Opinions on the Studio!

[ehsanspicedigital]

Hello Hello everyone. Hope all are well. Our studio is now fully set up and functional! The Red walls are soundproof foam, covered with red cloth, all the way around, to remove echo. Then there’s a Soundcraft Series 10 Mixing desk. In beautiful condition. I hope to get the hand rest powder coated soon as its pain is started to peel away. Got dual Sonifex Hy-03 telephone hybrid’s, Audio Technica AT3035 for the main presenter mic being fed into a RB-ML2 for level control, and that’s the main, Rest of processing and recording / Computers in a Rack in a seperate room, so there’s no fan noise or anything that could be heard On-Air. What do you think! Does it look nice! Also, What’s your suggestions for fresh air into the room. It’s completely sealed off. The doors are airtight sealed and no way of air getting in and out.. What should i do for fresh air exchange, Without adding any noise? There’s a suspended ceiling so a lot to work with! Thanks lads.

[Mongo82]

Nice, very 1990s. Not sure id want to be stuck in there on a hot summer night djing with a mate after a hot biriani and 8 pints though. Is there air-conditioning in the adjacent rooms?

[Albert H]

That looks pretty good, but extended practical experience shows that it's usually good to have some desk space in front of the mixer. The "Script Tray" in the Soundcraft isn't sized well, and isn't waterproof. You wouldn't believe how many Series 10s I've seen with various liquid stains in the script tray, and signs of the ingress of those fluids on to the adjacent channels!

If your Series 10 has been well-tended, and if it's configured sensibly, it'll be a great workhorse and last for years. Remember - the transformer laminations in some of their power supplies can get rattley over time, and you'll get a noticeable mechanical hum from the PSU box. I've seen various solutions to that, the best of which was to have a custom toroidal transformer wound, to replace the old E - I job. The ones I saw recently in an Irish station had the more pragmatic (and cheaper) approach of putting lots of hot-melt glue over the laminations!

It's never good having things plugged into the top of the mixer panel. I always put the headphone sockets into the desk edge - ideally sunken, so that only the soft headphone lead is beyond the edge of the desk. The number of broken plugs I've had to remove from damaged sockets over the years makes it obvious how much better it is to have those sockets away from the mixer!

I usually prefer to have the microphone stand coming downwards from above, rather than up from the desk. Even the very best soft microphone mount won't handle the conducted noise of something heavy being put on the desk next to the Presenter! "Flying" the microphone stand generally works better, and tends to be less "in the way". Also, a hanging microphone, slightly above the Presenter's face, is less likely to pick up noise from the movement of the Presenter and from the rustling of his or her clothes.

One studio I set up had a suspended ceiling, and we just fitted grilles into the ceiling around the room (away from above the Presenter), and blew cooled air from a cooling unit in the ceiling, two rooms away, with a dozen (or so) square Papst fans (the ones fitted into higher-end computer power supplies). They move a surprising amount of air, are very quiet, and are inaudible in the studio because they're about 20m away. We used simple wooden ducts to route the cool air through the ceiling, so that most of it went down through the grilles, rather that anywhere else in the ceiling. Keep the air-speed down though, because you really don't want a gale blowing across the microphone diaphragm!

That's a pretty good looking job!

[BriansBrain]

Nice........ Old-Skool.....

What Playout Automation Software are you using ?

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[radium98]

sambroadcaster

[radionortheast]

I though it was just me who walked round with wired headphones, most people do seem to have those bluetooth headphones now, wondering if theres a reason they couldn’t be used in a studio, you’ve not got the wire there to trip over get caught up in.
A while ago I thought of making a box with load of 6.5mm jacks as an audio switcher like they would have in a telephone exchange, instead of using switches you use jacks on short leads to switch the inputs, perhaps the reason their still used is because their stronger, someone would rather jack.

[tvtv]

, someone would rather jack.

Than Fleetwood Mac… [sings]

[tvtv]

I never like Sam broadcaster. I do like otsav tho, it’s simple but effective and has good scheduler options. Ideal for running through the night

If your considering upgrading you could consider mairlist, bcx do cheaper licences [or did] and you can voice track. Myriad,

What outboard gear you using ?

[shorty]

You need to add some old skool cart machines to complete the 90's look.

[Frequent Lee]

I never like Sam broadcaster. I do like otsav tho, it’s simple but effective and has good scheduler options. Ideal for running through the night

If your considering upgrading you could consider mairlist, bcx do cheaper licences [or did] and you can voice track. Myriad,

What outboard gear you using ?

I used station playlist as my studio scheduling, can do voice tracked and the overnight automation system is decent too. It was particularly useful for me as it ensured that all the djs finished at bang on the hour none of the one more tune mate and eating into the next djs show time. It ran faultless with Breakaway and an touchscreen monitor for triggering idents and jingles etc.

[BriansBrain]

I never like Sam broadcaster. I do like otsav tho, it’s simple but effective and has good scheduler options. Ideal for running through the night
If your considering upgrading you could consider mairlist, bcx do cheaper licences [or did] and you can voice track. Myriad,

There was nothing made that could cope with what I wanted it to do - so I made my own

+ Breakaway on the output - been working flawlessly 16 hrs a day - every day - since 2019

Auto-Jock + Overlay.jpg

I still think no other program could cope with what my Auto-Jock can do

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[ehsanspicedigital]

The "Script Tray" in the Soundcraft isn't sized well, and isn't waterproof. You wouldn't believe how many Series 10s I've seen with various liquid stains in the script tray, and signs of the ingress of those fluids on to the adjacent channels!

Ahh Yes. This happened to one of the Series 10’s at another station i knew… I don’t allow DJ’s to bring any liquid near the equipment. It can stay out of the way on the side, and if you damage you will pay!

