Whats in your rack ? and why ?

[funkgod]

Ahhhh.... cards on the table, im abit of a rack junkie, always looking to see whats in peoples studio racks,

purly a learning curve thing.

but then i get to wondering why ? based on my limited knowledge of it all.

why have that and not this,

and just why do you keep that old unit when there is new stuff out now thats suposedly better,

or so they say !  

and thats what worries me,

only based on what i have found and use, i dont think that some newer stuff is better, 

its different ok, but better ? surly must just depend on what and how you use it.

 

and that leads to another whole new argument,  the "which is better", software against hardware argument, which you can google till you are numb, so that can be opend in another topic if wanted.

 

But ... if we can just focus on mainly talk about hardware or rack gear,

ok, if you have it in your rack because you dont like some software then fair enough lets have it.

ahhh ..that just sounded like a contradiction didn't it, 🙂 im sure you know what i mean.

 

so whats in your rack and why ?

compaired to anything ?

fave bits you would not be with out,

cheap or expensive it matters not.

please post a pic...

i am sure a few people on here will get something usefull out of this topic.

 

iv been checking out and buying some hardware reverbs lately, so have some good info here,

some old gear i think is still very useable.

 

but im going to start with this, The Electrix warp factory.

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/electrix-filterfactory-warpfactory

 

 

ok the Electricx warp factory, .......basicly a Vocoder on crack !

 

i got this because im doing funky music and latly disco stuff.

i tried the korg Micro that a friend clarky on here has, and its ok, just not enough control,

i also have an expensive in its day a TC Fireworx with a vocoder built in,

and i found that to be as good as it was, just a bit fiddley to get right.

 

The Warp factory has a waveform built in to it so you do not have to connect a keyboard in the back to to use it,

just connect a mic and you are good to go,

and it does sounds good, that basic sound has become iconic and been used by many.

But once you do connect a keyboard..... it opens up a whole new world,

as soon as you play it you just know where jeff lynne gets his sound from, as its like a ready mix packet of instant ELO. check this

 

so this one is in my rack to stay i think,

al post the tracks when i have done them.

worth looking for if your after that sound.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by funkgod

[BigRedX]

Nothing. It's all been sold.

 

I started buying studio rack gear in the late 80s as I was building up my home studio and by the early 2000s I had 20U studio of signal processors a similar amount of synths and samplers, plus rack mounted DACs and MIDI interfaces. At the time it was the only way short of having a massive ProTools rig of being able to process multi-track audio. However as my computer and DAW got more powerful and sophisticated I was using the hardware less and less. Also while you can get away with just a single good bus effect, anything that you want to run via a channel insert like compressors and gates you need a separate instance for every channel.

 

When my very expensive digital mixer failed and turned out to be uneconomical to repair I sold the rest of the hard ware and now I do everything "in the box". Not only that but apart from a couple of 3rd party plug-ins Helix Native and VSDSX (both of which I could live without - they make certain things easier but both are completely replaceable) I only use the plus-ins that are bundled with Logic. That way none of my studio becomes obsolete, and I won't suddenly find that one of my signal processors no longer works.

[fretmeister]

Just my Helix rack. The rest has gone. I had older L6 units, a compressor, Ampeg preamp etc, but it's all gone now.

 

Between the Helix and plugins I've got everything covered.

[WinterMute]

Furman power distro/cleaner because you can't have enough clean power, everything on the audio circuit is powered through this.

UAD2 A16 interface for the summing mixer output and more inputs than I need.

Pheonix N16 Mk2 summing mixer for some class A analogue goodness on mix down.

RND Shelford channel for my main mono input for mic and line.

Patchbay because they are insanely useful.

Amek 9098 Compressor limiter, Input compressor and buss compressor on mix down.

 

The Amphion unit on the top is the amp/crossover for the FlexBass 25 sub behind the desk.

 

[funkgod]

On 08/09/2023 at 22:54, WinterMute said:

Furman power distro/cleaner because you can't have enough clean power, everything on the audio circuit is powered through this.

UAD2 A16 interface for the summing mixer output and more inputs than I need.

Pheonix N16 Mk2 summing mixer for some class A analogue goodness on mix down.

RND Shelford channel for my main mono input for mic and line.

Patchbay because they are insanely useful.

Amek 9098 Compressor limiter, Input compressor and buss compressor on mix down.

