Midway studio (pt. 1)
Hey folks, I've been at a loss lately to come up with stuff to blog, so I figured I'd take you on a tour of my studio/writing room at Midway games. Here we are at the door to my room:
As if having my name on the door wasn't enough, I decided to personalize it by sticking this button on the nameplate. I got it out of a gumball machine over at Hot Doug's... I'm a total sucker for those things.
Sorry if it's hard to see details in these pictures (if you want good photos, go to Mackey's blog) -- I have only one lamp on low in the corner of the room, so it's perpetually twilight in here. It seems to imbue a more creative atmosphere... and it's not as easy to see the dust... this is the back wall. It's a pretty simple setup -- an average TV, and an average surround sound home stereo system. Right now, there is a PS2 dev kit and an Xbox dev kit plugged into it -- so I could test Mortal Kombat while I was designing it, and hear how it would sound on the average consumer's home theater system. Pretty soon, I'll replace these dev kits with Xbox 360 and PS3 dev kits... note the extra guitar amps in the bottom right corner, and the stack of guitar cases on the far right...
If you turn to the wall facing the door, you find my dartboard -- good for quick distractions when creatively constipated. Writer's block? Throw some darts. I suppose I could use the time to dust instead, but I prefer the darts. Underneath is a cardboard promo piece for "Psi-Ops" -- it's there to protect the wall from my suckier throws. And under that is a milk crate FILLED with guitar stomp boxes. Next to that is another guitar case, and in the bottom right-hand corner, you can see the POD amp simulator that's mounted off my keyboard rack...
Which brings us to the keyboard rack. On the top, I have a Korg Karma, and on the bottom there's a Yamaha EX5. Underneath there are more racks of rarely used outboard synths and samplers -- as well as my MIDI and audio interfaces. On the right, you can see my blood-red Strat, ready and waiting to be plucked.
Now usually, I'll have a whole slew of guitar pedals patched together in front of this rack, but I had to tidy the place up for an AES presentation here recently (yeah, I even dusted), so I only have two out right now. The one on the left is this ancient Morley Pro Phaser that is just so strange and weird it's awesome. The one on the right is a Morley "Bad Horsie" wah wah -- the same kind Steve Vai uses. I used these two pedals and a Digitech Whammy pedal to record that trippy Solo Improv I posted a while back...
That's two walls of the studio. Next time I'll get into the real meat-and-potatoes, the true heart-and-soul, the... the... well, stay tuned.
As if having my name on the door wasn't enough, I decided to personalize it by sticking this button on the nameplate. I got it out of a gumball machine over at Hot Doug's... I'm a total sucker for those things.
Sorry if it's hard to see details in these pictures (if you want good photos, go to Mackey's blog) -- I have only one lamp on low in the corner of the room, so it's perpetually twilight in here. It seems to imbue a more creative atmosphere... and it's not as easy to see the dust... this is the back wall. It's a pretty simple setup -- an average TV, and an average surround sound home stereo system. Right now, there is a PS2 dev kit and an Xbox dev kit plugged into it -- so I could test Mortal Kombat while I was designing it, and hear how it would sound on the average consumer's home theater system. Pretty soon, I'll replace these dev kits with Xbox 360 and PS3 dev kits... note the extra guitar amps in the bottom right corner, and the stack of guitar cases on the far right...
If you turn to the wall facing the door, you find my dartboard -- good for quick distractions when creatively constipated. Writer's block? Throw some darts. I suppose I could use the time to dust instead, but I prefer the darts. Underneath is a cardboard promo piece for "Psi-Ops" -- it's there to protect the wall from my suckier throws. And under that is a milk crate FILLED with guitar stomp boxes. Next to that is another guitar case, and in the bottom right-hand corner, you can see the POD amp simulator that's mounted off my keyboard rack...
Which brings us to the keyboard rack. On the top, I have a Korg Karma, and on the bottom there's a Yamaha EX5. Underneath there are more racks of rarely used outboard synths and samplers -- as well as my MIDI and audio interfaces. On the right, you can see my blood-red Strat, ready and waiting to be plucked.
Now usually, I'll have a whole slew of guitar pedals patched together in front of this rack, but I had to tidy the place up for an AES presentation here recently (yeah, I even dusted), so I only have two out right now. The one on the left is this ancient Morley Pro Phaser that is just so strange and weird it's awesome. The one on the right is a Morley "Bad Horsie" wah wah -- the same kind Steve Vai uses. I used these two pedals and a Digitech Whammy pedal to record that trippy Solo Improv I posted a while back...
That's two walls of the studio. Next time I'll get into the real meat-and-potatoes, the true heart-and-soul, the... the... well, stay tuned.
3 Comments:
Cool post. So you're using a Pod. I just tested out the latest Pod XT Live, the floor unit version of the Pod. It's cool and all, nice to be able to channel The Edge or EVH at the flip of a switch, or connect via USB (!!!), but I just don't know. I can't put my finger on it, there's something I don't like. Maybe it's the lack of a warm tube sound or the dryness of digital. Give me an MXR Phaser or BK Butler Tube Driver any day.
thats a pretty awesome ungodly big mouse thing
-your friends form naz acad
p.s sweet door
thats a pretty awesome ungodly big mouse thing
-your friends form naz acad
p.s sweet door
Post a Comment
<< Home