It's never good having things plugged into the top of the mixer panel. I always put the headphone sockets into the desk edge - ideally sunken, so that only the soft headphone lead is beyond the edge of the desk. The number of broken plugs I've had to remove from damaged sockets over the years makes it obvious how much better it is to have those sockets away from the mixer!

Yes your right, I have 6.5mm Jacks around the desk there’s 3 more for guest headphone’s… Might think of adding one like you said for the presenter.

If your Series 10 has been well-tended, and if it's configured sensibly, it'll be a great workhorse and last for years. Remember - the transformer laminations in some of their power supplies can get rattley over time, and you'll get a noticeable mechanical hum from the PSU box. I've seen various solutions to that, the best of which was to have a custom toroidal transformer wound, to replace the old E - I job. The ones I saw recently in an Irish station had the more pragmatic (and cheaper) approach of putting lots of hot-melt glue over the laminations!

My PSU started conking out completely. After a re-cap 2 years later a voltage reg. started causing issues. Which lead to me finding a PSU board on eBay that an Australian lad designed, and that has been running since, been extremely reliable, Silent, and doesn’t generate a lot of heat. It’s going good, but then i found a cheap used original PSU, and put the one i made into storage for backup and bought that original. I just like having original un-modified equipment! Atleast where i can and a modification isn’t needed!

One studio I set up had a suspended ceiling, and we just fitted grilles into the ceiling around the room (away from above the Presenter), and blew cooled air from a cooling unit in the ceiling, two rooms away, with a dozen (or so) square Papst fans (the ones fitted into higher-end computer power supplies). They move a surprising amount of air, are very quiet, and are inaudible in the studio because they're about 20m away. We used simple wooden ducts to route the cool air through the ceiling, so that most of it went down through the grilles, rather that anywhere else in the ceiling. Keep the air-speed down though, because you really don't want a gale blowing across the microphone diaphragm!

That's a pretty good looking job!

That does sound interesting… Might be worth a try. And thanks again Albert!

Nice, very 1990s. Not sure id want to be stuck in there on a hot summer night djing with a mate after a hot biriani and 8 pints though. Is there air-conditioning in the adjacent rooms?

There isn’t at the moment, but after albert’s suggestion i think maybe adding a unit to the room to the side, which is usually just used for storing back-up equipment.

I though it was just me who walked round with wired headphones, most people do seem to have those bluetooth headphones now, wondering if theres a reason they couldn’t be used in a studio, you’ve not got the wire there to trip over get caught up in.
A while ago I thought of making a box with load of 6.5mm jacks as an audio switcher like they would have in a telephone exchange, instead of using switches you use jacks on short leads to switch the inputs, perhaps the reason their still used is because their stronger, someone would rather jack.

I’ve tried bluetooth solutions, they’ve got too much latency for a studio environment, I was looking into it for my friend, His presenters would yank on the jack connected to his Allen&Heath XB-14, which i got annoyed of opening up again and again to re shape the metal contacts or replace the jack itself lol!

I don’t really like bluetooth headphones anyways, I’ve got this cheap pair in the studio because our presenters just love breaking headphones, but for my own use i’ve got a pair of dt770’s and dt990’s. Just can’t beat dt770’s wired to an old school tube amp

I never like Sam broadcaster. I do like otsav tho, it’s simple but effective and has good scheduler options. Ideal for running through the night

If your considering upgrading you could consider mairlist, bcx do cheaper licences [or did] and you can voice track. Myriad,

What outboard gear you using ?

To be honest, I’m not really fond of SamBroadcaster either, I have been looking into Myriad, but the main reason i’ve not changed, Is because of the presenters they’re too used to SAM and will be a problem re-training them into another play-out, I’m thinking of using SAM for the presenters, and use Myriad for overnight scheduling on a separate computer…

If your asking about my out-bound gear I used to use a load of equipment, the main processing being a Optimod 6200s… But if you’ve seen my other post it’s now all running on my own built Breakaway One Unit!



And also, Brian, Do you have a version of Auto-Jock that i could have a look at. It seems quite nice!

Everyone, Again, thanks for the feedback also!

[radionortheast]

yeah a wired connection has better audio than bluetooth, I suppose people prefer them for the convenience, I tried all different modules amplifiers through speakers none of them ever sounded as good as a normal wired connection.

[Albert H]

One station I worked on used Sennheiser 868MHz cordless headphones. They are completely analogue, so there's no transmission delay, and the quality is superb. They have three radio channels (selected by switches on the transmitter and on each pair of headphones), so you can have adjacent studios using differing channels. The headphones are equipped with rechargeable batteries, and have a "run time" of 10 - 12 Hours before recharge is needed.

They're a relatively expensive solution, but the freedom of no headphone cables, and the ability to leave the studio and continue listening is marvellous.

Another station used a similar bespoke analogue UHF set-up, but with around 20 channels. The flxibility that this provided was amazing - different audio sends for the presenter and for guests (I haven't ever met a guest who wanted to hear records being cued up!) and the option of "talkback" headphones on their own channel.

The Sennheiser system (I have some at home) works really well, and has a practical maximum range of about 25 - 30 metres. I believe that other manufacturers (Sony and Koss come to mind) make similar systems.

[BriansBrain]

And also, Brian, Do you have a version of Auto-Jock that i could have a look at. It seems quite nice!

No sorry - it's not commercially available

But if you wan't to listen what it's capable of ''Live'' it's here >>> http://80.32.142.161:9090/

You will have to Adjust the Frequency to 96.8 - then press PLAY

Raddio Brian ''Live''.JPG

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