Spent 8+ hours today putting my studio together (haven't had time to work on it for weeks) and I've got it like 85% of the way finished. The only substantial task that's left is figuring out the MIDI routing; apart from that is just a little cleanup and organization, which will probably be an ongoing task for a while.
Today was all about hooking up my patchbays, which was A LOT. 5 synthesizers, 1 drum machine, the modular, 4 vintage FX units, and 5 tape machines are now all wired up.
@dorian I'll probably use USB MIDI with an Anker hub but I do have an old 4 in/4 out interface that still works well, and a couple ways to merge and split MIDI in case the USB MIDI misbehaves.
I don't bother with using the MIDI on my old FX generally speaking, but if I ever decide I need to control the feedback of a vintage flanger effect (or whatever) with the mod wheel well... Time to crawl around under the table and curse at past me for not planning ahead 😅
@etherdiver that sounds a lot like my situation here. I use a blokas midihub, but since it‘s only 4 in 4 out I can’t hardwire pedals and modular stuff and then they all have different connectors and I don’t even think about controlling pedals with a mod wheel. I just use a disaster area adapter to sync pedals to midi clock which works surprisingly well
@dorian I'm so lazy when it comes to sync I usually use a tempo to ms calculator, tap tempo, or just do it by ear 😅 I think it's the fact that I hate paying for MIDI cables just to sync things (I do use sync in modular, because I already have the cables 😂)
There's still a fair bit that isn't wired in, including the 0-Coast, Strega and Terra. Those are all either small enough or weird enough or both that, in my mind, it makes more sense to just plug them into the front of the patch bay as needed. I have enough slots left that I could hook them into the back but it just doesn't feel worth the effort. If I change my mind, I'll have some hours of crawling around on the floor and cursing in my future 😅
I've also got 2 more drum machines, a half dozen effects pedals, a 4-track cassette recorder, an 8-track recorder (which may not even work but it sure looks cool in any case 😅) and a bunch of other weird shit but again, it's easy enough to just grab those things and plug them into the front of the patchbays as needed. Otherwise I'd need at least one more patchbay and another $200 worth of cables and a lot more patience...
MIDI routing should be relatively simple. I'll probably just plug everything in via USB (via a hub) and call it good, but I might end up hooking up at least some via traditional 5 pin MIDI if any of them act up while hooked up via USB MIDI. Guess we'll see.
If I wasn't a dirtbag who was inhumanly comfortable living amid utter chaos, I'd spend a day doing cable management. But doing that would be worse for my sanity than just ignoring it, so no.
I'll post some pics and probably even make a video once it's all done and operating properly (and at least moderately cleaned up).
Until then, happy to answer any questions or listen to your random advice/tips and tricks.
PS My wife bought me a goofy flashlight glove for Xmas and holy fuckballs was that thing useful! It's so hard to hold a flashlight while trying to plug things in while you're folded up under a table and behind a rack, so having it on my finger/thumb was amazing.
@elejia Before/after is an interesting conundrum in this case. I had the same #gear setup in a different location a few months ago, and then I set it up here but it wasn't really plugged in/hooked up. I posted pictures of the latter here already, and there's even a video of the former (although it doesn't cover everything, but I think you can see everything at least briefly...). So which is the "before" in this case 🤔
But I'll definitely post some pictures and probably a video of some sort.
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