The Steel Guitar Forum

I am looking for advice and thoughts from the community, after seeing the "Show me your practice space" thread.

I am fortunate to have retired and now ready to start practicing pedal steel seriously.

I have a 14' x14' room in a detached shop next to my home. It has power, heat and AC.

I kinda threw it together when we moved here three years ago - with a desk and side return I had, and some filing cabinets. I finally got wifi to the space via a mesh network from my house. Now I would like to configure it a lot better for learning, practicing and basic recording.

I have an SD10 single neck but also a tele, acoustic 12 string and a small keyboard, a couple of Peavey amps (Nashville and Deuce II).

On the recording side I have an older Fostex digital 8 track and an ancient analog TEAC 3440 (probably needs some substantial work). Also a couple of mics and stands. For the time being I have a desktop stereo system for playback.

I have a wooden office sized desk with a return on it.

None of this equipment is rack-mounted so that's an issue, but I think I have the pieces to get a good start.

As a retired guy, I have more time than money to work this out.

For those of you who have setup practice spaces and/or recording spaces, I would appreciate thoughts, ideas and warnings about things you like and what you might have done differently if you were starting again.

Thanks again for any input.

Jim Shultz

Welcome, Jim! When I retired I tried doing nothing for a while, but that didn't work out so I took up pedal steel. Now I'm never bored and I never have nothing to do.

You'll get a heap of suggestions, and this is mine - you have a decent sized room, so you can get your hi-fi speakers away from the wall (unless of course they are actual "bookshelf" speakers). You'll get a truer idea of the bass content which is the hardest thing to get right when recording.

My space is rather cramped so I'm envious of yours - enjoy!

I have found the less I have to do to play the better. I try to have everything hooked up and ready to go. No plugging in cables, getting guitar out etc.

I go in my practice room, turn the computer on which stays on all day, flip the switch for the amp and am ready to go. Music to play with is on the computer and books pdfs etc are either in front of me or on an IPad.

It takes me 2 minutes in the morning and 5 seconds after that.

Jim,

Great question which will likely generate a lot of posts.

Which Fostex digital 8 track do you have? My digital recorder is a vintage 2007 Zoom MRS-8 and after all this time it still meets my requirements. I feel confident in saying your digital recorder likely meets your recording needs.

I had a Teac 3340S for a long time. I always used 7" tape reels because I couldn't afford a new 15" tape reels. But it doesn't take long to eat tape at 30 inches per second! Depending on how you store it the machine likely might not need much more than head cleaning and 24 hour electronic burn-in. The tape counter moves by a round rubber band. It's likely toast but it use to be easy to find a replacement on eBay.

Myself, I sold the 3340 once I had my Zoom MRS. It's easy to forget how much maintenance a tape recorder deck requires.

When you walk out to your 14' X 14' building you'll likely be in a creative mood and want to get started as soon as possible. For that reason alone Doug Taylor's advice to have all your equipment set up and ready to go is a great suggestion.

With that in mind my first suggestion is to add a 12 to 16 input mixer. All audio inputs go into the mixer. The mixer audio outputs will go to your Fostex inputs and your stereo auxiliary line-ins. The mixer becomes your audio hub.

Suggestion two is to obtain direct input (DI) boxes and additional cabling for your steel and Telecaster.

The DI boxes provides the capability to record the raw sound of your instrument alone. The additional cabling lets you record the instrument with the added tone of your amplifier.

Jim Fogle wrote:Jim,

Which Fostex digital 8 track do you have?

I have a Fostex MR8 MK II that I bought used a couple of years ago - records only 2 tracks at a time but I can't play enough at once to require more...

Jim Fogle wrote:I had a Teac 3340S for a long time. I always used 7" tape reels because I couldn't afford a new 15" tape reels. But it doesn't take long to eat tape at 30 inches per second! Depending on how you store it the machine likely might not need much more than head cleaning and 24 hour electronic burn-in. The tape counter moves by a round rubber band. It's likely toast but it use to be easy to find a replacement on eBay.

Myself, I sold the 3340 once I had my Zoom MRS. It's easy to forget how much maintenance a tape recorder deck requires.

I think I plan on using the 3340 to digitize old recordings that I did on it before they flake away - if they haven't already. I used to do some live recording with it.

Good suggestions on the mixer and DIs

Thanks

Jim,

I agree with Doug and Jim about getting everything setup so you can be up and running with flipping a few switches. My music room is about 10 x 10 and that works great for me. I turn the computer on, then a power conditioner that everything else is plugged into. With solid state drive in the computer, I'm ready to go in about 15 seconds. After you start working with it, you'll find a good arrangement that work for you. I change mine around ocassionally. Try to keep cables out of the floor, if you use an office chair on rollers. The main thing is to enjoy yourself.

RC

Back when I put a small studio together (about 10X10) I wish I'd have made the desk so I could get behind it. Once you get everything hooked up you might think you won't have to get back there again. I can't count the times I've had to pull things out and figure or remember what was what. A desk with locking wheels might be a good idea.

Scott Denniston wrote:Back when I put a small studio together (about 10X10) I wish I'd have made the desk so I could get behind it. Once you get everything hooked up you might think you won't have to get back there again. I can't count the times I've had to pull things out and figure or remember what was what. A desk with locking wheels might be a good idea.

I agree. Some of the best money I ever spent was on an actual recording desk. They come with rack mount spaces with racks and the locking wheels you mentioned. It's easy to pull it out to rearrange some cables..... something you'll probably do more that you think. They seem pricey, but I don't regret buying mine at all.

RC