Photo of my old, analog studio - late 80's / early 90's

[ajaxlepinski]

A drummer, from one of the bands that I recorded, just sent me some photos of my old, analog studio. Pic is from the late 80's or early 90's.
It was under a butcher shop and couldn't get any more DIY... it was called, Meat Market Meoldies

Don't be hating on the jorts - they were still cool in the 90's!

Otari MX5050 BII 1/2" eight track with Dolby A
Otari MX5050 BII 1/4" two track with Dolby SR
Soundworkshop Series 30 board with 12 channels with a Roland Drum Machine sitting on top
JBL 4312 Monitors

The cabinet on the right was the rack:
2 Power amps for the monitors and headphone cue
Yamaha SPX90
Rane two channel EQ
DBX two channel Compressor
Rane Noise Gates
Alesis Microverb

The walls had R-19 fiberglass insulation covered with burlap - it looked like shit but, it worked great.
One good thing about a shitty looking studio is that you could spill beer and it wouldn't effect your performance!

[newholland]

Awesome. Its amazing what we used to have to do to to get decent recordings... All the young dudes have no idea..

[ajaxlepinski]

Right?

Man, I used to make cardboard stops for the faders because, I couldn't afford automation.
In a lot of instances, you had to play the whole song through - no cutting and pasting of clips.
Instead, there was a lot of manual punching in and out, which was sometimes dangerous.
I once accidentally erased about a second from a bass track and had to give the customer an hour free time to do the track over.
With digital, you just Control Z and you're back in business.

[video]https://youtu.be/EGnMW-VJmws?t=7[/video]

[hiatus o]

Oh I ‘Member. Got my first 4 track cassette Yamaha back in like 87. Makes me kinda annoyed now that all that experience miking and recording is so easily done now with software minus the work.

But time marches on and simplicity rules.

I’d dig the look back then but I probably was sporting a pre mullet!

[ajaxlepinski]

Yeah man! Even though they were noisier then hell, those 4 track cassette recorders were miracles of modern science! Haha!

[newholland]

god, i remember doing my first recordings on a tascam porta 01, and grappling with the noise.. shit, when i finally got an upgrade-- the 424 mk2, that thing was the most glorious piece of gear ever.. and then a fostex 16 bit adat?

we used to laugh at guys who used computers... aw that shit'll NEVER catch on... crashing hard drives..pfft..

[ajaxlepinski]

My buddy was a computer geek, he had an Apple IIE, a Macintosh Lisa, and kept upgrading to this day. The early recording software was crap.
By '96, the writing was spray painted on the walls and analog was doomed. Digital recording software had finally become useful and my beautiful desk had become a boat anchor.
I sold it all in '96, to a guy who was building a studio to launder his ill gotten money.
It was freaky... I paid a cop buddy to hang out while I counted out $13K in twenty dollar bills. The buyer had brought along a couple of guys with guns too.
He showed up with a moving truck and a paper bag that he was holding tightly, like a football.
After counting the money and moving the gear into his truck, we all sat down for a beer and a chat.
After a beer or two, when we started naming mutual friends, everyone calmed down and all was good.
His eyes bulged and he shit hit pants when I told him that my friend playing video games was a cop.
It turned out that the buyer was a big coke dealer! Haha!
I signed a paper, promising to wire up the gear, once it was in place at it's new home, but I never heard from him again.