so quiet, it's spooky...

To be filed under the “why the hell didn’t I think of this sooner?” category of studio management, it recently occurred to me that I might relocate my RAID and other hard drive enclosure to my closet, for the purpose of noise reduction. Of all the negative things I could say about Apple as a company, they have consistently striven for near silet to silent operation on their laptops and desktops. The iMac Pro I bought in April 2018 is no exception. Straight out of the box, there is no appreciable external noise. Maybe if you put your ear up against the chassis you might hear a little something, but background noise in our relatively quiet home is enough to cover it.

When I first bought it, I also purchased this Akitio Hard Drive enclosure with TB3. This allowed me a single device to put several of the internal HDDs and SSDs since the iMac doesn’t allow any expansion. There was some additional noise when the HDDs would be accessed, but for the most part it was pretty quiet and didn’t contribute any significant noise on its own. Fast forward to November of that year, and I was looking for a bigger storage solution. Storage needs for audio has had a slow and predictable curve over the years, but once I got into digital photography and filmmaking, especially at higher resolutions like 4K, the needs jumped exponentially.

I settled on a Promise Technology RAID array with six 4TB drives in a single enclosure. With a RAID 5 configuration I had a solution that offered redundancy as well as some increased speed. Although the redundancy requires some sacrifice of drive space, I still had 20TB of new storage space, which was massive at the time. What I also had, was a noisy new enclosure that required cooling fans to run constantly during operation. This was a stark change from what I had at baseline with the iMac, but I guess I just accepted it since I was happy to get so much new storage space. So much room for activities!

I reconciled myself with the option of shutting the unit off when I wanted to record with microphones. I have used that option a few times, and although a slight inconvenience, it wasn’t that big of a problem. The real issue is that I had this constant background noise in my studio when I would prefer as little noise as possible.

After awhile the noise became distracting enough that I decided to at least move it down behind my desk and shield it with a rectangle of cardboard in service of the bespoke aesthetic for which I’m known. Since it was originally sitting on the desk directly behind my monitor, just positioning it down below the desk made a difference and yes, even the custom cardboard remnant deflected a bit of sound.

I’m not sure it would have been an option back then, but for whatever reason it only occurred to me recently that I might reduce this sound even further by moving the enclosures into the adjacent closet. At present there are some relatively reasonable longer cable options for the higher speed TB cables, but that’s only up to 6.6 feet based on my exhaustive search of about five minutes. I saw longer cables, but they become prohibitively expensive at lengths beyond 6.6 feet. My first idea was the closet in my studio, but the problem is that’s also my vocal booth so I’d be setting myself up for the same issue when wanting to track vocals. I initially just got one longer cable for the RAID, but quickly realized I needed a longer TB-to-DisplayPort cable for my other monitor.

After making the initial change, there was definite improvement, but now I was hearing the Time Machine disk constantly reading from within the Akitio enclosure. I realized the best solution is to move both enclosures not to my vocal closet, but to the thankfully adjacent closet of my drum room. The distance required is essentially the same since the iMac sits in line with where the two closet abut each other on the other side of the wall. The only negative is that the drum room closet is also my amp closet, but I’m rarely recording the amp sound, and when I do it’s probably loud enough that any hard drive noise will be negligible, but if desired, I can always shut down the enclosures temporarily.

All that long-winded explanation (I feel like there’s a theme here) to say that is so, so quiet in my studio now. I really can’t detect those hard drive enclosures now. The only way sound could make it into this space from those drives is through a golf ball diameterish hole where the cables snake through. The noise level isn’t high enough to be heard through the wall, and I have enough cables going through that opening now that sound doesn’t seem to be getting through there either.

Now, when I sit here with nothing playing on the speakers, the only sound I hear is the fish tank running downstairs. At first I thought my ears were playing tricks because the sound of the pump at that distance was relatively similar to the hard drive enclosures, but after a few seconds I realized I was only hearing it over my left shoulder. It’s funny because now that I’ve removed the most offending noise source, I’m hearing the tank and the HVAC. These noise levels are probably not worth fretting over, although I’m likely to shut off the HVAC (temporarily) and I always shut the studio door when I record.

