This is my studio, it is responsible for taking up a lot of my spare time when I'm in a creative mood. The studio is primarily analogue although I have digital mastering available (CD) and other effects devices that are purely in the digital domain. The central hub of any sound studio is the mixing desk (console) and of course the medium with which you record, in the centre of this picture you can see the 'Mackie' 24-8-2 desk and on the right most part of the picture is the 'Tascam' MSR 24 track tape recorder.

On top of the mixing desk you can see the Digitech 'Vocalist workstation', this device although not cheap to buy produces an expensive sounding vocal, in fact it is possible to split your original voice 5 ways with counter harmonies coming from the 3rd and 5th's of a chord, Oh the joy of a toy for someone who don't sing too well (me) it's got me out of trouble a few times I can tell you.

Obviously when you compose music for a four piece band, namely… guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, there will be certain elements you could never record or fit in such a small sized studio, take drums for instance….this being a good example of how technology can help you, My drum sound is produced from a box of tricks! a drum machine capable of being programmed to suit your exact musical needs.

Other peripherals are housed in racks both above the console and to the left of it, there are too many to name individually but suffice to say there are a few. The synthesizer (bottom of pic) is a Korg X5D, a keyboard which is very good at 'wind instrument' reproduction and if you listen to "Millennium Dance" (hear my music link) you can hear exactly what it is capable of doing.

My studio has been slowly developed over a decade, and from humble beginnings it has matured and come of age, it is now fully functional in every department from track dubbing right through to the mastering process. I have recorded stuff for other musicians, mainly friends or other people they know. I enjoy sound engineering for other people because it's a lot easier than doing for myself and less work believe it or not!

I currently own four guitars, two acoustic, and two electric… I have other instruments too but the guitar has always been my forte, but when you compose music these other instruments come in handy when a different sound is required for asthetic reasons.

I hope you enjoyed this brief insight into my universe, more later.