As some of you know, for the last 6 months or so I’ve been playing with the Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2 mixer in my home studio. Being a long-time fan and user of Presonus gear, I was thrilled to get to put this thing through its paces.
I’ve done everything from recording a live concert, to mobile tracking sessions, to recording podcasts, videos, and live streaming video/audio online.
So yes…I’ve put it through its paces. I absolutely love this thing. Having a physical mixer with all the benefits of a firewire audio interface is the bomb.
Check out this quick video where I share with you three of my favorite things about the StudioLive, and why it’s a great option for us home studio folks.
I’ve talked about acoustic treatment a lot here on Home Studio Corner. Why? Because it’s one of the most important components of your home studio (if not the most important).
Everything you do in a studio is centered around audio waves, right? We’re in the business of capturing, manipulating, and reproducing audio waves.
While we audio cowboys are in the process of wrangling in these unruly audio waves, they’re bouncing all around our room. The more reflective surfaces your studio has, the more unwieldy the audio becomes.
Acoustic treatment is like Ritalin™ for your studio. Audio waves have ADD. They bounce around the room like crazy until they finally run out of energy…then they do it again.
Okay. Enough analogies.
An Undercover EQ
Regardless of your involvement in audio, whether your a casual hobbyist or a full-time professional, your music has a slim chance of sounding decent if you don’t have acoustic treatment.
Yesterday we discussed the pros and cons of mixing on headphones. If you haven’t chimed in on the discussion, head over there. Lots of interesting comments.
I’m not here to say that mixing on headphones is better than mixing on monitors. However, it has been my experience that you can get a good mix on headphones, even though there are a lot of people who claim you can’t.
The moral of the story isn’t that you can always get a good mix on headphones. No matter what your mixing/monitoring environment is, it’s your job to learn how to get good mixes out of the equipment you have.
That said, any pro engineer will tell you that while they CAN get a good sound with cheap equipment, using high-end gear oftentimes makes it much easier.
With that in mind, I’d like to tell you about my favorite set of headphones, the Sennheiser HD650′s.* (As you can see in the picture, they’re Owen’s favorite headphones, too.)
One of the best upgrades you can make to your studio is to get a nice outboard preamp. But it can be hard to bite the bullet. After all, you’ve got preamps built into your audio interface, right? They sound fine, so why would you upgrade them?
Well, for one thing, you don’t know what you’re missing. Imagine that you grew up without access to computers, and someone showed you a 20-year-old IBM PC running DOS, you’d think it was amazing, right? You’d have no reason to think there could be anything better, but that doesn’t mean that better computers don’t exist. (Now imagine yourself fainting at the site of an iPad.)
The point is this – just because you’re happy with the stock preamps on your interface doesn’t mean your sound can’t be dramatically improved by investing in an outboard preamp.
I must preface this review with two things:
Don’t succumb to Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Buying gear for the sake of gear is no bueno. However, if you’re in a position where you’re ready to upgrade, read on.
The good folks at Presonus sent me this Eureka for free in exchange for a review. That said, I only do this with items I truly believe in. (I’ve turned down similar offers from other manufacturers.)
Have I mentioned lately that I love the Line 6 JM4 Looper?
I’ve been a musician for years, and I mainly play acoustic shows. You know, singer-songwriter kind of stuff. While a bare-bones guitar/vocal performance can be quite entertaining, the recording engineer in me wants to add more to it.
Enter the JM4.
I’ve always been absolutely fascinated with looper pedals. Any time an artist uses one in a performance, I’m spellbound.
As soon as you introduce a looper pedal into your setup, suddenly all the rules change.
Many of you know that for the last three years I have been a Sales Engineer at Sweetwater Sound. However, last Thursday was my final day at Sweetwater. (My wife and I have moved back down to Tennessee. I left the company on great terms. I’m actually pursuing a cool new opportunity…more on that to come in future posts.)
It has been a great three years. Sweetwater is a stellar company, and I feel that it is only appropriate that I post my thoughts on Sweetwater right here on Home Studio Corner.
My opinion of Sweetwater is obviously a biased one. However, being on the inside for three years has given me a very good look at the makeup of this company. If I didn’t like the company, I certainly wouldn’t post a review of it.
What makes Sweetwater different?
Anybody can sell music equipment, right? What makes Sweetwater any different from Musicians’ Friend or Zzounds? Aren’t they all just big box stores?
We’ve all been there. You’re working on a song, and you wanna send it to a buddy to critique. What do you do? You email it, of course!
Ugh…Thirty emails later, and you’ve successfully taken up 150 MB of space on your email server. Not to mention the fact that if you ever want to send that song to another friend (I’m assuming you all have more than one friend ), you have to either re-upload the mp3 and email it, or you have to hunt it down in your Sent Mail folder and forward it.
There’s nothing wrong with using email for this, but it sure isn’t ideal. I always hate being on the receiving end of an email with one (or heaven forbid multiple) mp3′s attached to it. It bogs down my poor little DSL modem, and I cry a little bit each time.
.* (As you can see in the picture, they’re Owen’s favorite headphones, too.) 
