In the words of Chris Anderson, blogger extraordinaire and author of The Long Tail:

“Never underestimate the power of a million amateurs with the keys to the factory”

Within the realm of music production,  modern technology has indeed democratized tools once only accessible by professionals, and the consequences have been nothing short of extraordinary.  I know for a fact that the power and affordability of modern technology is one of the main reasons I passionately reconnected with music after nearly a 15-year hiatus.   Amateurs like myself do this for the love of it (after all, the word “amateur” is derived from the Latin amator, “lover”, from amare, “to love”).  And, we will continue to play a vital role in the music technology industry because, collectively, we amateurs represent the majority of the market!

All good and well, but what if you’re just getting started, or like me, getting back into it after a long time away?   Where the hell do you begin?  Putting aside the challenges of rebuilding your playing skills, there remains a substantial learning curve to acquire the additional skills and tools necessary for high-quality music production.  Sure, you can go a certain distance with freebie stuff – like GarageBand – but you’ll likely outgrow these before too long, and find yourself swimming in a sea of pro- audio equipment choices…

No problem right?  Just venture into your local professional audio/music retailer and you’ll receive exceptional guidance and professional consultative support, no?  I mean after all, we’re talking about PRO-AUDIO gear, this is a whole different ballgame than the moronic level of service you find inside of consumer electronics superstores, right?   Unfortunately, not!

Here are some vivid testimonials that pretty much illustrate today’s reality:

GearSlutz.com is perhaps the world’s largest online community for musicians and producers alike – here you’ll find everyone from famous Grammy Award winning producers to beginning students.  The common ground: sharing insights about music technology and studio design.  But here’s something else you’ll find if you venture into GearSlutz’s Moan Zone section:  By far, and I mean by a healthy margin, the single most viewed topic and ongoing discussion thread is none other than Stupid Things You’ve Been Told at Guitar Center! This is not the first thread of its kind, but this one has been growing for over a year, and now has over 88,000 views and 873 contributing posts! To put it in perspective, the #2 thread has just over 15,000 views and 305 posts, and that’s just as of this writing.   What this tells me is that my own experience with large equipment retail chains is far from unique.

A slippery slope lies ahead for the impassioned amateur musician setting out to build even a modest home studio.

Take a read through some of these posts and you’ll not only be seriously entertained, but also dismayed.  How is it that the largest music equipment retailer (here in the US) can get away with such dismal sentiments from the most experienced and authoritative segment of the market?  The answer unfortunately is that there’s are a lot more unknowingly ignorant consumers, or even worse naive parents of budding young musicians, than there are “connoisseurs” that comprise the likes of GearSlutz.com.  As entry-level consumers continue to fill the market, large retailers rely less on “upper-end” prosumers.  This trend, of course, begins with the manufacturers; today top-end stuff is more likely to be produced by a niche company, such as Bricasti and Barefoot Audio (two of my indispensable favorites) using niche distribution channels such as VintageKing and powerful word-of-mouth marketing.

While the tools have been democratized, quality has been crapetized

So anyone embarking on this journey must proceed with caution.  Fortunately, you can do lots of homework on sites like GearSlutz, and I would highly recommend everyone begin there.  If you’re reading this post, you’re likely already aware of this “market gap” – bravo!   My additional recommendation is to hire professional help.  In the present economic climate, there’s lot of talent that would gladly lend a hand for relatively modest fees.   Start by following the posts of frequent authoritative contributors and when you find someone with the expertise you’re seeking, write them a “private message” requesting help – more often than not, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!  In my view, there are only two choices: spend money or invest money – they are not same.

The Links section (right sidebar) lists the online forums I frequent – I suggest you try some of them, and if you have any recommendations, let’s discuss!

I’m presently noodling with some new riffs which may see the light of day – eventually!  In the mean time, as promised, more posts regarding gear and studio design.  As I contemplated where to start, I realized that my previous “gear posts” mostly focused on new stuff which, in many cases, was acquired to replace less than desirable stuff.  So this time, I’m going to highlight instead what has stood the test of time inside my studio!

Like many of you, my sanctuary has been a work in progress… In fact, I prefer to call it a “journey” rather than a project because if held to even the most liberal boundaries of project management, mine would be an abject failure in terms of being “on time and on budget”.   For nearly 3 (expensive) years, I churned through loads of gear, only to settle on premium professional products to replace more crap than I care to describe.  Thankfully, my studio has been relatively “stable” now for the past few years; not bad considering the pace of today’s product lifecycles!

So what’s stood the test of time?  Well, oddly enough the most senior item in my studio (besides me) isn’t even an instrument!  It’s my studio mix desk – the Argosy Dual 15K – or as Argosy likes to call it, the “Rocket Ship”…

Home studios usually have limited space and a purpose built mix desk not only maximizes your space and ergonomics, it provides the framing for your work environment.  Yes, there are many less costly alternatives, including DIY; but looking back on it, I’m convinced this thing has paid for itself many times over.  For one, we naturally “fill” the space we have at our disposal right?  How many empty spaces do you ever see in a woman’s designer shoe closet?   Rack spaces are the male equivalent, I’m afraid…  The Argosy desk has forced me into a “less is more” mode while still allowing me to fit a reasonable amount of gear into a relatively small space.  Oh yeah, and compared to cheaper alternatives, it looks uber cool.  To this day, I am still inspired to man the rocket ship!

