The minimalist approach to studio furniture for mixing

[pootle roche]

After recently reading a few interesting chapters in Philip Newell's book on:

1> non environment control rooms
and
2> response disturbances due to mixing consoles and studio furniture.

a few interesting thoughts crossed my mind.
One of them was that if one is careful, it would be possible to create a good mixing environment on a fairly small budget by taking into considerations the contents of the two chapters mentioned mentioned above.

The conclusions that i made were as follows:
Firstly, if you designed your room with the concept of the non environment control room in mind, you should be able to create a good quality environment to mix in on a reasonable budget.

Secondly, I realized, that if you were careful in your choice of furniture/equipment, you could also enhance your mixing environment by using minimal studio furniture that caused minimal acoustic disturbances.
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Keeping these conclusions in mind, I am now surprised at the lack of well designed compact equipment is on the market that has been designed specifically for the purpose of being used in the non environment control room.
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I would have thought that one of the leading companies would have got around to designing a multi channel control strip / plug in controller control surface that gives the mix engineer optimum control using minimal space while keeping the disturbance in frequency response to a minimal.
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A few months a go, i approached a couple of leading software companies who manufactured control strip plug ins with the idea of developing a control surface that did exactly that.
To give a solo mix engineer access to all the parameters of a large console in the space of a small table top.
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I sent these manufacturers designs that i had adapted from their plug in interfaces to convey the concept.
However, at the time, all the companies that I contacted were not interested in spending money to develop the idea.
This saddened me, as I feel that this is an area that could do with developing as it certainly could help people improve their mixing environment by cutting down the acoustic discoloration, but also could be a concept that could be adapted to other markets, such as the live sound market.
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As, I can see straight away the advantages of a multi channel live mixing console big enough to mix at reasonable size concerts that could be fitted into a bag that could be carried on the back.
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Anyway, I thought that this subject may be worth mentioning for some people out there who had not considered this method of mix room design.
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Perhaps one day, a manufacturer will release a super-compact virtual console that controls all channels and parameters required for mixing for a super cheap price.
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Until then, I guess I will have to adapt or raise the income to buy one of the larger more expensive control surfaces.

[pootle roche]

Some examples of control surfaces that could be used to mix instead of using the traditional console. Of course this only applies to people who use daw's.
Handy nonetheless. However, I think that there is plenty room for development.
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[donal_finn]

Yamaha 01x best mixer ever (imho anyway)

[garlo]

Jazzmutant are workin on this direction with the Lemur
http://www.jazzmutant.com/

I didnt work with it for mixing in studio, but the Lemur controle surface was used during gigs I v done ( dvd Earth Link Live)
where by different sounds can go to speakers all around the theatre (2 normal stereoin front of the stage + 6 more )

One tech was mixing in stereo,
+ one other used the Lemur to space sounds in front & back of the audience (ex We 5musicians were reprensented by small bowls & with one finger on each ball, making circles or what ever on the screen, the sound can feed up 8 different speakers+ adding instant rev & so on ).
Don t know if they have already developped applications for mixin.

[KevWind]

Some what to the op end this is my minimalist type studio furniture The Imac sits just behind the front plain of the speakers and the rack is frame only.

[lilith_envy]

I've always loved the idea of a "dumby" control surface for large outdoor concerts. So there's no need to dig trenches and run multi-core to the mix position.

Maybe an Apple Ipad app, that the engineer could walk FOH and do EQ adjustments, level changes and such- it would send the info to the digital desk side of stage via the web,blue tooth of RF.



Don't get me started on the state of RF and Radio mic's in Australia though!

[Soundman2020]

Maybe an Apple Ipad app, that the engineer could walk FOH and do EQ adjustments, level changes and such- it would send the info to the digital desk side of stage via the web,blue tooth of RF.

Oh YEAH! I sure could go for THAT! It would make my life a whole lot easier!

Where do I buy one of those????

[garlo]

You must wait but these guys from Bordeaux are working on that :
http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_overview.php.
I ' m not paid by them but when I did my last gigs with 8different speakers all around the public, we used that and it was great

[John Sayers]

Maybe an Apple Ipad app, that the engineer could walk FOH and do EQ adjustments, level changes and such- it would send the info to the digital desk side of stage via the web,blue tooth of RF.

Oh YEAH! I sure could go for THAT! It would make my life a whole lot easier!

Where do I buy one of those????

[Soundman2020]

[Ro]

yeah, imagen that