I’m now working fulltime for RealTraps as well. So I spend a lot of time thinking about how to achieve good sound. :-)

The computer rack is great. I have a fantastic computer case, and 2 LCD widescreen monitors (20″). This is by far more screen real estate than I’ve ever had. It’s a treat doing audio work with this much space! I also have quite a bit of hard drive space, including space for backups.

Presently I am using WindowsXP and Sonar for my DAW, Sonar is great software that runs on a horrid operating system. I do plan to investigate audio production tools for Linux, most likely I’ll install Ubuntu-Studio (a version of Linux that is customized for multimedia production, which runs the Ardour DAW among many other things) on a spare partition and give it a try.

Anyway, I have 16 ins and outs, 16 mic pres, and a whole bunch of microphones. I just traced down the last wiring problem tonight (one of the channels wasn’t working…. turns out it wasn’t wired up correctly. All fixed).

Also, I got a chance to fire up my new Weller soldering iron. In testing the mic preamps, I discovered that one of my dynamic microphones wasn’t working correctly. No output at all. So I took it apart, poked around a bit, and discovered it was intermittent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Did a little more investigation and found a cold solder joint on one of the wires connected to the XLR output jack. All fixed.

So the rig is fully operational now, but it is not yet portable as I still have to finish building the lids. Given that this is a holiday week, that it is supposed to precipitate for the remainder of the week, and that I don’t presently have enough carpeting, I doubt I’ll get the lids finished this week.

But in the meantime, the rig is in my living room, up and running so that I can work on music production. I’m rediscovering the joys of drum programming and audio editing, it’s been a few months since I’ve done much of this. I’m very happy to have this rig available to me at a moments notice.

I’ll post some photos soon….

The drawer for the headphone mixer is now installed in the analog audio rack, and I have the computer rebuilt inside the new rack-mount case. The new monitors rock, lots of good screen real estate, much more than I’m used to.

Weather permitting, I should make tracks (pun intended) on carpeting the computer rack tomorrow; once that’s done I need to build the lids and then I’ll be pretty much done.

More pics soon….

Here are the pics…. One is further along than the other, the right on has the sides and the removable front and back panels done. These racks will ultimately be painted black and then covered with black carpet.

This is hopefully what the view from above will look like…. a mixer in the top of one rack, and 2 – 20″ LCD monitors stacked in the other.

A side view.

Back view. The one on the left has the sides and the removeable rear panel in place.

The view with the rear panel removed, leaning up against the rack.

The front panel installed.

The front panel removed and leaning against the rack.

For size reference, this is my beautiful 10 year old daughter posing.

The 2 racks. Indeed, a luscious pair!

Nice pair of racks, coming right at you…