For those with rack-mount gear-

[JohnVF]

This comes from one of my other hobbies but I think it might be of interest to some here, as I know there's also rack-mounted Hi-Fi gear, particularly from the late '70s.

This is a recording studio gear rack, half pulled out from my cabinet. Don't judge the finish, I bought it unfinished and its not fully stained/oiled- long story but I started it 5 years ago, had to move mid-oil, abandoned guitar playing for awhile, and am now back to it but waiting for spring to oil it outside. I had just forgotten how nice it was, as I never really used it before the move and it sat in storage. They're not cheap... probably around $300 unfinished? But they look REALLY nice and are well made (and made to order). You can get them whatever size you need- I might get one for my Pioneer RT-707 reel to reel, which would be one rack unit higher than this one I believe.

So if you have any old Technics or SPEC or a MAC-4100... just a thought. You could make it look all studio and professional. No affiliation, I'm just really impressed with the quality. This one is in Cherry and, again, it only got one quick initial coat of oil before life intervened. It'll eventually be really really pretty.

Premium Series 3U Studio Equipment Audio Rack-PS-STR3U

www.audiorax.com

AudioRax | Studio Racks, Desks, and Furniture for the Music Studio

 

[J. Frum]

This comes from one of my other hobbies but I think it might be of interest to some here, as I know there's also rack-mounted Hi-Fi gear, particularly from the late '70s.

This is a recording studio gear rack, half pulled out from my cabinet. Don't judge the finish, I bought it unfinished and its not fully stained/oiled- long story but I started it 5 years ago, had to move mid-oil, abandoned guitar playing for awhile, and am now back to it but waiting for spring to oil it outside. I had just forgotten how nice it was, as I never really used it before the move and it sat in storage. They're not cheap... probably around $300 unfinished? But they look REALLY nice and are well made (and made to order). You can get them whatever size you need- I might get one for my Pioneer RT-707 reel to reel, which would be one rack unit higher than this one I believe.

So if you have any old Technics or SPEC or a MAC-4100... just a thought. You could make it look all studio and professional. No affiliation, I'm just really impressed with the quality. This one is in Cherry and, again, it only got one quick initial coat of oil before life intervened. It'll eventually be really really pretty.

View attachment 93143

Premium Series 3U Studio Equipment Audio Rack-PS-STR3U

www.audiorax.com

AudioRax | Studio Racks, Desks, and Furniture for the Music Studio

I’ve been looking at these for my own pending rackmount adventures. Thanks for the review!

 

[240sx4u]

Nice rack John.

 

[JohnVF]

I’ve been looking at these for my own pending rackmount adventures. Thanks for the review!

I recall that it took a bit of time to arrive but I really don't hesitate to recommend the build quality. I think this was from the 'premium series' and I ordered it with the cutouts for ventilation, which look great.

 

[Buck_Rogers]

Have a couple like this as Anvil cases, Very handy.

My favorite distortion effect is running one compressor channel in to the second channel.

Get any sound from a very light crunch to a Nuclear fueled Metal screaming distortion.

Couple of Flanging, Phazing, Reverb, Sampling racks and your all set.

 

[JohnVF]

Have a couple like this as Anvil cases, Very handy.

My favorite distortion effect is running one compressor channel in to the second channel.

Get any sound from a very light crunch to a Nuclear fueled Metal screaming distortion.

Couple of Flanging, Fazing, Reverb, Sampling racks and your all set.

This is my interface (top) and the beginnings of my vocal and acoustic guitar recording microphone chain. I'm debating whether to stay with the Golden Age Project preamps/comps or go with something else. I like a more indie/lo-fi sound- the irony, given my hi-fi rig. My guitar rig is on a pedal board, though it gets run into the interface directly, often, with an amp modeler.

 

[Buck_Rogers]

Built a dozen or so rigs for guitar players and vocalists, Not biased towards or away from any particular brand or model.

Mostly troll Ebay for good deals on lower priced units. It's more experience through experimentation to get great sound.

Many specialized "Effect" units are just not worth the hype, But had some good luck with PreSonus and ART on the budget end.

A good stereo tube microphone preamplifier and stereo tube compressor has always been the basis for a great sounding rack.

A one rack space patch panel makes flexibility crazy good and repeatable.

DOD, Lexicon, Alesis, Boss so many cool effects processors under 300$ sometimes under 100$.

Last item if you end up with a DAW full of cool tracks for a song, Having a good Pro mix engineer assemble them from a simple Demo can be a mind blowing experience.

Hope that helps.

Buck

 

[JohnVF]

Built a dozen or so rigs for guitar players and vocalists, Not biased towards or away from any particular brand or model.

Mostly troll Ebay for good deals on lower priced units. It's more experience through experimentation to get great sound.

Many specialized "Effect" units are just not worth the hype, But had some good luck with PreSonus and ART on the budget end.

A good stereo tube microphone preamplifier and stereo tube compressor has always been the basis for a great sounding rack.

A one rack space patch panel makes flexibility crazy good and repeatable.

DOD, Lexicon, Alesis, Boss so many cool effects processors under 300$ sometimes under 100$.

Last item if you end up with a DAW full of cool tracks for a song, Having a Pro mix engineer assemble them from a simple Demo can be a mind blowing experience.

Hope that helps.

Buck

It does, thank you. I've been in several 'real' studios because of my job as a creative director. I've even directed a few studio sessions when the music house wasn't giving me what I wanted for a backing song for a commercial. In fact, the best sound I've ever heard was in a studio, not in any home hi-fi or store demo. Some studio in London that I didn't get the name off.

I have a couple of nice tube mic preamps from Blue (now defunct I think), similar level as Avalon channel strips, and I also have a couple of big tube large diaphragm condensers around, though, to be honest they're not the sound I'm after. I will use them on acoustic guitar but probably should sell them as my room, and what I'm after, don't need such things. The GAP 73 mic pre here is a Neve clone- apparently a bit grittier than the real thing. Fine by me. I'm not doing anything fancy - it's just for my own entertainment.

The mic-pres in the Universal Audio interface are actually quite good. They're exceptionally clean, a bit too clean, but their emulations of console board inputs is pretty interesting. It works with the impedance and transformers to tweak the sound to approximate an API or Neve or Universal Audio mixing board/desk, etc. I went pretty far down this rabbit hole but am trying to get back to it without all the clutter. Hence the rack mount and not dragging things like the higher-quality Blue pres out. They're cumbersome and ugly.

I can wire all of this into the various inputs both balanced and unbalanced on the back of the interface and switch the inputs with my DAW by just selecting any of the inputs. There's also a hi-z on the front for DI.

 

[ICTWoody]

I had him build me a pair of cases for the EAR amps I had for a hot minute. I really liked them.

- Woody

 

[JohnVF]

I had him build me a pair of cases for the EAR amps I had for a hot minute. I really liked them.

- Woody

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Those really look great.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Those are some beautiful boxes!

And another solution for rack mounted gear is to, well... stick 'em in a rack, roll them into a closet and close the door!
For the most part I think equipment should be heard and not seen.

I realize I am an outlier on this as so many here build alters to their gear. I used to do that too, but these days, not so much. I like to have a couple of pieces of beautiful design on display, and then hide the rest of the system.

The big rack is my amp rack for my two channel system, and the shorty is for my home theater. Active speakers in the theater really save a ton of space!