Here are some pictures of some of the equipment that This That The Other and more generally artists on FTQR use. In the picture below, to the left, first off is the big silver rack. From the top there is an Alesis Microverb 4 FX. Good value fx unit in its day though well long in the tooth now and noisy to boot. Below that there are two TC Electronic M300. Very crisp 24 bit fx with wonderful reverb. Next is a Behringer Powerplay headphone amp. Well handy having multiple headphone outs. Below this are two dbx compressor/gates, the 266xl and 266a. Standard industry sounding compressors with good gating and limiting. Next up is a Focusrite Trakmaster recording channel. Although useful as a seperate channel from the desk, i have had to return it to be fixed. Last but by no means least is an Akai S5000 Sampler with USB and a 40 Gigabyte hard drive. It also has 16 balanced outs and a PC program for the movement of files over USB. This beast can be slightly ponderous but i cannot recommend it highly enough. 48 khz 20 bit converters and a steady operating system. Over 25 different types of filters! Surely Akai's best sampler.
The picture to the right of this is an Oberheim OB12 Virtual Analogue synthesiser. This has can be tweaked in any-which-way with the help of an accompanying PC editor. Everything can be memorised and stuff like morphing can be automated. Comes with around 500 sounds, very few of which are "normal" keyboard sounds. A very interesting machine and good value. Fun as well! Made by Viscount Organs in Italia.
Below on the left is an E-MU XL7 command station. A powerful synthesiser with rich sounds, it perhaps could do with a bigger screen so one might see what one is doing! Worth persevering with though as another sound source. Also has those laid-back American tones that are so ubiquitous. E-MU do have a habit of using the same soundsets for different products, so this is basically Proteus 2000 ROMs with knobs on. The silver Roland Phantom on the right belongs to Paul Hayles and is used extensively on his Monster Truck cd. There is no problem with the size of the screen on this one! Very easy to use with very good functionality. The sound engine can be a bit brittle perhaps, but otherwise sound. Cool.
Below are two pictures of which the left is one of a Soundcraft Spirit FX16 mixing desk. This is an honest mixer if somewhat limited but with a low noise floor. Very handy for pre-production but not a final mix unit. Built-in Lexicon reverb. To the right of this is an image of some Dynaudio Acoustic BM5 nearfield monitors. A crisp, unaltered dry sound. Very good really.
First is a Norman B20 acoustic guitar. This is becoming a very nice sounding guitar and easy to play. The black rack besides it contains, at the top, left a Korg 05/RW sound module. Standard 90's sound box. Next to that is a Zoom RT-323 RhythmTrak drum machine. Quirky but fun with lots of bass sounds too but the worst manual ever! Below these is a MOTU 828Mk2 Firewire audio interface. This is a serious bit of gear with 20 ins and 22 outs, 24 bit 96 khz converters and a clean sound. Under this is an HHB BurnIt realtime cd burner. So handy and totally good hi-fidelity 2 track digital recorder. Below that cd player is a Samson Servo 260 power amp. Nice sound but build quality crap. Last is a Furman PL-Plus E power conditioner. Feel the quality that this brings to my electricity supply! Makes everything else work much better!
We use Rode, Shure and AKG mics. Industry standards and good value. Keyboards used include a Wurlitzer electric piano (the 'casino' piano), a classic electro-mechanical device. Talking of those, also used was a Hohner electric piano. Pickups designed by a guy from Fender but the lowest level output ever. Warm sound though. Also used includes a Yamaha pf85 digital piano. Nice action. Below is a photo of the "desktop replacement" that makes it all hang together (most of the time!). It is a HP 5128ea which has an Intel 2.8ghz cpu and enough ports for the navy. Can be great as a workhorse, but can be strangely slow at times, probably due to Windows XP scheduling. Better than a Mac?
Below is a Vox AC30 and a Marshall 1968 amp (Cabinet is NOT Marshall). Both are around 35yrs old and produce unique valve sounds. Note the gold trim on the Marshall, sign of a genuine early unit. Below them is a mid-sixties sturdily-built Fender 2x10" (Logo is metal!). All are for sale. Thanks to Bob for their use in re-recording material. For more of his stock, please see the 'Bob's Vintage Gear' page to find some truly remarkable equipment.
