Personaly, I could really go for building somewhere nearby, a VERY BASIC - bare bones but large tracking studio.
Key features (or lack of them)
Great sounding 'tall' drum room
Booths off to the side for gtr stacks / a great vocal booth.
Ground floor access
Good control room accoustics
Basic midfield monitoring (no bigs)
24 tk Soundcraft Ghost desk - for monitor only
Neve BCM10 full of 1073's* or a cheaper but primo vintage Neve sidecar.
2 x DBX 160 VU
4 x Distressors
1 x UA 1176
1 x EMT plate?
1 x Roland / Bell digital delay
DAT/CDR unit
powerfull headphone amps + good cans
Cool wiring with comprehencive looms made up to handle most multitracks / DAW's
ADSL or firewire or ethernet link to my other studio
Basic rock n roll mic collection nothing fancy
Pay phone
pool table
Toilet
mini kitchen - microwave only
TV + Video games
junk furnature in rec room
NO big spend on decor or niceties it can look like a TOTAL PIT!
NO in house multitrack analog / digital Tape machine or DAW (rent in per project)
No Backline (rent in per project)
No mix toys - TRACK & GO!
Unique selling proposition
Baby 'real deal' Neve
The space to rock!
The ability to 'take it over' & slob out 24/7
Ability to cope with ANY recording medium
rough & ready rock no roll, more comfortable when working than when chilling!
With the exception of the Neve sidecar and the left out JH24 2" I may have just described THE classic US garage studio! HOWEVER! Here in London there is a definate LACK of cool budget tracking rooms....
A small PA in there would mean it could get rented out for rehersals, 'tour prep' or album 'pre prod' sessions with producers who might like the option of recording bits of the pre prod..
Missing from my plan is:
The $$ to do it right now!
