Recording - November 2019 - 66

STUDIO

A pair of raw wood coat racks used for mic cable management

101

Raxxess Cable Depot

PART 20

Furnishing the Studio
It's not just the desk, there's a lot of technology involved, like the decoupling
technology that's being incorporated
into speaker stands."
In previous installments of this series, we
talked a lot about the 'studios of yesteryear',
since so much of our virtual studio mimics
the old hardware-heavy studios. One of
the things that classic studios required were
huge racks of mounted gear. While our
in-the-box options reduce the amount of external hardware required, most recording
enthusiasts still have a few cherished bits of
hardware: mic preamps, tube compressors,
hardware reverbs or rack mounted synths.
If this sounds like you, you will probably also need a decent rack to hold it all.
By permanently mounting your gear in a
single place and wiring it up for immediate use, you may find yourself using the
hardware much more often, rather than
opting for an 'easier' virtual option.
Another bit of neglected studio hardware is speaker stands. Too many people place the speakers on the nearest flat
surface and hope for the best. But a good
set of speaker stands performs two functions: they place the speaker at the right
location for critical listening, and they isolate the speaker from your desk surface.
Klaus Gehlhaar, from ZAOR Studio Furniture, points out the value of focusing on
something as 'simple' as speaker stands:
"Some pieces of furniture can help you
improve your sound or your space. For
example, our D-Stand MKII is a desktop
speaker stand for people working with a
flat desktop (no racks). It has special isolators that remove up to 95% of unwanted
resonance transmission from your speakers to your desk. Since low frequencies
travel much faster through solid material
like wood or chipboard, a lack of isolation will cause you to perceive the low-end
in two different ways (through the air and
through the desk), and the result will be a
diffuse and muddy bass."
66 RECORDING November 2019

Antique coat hangers are
perfect for headphones and
extension cables
Proper speaker location is also important,
especially when mixing, in order to get a
good left/right balance and clearly deal
with upper-midrange and high frequencies.
Where bass sounds tend to be omni-directional, higher frequencies are almost laser-like in their directional focus. If you are
even a few degrees off-axis, you will miss
out on important details of your mix. People
often concern themselves with the 'equilateral triangle' rule (listening position as viewed
from overhead). But it is equally important
to have the vertical location and direction
nailed down; if the tweeters are pointing at
your elbows (or at the ceiling), you just aren't
going to get a good picture of your mix.
This is another case where good speaker
stands can save the day: they allow you some
flexibility in vertical placement, and maybe
even provide some angling to optimize the
direction of the speakers' 'throw'. Combining
speaker stands with a good desk and chair
will not only make your mix process comfortable, but more effective as well.
Another thing you won't often think
about (but will really wish you had) is
cable management, and what to do with
cables that you aren't using. Most people
think, "Put 'em in a box," and that's all
the further they get. But especially if you
are working with paying clients, there's
no way to look professional while you
are untangling a ball of XLR cables.
There are some nice cable hangers available commercially, but this is something

that is also kind of easy to DIY: if you
don't mind single-looping the cable, a
dowel attached to a board will work wonders. For smaller cables, I've even used
towel hangers placed near my patchbay,
which worked well and saved me from
having to use the dreaded screwdriver!
It may seem funny to spend precious
magazine space on something this basic,
but I've been in a lot of studios, and you
would be surprised by how few people
really pay attention to something as simple as assuring easy access to the right
cable. Spend an hour or two setting up
a basic cable management system, and
you will save hours finding your cables-
and you will look like a pro!

Conclusion - and thanks!
Talking about studio furniture might
seem like a diversion-it's not as immediately engaging as talking about mic
placement for drum recording. But I will
state strongly that paying attention to your
body and your physical interface with
your gear can pay dividends in more focus when you are working, and the ability
to put in long hours without pain!
This article is the last in my Studio 101
series for RECORDING Magazine. I've
got a lot of projects that have been waiting for my attention, and it's time for me
to dig back in. I want to thank the folks at
RECORDING for the opportunity to present this series, and to you-the readers-
for following along for these many months.
Keep on recording!
Darwin Grosse (grosse@recordingmag.
com) is a musician, engineer, software
guru, educator, and podcast host, living
and working in Minneapolis.

Recording - November 2019

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