This reminds me of my class on noise and hearing conservation that I took for my Masters of Public Health. The three main approaches to noise control in order of preference are industrial, administrative, and PPE (personal protective equipment.) Industrial controls are typically built-in, permanent type solutions like enclosures built around noisy equipment as well as locating noisy equipment in separate rooms or floors of a building. Relocating the hard drives to another room (closet) is essentially an industrial control. I can also employ an administrative control of shutting off equipment when I need to record. Some might argue that’s a hybrid of both, but in any case I have options.

Why I didn’t think of this in the first place is probably a reflection of the tunnel vision I can sometimes get when enamored of a new piece of kit, in this case the big, new, shiny RAID array with so much more space. It’s a chronic bad habit of mine, but one I strive to overcome when the thought occurs. I often rush in on instinct when a slower and more deliberate planning and execution would serve me better. I endeavor to figure this shit out someday. Don’t wait up.

Time Marches On

It’s been a relatively busy few months, but nothing of singular significance has warranted an update. I made some changes and upgrades to the home studio to include trading in the Apollo Quad 1st generation unit to Vintage King and replaced it with the newest iteration Apollo X 8P unit. This design is somewhat more oriented to patchbay use and so I also got a Switchcraft patchbay and a whole bunch of cabling for the studio. The rearrangement and running of cables took the better part of a few weeks. It’s mostly done now, although I’ve got the odd cable to run here and there.

All of these processes can be sort of slow and iterative based on other demands - work, exercise, etc. I’m still dialed back from full time musician mode because of the elbow, although it’s slowly getting better it still limits the amount of time I can spend playing every day. In the meantime I also traded in my Nikon D5300 to B&H Photo for the newest generation Fuji XT-3 mirrorless camera. I’m still figuring out how to use it, but I can already see the benefits. It’s an amazing camera. Along with this upgrade and the studio changes, I tried to straighten up and organize my various closets and so now I have a camera closet so to speak. I’ve decided to use the extra room with the WinPC as the video room and I’ve got a desk and green screen permanently set up. The closet now houses all my camera gear, and that stash is slowly growing. Every hobby (at least mine) tends have some gear fetishism and acquisition inherent to the process.

I cleaned up the amp closet as well and coiled all the newly extra cables after having changed to mostly snake cables for the patchbay setup. Because of the patchbay I’m now able to split one eight cable snake with four leads going to the vocal closet and four to the amp closet. So, now I have the Royer 122, SM57, and I was able to dust off my Sennheiser e906 dynamic mic and all three are in place for the 65 Amps 112 cab in the closet. I’m still using the default vocal booth setup with the Slate VMS One and SM7. This leaves me two left over leads in the vocal booth and one leftover lead in the amp closet. I also added a 16 channel passthrough to my main desk so I can plug in instrument mics and whatnot as needed. I’ve got one channel dedicated to the DI output from my H&K Grandmeister and I still need to run two outputs to the Matrix GT1000 for output to the Port City OS 212 I have in the main room.

The remainder of the ports are mostly redundant, but it will be nice when I need to mic up instruments or just plug in a vocal mic in the room. The switchbay is essentially ready for use at all times but a couple of the fairly common uses require a patch to be run, for instance the Avantone monitors need a patch cable to be heard. As these are only used to check the occasional mix, that need is fairly uncommon. Tweaks are sure to be necessary as I slowly transition back to a more music heavy mode again. These needs reveal themselves with the use of the gear.

Continuing on with switchbays, I had been holding off for several months as there is a new player in the game with Flock Audio, who are soon to release the first software controlled patchbay. I had wanted to wait until they were released but the release schedule hasn’t been confirmed and they have some fairly draconian return policies. As far as I can tell, you can only return/get a refund if the box is unopened. There doesn’t appear to be an option to return the unit if you decide it’s not what you wanted. For a unit that I think is going to run upwards of $2K, that’s a pretty big leap of faith. I’m going to wait until it’s been out in the wild for several months if not longer and see how the reviews look. It’s a great idea if it stacks up to the hype of Flock Audio. The ability to change routings through software with a few mouse clicks and to have presets saved for various arrangements is quite appealing.

