Trevor Jones Studio (TJS)

Mixing Console
- SSL Duality Delta
Audio Interfaces
- Antelope Orion 32
Computer
- Mac Pro 2013 running OSX Sierra
Pre-amps
- Grace 201
- Focusrite ISA 828
Outboard
- Bricasti M7 Reverb
- Lexicon PCM-80
- TC System 6000 Mark 2 with Mastering Suite
- Neve 8803 EQ
- UA LA-2A
- UA 1176
Instruments
- Waldorf Sledge
- Arturia MINI Brute
- Gretch Drum Kit
- 2 x EMS VCS3 synthesisers are available to use in the studios.
Back Line Amplification
- Vox AC-30
- Mark MK3 Head and 2 x 10 inch Cab
Monitoring
- Genelec 7060A Subwoofer
- 2 x Genelec 1037C
- 2 x Triple P Pyramid
- 16 x Genelec 8020B Configured to Ambisonic system with height
Software
- Cockos Reaper
- Logic Pro X
- Final Cut Pro X
- Live 9 Suite
- Pro-Tools 11
- UAD Quad with assortment of EQs, Compression, Delays and Reverbs
- IRCAM Trax Bundle
- Nuendo
- MaxMSP 6
- WAVES Gold Bundle
- Native Instruments Complete

Trevor Jones Studio Guide

Before you start:

· No food or drink is allowed in the studio or control room. There is a break area outside the studio keycard door for eating and drinking.

· All university buildings, including studios, are no smoking.

· Do not prop open doors, especially the keycard door. These are all fire doors.

· The nearest fire exit is located at the end of the corridor. An alternative route would be up the stairs.

· Do not use the lift in the event of a fire.

· Any issues, faults, or breakages MUST be reported to the technician (ben.eyes@york.ac.uk). Do not use any equipment you suspect to be faulty or unsafe.

· All outside equipment must be PAT tested before use any university studios. This should be arranged in advance with (ben.eyes@york.ac.uk).

· The lift is available for moving your equipment.

The user manual for the SSL Duality Delta is left in the studio for your reference. See the small bookcase behind the door.

Live Room Procedure

The live room is a flexible space, but requires certain standards to be maintained.

· Microphone Stands should be left in the far left corner, and not folded down.

· Cables should be coiled loosely and tidily on the floor near the door.

· The tie-lines on the wall should only have the Genelec talkback speaker plugged in when starting or ending a session. All other cables should be removed and tidied.

· The wall baffles are flexible, but should be opened and closed with care.

· Headphones and extensions are available from the tech office and should be booked in advance.

· Basic microphones are provided (in the control room) but specific microphones should be booked in advance.

· An additional small booth/room is available with additional tie-lines.

· When keeping microphones, do remember to remove the mic clips from the mic stands and return them accordingly to the mic boxes for return.

· Equipment retrieving and returning hours are strictly Monday-Friday, 10:30am-11:30am.

QUICK START GUIDE

· Remove dust cover and check for any faults or issues before starting (if so report them)

· To power up the studio, turn on the main (green) switch on the wall upon entrance

· Power up the Mac Pro and start your DAW

· Set your master outputs on your DAW (we recommend 7&8)

· On the corresponding desk channels press the SELECT button below the fader

· On the ROUTING PANEL change the CHANNEL IN to LINE and ensure that INPUT FLIP is not on

· Repeat for your other output channel

· On the monitor section select the following:

MON SRC is MIX A

LS SELECT is MINI A

MISC LEVEL is not highlighted

MONITOR KNOB is set to a relatively low level

· Plug a microphone into a tie line in the live room

· On the corresponding desk channel press the SELECT button below the fader

· On the ROUTING PANEL change the CHANNEL IN to MIC, ensure that INPUT FLIP is not on, +48v is on (if needed), and CHANNEL INPUT and CHANNEL METERS are both set to INPUT

· On the F/B A section ensure only MIX A is pressed, and turn up the MIX 1 and LEVEL controls

· Patch in headphones in the live room

· Your headphones are controlled by the LEVEL control in the F/B A section and the individual fader levels

· To talk to headphones press and hold the TB ALL button (bottom right of console)

· You are now ready to record and monitor back

· When you are done read the “Finishing Your Session” section at the end of this guide

DETAILED OVERVIEW

Powering Up

Switches for the desk, outboard, speakers, and computer are via the main (green) switch on the wall upon entrance to the studio. There is a power distribution unit in the rack that deals with the majority of the outboard.