 

The Amphion unit on the top is the amp/crossover for the FlexBass 25 sub behind the desk.

 

 

 

funny you should mention the Furman, i got out bidded on the ART version not long ago that had the digital meter on the front for Volts and more importently Amps, as i wanted to keep a check on what current i was drawing through the main plug.

iv got that many transformers now that i have to have remote control switichs on banks, cus as you know when some units are just turned off at there own switch the transformer is still on and will just warm up. so yea a good call on that for a start, and one thats just reminded me to go looking again,

 

Amek 9098 MMMMMM now theres a story, great bit of very usfull gear,, i too have the 9098 eq, which ihave found to be not just good on vocals, but if i put my bass through it, it will suck out every bit of info right out the pickups and a very wide eq to choose from, i love that thing, what do you think of the compressor comp to what ever else you have ? and what do you use it on ? master mix ? cheers

 

@BigRedX what digi mixer did you have ?

 

 

[DGBass]

What - A 1996 Trace Elliot GP12SMX Stereo Bass Pre-amp. Why? - Can't bear to part with it and not heard anything that can do the same silky smooth dual band compressed sounds via its blendable tube input and 12-band EQ/pre-shape settings . There is other rack stuff but that changes from time to time, the GP12SMX Stereo is a permanent fixture. It's getting on a bit now like its owner but unlike me its still in perfect working condition🙃

 

[ForbiddenWytch]

17 hours ago, DGBass said:

What - A 1996 Trace Elliot GP12SMX Stereo Bass Pre-amp. Why? - Can't bear to part with it and not heard anything that can do the same silky smooth dual band compressed sounds via its blendable tube input and 12-band EQ/pre-shape settings . There is other rack stuff but that changes from time to time, the GP12SMX Stereo is a permanent fixture. It's getting on a bit now like its owner but unlike me its still in perfect working condition🙃

 

 

Gimme! Ive had two of these and stupidly sold them. I will buy another and this time, I'll not sell it.

[VTypeV4]

It seems to be cheating a little as I run a commercial studio with an extensive analog setup but here's some of my rack candy through various stages of development. 😬

 

 

 

 

 

I'll not list everything as we'll be here for days but a few personal favourites are..

• TC M1 multi-fx units as they have a size and fidelity particularly with reverb and delay that's tricky to match with other units.
• TC HOF 2 specifically for the drag / shimmer reverb effect.
• ART VLA 2 - almost certainly my favourite hardware compressor as they just make things sound better.
• WA Bus Comp does exactly what it says adding a positive 'binding agent' to mixes.
• KT76 which are as good as any plugin I own.

For recording, I tend to use a Trace SMX as a first stage then feed out of this to other setups including an SVT, Bassman and sometimes a V-Type. The rack gear is exclusively for mix down with the A&H ML5000 console.

[funkgod]

On 02/11/2023 at 10:09, VTypeV4 said:

It seems to be cheating a little as I run a commercial studio with an extensive analog setup but here's some of my rack candy through various stages of development. 😬

 

 

 

 

 

I'll not list everything as we'll be here for days but a few personal favourites are..

• TC M1 multi-fx units as they have a size and fidelity particularly with reverb and delay that's tricky to match with other units.
• TC HOF 2 specifically for the drag / shimmer reverb effect.
• ART VLA 2 - almost certainly my favourite hardware compressor as they just make things sound better.
• WA Bus Comp does exactly what it says adding a positive 'binding agent' to mixes.
• KT76 which are as good as any plugin I own.

For recording, I tend to use a Trace SMX as a first stage then feed out of this to other setups including an SVT, Bassman and sometimes a V-Type. The rack gear is exclusively for mix down with the A&H ML5000 console.

I think i have just duffed down me leg 🙂

 

I like the M1 allot,  i have the M-one and the D-two ( delays) both great units, i use them all the time, the routing building blocks in the M-one

is just a fantastic idea and makes a big diff in the sound what way you put them,

still both great units even by todays standards and you can pick them up quite cheap now.

im going to check out the WA Bus compressor, cheers ,

The Klark Kt has had some great reviews, iv never tried one, , im just fixing a Universal audio 1176LN for someone, and still waiting for parts, their back up service is just CR@P ! ! but when thats done al have a little play on that should be about the same sort of think as the Klark,

But at the mo im using Massenburg EQ with drawmer the old DL221 remember them ? the dam thing just keeps going or if not the drawmer then i have some software built into the mackie D8B called "finial mix" i think this was sold off by mackie to tracktion and is now called "master mix" but is more or less exactly the same thing and works wonders in the D8B.

