DEATHPOP STUDIO EQUIPMENT LIST MAY 2010

Author – Gobz

Below is the list of the equipment that is installed at my home/pre-production studio.  The equipment is utilized by my 5 bands : Whores of Babylon, Soundisciples, W.O.B – The Noiselab Project, The Drunken Pirates & Corporation of Corpse Stealers ( C.O.C.S ).  Until 2009 I co-owned a commercial studio `State of Art` ( SOA Studios ) in Bristol with Geoff Barrow of Portishead fame and it has a vast array of other stuff, but thatwas a different story.

Most of the work for my bands is carried out at the home studio with the possible exception of drums.

Monitors

1 pair Yamaha NS10M`s ( small, industry standard monitors )

1 pair JBL TLX 20`s ( very large )

Mixing Desks

Soundcraft Delta 200, 24 channel modular mixing desk with flight case ( popular live mixing desk )

Yamaha DMP7, 8 track automated digital mixing desk with FX and `flying faders` ( bought secondhand from Midge Ure of all people ! )

Outboard Modules

Yamaha R100 digital FX ( old 12 bit digital unit, not used for a while )

Yamaha DMP7 ( 90`s unit, not just a mixer also contains the equivalent of 2.5  Yamaha SPX 900 FX units !, listed again under – mixing desks )

Alesis USB Pro midi Drumkit (DM5) with real drumskins and cymbals

AKAI MPD 24 ( midi Drum pad & pot controller unit )

Drammer LX20 duel compressor

Drammer DS201 duel noisegate ( essential for that `gated` synth trance effect )

XRI XR300 smpte synchrosiser ( to sync computers with multi track tape machines )

AKAI S950 Audio Sampler expanded to 3 Meg memory ( classic 80`s 90`s unit, not used so much now )

AKAI S1000 Audio Sampler expanded to 8 Meg memory ( classic 80`s, 90`s unit, not used for some years now )

Multi-Track recorders

Alesis A-Dat 8 track digital tape recorder ( 90`s machine only used now to sccess legacy recordings )

BOSS Micro BR ( Pocket sized digital 4-Track recorder with drum machine, great for demo ideas )

Tascam Porto 02 ( crappy 80`s 4 track porto-studio tape recorder, never used now )

Archos AV700 portable media player/recorder ( used to record master tracks, instead of a DAT tape machine )

Dell Axim X51v , 624 mhz pocket PC ( in the studio it is used as a Dictaphone for capturing ideas for songs etc )

Microphones

1 Shure SM58 and 1 Shure SM57 ( Industry standard and the only mics that I keep at the home studio, although we have AKG 414`s & Neumann mics at our main studio – State of Art )

Hardware Synthesizers

Korg M1 keyboard synth ( classic late 80`s early 90`s, professional, large and robust )

Roland Juno-D Keyboard synth / controller ( modern light general purpose synth with hardware pots for the real-time control of `Analogue` PC software synths)

Roland JV1010 synth module with orchestral expansion board fitted ( late 90`s synth with general purpose quality sounds )

Guitars

Washburn RS-10V 80`s vintage – Fitted with EMG 81 & EMG 85 pickups ( Gibson PRS shaped guitar )

Ibanez RG270 DX – Fitted with Seymour DUncan TB-5 ( SH-5 ) pickup

Aria Pro II ZZ Deluxe 80`s vintage – Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH-8 Invader pickup ( Destroyer shaped guitar )

ESP LTD Axxion ` Dave Mustaine` signature – Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB & SH-2n pickups( unusual shape designed by Dave Mustaine, now very rare )

Shecter Damien Elite 7 CR( 7 string guitar ) – Fitted with EMG 81/85 ( 7 string version ) pickups

Jackson PS-3 Performer – Fitted with an Iron Gear Hammerhead at the bridge position ( Sharkfin shaped guitar )

ESP LTD EX-50 – Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH-6 set of pickups( Explorer shaped guitar )

Shecter Blackjack - Fitted with Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackout active pickups ( satin body finish on guitar )

Hamer Flying V 80`s vintage - Fitted with Seymour DUncan SH-13 `Dimebucker` pickup ( Flying`V` shaped, once owned by Onslaught!)

