The Summer of 2016 saw the complete transformation of Studio Two at the University of Lethbridge. I was tasked with designing and integrating the technical infrastructure of the facility. The technical upgrades did away with every piece of hardware in the studio except the Genelec 8040A Surround Monitors and chairs.
The heart of the studio, formally a Digidesign C|24, was replaced with a Solid State Logic Matrix 2 fitted with the Surround Module. I added an additional Avid I/O 16×16 to allow for 32 channel mixdowns. The core of our Avid system continues to be an Avid HDX card with a 32gb 12-Core Apple Mac Pro.
A variety of preamps were selected to cover a range of uses in this small facility. This room sees everything from drums, vocals, and instruments to voice-overs, foley, and sound design.
The vision for this studio was to be an introductory facility for students but also a functional mixing studio for projects that were tracked in Studio One. Stacking this facility with a lot of great outboard gear makes it a desirable space for mixing which takes the time pressure off of our larger studio.
To add another variable to this project I wanted to make some of the outboard gear moveable to be used in other studios. This was accomplished with an API lunchbox rack of 500 series modules. This form factor makes it a breeze to remove and replace.
API Lunchbox
- 2 x Great River Harrison 32EQ
- 2 x API 527 Compressor/Limiter (Linked)
- Chandler Little Devil Compressor
- Inward Connections Brat EQ
- Empirical Labs DerrEsser – Desser
Outboard
- Manley Massive Passive
- Lexicon PCM96 Surround
- Empirical Labs EL8 Stereo Distressors
- TC Electronics D-Two
- API 5500 Stereo/Dual EQ
I decided to build all of the cables by hand for this project. This turned out to be 38 D-Sub cables totalling 76 D-Sub (25 pin) connectors that needed to be soldered. There was also an assortment of D-Sub fan-outs, user patches, and I/O panels. The heart of the cabling was 4 Audio Accessories 96 Patchbays.
Space was tight so having perfect length cabling makes it a cleaner job. The soldering work alone took a few days and over a pound of Solder but it was worth it in the end. And now I can solder a 25 pin D-Sub with my eyes closed.
The technical upgrade to the Studio Two facility gave it a much needed functional make-over. The higher end gear and a boost to the workflow will make this space a perfect companion to our other studio facilities.