The Studio — Iterations Over 10 Years
Editorial - 002
October 17, 2024
AudioLabs studio has been a work in progress for about 10 years now. I embarked on this production studio journey in 2016 with a Steinberg UR22 audio interface (a gift from my friends), a refurbished Macbook Pro Retina loaded with a cracked copy of Ableton Live 9, a pair of Mackie CR3 speakers, and a set of Sennheiser HD25s.
On the instrument front, I had a PRS SE Soapbar, a Mexican Fender acoustic, and, around that time, I was gifted a 1995 Fender Jazzmaster (Japanese).
Image pictured below 2016/17
Shortly after setting up this little studio, I started to gain interest in synthesizers and electronic music. A friend of mine had just started working at StoreDJ, so together, we decided the Novation Circuit would be the best starting point. He was already a few years ahead of me in the music production world, owning a range of Elektron gear (Analog Keys, Octatrack & Rytm), and a good collection of VST synths, so I took his advice and dove in. I had hardly any money at the time, so I spent a good chunk of my savings on this machine, but I was keen and eager to learn how it all worked.
Not even three months into owning the Circuit, I took it interstate and bought some subpar batteries to use on the go—the batteries melted inside the unit, rendering it almost useless. I was heartbroken.
I can’t remember now if I went through the effort of getting it fixed. I do remember calling for quotes and explaining the situation, but the fix would have likely cost as much as a new unit. I ended up giving it away on Marketplace to a tinkerer who wanted the challenge of fixing it. I pushed on with my mission and stuck to Ableton Live.
Fast forward a year or so. I had just completed a five-month Euro trip with my girlfriend and returned to Melbourne to a full-time job. I had the studio set up in our room at our new sharehouse, with the addition of an Ableton Push 1 and an upgrade of monitors to JBL LSR305s (which I still own). I’d been looking for something a bit more serious synth-wise so I sought the advice of my friend again and he linked me to an Access Virus TI on marketplace.
I took the plunge and bought this synth, not really knowing much about it.. The poor thing had had a hard life, it was all beaten up and I distinctly remember the guy I bought it off handing it over to me in a plastic shopping bag with the PSU and a USB cable.
Owning this synth was short lived, it wasn’t tactile enough for me coming from a guitar background and I didn’t have any interest or patience learning the software user interface. I sold it pretty quickly.
From there, after lots of research, I decided that the Novation Peak would be my next purchase.
I found one on Marketplace at a very reasonable price. I drove over the Westgate Bridge to pick it up. The guy was selling it to fund a Moog Sub 37 and wanted a quick sale—thank you very much! Rather than having his gear set up on keyboard stands or racks, he used his old skateboards.
Not long after, I found an Analog Rytm on Marketplace that was priced too good to be true—$900 AUD! That was atleast $500 less than market price at the time. I bought it off a French dude living in a bus under a bridge with his girlfriend in Richmond.
They invited me into their bus, and he showed me his setup—running Maschine, the Rytm, and a laptop. The bus was decorated with prayer flags and stank of Nag Champa incense. I remember taking my Leatherman with me just in case, but luckily, they were just hippies needing money to get back to Europe. I handed him the cash, we shook hands, and I never saw them again.
This leads into the second iteration of the AudioLabs studio. With this setup, I recorded and released my first EP under the name Empyral. The EP featured four tracks, using the Peak, Rytm, and Ableton Live 9. My very first record—produced, recorded, and mixed by myself—used only sounds I had created on the Peak. This was 2018/19. Studio pictured below 2018/19
Fast forward a year, and we were back at my parents’ house. I had gotten it into my head that I wanted a big mixer, connecting everything with external effects as send/returns. I’m almost certain this was shortly after seeing Nils Frahm live for the first time—one of the most transformative shows I’ve ever witnessed.
I bought the Allen & Heath ZED R16, again at a great price. When I eventually sold it, I remember flipping it for a $600 profit. I’ve had a good run finding bargains.
This setup didn’t last long, though. I had a lot of equipment, and the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) bug hit me hard. I wasn’t using any of it to its full potential and was moving on to the next thing before really exploring the previous purchase. However, I used this setup to record a mix for an ambient label called Chomley, who were running cool open-air parties at the time. My contribution to their Trailmix series was a one-hour set.
I eventually offloaded a lot of this equipment to fund a trip around Australia. I downsized everything into one bootleg Pelican case and entered the Elektron world. I now had only a Digitakt, Digitone, interface, and my trusty refurbished laptop. With this little rig, we set off into the country, ending up in Alice Springs, where I began my live audio and radio journey (that will have to be another article). I played a couple of live shows with this setup and had a tiny makeshift studio in our granny flat, made mostly of free furniture from Marketplace and the tip shop.
Image pictured below 2020/21 - equipment, couldn’t find old photos of the studio room :(
Fast forward to now—October 2024—the current AudioLabs studio. I’m now based in Fairfield, VIC, and use the spare bedroom of our share house as the studio. I now consider this studio to be just one giant instrument.
Everything is routed and set up exactly for my brain.. and it works! That last statement has been the bane of my audio journey through all the other iterations of my studio. Everything works, and it works great—no troubleshooting halfway through making a song, no hours trawling through forums to find a solution to an issue that only one other person in the world has encountered. None of that.
AudioLabs now boasts Barefoot monitors, an RME audio interface, an external mic preamp, a Moog Matriarch, a Vermona Perfourmer MkII, the same Peak, a 303 clone, a Push 2, a legal copy of Live 12 Suite, UAD plugins, and a range of microphones. Any upgrades from here will be about making what’s already in the room better—Neve preamps, a
laptop upgrade, nicer microphones, etc. The core system will ultimately stay the same, at least for the next few years.
Image pictured below 2024
This is AudioLabs, a constant journey of learning, frustration, buying, selling, teaching, forums, YouTube videos, friend networks, writer’s block, motivation, huge wins, and lots of creation. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to be part of the story. I’d love to hear from you!
Benny x
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