B.C Rich Warlock - Mick Thompson Signature - fitted with Seymour Duncan SH-5 pickup

Squire Showmaster - fitted with Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB pickup

Washburn XB120 Bass Guitar – Fitted with Active Soapbox pickups

A Bunch of Acoustic Guitars

Guitar Equipment

Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 watt valve amp

Marshall Valve State 100 watt amp

4 Marshall SPEAKER CABS : 1960A, 1960AV, 1960B, 1966B

A bunch of different FX pedals - Ibanez Soundtank ClassicMetal / Ibanez Soundtank Tube Screamer / Boss GP-20 distortion & amp modeler / DOD compressor / Boss compressor / Boss ME-30 FX center etc etc

A Violin ( not a Stradovarious ! )

Computer Hardware

1 Windows 7 & Windows XP `Core 2 Duo E7200 `  2 x 3.4GHZ ( overclocked ), 3 Gig DDR3 Ram, GeForce 260 GTX Graphics,22” flat panel Computer System ( mainly used for Video editing & Games )

1 Windows XP Pro `Core 2 Duo E7500` 2 x 3.25GHZ ( overclocked ), 4 Gig Ram, Delta 192 M-Audio pro soundcard, 2 x 19” widescreen flat panel Computer ( this low audio latency computer via Pro Tools and other audio software handles the bulk of my sound creation and sequencing )

1 Windows XP Pro `Core 2 Duo E7400` 2 x 3.17GHZ ( overclocked ), 2 Gig Ram, 2496 M-Audio pro soundcard, 19” widescreen flat panel Computer ( this computer`s hard drives are a direct clone of the E7500 computer )

1 Windows XP `Athlon 2600+`, 1.5 Gig Ram, 2496 M-Audio pro soundcard, 19” widescreen flat panel Computer ( this computer is still used now and again as it contains legacy recordings)

1 x `Medion Microstar` `Pentium 4` 2.6 GHZ, SoundBlaster Extigy usb soundcard laptop computer ( originally it used to handle some of the sound creation but the audio latency is a bit slow so now used rarely )

1 x Atari 1040 ST computer ( until 2009, used as the main sequencer and loaded with a version of Cubase from 1989 !, can more reliable than modern PC sequencers )

Main Computer Software

Video Editing :

Cyberlink Power Director 8 ( low level video editor, fine for most jobs )

Sony Vegas 6 ( poor as an audio hard disk recorder, good as a pro video editor )

TSUNAMI – Mpeg DVD Author Pro ( for creating a DVD with interactive menus )

Stand alone Software Sound Modules / Synthesizers :

Native Instruments Kontakt 2 ( audio sampler / FX / mixer / synth module with a large library of instruments too, especially good for orchestral stuff.  until 2010 my most used module )

Native Instruments Intakt ( sampler / sample management )

Native Instruments Absynth ( wacky and interesting soundscapes, good for film/industrial/trance etc )

Native Instruments Reactor ( masses of classic analogue synths recreated here )

Native Instruments Massive ( great Digital/analogue Hybrid synth with huge sounds )

Atmosphere ( ambient pads n FX )

FM7 ( recreates the 80`s icon DX7 keyboard synthesizer, which I always hated, suffice to say I never use this )

Native Instruments B4 ( re-creates old organ sounds, sound like Jon Lord from Deep Purple & Portishead etc )

Native Instruments Pro-53 ( Prophet 5 mocked up classic analogue synth)

Native Instruments Guitar Rig ( makes your guitar sound like it`s plugged into a big Rig, not as good as a pro Rig but much better than a practice amp )

Midi drum programs - BFD2, Superior Drummer & Battery ( For use with the midi drumkit or Akai MDF 24 drum pad box)

T-Racks Pro 24 ( a virtual analogue mastering suite )

Pro Tools version 7.4 M-Powered Sequencer & hard disk recorder & music production ( essentially this is replacing or has replaced the Cubase sequencer & the ADAT multitrack recorder)

Soundforge audio editor ( essential for tiding up those samples before sampler use )

PLUS MORE SOFTWARE - HAVE GIVEN UP LISTING IT NOW !

Rooms

Main Control / composition room ( Large work surface, sofa, office chair. A former bedroom )

Gonk !

A `Tickle me` Cookie Monster, he is my Religion !

 ( see `Cult of the Cookie Monster` on myspace http://groups.myspace.com/cultofthecookiemonster

and facebook

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5456016597 for details )