In the meantime I’m glad I decided to go with the typical patchbay setup as it’s really streamlined operations as well as opening up some routing options that weren’t readily available in the past.

Bloggery bloggington

Time for another infrequent update. What's happened since last I committed electrons to this dark, forgotten corner of the internet?  Of most significance is that I have applied for the Berklee College of Music (Online) Bachelor of Music Production degree, with an anticipated start date of January 2015. I'm not sure why I didn't previously make the connection between this course and my still valid (but eventually expiring) GI Bill benefits. I had looked at individual courses within Berklee and some other online colleges, but for whatever reason I didn't realize that there was actually a Bachelor's program in a Music related field that I was actually interested in that would be eligible for the GI Bill.

I won't know if I'm accepted until next month, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Firstly, since I have a reliable means of paying for the degree, and secondly, my academic records while not perfect, (I made a couple of Bs in PA school) are pretty competitive (3.8 cumulative GPA with two master's degrees).  What I don't have is any significant professional or academic music experience, but I'm hoping that since there aren't any specific prerequisites in those areas, that I will make up for in my enthusiasm for music. In my personal statement I related my lifelong love of music, my rekindled musicianship of 10+ years, my multi-instrumentalism and love for all things music production related. 

The course curriculum reads like all of my online self learning activities for the past 10 years. Looking through the entire course requirements and syllabi, I was amazed at how every course was something I was either interested in learning, or something I actually had already studied on my own. My dream scenario would be to channel this knowledge into a musical occupation that could pay the bills, but that isn't the only end goal. I know that regardless of whether I continue to need to work full or part time in healthcare, that the knowledge and experience I gain from this course will make me a better musician and I can't put a price on how valuable that is for me. 

My realistic goal is to continue improving my home studio as much as possible (without making structural changes to our current home), and eventually buying a home on a one acre lot and building a music studio from the ground up. I hope that with time and experience I can begin to attract clients and gain work through word of mouth and advertising. This is a path that some full time (and highly regarded) professional studio owners have followed. The other nice thing about owning/running a studio is that age isn't the limiting factor that it may be for musical artists that are just starting out. I will continue to be a musician, and hope that this knowledge and experience with facilitate opening new doors for me in that area as well. I just never get tired or bored with music at large. I may briefly run out of steam when I've been practicing a certain instrument, but that's easily remedied by picking up a different one, or studying an aspect of production, etc. 

It's hard to express how exciting these possibilities are for me. It's also nice to at least consider that it may be possible to earn a living equivalent to our current standard of living. Success as a musical artist can be a much more fickle target. I know plenty of world class artists who have their dedicated fan base but are otherwise ignored by the public at large. Success in music is often not directly correlated to talent and hard work (a small caveat in that the really hard working musicians who understand that they must do more than just write/record songs, often find a way to succeed through touring, videos & other merchandising).  

The true "If I win the lottery" (in a music sense) would be to build up a successful studio/operation as well as create my own music that might actually garner enough interest to release albums and even tour, if only on a small, regional level. Neither one of these is necessary for me to be happy in music, because I'm already there and I'm not making a penny doing it (quite the contrary, I spend quite a few pennies doing it). The greatest satisfaction would be in having the freedom to only need to "work" in music, and to have my own business that I can dictate the schedule, etc. I am confident that if I'm accepted to Berklee that I will be able to eventually build a free standing professional (albeit, not in the league of the Power Station or equivalent) studio and with the knowledge and experience gained in school I'll be able to record my own as well as others music in the best possible format. Maybe it will only be on nights/weekends when I have the time away from my regular job or maybe it will grow to a full time operation. I'm on board for the long haul either way...