Cheers for all that

 

https://www.tracktion.com/products/master-mix

 

https://massenburgdesignworks.com/

Edited December 27, 2023 by funkgod

[VTypeV4]

The M1 is a cracking

13 minutes ago, funkgod said:

I think i have just duffed down me leg 🙂

 

I like the M1 allot,  i have the M-one and the D-two ( delays) both great units, i use them all the time, the routing building blocks in the M-one

is just a fantastic idea and makes a big diff in the sound what way you put them,

still both great units even by todays standards and you can pick them up quite cheap now.

im going to check out the WA Bus compressor, cheers ,

The Klark Kt has had some great reviews, iv never tried one, , im just fixing a Universal audio 1176LN for someone, and still waiting for parts, their back up service is just CR@P ! ! but when thats done al have a little play on that should be about the same sort of think as the Klark,

But at the mo im using Massenburg EQ with drawmer the old DL221 remember them ? the dam thing just keeps going or if not the drawmer then i have some software built into the mackie D8B called "finial mix" i think this was sold off by mackie to tracktion and is now called "master mix" but is more or less exactly the same thing and works wonders in the D8B.

Cheers for all that

 

https://www.tracktion.com/products/master-mix

 

https://massenburgdesignworks.com/

 

100% with the M1 - I've no plans to replace them as they really are a cut above everything else in my FX rack.

 

I still have a pair of the Drawmer 221s although, being honest, I find them a little underwhelming - I was hoping for a little more of 'something' from them. I may get shot for this but I much prefer my Alesis 3632 units. I've been looking at some BSS units to replace them. 

 

Glad you're still rocking a d8b - it's been more than 20 years since I've had my hands on one of those! I guess it's like my 02Rs, if they ain't broke and still deliver then why change for the sake of change. On the subject of the 02R (and I appreciate, it's not a rack), the TC Electronic Unity cards can still muster some incredible 'M2000' style FX (arguably even better than the M1) and are amongst my favourite big, expansive 'verbs..

[funkgod]

ahhh ha ha, thats great...i went the other way !, i got rid of my Alesis compressor and kept the drawmer, im not even sure why now it was a while ago, horses for courses at the time i suppose.  i wonder if the TC reverbs in the 02R are the same in the d8b ? as the ones in the d8b sound great and well usable,

and because they are right there i use them on nearly every mix i do. 

at the mo cus im doing an old school rave type track ( not my usual thing i would strongly like to point out  haha ) im using some old Yamaha reverbs to try and get that "Old school" sound, so im using a rev 7 for one or two things (i have two of those) and last year i got hold of pro R3 which was yamahas flagship back in the day which im finding a few good uses for but still really tinkering around with it looking for its strengths so cant say allot on that at the mo but its "WIDE" open i know that. and i do like the upfront open sound of it, so im using that more at mo that the Rev500 iv had for a while on this track, we will see  🙂

 

 

 

 

Regarding the D8B, i love that thing, im so use to it now i just cant be @rsed to use anything else and go through all the learning again, so just incase it goes down i have another at the ready, Here ya go, this will take you back.......

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by funkgod

[VTypeV4]

I've never used the bigger Yamaha REV units although I do have two 500s in the rack - I find them useful as 'utility' reverbs rather than something exciting or stand out. I still have three ancient SPX 90s, too - the reverb in those is a little questionable and not a sniff near the TC M1 (or Unity card) but the other effects are pretty serviceable, especially the modulation patches. 

 

I rather fancy some Lexicon units as they're a different flavour again although the price of the PCM 91 is a little off putting these days. 😐

 

I couldn't say as to whether the d8b and 02R Unity TC 'verbs are the same but given the common character between M1 and Unity, I imagine there's a good chance they're at least similar. 👍

[funkgod]

remember a few posts back i said i use the AMEK 9098 with my bass sometimes..

well i was just watching this with Bootsy talking about his history with Tascam.

and hay ho, look whats in his rack at about 0:58 

i wonder if he uses it for bass also ?

aaahhhh im going to have to find out, my new mission 🙂

 

I love that X48, you just dont see them come up that much

 

 

 

🙂

Edited December 30, 2023 by funkgod