After moving in the bare bones gear to have a working studio, I found that I wanted to get myself a console to put my display and rack my gear. I was just using a table for the monitor and road racks for the gear.

First couple sessions were basically a jazz band consisting of drums, keys, upright bass, saxophone and trumpet. This allowed me to make sure all monitoring was working and I was limited to the 18 or so channels I had coming through to the control room via the drum snake and a patch panel in the other room.

Second, we shot a video with audio to sync up afterward for a web series. Brian Bortnick was the first of these two.

Third was LauraLea Taraskus for the same web video series.

Since the table didn’t have much girth, if it were bumped substantially the display would rock and all that were around thought the worst. So, I started looking into getting a proper work station to place the display and rack the pre-amps, etc.

I was pretty dead set on an Argosy Halo. What really did bother me was how the display blocked the main view out into the live room.

At that same time, the Slate Media Technology RAVEN MTi CORE Station with 2 RAVEN MTi2s went on sale and I figured for the same price I was considering for the Argosy, I would get a workstation plus 2 Raven MTi2s as well! I did have to consider that I was also dropping from 4K back down to 2x HD.

So I went for it and also picked up the Corestation sidecars to rack the gear.

Breaking all the gear down and wiring it up again was such a joy!

I got a bigger piece of wood to mount the existing Hi-Z and speaker connection that were on the previous panel and added my 32 channel snake so now all 32 channels are coming into the control room. I also found channels that were thought to be unavailable inside the control room wall, so score there!

Now I have an unobstructed view with the artist and a really nice recording system in the control room to pilot the studio that’s nice, neat and looks really great too.

The only complaint really is that the top of the core station is too small to sit my speakers. I had to purchase a taller set of speaker stands to support the rear of the speakers behind the console.

The first couple sessions through this setup proved incredible to me. Utilizing the new preamps etc., the raw recordings have never sounded so good!

Throughout July 2018, I’ll be moving WombatStudio.Org from Philadelphia, PA to Gibbsboro, NJ.

The NE Philadelphia Mayfair basement re-model that I started August 2017 didn’t go as planned due to many little things that amounted into nothing getting done the way I wanted.

April 21, 2018, sitting on Reggie Wu’s couch while my son Frank was completing his guitar lesson, I was skimming Facebook and I saw an ad for “musician’s dream house for sale” and the rest is history.

We settle Friday, June 29, 2018.

The house has a soundproofed studio built into the basement already. It includes a control room, a live room, a guitar iso room and a lounge. The 3 windowed control room looks out into 1. the drummer’s area, 2. the main live room and 3. where the guitar amps go. There are gobos that can shape the room differently if needed.

Parking! I find it hard to find a spot close to my own row home anymore. The new place has ample parking and I will always have a spot to park as well as those making music.

Woods, isolation from neighbors, there’s even a fireplace! I can’t wait.

But, for those that were happy with the convenience, there’s no longer a toilet in the main room.

Ever/After is currently made up of guitarist Reggie Wu and drummer Jim Drnec. They’re calling it a recording project. Originally there were two more members, Mark Evans on bass and vocals along with John Dennis on guitar. Reggie and Mark are members of Heavens Edge, and Jim drummed for The Dead End Kids, Network, Cinderella and the list goes on.

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