Studio Rebuild 2024 by Jason King

The guys at Voicetracker Hub recently asked for an update on my VT kit as I’ve moved house again!! Hoping to be in this place for a good while, a very nice barn conversion on the North East coast of Jersey – Blows my mind seeing France everyday walking the dog. I think at its closest, France is 14 miles away, yet the UK is 100.

 

I was very happy with my original setup, a Rodecaster Pro II with outboard processing using a TC Finalizer and DBX286S. When the opportunity to buy an ex demo Apollo Twin X interface from Universal Audio for a sensible price came along I decided to bite the bullet.

I still have the external processing for emergency use should anything fail – I don’t like letting clients down. Lots of demand for the Rode with eBay and didn’t lose a lot of money on it.  

 

The Apollo Twin X is amazingly well built, bigger versions used in many a pro studio, it gives you the ability to record in really time with as much or little processing via plugins as you want or need. The one thing it doesn’t come with is a Thunderbolt 3 lead, strange for something that isn’t the cheapest but required one to connect to the computer, they also offer USB versions, worth checking before investing.

I have mine hooked up to a MacMini M2 which works so well.  All Apollo interfaces came with a selection of plugins, I was lucky and got a Neve 1073 pre amp with mine which starts the chain of processing I use. I have several mics and it works well on all them, currently hooked up is my U87Ai I’ve owned for 10 years plus, again purchased 2nd hand from a guy in London who was closing his recording studio down.

The Neumann isn’t the most budget friendly microphone. I also own a United Studio Technologies UT Twin87 which is a good as the original and not too expensive. One went on eBay boxed as new for £399 which is a cracking price. 

It took me a while to find the sweet spot using the Apollo – Each plugin has lots of presets to play with, plus you can test new plugins for 2 weeks to see if they work for you. Most are digital recreations of stuff you’ll find in a pro recording studio.

My setup is the Neve Pre amp, Precision de-esser, Neve DFC channel strip, C-Suite C-Vox which is a brilliant plugin to deal with a noisy rooms and less than perfect environments. Finally C-Suite C-Max on test, this gives a very full sound and will add fully when funds allow.

This guy on YouTube explains the channel strips way better than I can. He also touches on the C-Suite stuff in another video and reviews the UT Twin87.

Finally discovered a new pop shield. Not expensive at around £10, makes a huge difference to audio quality. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and have some inspiration. Please message me if I can answer any questions you might have.

Jason King is a Voicetracker Hub member, and presents regularly for Force Radio, Soleil Radio, Channel 103 and more.