N.B. The ORION INTERFACE provides all input and outputs for the Mac Pro. This must be turned on. If it is not on, press the circular button on its face.

Mac Pro Configuration

The Mac power is located on the rear near the bottom of the cylinder. The machine has no login.

· The machine is not networked in a traditional sense, but there is access to the various music department network drives (if required).

· There is a dedicated audio work drive specifically for storing your sessions. Please create a folder with your name. Only work within your folder.

· Data is not guaranteed on this drive, and may be deleted without notice or accidentally. You must ensure you keep your own back up.

· Do not work on the desktop or Mac HD directory. These are locked by Deep Freeze and will be wiped on restart.

Software Configuration

The Mac Pro offers various DAW options: Reaper, ProTools, Nuendo, Logic, Live 9 in addition to MaxMSP and PureData. A wide array of plugins are available; some are native, others use the UAD Satellite (may require powering up on its rear). ProTools requires an iLok key to operate, and this should already be installed and ready to use.

The various DAWs have templates for inputs and outputs with the desk. These can be accessed in each program individuals.

N.B. Outputs are typically 1&2 or 7&8 for main stereo out (varies between DAW). Should you wish to use different outputs please do, but please do not overwrite any templates.

Patching in the Trevor Jones Studio

The patching and arrangement of the patchbays and tie-lines within the Trevor Jones is as follows:

· Within the live room XLR sockets 1-20 are normal microphone/signal inputs.

· 21-24 are dedicated channels for the passive DI box (always in situ).

· 25 is a dedicated return channel for the Genelec talkback speaker.

· Remaining return channels are fed from the headphone amplifier for foldback mixes.

The patchbay within the studio is HALF NORMALLED. In this instance only breaking the INPUT will break the patch, otherwise the signal continue through the signal chain. There may be instances where you wish to use dummy cables plugged into an input socket on the patchbay, but not plugged in to any other socket on the other end.

The configuration of the patchbay is as follows:

· LIVE AREA TIE-LINES are normalled to the SSL CHANNEL INPUTS (XLR inputs labelled as MIC on the CHANNEL ROUTING PANEL).

· INTERFACE OUTPUTS (labelled as PROTOOLS OUT) are normalled to the TAPE MONITOR INPUTS (labelled as LINE on the CHANNEL ROUTING PANEL).

· CHANNEL DIRECT OUTPUTS are normalled to INTERFACE INPUTS (labelled as PROTOOLS IN)

· The VOCAL BOOTH TIE-LINES are highlighted in RED and separate from the main LIVE AREA TIE-LINES.

As a general rule; anything labelled PROTOOLS on the patchbay relates to the ORION INTERFACE (this labelling is simply a remnant of an older configuration).

Monitoring Using the SSL Duality Delta

Monitoring on the Delta is relatively simple but also highly flexible. The MON SRC (monitor source) can select between STEREO MIX, MIX A, and EXTB. The STEREO MIX and MIX A (mix bus A) functions come from the main console. EXTB allows input from the 3.5mm jack (to the left of the desk) for external devices such as laptops. When using normal mix sources, the MASTER FADER must be raised.

Selecting monitors for output is performed using the LS SELECT options. When no selection is made the 5.1 Genelec ring is active. When MINI A is selected the larger stereo Genelecs are active. MINI B and ALT 5.1 are not currently used.

