Tag Archives: Studio

IsoAcoustics speaker stands, real deal or fake?

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Turns out, they’re the real deal! One of my Adam monitors (A3X) started making a strange humming noise a while back, and when I took it in for service I noticed they had the IsoAcoustics stands in the store.

At first my plan was to upgrade to the A5X in case the A3X was really a goner, but it turns out the problem was a wattage converter on the same plug in my home, so instead I opted for the IsoAcoustics stands.

I’d had my eyes on them for a while and was really interested in trying them out. I got the smallest ones (ISO L8R130) thinking they should be perfect for my A3X and also able to hold up a 5″ pair in case I upgrade in the future.

DSC02245Unboxing I found the base and the ‘shelf’ part, along with risers of 2 different lengths. There are also sets of shorter ‘plugs’ that you insert into the risers to tilt the speakers back forward or backward.

Setup was easy, but due to the construction you have to spend some time calibrating the for corners of the stands so that your monitors come out level. It’s easy to end up with one corner not as snuggle fitted as the others which means the monitor will lean in various directions.

After setup was done though I immediately noticed a significant change in the sound. The representation is now much clearer and wider than before (monitors used to sit on top of foam wedges). In a very unscientific way it feels like I just added a couple of inches. As an added bonus they also look really nice on the desk.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

New (and simpler) home studio layout

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I’ve written before about how I was planning on simplifying and cleaning up my work space at home. Since I got back from Japan I’ve been busy moving stuff around and putting away the gear that I don’t use that often, or couldn’t comfortable and easily get to in the small space I occupy in our apartment.

The result is actually very relieving. It seems like for every kilo of gear that I move out of the way, my inspiration keeps increasing and I find it easier to just sit down and start working on ideas again.

Not saying that I have no use or love for the gear, but seeing it all around me and not being able to make full use of it because it would require moving furniture and re-route cables was actually are real downer for the creativity. Can’t wait for the day when I have enough space to set everything up properly. Until then I will bring the stuff out as needed…

Below is a picture of the new and simpler setup…

Studiospace

Custom Studio Furniture (Free Sketchup Plan)

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Since I moved back to Sweden It’s taken quite a while to get all the gear back up, but now  it’s finally in place and all plugged in. One of my goals was to improve my desk space to get better access to my rack units.

Buying a ready made studio desk is both expensive and boring so I decided to ‘build’ my own instead. This would also provide the most compact solution.

I started with an Ikea desk called Galant. You can go for either the corner or straight type. I choose the straight (160 x 80 cm) for space saving. On top of this I put two custom built 6U racks made in solid oak to match the surface of the desk.

I left just enough space between them to fit my 27″ iMac, which I suspended from a monitor arm. The idea was to fit a slanting shelf in front of it to hold my Maschine and some other handy gadgets. You may notice that the desk is 5-10cm too short to fit both racks and the mac, but that’s ok. Hopefully I can upgrade to a bigger space at some point, or get a Mac Pro and a 24″ monitor… :P

Check out the results below, and download the Sketchup file if you want to build your own rack.

photo 1_1 photo 2_1 photo 3_1 photo 4_1

Dropbox link to Sketchup file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/din4o7j6icwj88k/6USlantedRack.zip

(Disclaimer: I’m not a carpenter so use the Sketchup drawing at your own risk…)

Glitzerstrahl is Moving to Stockholm

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I was based in Tokyo but relocated to San Francisco by my Japanese employer when I started this blog. San Francisco having such an incredibly creative atmosphere and an abundance of great music spots was a fantastic place to be for synth-head / electronic music producer. But in July 2013 my employer decided to transfer me back to Tokyo.

Tokyo is an awesome place, probably my favorite city on this planet, but for various personal reasons me and the family decided that the best thing for us to do next was probably to move to Stockholm and try our luck in my home country for a while.

I won’t go into the details, but the result is that we are moving to Sweden and will set up base in Stockholm. At the moment the rest of the family is still in Japan, waiting for visas and other technicalities, but I have gone ahead to try and set up a home and other preparations for us.

At the moment I’m living in a temporary, corporate housing solution, looking for an apartment in the Stockholm area (if you have any leads leave a comment!), while all the gear is somewhere on the Atlantic heading north (or west, or possibly east depending on how you look at it).

Therefor there won’t be that many updates for a while as I’m trying to acclimatize myself to this new environment and so forth.

In the meantime, here’s a shot of the portable studio set up in my temporary (very cold) apartment.

TempStockholmStudio

Looking forward to exploring the Scandinavian electronica scene, so if you have any tips or just want to hang out and talk synths and music let me know!