recording in rte

DamagedTrax

ive a session coming up in a few weeks in rte studio 1. anyone ever been in there? i presume they have a lot of old gear, anyone know any info on it? im still waiting on a spec sheet back which im probably not gonna see before i get there!

godfrey

The music studios are all ProTools, with excellent monitoring and mics, everything any other studio would have.

Also, there is a whole batch of younger and very capable engineers working on music in there now. Hopefully you'll get one of them!

Just out of curiosity, why do you need a spec from them?

g

madtheory

Aren't the "younger guys" external contractors?

godfrey

Nope, there's an almost complete ban on contractors at the moment, but there are some 'casual irregular' ops...

DamagedTrax

godfrey wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, why do you need a spec from them?

because i like to have a session fairly well planned before i start it. room size and dead rooms, mics available, channels available, outboard available etc.

i would assume most engineers also work this way when in a studio that's new to them?

godfrey

Yes, just it was unclear whether you were recording or being recorded

g

DamagedTrax

ah. ok.

have you any idea what desk they have? i think i remember someone mentioning a VR to me but that was years ago and may be wishful thinking

PaulBrewer

I was in studio 8 recently with a very capable Rte chap.

The main issue will be if it's for recording or live to air ?

Some of the older gear has reliability issues which will mean its a no go for live to air .

I was surprised how tatty the place was but was impressed with the operator.

DamagedTrax

no, not for air. its for an ep release. it wasnt my first choice but circumstances (that ill not go into here) have put the band in there.

PaulBrewer

It's was all 192s in there and a Dm2000 which had the same honk off it as an o2r does which wasn't particularly pleasant.

I don't know what's in 1.

godfrey

I haven't been in there in a while, last I remember it had 2 DM2000's I think, but call Paul Bradley in the radio centre and he'll tell you everything you need to know. Call the main number 01.208.3111 and they'll put you through to him, I don't want to post it here.

g

DamagedTrax

in studio 1? i would assume they have a lot better than that since the've recorded national orchestras and all. you know the one im talking about, with the big seated balcony in the live room?

madtheory

Did a Fanning session over 10 years ago and there was a Soundcraft desk and a rack of Neve mic pres in the studio we used, and I think there was a seventies Neve in the other one. Westlake monitors. What happened to all of those?

DamagedTrax

yeah i think the neve is a VR. im almost sure of it cause i remember someone talking about it down in windmill one day when we were on the VR in S1.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

which studio has the ' sh1te-eniser- 3000 ' in it , thats the one to avoid .

madtheory

VR is not seventies and the desk I saw looked much older, but the memory is funny like that. What about the racks and the Westlakes?

Incidentally, we recorded on a Soundcraft, which was actually quite a noisy desk. We couldn't do an automated mix because the engineer told us a story- he didn't have a floppy for the computer...

DamagedTrax

it was mid 80's. close enough certainly wont be complaining if it turns out to be one. at least ill know my way around it.

jtsuited

all the good stuff is gone out of both 1 and 8. it's all very boring in there tbh. a few decent neve strips in the rack in 8 but they're not exactly reliable iirc.

jtsuited

madtheory wrote: »

VR is not seventies and the desk I saw looked much older, but the memory is funny like that. What about the racks and the Westlakes?
.

all gone. the westlakes were replaced by Genelecs and that desk was replaced by a a dm2000. And the DASH by pro-tools.

jtsuited

DamagedTrax wrote: »

in studio 1? i would assume they have a lot better than that since the've recorded national orchestras and all. you know the one im talking about, with the big seated balcony in the live room?

same as studio 8 unfortunately, although it's been a while since i was in there. stuff gets moved for the big classical stuff between there at the NCH quite often.

DamagedTrax

great :mad:

PaulBrewer

Patch bay reliability is another major issue - or so the Engineer said.

A lot of the old consoles and other stuff were sold on by Audio Warehouse, mostly to Uk dealers - they were well knackered by then, I believe, having been in pretty regular use since the early 70s.

There are also stories of stuff getting thrown into skips and 'borrowed' - though of course this is anecdotal and not necessarily fact.

If I was doing anything in there I'd be looking to keep things very simple.

DamagedTrax

i think ill just track thru the working pre's straight to pt. keep everything nice and clean... and then add 25 years onto my age when mixing it

madtheory

jtsuited wrote: »

madtheory wrote: »

VR is not seventies and the desk I saw looked much older, but the memory is funny like that. What about the racks and the Westlakes?
.

all gone. the westlakes were replaced by Genelecs and that desk was replaced by a a dm2000. And the DASH by pro-tools.

So on the plus side, the desk and the multitrack have been upgraded. I guess they don't have the H3000 or the 480L either? The Neve rack was flaky back then too. Bizarre, they're easy to maintain.

That room has a stairs into the live room, Abbey Road vibe. Looks great for a music video! And the piano was lovely.

krd

PaulBrewer wrote: »

There are also stories of stuff getting thrown into skips and 'borrowed' - though of course this is anecdotal and not necessarily fact.

I knew people who used to go skip diving out at RTE. They used to find things like tapes, cables and occasionally fully working cameras.

jtsuited

madtheory wrote: »

So on the plus side, the desk and the multitrack have been upgraded. I guess they don't have the H3000 or the 480L either? The Neve rack was flaky back then too. Bizarre, they're easy to maintain.

That room has a stairs into the live room, Abbey Road vibe. Looks great for a music video! And the piano was lovely.

Last time I was in there the 480 and h3000 were there. Yeah that room is great. Apart from the fact that you can't fit certain things through the door. Which hilariously led to Bryan Adams' keyboard player playing a hammond in the corridor live on air while the rest of the band were in studio.

studiorat

DamagedTrax wrote: »

in studio 1? i would assume they have a lot better than that since the've recorded national orchestras and all. you know the one im talking about, with the big seated balcony in the live room?

DM2000, protools and possibly a couple of Grace mic pres. Which could have been a hire job now I think of it...
No iso booths as far as I remember either.
All in all, quite underwhelming, but you don't really need much more for classical music.

jtsuited

the grace pres should be there.