The blue monitor control knob controls the main output of your monitors. However, the knob can also control other monitoring signals using the MISC LEVELS selectors. When no selection is made the monitor knob control main output. When a selector is pressed you can control additional levels (such as DIM, AFL, PFL, and Headphones). N.B H/P refers to the desk headphone feed (located under the console on the right hand side), not the foldback circuits for live room headphone feeds.

Channel Assignment Using the SSL Duality Delta

To alter the routing and channel assignments for each channel, press the SELECT button at the bottom of the channel fader. Do not press the SEL button above the fader (this is for DAW control). This will select the channel and allow you to alter its parameters.

The ROUTING PANEL is located on the far right of the console. The various options presented here alter the channels assignment and behaviour. The INPUT section allows control over +48V (phantom power), and options for input flipping between the MIC and LINE input stages.

· CHANNEL IN allows you to select your input. MIC signals come directly from the live room, through the half-normalled patchbay, to the corresponding channel number (if not otherwise repatched). LINE signals are the outputs from the DAW via the ORION INTERFACE, and are defined by the output channel of your DAW.

· PROCESSING ORDER allows you to shift the order of internal dynamics, internal EQ, and external insert send/returns. PROCESSING IN/OUT simply turns on or off insert circuits and internal EQ circuits.

· CHANNEL OUTPUT defines where in the signal chain the output to the DAW or patchbay occurs: at the INPUT (gain stage), PREFADE, POSTFADE or EFX.

· Finally, CHANNEL METERS selectors define where the signal is visually metered in the signal chain.

Foldback on the SSL Duality Delta

Currently, there is only one headphone amplifier available in the Trevor Jones Studio. This is fed from the MIX 1 feed in the F/B A section. A combination of MIX 1 and LEVEL control the output to the headphone amplifier. The headphone amplifier has individual volumes per channel (6 in total). Channel 1 on the headphone amplifier feeds the optional Genelec speaker in the live room (primarily for talkback). The remaining 5 channels feed the headphone ports in the live room.

There are two possible arrangements of foldback.

· Selecting MIX A will feed MIX 1 with the current desk output. Any change to channel volumes will alter the headphone feed.

· Alternatively, selecting CUE A allows you to build a dedicated headphone mix for MIX 1 using pre-fade controls.

To do this push the green CUE ST knob on a channel to turn on the feed to CUE A. The turn the knob to the desired volume. Repeat this for all channels you want in the headphone mix.

It is possible to design mixes for F/B A using the desk’s headphone output (under the right side of the console). Using the PHONES section of the monitor panel and selecting F/B A as the input it is possible to build a mix before sending it to the live room. Be aware that you can alter the overall phones level by selecting the H/P option in the MISC LEVELS section and altering the blue monitor level knob.

Talkback on the SSL Duality Delta

The talkback circuitry on the console uses a similar method to foldback. The COMMUNICATIONS panel can be found on the lower right of the main console. Using the desk’s internal microphone, talkback can be sent to foldback circuits F/B A or F/B B. Alternatively, TB ALL sends talkback to all foldback circuits. SLATE will send talkback to all foldback circuits and to each channel of the desk.

As with most talkback circuits, all FB, TB and SLATE buttons are momentary push and must be held down to speak. When these buttons are pressed, the desk’s monitoring level drops to the pre-defined DIM level.

N.B. the talkback Genelec in the live room requires turning on and off at the end of each session if you wish to use it.

Finishing Your Session

When you have completed your session you must ensure you do the following to leave the studio ready for the next user:

· Save your work in the appropriate folder and take a back up.

· Shut down the Mac Pro entirely (just shut down, do not log off).

· Zero the desk: return all faders to zero, all gains to zero, all non-notched pots to zero, and all notched pots to their notch point.

· Master fader to zero.

· CUT the monitors.

· Power down using the switches under the synthesizer stands.

· Put the dust sheet over the desk.

· Report any issues, faults, problems to ben.eyes@york.ac.uk.

· Tidy the live room with all stands in the corner, all cables coiled loosely, and the Genelec speaker is turned off.

LEAVE IT AS YOU’D WISH TO FIND IT.

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