The minimalist approach to studio furniture for mixing
Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:30 am
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
Until then, I guess I will have to adapt or raise the income to buy one of the larger more expensive control surfaces.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
Until then, I guess I will have to adapt or raise the income to buy one of the larger more expensive control surfaces.
