Studio Basics

Welcome to the Granoff Studio!

Note: always make sure you have "Dante Virtual Soundcard" selected as your input and output in the preferences section of your DAW of choice.

1) Connecting and  Setting up a Microphone

Microphones, cables, and headphones can be found in the cabinets to the left of the preamps in the control room.  A list of the microphones available for use can be found here.  When you are done recording, please put microphones and mounts back in their cases and return gear to the cabinet.

The particular mount for each mic can usually be found inside the microphone's case or around the tracking room.  Pictured below is a mic mount that can adjust to fit any microphone.   Place the mic inside the mount and screw the four pins into the body of the microphone in use.

In order to get sound into the boards, and subsequently the DAW of your choice, we need to connect the mic to a floor or wall panel with an XLR cable. XLR's can be found in the drawer labeled "XLR/MIC CABLE" to the left of the desk in the control room.  For this example, we have connected the mic to wall input 33 (pictured below).

Wall inputs 33-40 are normalled to the top row of eight preamps (preamps are located to the right of the computer monitor in the control room. more on that below).  Wall inputs 41-49 are normalled to the eight inputs of the RMP-D8 preamp.  Floor inputs 57-60 (tracking room) and 77-80 (control room) are normalled to the eight inputs on the GRACE m108 preamp.   In our example, signal is flowing from the microphone through  mic input 33 directly into a preamp (specifically the top left rupert neve 517 preamp, shown in the preamp section below).

Pictured above: floor inputs in the control room.  Using these will automatically pass mic signal to a preamp.  It can also allow you to record from the control room instead of the tracking room!

PREAMPS

Preamps amplify the signal received from the microphone before it reaches the DAW.  Additionally, they supply phantom power to condenser microphones.  If using a condenser microphone, make sure phantom power (the +48v button) is turned on in whichever preamp you choose.  If using a dynamic microphone, do not use phantom power.  Afterwards, adjust the gain to an appropriate level.

Each preamp gives the incoming sound its own color and has options unique to it.  In addition to setting gain levels, you can add eq, compression, flip the phase of the incoming signal, and more.

The numbers on the side of the preamp area are the DAW inputs that the preamp outputs are normalled into.  To receive sound in your DAW, simply set the input on a track to whichever number corresponds with the preamp you are using.  In our case, we would select input 1, since our sound is routed through the first Rupert Neve 517 preamp (top left).

Lastly, if you would like to use a wall or floor input that is not normalled to a preamp, you can utilize the patchbay.  For instance, if we had a microphone plugged into wall input 1 in the tracking room,  it can be routed through the first preamp like this (cables located on a hanging rack to the right of the patchbay):

2) Creating a Headphone Send

The headphone system uses the 'hear back' headphone/mixer boxes and the 'hear back hub' in the center rack at the back of the room (details and images below). The first 2 inputs to the system route through the Grace m908 monitor controller - via software outputs 17 and 18, or by engaging the MON>CUE switch on the controller. The controller also provides talkback. See controller details here. 

It is best practice to create a headphone mix through a bus and then route the output of that bus into the headphone amp inputs.  We're going to be doing this routing in Logic, but the same process can be applied to any DAW.

Send the track(s) that you want to be in the headphone mix to a free auxiliary track (or direct the send to outputs 17-24).  Adjust the bus send to pre fader by clicking on the Bus 1 send button and selecting "pre fader" in the drop-down menu.  The send knob will now appear to the left of the send button.

Now change the output settings of that bus to output channels 17-18 instead of the usual Stereo Output.  This output is normalled through the monitor station to the headphone hub (pictured below) located in the back of the tracking room.

Notice: there are usually headphone mixers in the tracking room already set up for normal use, so if these suit your needs, use them.

 Notice: monitor mix signals are transmitted using ethernet cables instead of the patch cables used in the patch bay.  Ethernet cables can be in the hanging cable area of the tracking room, as well as around the studio in general.  Make sure to depress the plastic protrusion on the side of the ethernet cable when inserting or removing it from a socket.

To route signal to a headphone monitor mixer in the tracking room, we need to take one of the outputs from the headphone amp and connect it to an input of a floor/wall panel cue point. In this example, we are routing output from an available headphone hub output to CUE 10 in floor panel 103 (FP-103).

Bring an ethernet cable into the tracking room and plug it into CUE10 to grab the output from the headphone hub.

Connect the other end of the ethernet cable to an available headphone monitor mixer (pictured below). The light labeled 'BUS' should be illuminated. You can now plug in your headphones and use the 'VOLUME' knob to adjust the level of the audio, or use the 'Stereo 1-2'

Optional: if you would like to control elements of a cue mix individually (for instance, sending a click track separately from the cue mix itself), create a new bus send to an open auxiliary track in your DAW.  Change this send to pre-fader and select any output between 19-24 (stereo or mono).  These outputs will automatically output to the monitor station, then the headphone hub, then the hearback mixers in the tracking room.  On these mixers, adjust the knob/knobs that correspond to the output you selected.  For instance, if you are sending signal to output 19, adjust knob 3.  If sending signal to output 20, adjust knob 4, etc.  If using a stereo output, you can press the link button to link the two individual channels as a stereo pair, which will allow you to adjust their volume simultaneously.  For instance, if using stereo output 21-22 in your DAW, you can press the link button between knobs 5 and 6 to link their volume controls.