded by Radiohead it would be a lighters aloft weepy anthem instead of hogging the bargain bins. Best bits are the really high pitch shift at the end and the strange spacious production which is quite at odds to the usual kitchen sink productions of most 80s pop, Dub-MOR if you will.






Touch - Don't You Know What Love Is / When The Spirit Moves You

Massive cheesy power pop/soft metal also rans, bizarrely produced by the Tim Friese-Greene who worked on Talk Talk's brilliant last two albums, the mortgage needed paying eh Tim? Everything is overblown but is oddly soulful in it's own grotesque way, much more Todd Rundgren than Bon Jovi. No one knows why it never happened for them but a disastrous performance at Donington where the bass player swallowed a bee on stage and had to be carted off to A+E probably didn't help...






Detective - One More Heartache

Zeppelin clones who were championed by Jimmy Page who was in the running to produce this album until heroin led apathy got the better of him. What else is there to say that the massive opening drum salvo doesn't say already? I have sampled this already for a tune so hands off!






The Cars ― Moving In Stereo

Know for dire cynical skinny tie cobblers, The Cars lead singer produced some surprisingly credible bands on the side including Suicide and Bad Brains. Their albums always had at least one droning electronic Suicide tribute amid the fluff, this being the best example. Everything is so icy and riddled with sang froid you feel the need to run out into the street and hug a stranger post listen in a desperate desire for human body heat. A note for our overseas students, this is not advised in Dalston or Brixton.





Cristina - Things Fall Apart

A bit of a cult classic this, for everyone who thinks Noel is a big pile of pig balls, doleful, oddly sexy vocal over metal guitars, what's not to like? The song sounds like the model from Kraftwerk's The Model got to write her own song. Makes sense as Cristina was a model and girlfriend of the millionaire owner of the label ZE which released this Christmas turkey to resounding lack of success. Features a description of everyone's classic Xmas party from hell:

The party was a huge success,
"But where should we go next?" they said.
They'd killed a tree of ninety-seven years,
And smothered it in lights and silver tears.
They all got wrecked, they laughed too loud,
I started to feel queasy in the crowd,
I grabbed a cab back to my flat,
And wept a bit,
And fed the cat.






Pavlov's Dog - Natchez Trace

Spectacular spaghetti AOR, a deranged clash between Journey's shrieking vocals and Sergio Leone guitars. The whole album is simultaneously repellent and addictive. The record company must have torn their hair and nashed their teeth at all these great songs being sung by a man whose balls had failed to drop. Featured a fat dog licking it's chops on the cover as if that would help matters.






Robert Fripp and Daryl Hall - North Star

A nightmarishly unlikely collaboration between the dark lord of prog rock guitar, King Crimson's Robert Fripp, and the crown prince of the blow dry/back comb Daryl Hall, 80's "soul" star, AKA the one without the tach' in Hall & Oates. Who knows how they met or why they chose to collaborate but this is a strangely lovely thing despite Hall's over singing, sounds at points like he's having a tilt at Pavlov's Dog's highest voice in AOR title.





Al Di Meola - Race With The Devil on a Spanish Highway

Steady ladies, remember women were powerless under the comb over and three piece suit (with weak chin disguising beard) combo in the 1970's. Dismissed as "prattle wank" by LSS tutor Ben Wood, bear in mind though that Ben dislikes anything in music unless it is three minutes long, sung by a white guy with a skinny tie and has a guitar going "a chak a chang" before a big chorus about luv. Whether the musicians saw it or not at the time jazz fusion is best approached with a healthy sense of comedy, so much talent and skill going into producing music of such idiocy. Then you can sit back and enjoy the cop show riffing, mach speed axework and terrific title.






Please note LSS will most definitely NOT teach you to produce any of this toss while studying with us (Editor)

Maningrey


"Terrible Music I Dig" > read the full post

Go Live Now!

Ever thought you'd make a good Radio DJ? Tired of daydreaming of spinning that iPod playlist you love so much to a wide audience? If you can answer yes to one of or both questions then here's something to give you a fighting chance at beginning a culture and era moulding radio broadcast movement. Here's introducing "Spreaker"...WHAT on earth!? I hear you quibble, well...as weird as that name sounds (also hoping their marketing team were more creative than just putting spread and speaker to form this brand genius) it is probably another Twitter in the making or maybe that's a bit farfetched. Spreaker is one of those DIY personal profile, follow or be followed and play ranking hybrid of podcast hosting sites that also lets you broadcast live to your loyal listeners for all of 30 minutes (Free user accounts) or 3 hours as a Premium member with commercials inserted at 15 minute intervals..niiiice! There's also the very handy link with ubiquitous Facebook profiles to get your listeners flowing in fast and furious, the same share feature lets users update their status with an "I'm LIVE on AIR now" message thereby making you the provider of much needed music for friends that might be unaware of your hot mixes or newly released tracks.

Other features include being able to record podcasts for later broadcasts, use of jingles, sound effects and even looped music for talk segments of a broadcast.
Now, if you're not musically inclined how did you end up on this blog? Ok seriously if you're not a musician or an aspiring DJ this site is still a good platform for your discussions on sport, current affairs and other areas of entertainment. I've said enough to arouse your interests...go now...an SPREAK to the masses!


"Go Live Now!" > read the full post