Studio Makeover

So yesterday was one of the luckiest days for me ever! My JBL speakers (which sucked majorly) have had a broken tweeter for the last 2 months. It has made making music impossible. They always sounded terrible, and it was the last final piece of the puzzle for my studio to get new studio monitors. I had originally wanted a set of Rockit 5's because my house is small and I cant be too terribly loud here. After realizing that it was going to be like 600 bucks at least after shipping from overseas....and, I really didnt want to wait much longer, I had decided to go out and buy a different set of monitors yesterday...maybe fostex or something like that. So I woke up early, did a little reading on some models, and then headed out to shinsaibashi. I arrive in shinsaibashi before 10am...made my way to softmap....but it wasnt open yet. So I decided to make a hike (I needed the exercise anyway) up to shinsaibashi and check out miki gakki and maybe the yamaha store. Went up there, all of them are not open. So, I went to triangle park, smoked a couple cigs, and waited until 11 for the DJ store at BIG STEP to open. At 11, I went there, and noticed they had a pair of rockit 5's (I thought I couldnt find them in Japan). They were 600 bucks...100 bucks more than I had planned to spend, but I had the money on me, so I was like...damn, get them. Well, turned out, they didnt have any new ones left, and I didnt want the ones on the shelf...so, the guy working there mentioned that they may have them at the other miki gakki location just down the street. I decided to go down there...but for some STUPID reason, I couldnt find the place. I have been there a million times, but I dunno, I missed it. I ended up walking the whole way back to Namba...a nice little hike. I thought to myself...shit, the other miki gakki probably doesnt have them, fuck it, ill just go back to softmap and get the fostex ones....better than nothing, and I need some god damn monitors. So I went all the way back there...they are STILL closed. There is no sign outside the door either saying when they will open. So im like shit...is this karma or something, telling me to find that other miki gakki and buy the rockit 5's if they have them. Damn. I will go all the way back to shinsaibashi. So, another long hike the whole way back to shinsaibashi...my legs are getting tired by this point, and I have smoked a half pack of cigarettes in like 2 hours....just bored and wanting to find some fucking monitors. Well, finally, I end up finding the other miki gakki, and I go in to check to see if they have the rockit 5's. There are none on the shelves, only the fostex ones, and a few other yamaha ones...so I assumed I was going to have to get one of those for 600 bucks or so. I went up to the clerk and asked them if they had any rockit 5's, and he went and got another guy, who went and got another guy. They said "yea, we have ONE pair left in the back". I was like "SHIT ILL TAKE EM!!!!". I was stoked, out 600 bucks that I dont really have to be spending right now, but still stoked. So, the guy brings them out, new in the box, wraps them up while I make small talk with him. Turns out hes a house producer, so we had a bunch of stuff to talk about. I finally get to the check out and he says "31,000 yen" (which is less that 300 bucks....which is less than the price of one). I said kindly "you only rang up one of them, there must be a mistake". He said "no, whenever its the last one of a model, and the new models for the new year are coming out, you get 2 for the price of one!" I felt like a little kid in a candy store! "NO SHIT!" I said. He said, "Just to make sure its what you want, lets compare the new specs and the old specs to see whats different". So we did, turns out, the new ones dont even go as low in Hz as the old ones....maybe there could be some improvements....but not enough to change a pair of rockit 5's for less than 300 bucks!!!! I left the store, called my wife in excitement immediately...and looked like a fucking idiot grinning ear to ear the whole way home on the train.

Anyway, I got home...checked to make sure they sounded ok...sounded fucking GREAT! So, I decided to totally remodel my studio and move a bunch of things around to make it feel different AND sound different. Hopefully it will inspire me a little more. I took a bunch of photos after I finished cleaning everything, which took about 4 hours yesterday night and this morning. Here are some photos -











Well, since I am still hitting the books hard for the next few weeks, I probably wont make any music, but rather study my soft synths that I like, and see what the brings. This week, im studying sound design and how to make each separate part of dance music from scratch. By setting my keyboard controller to the side, I can play it more like a real piano instead of having to reach over shit to play it.

Anyway, thats it for today! Time to rock out!

Peace!

FroBot