I’ve also added a few customizations along the way.  To begin with, I’ve always preferred to use an outboard mixer as the interface into my DAW.  This, too, has proven to be a valuable long-term decision, and I’ll expand on that in a future post.   The Argosy Dual15 provides an abundant surface directly behind the keyboard/master controller, and Argosy sells an adjustable control surface shelf (the MPX) that fits into this space.  But, it’s designed for smaller light-weight control surfaces – which the Yamaha O2r96 is not!   So instead, I had them precision cut the MPX shelf so that the Yamaha O2r96 could be receded – just like you see in other custom consoles.  The mixer is heavy enough that it’s not going to move around, but I support it with a pair of Auralex loudspeaker isolation risers – these provide a stable cushion for the O2r96 and just enough “lift” to allow the the mixer to peep through the MPX shelf, as you can see in the photos.   Next, I secured the MPX shelf from the rear of the desk to provide added stability and balance to support an additional extension I attached to the front for my keyboard and mouse.  I wish I could say this was an engineered design – in reality I experimented with different approaches before settling on what you see below – but it works like a charm and it’s very stable.  The other benefit is that I now find myself relatively comfortable combing the aisles of Home Depot.

The next challenge was positioning my LCD monitors.   Until recently, anything north of a 20” monitor was fairly heavy.  I began with another Argosy accessory, their “Fly Bridge”, a plank which sits across the left and right rack risers (as shown on the Argosy site).   The Fly Bridge is fine for lighter, smaller monitors but was unable to support the weight of larger screens – but even worse, the viewing distance was causing excessive eye strain so you can bet I wanted those 30” LCDs once they became affordable.   But how to solve the problem of supporting REALLY large monitors while getting them close enough to comfortably view at high resolution?   One more consideration: I live in California and the earth moves from time to time out here…

Thankfully, Ergotron came to the rescue with a semi-custom solution that enables me to float my dual monitors right above my mixer!   Go to virtually any hospital and you’ll likely see Ergotron hardware providing industrial-grade mounting solutions (for computers and the like…).  Ergotron provided me with a massive steel “Command Post” that I surface mounted onto my floor.   The Command Post was essential because wall mounting simply would not have brought the monitors to an ideal viewing distance; beyond that, I have  acoustic treatment directly behind my desk – not suitable for mounting LCDs.  An Ergotron dual monitor arm (HD 45) was mounted onto the Command Post thereby allowing me to precisely adjust the height and distance of my dual 30” HP LP3065 monitors.  If you’re going down this road, I strongly recommend visiting their website and reviewing compatible “VESA” compatible monitors.  Perhaps to no surprise, this solution ended up costing as much as the monitors themselves, but what’s the point of investing in high-resolution monitors if you can’t position them, and hence view them, optimally?

Last, but not least the gluteus control surface, aka chair.   Because of the reach and overall elevation (when you consider the height of the mixer, monitors, etc) and that, as a piano player, you want to sit proportionately correct to the keyboard, the recently introduced Aeron work stool… basically a “taller” version of the iconic Aeron was introduced just in time!  Without the Aeron, all of the above would have literally remained “out of reach” so this was the last piece of the puzzle…

My Solution in a Nutshell:

1. Argosy Console Dual 15K – a fantastic mix desk specifically designed to support an 88-key controller/keyboard at its center…  Another great supplier is Custom Consoles – particularly for larger-scale environments – I’ll talk more about them shortly because I use their IsoBox technology to house my computers and an assortment of other (non-instrument) rack gear.
2. Customized solution to frame/recede my Yamaha O2r96 based on the Argosy MPX mix shelf
3. Customized extension added to the secured Argosy MPX to support keyboard and mouse above my keyboard/master controller
4. Customized Ergotron solution to “float” dual 30” LCD monitors for optimal viewing distance and height from my mix position
5. Aeron Work Stool

Hard to believe that a year has passed since the inception of my little blog.   It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post, but I took some “time off” to not only recharge the batteries, but also pour over the analytics, and consider various directions for its future.   Oh yeah, this global financial meltdown has been a bit distracting as well…  But you know, it’s during times like this that I find myself so thankful (to my parents) for sticking my ass into music school at an early age.  They always said that it would be the type of treasure that could never be taken away, and they were right.  I trust that all of you with the same good fortune agree… but if you’re like many who are wondering whether it’s too late to learn, my answer is that there’s never been a better time!

I am of the belief that modern society (for all its goodness) has imposed a heavy price on our stress levels and our ability to focus.  We have way too many distractions and the sound byte is rapidly becoming our lingua franca.  This does not bode well for the human condition, and ironically, we need creativity and focus more than ever in light of present economic circumstances.

A distracted mind is no place for innovation, problem-solving or creativity – Eoghan McCabe

So what does this have to do with music?  Everything.  Creating music, regardless of your level, is one of very few activities that counteracts this unfortunate societal trend.   One of the things I love doing the most is answering question I get every now and then from a friend, “I want to get (back) into this, but where should I begin?”  Usually, this question means what should I buy first?  Without a doubt, technology is an immutable partner – and a damn essential one in today’s scheme; but returning to the earlier point, having too many choices is a double-edged sword.  I am a firm believer that too many choices can make it that much more difficult to focus your time and resources on the FEW things that really matter; and what really matters will differ from musician to musician depending first and foremost on WHAT you’re trying to accomplish.

My suggestion is to keep things as simple as possible in the beginning.  If your chops are dusty then spend some time reacquainting yourself with the fundamentals.   You’ll have plenty of time to build your sanctuary and trust me on this, it’s a slippery slope; and there will always be a bigger fish!

As for my blog, I will continue, but probably with greater focus on gear and studio related topics merely because my site statistics overwhelmingly confirm this to be the predominant interest.   Fastonkeys.com gets between 2,000-2,500 new visitors per month from across the globe, the majority of which are seeking out the gear-related posts.  And here I was thinking it was all about the fabulous music I’ve created (LOL)…  So I’ll be refining the focus in 2009 and attempt to better cater to my core audience.  Thank you to everyone for your comments, emails, and encouragement!