The All "Household Refuse" Studio

[Ben Logan]

My studio (and I use the term sportingly) is literally fueled by "household refuse:"

Studio Monitors: wife's old dormroom stereo from college (complete with hole punched in side of one speaker)

Room Treatment: old comforters, torn Coleman camping mats, and (last night's addition) stained yellow checked cushions ripped from dining room table chairs

Flooring: miserably food / wine stained white carpet from said dining room

Brain: abandoned Dell computer from father-in-law (one of my biggest benefactors)

Mic Locker: found in alley behind my house - solid tupperware - thoroughly sanitized with high pressure garden hose stream before use

Headphones: companion piece to childhood 80's sony walkman

Fatso Sim: Akai Reel to Reel from father-in-law's attic

And I love every minute of the time I spend wallowing amongst this shit!

Anyone else?

[sonikbliss]

Guerilla recording! Gotta love it!

I've got a decent amount of money invested into some good gear, but I'm always fond of finding cheap crap at garage sales/thrift stores and putting it to use.

[Ben Logan]

Yeah, the scavenging never ends...

[YOUR KONG]

Ha ha - yeah. My computer is a pushed-to-the-max Dell, my computer monitor is a big old jobby I literally grabbed from the side of the road. My monitoring speakers are some $70 radio shack numbers hooked up to a $5 tag sale stereo.

My favorite speakers for re-amping are some 3" high computer speakers I got free with a soundcard circa 1992.

And hell, it works. The best place for checking mixes is my wife's car.

[A-Barr]

My favorite guitar cab at the moment is an old 70's 3 way stereo speaker with a 12 inch sub and completely non-functioning tweeter and mid-driver. It happens to be a JBL 4311, but still, it's the kind of thing you'd expect to see by the curb on garbage day. Love it.

[JGriffin]

My studio (and I use the term sportingly) is literally fueled by "household refuse:"

Studio Monitors: wife's old dormroom stereo from college (complete with hole punched in side of one speaker)

Room Treatment: old comforters, torn Coleman camping mats, and (last night's addition) stained yellow checked cushions ripped from dining room table chairs

Flooring: miserably food / wine stained white carpet from said dining room

Brain: abandoned Dell computer from father-in-law (one of my biggest benefactors)

Mic Locker: found in alley behind my house - solid tupperware - thoroughly sanitized with high pressure garden hose stream before use

Headphones: companion piece to childhood 80's sony walkman

Fatso Sim: Akai Reel to Reel from father-in-law's attic

And I love every minute of the time I spend wallowing amongst this shit!

Anyone else?

So you're ready for a really expensive mic pre, is that what you're saying?

[Randy]

So you're ready for a really expensive mic pre, is that what you're saying?)

I'm thinking you need to start spending money on some time-aligned gas-free speaker wire and kryptonite knobs.

I hear you. I just replaced my monitor that i salvaged from the alley 5 years ago. I got tired of getting headaches from the wavy-vibrating picture.

My first setup was two cassette decks, a RadioShack 4-channel mixer, and a Realistic Modulette stereo with speakers taken from a car radio. Sweet. Oh yeah, my mic cabinet? a Realistic Highball, a Dukane mic with a button, and an old Astatic crystal mic.

What kind of Akai reel-to-reel is it? Those can be quite nice.

[JGriffin]

So you're ready for a really expensive mic pre, is that what you're saying?)

I'm thinking you need to start spending money on some time-aligned gas-free speaker wire and kryptonite knobs.

I hear you. I just replaced my monitor that i salvaged from the alley 5 years ago. I got tired of getting headaches from the wavy-vibrating picture.

My first setup was two cassette decks, a RadioShack 4-channel mixer, and a Realistic Modulette stereo with speakers taken from a car radio. Sweet. Oh yeah, my mic cabinet? a Realistic Highball, a Dukane mic with a button, and an old Astatic crystal mic.

What kind of Akai reel-to-reel is it? Those can be quite nice.

My first setup didn't even have speakers. And let's see, two Realistic mics, one Highball, one not. No-name stereo cassette deck for mixdown, and the only moderately expensive piece was the cassette 4-track which was actually one of the nicer ones at the time. But I mixed every project on headphones for years.

[apropos of nothing]

My amp (Crown D-150) is literally a dumpster score. Still using milk-crates for gear-stands and dumpster-dived kitchen bar-stools as monitor-stands (with mouse-pads underneath for damping). Latest addition is a [brand deleted] fx unit that my old boss floated me in exchange for some consulting -- it'd hung around the store forever, and was doing him no good. Snake and many cables were cast-offs from Duck-Kee Studios. Finally got a new guitar, but the old one was pieced together from strat copies originating all over asia. People will nearly literally pay you to take away 15" SVGA monitors -- I had to throw a bunch away at the wife's insistence recently.

[MD]

My first setup didn't even have speakers.

When I say home, it was just a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Boy there are a lot of old Dell laptops out there still in service. It's odd: They wear and tear into embarrasing condition and then they REFUSE TO DIE.

I suppose they eventually all end up on coffee tables as the go-to search engine engine.

They make a nice heat source for those long winter nights.

[Ben Logan]

Ha ha - yeah. My computer is a pushed-to-the-max Dell, my computer monitor is a big old jobby I literally grabbed from the side of the road. My monitoring speakers are some $70 radio shack numbers hooked up to a $5 tag sale stereo.

My favorite speakers for re-amping are some 3" high computer speakers I got free with a soundcard circa 1992.

And hell, it works. The best place for checking mixes is my wife's car.

Amazing that we live in an age (and a country) where a computer monitor lays side by side with roadkill. Both free for the taking...

[Ben Logan]

My studio (and I use the term sportingly) is literally fueled by "household refuse:"

Studio Monitors: wife's old dormroom stereo from college (complete with hole punched in side of one speaker)

Room Treatment: old comforters, torn Coleman camping mats, and (last night's addition) stained yellow checked cushions ripped from dining room table chairs

Flooring: miserably food / wine stained white carpet from said dining room

Brain: abandoned Dell computer from father-in-law (one of my biggest benefactors)

Mic Locker: found in alley behind my house - solid tupperware - thoroughly sanitized with high pressure garden hose stream before use

Headphones: companion piece to childhood 80's sony walkman

Fatso Sim: Akai Reel to Reel from father-in-law's attic

And I love every minute of the time I spend wallowing amongst this shit!

Anyone else?

So you're ready for a really expensive mic pre, is that what you're saying?

Actually I own a really expensive mic pre: Electro Harmonix 12AY7. Pushing 190 bones. One of the rarer pieces in my collection. Think of my garage as a Millineum Falcon of rock gear. Forgive the self-flattering image.

[Ben Logan]

What kind of Akai reel-to-reel is it? Those can be quite nice.

The Akai is a GX 4000 D. Looks sweet. High noise floor, but can give some great "slammed to tape" vocals. My vox can use all the help they can get. I've got heart, but, you know, a bit of a bad Wayne Coyne (spelling?) thing going. Worse than him.

[Ben Logan]

My amp (Crown D-150) is literally a dumpster score. Still using milk-crates for gear-stands and dumpster-dived kitchen bar-stools as monitor-stands (with mouse-pads underneath for damping). Latest addition is a [brand deleted] fx unit that my old boss floated me in exchange for some consulting -- it'd hung around the store forever, and was doing him no good. Snake and many cables were cast-offs from Duck-Kee Studios. Finally got a new guitar, but the old one was pieced together from strat copies originating all over asia. People will nearly literally pay you to take away 15" SVGA monitors -- I had to throw a bunch away at the wife's insistence recently.

You may have me beat.